Harvest pics (was Fruitset!)

[Suze]

Yes, the white stuff is Daconil.

No, Big Sungold does not taste quite like Sungold. But it is good. I'll grow it again.

You true South Tx folks are killing me, as I'm about 10 days or so behind you. On the other hand, I have a longer season here (neener neener ). Not as much rain, doesn't get as hot or bug infested.

I think my first "real" (med or larger) ripe one will be Wild Rose.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by RDUN

My experience has been similar to Suze's. (On a much smaller scale) Some of my larger varieties set fruit early (Carbon and CP) and now have several fruit which look to be in the 10-12 oz range while others are just now beginning to set fruit. My Aunt Ginny's Purple has set about 8 fruit in the last couple of days and my Aker's WV has yet to set any. But, like Suze said, the weather here looks to be perfect for the next little while so hopefully the fruitset will pick up again for a while.

Nothing ripe yet.... I would think Kimberly and Black Cherry should be soon.

My two AGP plants have loaded up like crazy in the last week. And the two Aker's WV plants are starting to set some serious fruit just in the last couple of days or so. It's not just you.

Keep gently shaking those plants. This spell of coolish weather will help a lot.

Originally Posted by duajones

Here is part of todays harvest.The fused jet star weighed just over a pound

That's a great picture! Btw, what happened with the CP plant? Did you end up having to move it?

[dgriff]

Way behind most of you but had my Calbash and Black Krim set tiny fruit.

[duajones]

Suze, the CP plant is doing well in its original location, pulled 2 fruit from it yesterday and have 3 more blushing. I wish I had more than one plant

[duajones]

After work yesterday, I found a Brandywine blushing. Since I started seed on this one Thanksgiving day, its been a long wait. It looks great and I cant wait to taste it. Several Jet Star are coloring up at once as well.

[Vince]

Nice Brandywine, duajones. I think I have aways to go before I see some color. I saved seed from BW unknown last year and am growing it side by side sudduth to see if there is any difference. Here are some pics of the better looking clusters of from my toms.

Stupice

Cherokee purple

More CP

Earl' Faux

Brandy Boy


Vince

[duajones]

Those Stupice sure are large compared to what I grew last year

[FlipTX]

Vince those are great pics, and interesting, too. I rarely get fruit set for anything that far down the stem and when I do, it's just a lone ranger, not in a cluster.

[Vince]

duajones,

They are good sized stupice but the picture might be a little decieving as they are not huge.

FlipTX,

at first I thought only one fruit or so set low and the rest of the flowers that did not drop immediately were just wasteing space. But, with time many of the mini toms in arrested development came to life. The only thing I don't like about early fruit low on the plant like these is that they are more suseptable to critter attacks.

Vince

[FlipTX]

Vince - the main critter I have to worry about is one of my dogs. He's insane for tomatoes. If he found one growing at snout level or lower, they'd be gone.

Here's fruit from my Traveler this morning, at just under 11 oz:

[duajones]

Here are a few from the past couple days. Brandywine,Cherokee Purple, Big Beef and Azoychka

[dgriff]

It's always tourture to see you Texans 2 months ahead of me. Looks great.

[RDUN]

Picked my first ever large-fruited OP/Heirloom tomato today...Carbon:

Pictured with a Kimberly. I haven't tasted it yet, but I'm very excited... I think it needs another day or two if I have the patience. So far I have picked a handfull of Kimberly and Black Cherries. I have two more Carbon and 2 Cherokee Purple that should be ripe in a couple of days. My Aker's WV has finally set a few fruit and Aunt Ginny's has also. I have had some problems with Blossom-End-Rot on a couple plants... Even Black Cherry has had some, which I thought was not usually a problem with cherry tomatoes.

I did as recommended by Earthbox and added about a 1/3 cup of lime dissolved in 1 gallon of water to my containers yesterday... don't know if it really helps to stop BER on new fruit but we'll see.

[duajones]

Congrats! Let us know how it tasted being the first fruit off of the plant.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Well, I was thrilled that my Brandywine OTV was setting like crazy, with 25 fruits on 1 plant. But it seemed odd that they weren't getting any bigger. Then today, 3 of them started ripening. There's no way I am getting ripe Brandywine OTV before ripe Jet Star and some of the others. So I'm now about 95% sure it's a Kimberly plant. hehehe Oh well.

The fruit are pink so it can't be OTV and it can't be Kimberly. Now we have an unknown pink fruited variety (faux Brandywine OTV -- oh dear!). As for taste? There is none. I saved seed just in case.

faux OTV



May 12th, 2007 harvest


Gregori's Altai -- so far I am not finding a whole lot of flavor here. Yes, it's productive as heck. I've got like 20 on 1 plant. I will probably grow it again just for the productivity.


Jet Star -- VERY nice. Flavor is better than Gregori's Altai for me. Nice, perfectly shaped fruit with great slices and a good basic tomato flavor. And nearly 30 fruit on 1 plant!! I have to concur with the recommendations on it.


Jet Star


Sungold -- What can I say that hasn't already been said? Great, intense fruity flavor. Extremely productive. I think all the Daconil in the world can't keep early blight from hitting Sungold, but it keeps producing anyway.

Originally Posted by Worth1

I cannot stress this enough folks need to leave the sungolds on the vine until they are good and ripe. I mean a deep dark orange

I actually prefer them a bit underripe with a little bit of green on the top. Sungold that ripen in cool temperatures will be spitters.


Sungold



Cherokee Purple -- The star of the garden so far. I lost EIGHT fruit to fruitworms!! Otherwise I would have had THIRTY fruit from this unbelievable plant. This plant gave me a huge scare by setting a "fake flower" at about 1 foot tall and then stopping. But then no fewer than eight new "main leaders" came out of the stem and took over. So instead of 1 main leader, I had eight!! The plant is the same size as all the other plants in the garden.




Cherokee Purple (not the same fruit )


Black Cherry -- Nearly a month behind Sungold, but the wait is worth it! Nearly twice as big as Sungold and has that great purple tomato flavor. Since this is not a frequently photographed variety I've added some pictures in my gallery of double trusses and ripening fruit. Very productive for me.




Black Cherry


Husky Red Cherry -- This was the haven for many a stink bug nymph until I found them all. It couldn't happen to a more tasteless variety. It's so hard to find the fruit on this rugose dwarf and the texture is tough and the flavor is almost nonexistant. It won't be coming back.


Husky Red Cherry


Arkansas Traveler -- No ripe ones yet, and it scared me because I only saw 3 fruitset when everything else stopped setting fruit. Then it went ahead and set another 20 or so fruit. I will, of course, post back on flavor. I expect it to be a little better than Jet Star. In other words an overall good tomato. The fruit are smaller though.


Ark Traveler


New Big Dwarf -- No ripe ones yet. After setting 8-9 fruit (it's so hard to count since of course the fruit is at the BACK of the cage), the plant has had a sudden, unexpected burst of growth and is now reaching for 4 feet tall and will probably try to set another cluster or two. Lost 1 to fruitworms.


New Big Dwarf


Kimberly -- BIG disappointment, at least as far as flavor, but maybe I have not been letting them fully ripen. The next ones, I will let them get fully red before eating.



Red Penna -- WOW! Ok, so I'm only going to get THREE fruit off of this huge plant, but still, the flavor is FANTASTIC, a real blockbuster. Can someone please cross this with Kimberly? The slices look weird just because I scooped out the seeds for seed saving:

Red Penna


Brandy Boy -- finally got to taste one. I've only got 7 set on the plant. Very very good. About 60-70% the taste of Brandywine. I find it hilarious that Suze is getting more fruitset out of Brandywine than Brandy Boy. I will probably try 1 of each next year.


Brandy Boy
The green side of the fruit never did ripen up even after the pink part was dead ripe.


I have two Gary O'Sena plants and each is going to give me about 8 fruit, so that's not TOO bad I guess. I've picked one since this picture was taken, will report back soon on flavor.


Gary O'Sena


Brad's Black Heart -- I've got about a half dozen fruit set on this one. But there is 1 fruit on this plant that I am most interested in. It has to be over a pound. I am thinking 1 1/2 lbs. I'll have to take it somewhere and weigh it. Pictures do not do this monster justice.

Brad's Black Heart


Paul Robeson is fairly loaded with 8-10. I'm looking forward to it.

Paul Robeson


* Anna Russian and Wes each have 3 tiny fruit. I'm not holding my breath. Will try Prue and German Red Strawberry next year.
* 2 plants of Cherokee Green have 4-5 fruit between them and lots of flowers.
* Burracker's Favorite has 2 and lots of flowers.
* Tidwell German has zero, zip, zilch, nada, nothing.
* I'll post about Tom's Yellow Wonder in the research forum.
* Earl's Faux has 5-6 fruit.



May 20th, 2007 harvest

Top: Gregori's Altai (2)
Right: Cherokee Purple (2)
Bottom Left: Jet Star (4)
Assorted Sungold (14) and Husky Red Cherry (2)


I have been constantly updating my Photo Gallery with new pictures. It would probably be overkill to post all the pictures and comments here when the pictures can tell the story.