Sunday, July 17, 2011

Hang On Little Tomato

I skipped over the tomatoes in my last post because they are kind of a post unto themselves. The copper spray I used on them a couple of weeks ago seems to have helped the wilt problem. The 3 plants that were affected still look kinda funny but they are putting out pretty new foliage. Not many tomatoes on them though. The other plants, as you can see, are very vigorous! They are loaded with maters but are taking their own sweet time about ripening. May be that is due to the rainy weather we have had lately, I don't know. Even days when it has not rained it has often been very overcast.
I planted one row of Amish Paste and the plants that are doing well have produced very large tomatoes; just not ripe yet! The MoneyMakers, I'm not very impressed with and I may have mixed one Black Cherry in that row by mistake. The Moneymakers are all smallish tomatoes and I thought they were supposed to have been a larger, Beefsteak kinda mater. Could they have bred with the Black Cherry in their row?
At any rate, one row over is the Black Krim, which I really like! They are doing very well, don't seem bothered by the humidity and are producing a lot. They are ripening much faster than the others and have a great taste. They are a much sturdier plant too, while the others are long and straggly, and therefore haven't required the as much staking as the others.
All these plants received an organic, tomato specific fertilizer when they were planted, in addition to all that moo poo that was put over the entire garden, and have been side dressed with compost as it becomes available.

This is the one Black Cherry (that I'm sure about) that I planted in the garden. Now, it is doing very well. This thing is huge! I have really been impressed with this variety. It doesn't seem bothered by any disease and is very sturdy and prolific. And tastes VERY good!

I also planted, as an experiment, 2 Black Cherries and two Yellow Pear tomatoes in pots on the deck. They have done pretty good although they are not nearly as vigorous. They did start ripening before the ones in the garden and are producing a lot; just the plants themselves are kinda thin. In this photo you can see the difference between the Black Cherry from the garden, on the left, and the Black Cherry from the pot on the deck (right). They both taste good though! I like the size of the garden grown ones better, instead of those teeny ones. To me, that's a better snacking tomato.

Okay, I know I was supposed to put up a food post but I just haven't cooked anything lately that seemed like a good thing to share. Well, I did make some really good cornbread, true Southern cornbread, the other night and thought some of ya'll might like that recipe. I may put it up later.
Would anybody like that recipe?

10 comments:

Rita said...

I was just looking around for a good cornbread recipe and found this post today. :) So....yes please I'd love to have a tried and true cornbread recipe. Thanks!

Rita said...

Silly me....I should have said how much I enjoyed your post on tomatoes. I have not had good luck probably because of little time and did not plant any this year. I'd like to try the Black Krim next year.

HermitJim said...

Cornbread sounds good anytime! I sure like the looks of that Black Cherry tomato!

Thanks for posting the garden update!

MamaHen said...

Hey Reet! Sure thang! I'll post it soon. I think you'll probably like the Black Krim; I have so far.

Hey Jim! you're welcome!

Ed said...

Unless tomatoes are different than other things, they can't produce crossbred tomatoes the year that you plant them together. If you were to save their seeds this year and plant them next year, then you can get some hybrid stuff.

We used to plant squash, gourds and pumpkins all together and never had problems until one year we saved some pumpkin seed. The next year we had some really funky pumpkins!

MamaHen said...

Hey Ed! Well, that's the way I thought it worked. I just couldn't figure why these would be so small and so was just kinda thinking of anything. But I know I'm still a moron when it comes to gardening!
Thanks for the info!

Jane in Maine said...

Yes to more recipes-I made the crustless quiche last night and it was sooo good.By the way, in a recent post I loved seeing at least part of the rebar railing-I had been fascinated by that idea when you first did it.Maybe you could include a pic of it sometime now that it has weathered a bit.

MamaHen said...

Hey Jane! Sure! As a matter of fact, I had taken some pictures recently of the plants I have growing in front of and on the handrail, so that will give me two things to write about!
Glad you enjoyed the quiche too!

Ed said...

I should also add that you can create hybrids the same year you plant using grafting techniques. I always thought that was limited to fruit trees but evidently tomato grafting is catching on.

MamaHen said...

Tomato grafting??! I think that's entirely too much trouble for me! lol!!