Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Heirlom Tomato Progress: Fruit Size

Today I am documenting the size of the different heirlom tomatoes so far this year.

First Persimmon: Got a late start, loaded with fat healthy buds in the container, just beginning to fruit.

Matina: Beginning to ripen. Has an open habit. Has some blossom end rot off and on, likely related to high temperatures on the patio. Loaded with fruit, non-buggy and very symetrical.


Chocolate Stripes: Big healthy plants but not a ton of buds or fruit so far. What's there is without blemish.
Cosmonaut Volkov: Plant is on the shorter side, about four feet, but it is really loaded down with fruit, several appear to be close to pinking up.

Dr. Carolyn: Not as much fruit or height as Sungold, but still has lots of clusters. Individual tomatoes are larger than Sungold, no ripening yet. Loaded with blossoms now. Had some BER when it dried out during vacation.




Cherokee Purple : Big healthy fruit both in the container and in the ground. Had BER the worst of all the plants. Recovering now but there will likely be a couple of weeks when there is no harvest from this plant.
Carbon: Not a ton of fruit or blossoms. Has a bit of bacterial leafspot in the leaves. This is my only fruit so far that appears to have something nipping at it.
Amish Paste: Multiple plants at various stages of growth. These are the largest fruit so far. Lots of buds, growth has been massive the last week of foliage.
San Marzano: Each plant is loaded with these clusters of fruit. Still lots of blossoms. I should be harvesting this for weeks to come. Plants are huge.
Sungold: Ripening and still making buds. Stint of BER was only a couple of days. These tomatoes taste way better if allowed to get very ripe on the vine. The plant is loaded with clusters of fruit. I counted one cluster with 15 tomatoes on it! None of these tomatoes have made it into the house yet. They are getting eaten like candy by us in the garden.





3 comments:

Daphne said...

Oh how I hate blossom end rot. I keep checking my potted tomatoes. When I was gone they were obviously allowed to dry out (whole branches died on one of my plants). I keep thinking the fruit formed then will have it, but haven't found it yet. So far my powdered eggshells are working. I've never had BER on Sungolds before. I've found that the cherries (at least here) seem immune. Without the eggshells I've never grown a tomato larger than a cherry without it.

Stacy said...

I only ever seem to have a problem with it in container plants. It's always heat related for me. My plants in the ground are all fine. It's the heating up of the patio and the containers on it that get me. As I understand it BER is related to uptake of calcium, but all kinds of things can affect that uptake. You can get BER in the presence of adequate calcium if your plant is stressed. Mine were definitely stressed while I was on vacation. When I'm home, they get an afternoon spritz on hot days to keep the temps down. It's hard to ask a plant sitter to do that.

Tatiana said...

Oh wow, those look amazing. I am so jealous - I'm more north and all I have so far are flowers. Dang those look great.