Harvest pics (was Fruitset!)

[duajones]

So far, bush early girl, big beef, jet star, sungold,cherokee purple and black krim have set fruit. bush celebrity had some blossom drop but is trying to set now, azoychka seemed to be a slow starter blossom wise, but is well on its way now. Brandywine has had lots of blossom drop but finally had its first blossom open yesterday without dropping. NBD has dropped all of its blossoms so far.

[TomatoDon]

I found some nice plants earlier and kept them inside, then we had a nice warm spell for a couple of weeks and they stayed out and really came on. Lots of people planted out last week, then the freeze came, and it wiped out the planting. I brought mine back inside and now that it's warm again they are happily sitting outside in the warm weather. I have trays of them ranging from cells to 4 inch pots, to half gallon containers. I have tons of blooms and lots of tiny tomatoes forming. A couple of the bush types have fruit the size of marbles and a little larger.

This has been an interesting year, and it really hasn't started yet. Suze helped me back in Jan/Feb select what I needed to build a seedling tray, and it works really good. Thanks Suze. Last year my germination was pitiful because it was my first real attempt and I didn't know how to do it. This year I had pretty good luck with it and have grown around 150 seedlings I guess, maybe 25 varieties. I also went over to Fusion's the other day and he has a yard full of babies and I picked up about 50, around 15-20 varieties I think it was. Funny...a member here called him while I was there. This man lives in North Carolina.

On top of that I found some really good plants at our favorite trio, Wal Mart, Lowe's, and HD. Lots had blossums when I got them. Found some nice large Brandywines this way, and I will not get into a discussion of what strain, is it a true strain, and how do I know. They are tomatoes and look good, the label said Brandywine, there was a reference to pink, the leaves are the right kind, so I took the chance and I'm sure they will taste just fine. Some are a foot tall and ready to go.

Then, I made a new discovery. This week I found a Co-Op carrying a "brand" I hadn't seen before. Chef Jeff. Really nice containers and labels, and I was amazed to find Green Zebra, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, BoxCar Willie, Mortgage Lifter, more Brandywines, and maybe a dozen other varieties that we don't normally see around here.

My rule for planting out is to wait until around April 17, and if there is a good five day forecast (no night temps below 40) then I plant. Looks like that will be this week-end. I have around 200 ready to go. And gee...I was going to plant 36 this year?

I have 20 4 X 12 raised beds ready to plant, and about an acre disked five times and ready to plant also. The soil really worked up good and I'll hip up much of it, having small patches for different things. Hoping to do lots of corn and melons there, but plenty of tomatoes too. The tiller's ready, the tractor's ready, the weather's ready, the plants and seeds are ready, and I'm ready.

Happy planting! I already have dozens of baby tomatoes ...now grow babies grow!

Don
Friend of Fusion