On My Windowsill
I’m enjoying seeing big beefsteak tomatoes sitting on my kitchen windowsill just waiting to be sliced up for a meal.
This is a lovely ‘White Beauty’ tomato, we’re also eating ‘Sub-Arctic’, ‘Chianti Rose’, and ‘Cherokee Purple’. No ripe ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes yet, I can’t wait for one of those, I think it will still be a few weeks. We enjoy them sliced, drizzled with a little olive oil and topped with some freshly ground salt (Himalayan pink salt at the moment).
What’s your favorite way to eat fresh tomatoes?
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Time to Fertilize those Tomatoes
Just a reminder if you live in the colder northern climates, that it’s time to give your tomatoes a little fertilizer to ensure that they remain productive until the end of the season. Tomatoes are heavy feeders so they appreciate a little fertilizer mid-season to keep them growing and producing heavily until frost. If you fertilize now, you give them a little boost so they set new blooms and will produce a last flush of tomatoes before the cold fall weather.
You want to make sure you use a fertilizer that’s rich in potassium and not too high in nitrogen, otherwise they will only produce lots of leaves. Fertilizing is vital if you’re growing your tomatoes in pots, as they use up the nutrients quickly in the limited amount of soil. They can benefit from some topdressing with compost and fertilizer each month.
I like to give mine a mid-season side dressing of bat guano, each plants gets a Tablespoon or two. Because of the make up of guano, it is very beneficial for fruiting plants and trees. I find that it helps my tomatoes green up nicely and set lots of new fruit this time of year. My bat guano comes courtesy of my dad, who harvests it from a local church belfry every couple years. You can also water every 3-4 weeks with a fish/seaweed emulsion as tomatoes really love that as well. Since I have very poor soil in the front garden, I use a very weak fish emulsion each month on those tomatoes, about 25% strength, my favorite is Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fish & Seaweed. Side dressing with comfrey leaves is also beneficial for tomatoes, you can add the chopped leaves at planting time and mid-season.
Do you fertilize tomatoes mid-season? Do you use anything special?
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First Official Ripe Tomato
Last Week on Friday I picked my first official ripe tomato of 2010, right before we left for vacation. Of course I picked a few earlier that were from a volunteer, but these are labeled “official” since they were from plants that I started from seed.
They were ‘Zapoted Pleated’ and ‘Constoluto Genovese’ tomatoes. If I remember correctly these two tomatoes were among the first I picked last year as well. I was thinking that my ‘Sub-Arctic’ would be the first. It’s loaded with tomatoes, but only one is starting to turn.
It looks like I have a ‘Goldman Italian American’ ripe on the vine now that I’m finally home from vacation. We made it home much later than expected after coming through some pretty serious storms in SE Ohio. Fortunately we were on a major highway when they hit, but when we got off on the back roads to head home we had to turn around five times to find another route after coming across power lines and trees blocking the roads.
We ended up on some back roads, that could barely be called roads that were also littered with fallen trees and branches, but not completely cut off. Finally we made it home, much later than expected, but that is one the drawbacks of living in a rural area!
Have you harvested your first official tomato yet? What variety was it?
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The First Ripe Tomato of 2010
On Wednesday evening I picked my first ripe tomato of 2010. Well at least the first official ripe tomato, I had a few that ripened earlier but they had blossom end rot, so they don’t count. Oddly enough these little tomatoes came from a volunteer plant that is growing in with some of my potatoes. I saw the plant sprout early and was wondering what kinds of tomatoes it would produce. They’re small, but not cherries, in between a cherry and a regular tomato. They grew well in the cool spring and didn’t freeze out with the frosts we had early in the season. If I like the flavor I may save some seeds and try planting in outside earlier than the others next spring. Perhaps this could be the ‘Chiot’s Run’ tomato.
Are you harvesting any ripe tomatoes yet?
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I Spy Something Exciting!
Earlier this week while tying up tomatoes I spotted a tiny green tomato. Oddly enough I posted last year on June 22 about spotting baby tomatoes. Seems that even though I started my tomatoes earlier last year, this warm spring has made my tomatoes very productive. It is the same variety of tomato as the first last year, it’s a Zapotec Pleated Tomato.
I don’t think I’ll be getting my first ripe one on July 6 like I did last year. I don’t have any cherry tomatoes this year. I must remember to start some each year for early tomatoes. Perhaps I’ll also try starting my Sub-Arctics in January and put them outside in April in order to get tomatoes as early as possible.
Any tiny tomatoes in your garden yet?
