Friday, July 30, 2010

Tomatoes

...sort of.
I debated posting these photos as it might turn away anyone who thought I actually might know what I am doing here :(


The tomato harvest has been a bit of a disappointment this year....considering we planted 81 tomato plants in this yard alone (over 20 more in our home garden). I thought we would be able to make enough sauces, salsas and catsups to last thru the winter. Sadly, that is not to be the case and I will be heading to the Farmer's Market tomorrow to try to make up the difference....sigh.

Not sure what happened here but because the plants in our more shaded garden are doing fine I think it might have something to do with the unrelenting heat and possibly the fairly new soil. We will continue to amend with our own compost and try to add more manures this year to get the fertility up to snuff.

The plants mostly seem to be dying on the bottom half.


So we decided to try to protect the fruit with screens .






This is just pathetic....these are BellStar paste tomatoes, which are a small determinate tomato plant. Pretty sure they're not supposed to be this small.

This bed of Romas is probably the healthiest of the lot....they are shaded from about 3pm on.

Fortunately, most of the garden has been really productive this year. I'll post pics of our more successful plantings in the next week or so.

5 comments:

MAYBELLINE said...

Have you seen how Don Corlione shades his tomato patch in the Godfather? I would really like that set up. Have you fed your plants?

Maureen said...

I remember the scene but not how the tomatoes are shaded...guess I'll need to rent the movie! We don't really 'feed' ours, just lots of compost and some egg shells...what do you feed yours?

MAYBELLINE said...

Dr. Earth.

Maureen said...

Thanks Maybelline for all your help. I did also look into the blight suggestion, but it really doesn't look like that's what it is. And considering that the cause of blight is related to an excess of rain...I think it's unlikely.
I will have to go get some Dr.Earth for next year's crop....I wanna be ready:)

MommaofMany said...

I have nine plants. Four are cherry tomatoes, two Black Russins , one early girl, and two Roma paste. The cherry tomatoes have done excellent, as always. I like to make fresh salsa with them. The Black Russians have been good bearers, too. I've had enough to keep us in slicing tomatoes all season. But the Romas and the Early Girl have been pathetic. The Romas I get, which are numerous, are about as big as my thumbnail and taste bitter. I throw them to the chickens. The Early Girl has grown only a few tomatoes, and has been a disappointment. Good thing I have a friend at the farmer's market!!