Tomato Crop Update

The summer has been getting the better of me lately. Asides from harvesting it seems hard to spend time in the garden or in front of the computer. We have been on the road a lot lately touring around and taking pictures. I should really post some photos of our finds soon. I was going to do this tomato post yesterday but ended up going to the lake with my Sister. Even at the lake I can find some veggies, below is a photo of a Trailing Wild Bean that was growing on the beach. From what I can gather it is fairly uncommon in the north east, not sure if it is edible though.


Now for the task at hand, tomatoes. They all look very healthy but seem to be taking ages to turn colour. This season I started them 6 weeks before planting them out, I think that is the culprit. Next season I will go back to starting them 10 weeks before transplant.

This was a sucker. They form between the main stem & leaf.

This year I have been religiously pruning out all the suckers. Once the plants reached the top of their 6' stake I also cut the top out in hopes it directs energy into fruit not growth. There are a few reason that I pruned so heavily this season:

• It fits more plants in a small space, without pruning they just shade each other
• To increase airflow within the plants, this helps reduce the risk of blight
  
• It also makes it easier to see/harvest the fruit

Below are some photos of the fruit, mostly the ones I really wanted to try like last month!

Kellogg's Breakfast, grown from seed shared by Granny.

Green Zebra

Pink Berkley Tie Tye, grown from self saved seed.

Cherokee Purple, grown from self saved seed. They are
starting to get bronze shoulders so it shouldn't be long now.