Why call it Big Boy?

The first blush has shown itself on Big Boy #4. That's 73 days from transplant. These are small tomatoes. Not much bigger than Early Girl. 6oz at best.

Celebrity Blush

Those big beautiful Celebrity tomatoes have started to blush. That's 72 days from transplant. I sure hope they taste as good as they look. I'm looking forward to these. We'll be in Denver for a golf tournament this weekend, so I hope to come home to a BLT.

More Harvest

Picked the first fruit from Early Girl #2. It's still orange and ripening.


The first couple fruit from Early Girl #1 have ripened on the counter after a couple of days and we had our first bite of fresh tomato. The larger one was ok. A little mealy. The really small one (0.9 oz) was really bad.

The Harvest Begins

The first blush came on Early Girl #1 on July 20th. I picked the first two orange fruit today. I picked early in fear of birds. That's 66 days from transplant.

Beetle on my Tomatillos

I found this guy on my tomatillos.


I think it is this three-lined potato beetle.

Tomatillos

I got a really late start on the tomatillos. I think they were too old for transplant, but it seemed like a fun experiment. They were pretty sad looking after transplant. One came back very nicely and has lots of buds showing (first pics in the strips below). Another has been struggling along with a small amount of new growth and a couple of buds (middle in the strips below). The third is still looking pretty sad (last in the strips below). After transplant, all the leaves dried up, got crunchy and fell off. The stem was thick and healthy looking. A couple of days ago I was examining the stem and notice some new growth at the base of the stem. The new growth has since dried up. At last check, the stem was starting to wither. It can't be good.

Day of transplant


Today


Tomatillos are not self-pollinating like tomatoes, so I have to get at least two of these plants to bloom. The first plant has started to bloom. Some friendly flying critters would be helpful as well. To that end I am trying to figure out what is going on with the less happy pair.
The struggling middle plant and the stem are both in 5-gallon Self-Watering Containers (SWCs). The water reservoir was looking green, so I opened it up. The reservoir was green with stinky algae. I took the SWC with the struggling plant and converted it to a regular 5-gallon top watered container. 24 hours after repotting, the plant is looking good. Maybe I'll repot the stem tonight.

I've completely lost control...

...of the indeterminates. Having multiple stems has turned out to be a bigger problem than I first thought. I chose one stem as the main stem and trained it up the stake. To choose the main stem, I looked for the one that had the best shot of climbing the stake. Some of the secondary stems had some nice fruit on them, so I didn't completely remove the secondary stems. I did prune the growing tip out of the secondary stems and tied them up as much as I could. I had to use bamboo stakes on a couple of them. I was hoping to keep the extra stems from toppling over and keep the main stem cleaned up. But it didn't work out so well. A couple of the secondary stems broke off.

This one had a decent sized fruit on it, so I couldn't bring myself to prune off the whole stem. Also notice that all the leaves on this stem are curled and leathery. Probably stress related, but I'm not sure if it's the excess water mentioned here or if it's something else.

You can see here that the stem broke and then scarred over.

Tomato Lessons Learned - Early Summer

The fruit is setting and the indeterminates are growing out of control. A couple of more lessons learned.

1. The Early Girls are happy to set fruit even when there is a large swing between day and night temps. Don't get me wrong - they set better once the temps stabilize, but it's sure is nice to see some small fruit in mid-June.
   
2. The Early Girls are significantly earlier than the Big Boy and Celebrity varieties. The Early Girls are loaded up with nice medium sized fruit. The others are playing catching up.
3. The Early Girl fruits start to grow very quickly once the flowers are pollinated. Maybe this is why they are earlier than the other varieties.
   
4. It's a completely unscientific experiment, but the Celebrities seem to be just as happy in a 4 gallon SWC as in a 5 gallon SWC. This doesn't say anything about whether they would be happier in an 18 gallon SWC. Here happiness is defined as producing lots of flowers, setting fruit and growing that fruit without catfacing/BER problems.
   
5. In a similarly unscientific experiment, the Celebrity in the regular 5 gallon bucket (not an SWC) is not unhappy, but is not as happy as the ones in the SWCs.
6. I said it last time, but it bears repeating: If your seedling has more than one main stem, trim it back to one. It will only lead to trouble.
   
7. Don't buy the last three crappy looking tomatillos and transplant them at the end of June. It's just too late.

Miracle Grow with Moisture Control holds too much water

I noticed that the potting mix had settled and was no longer mounded at the top. Since the monsoons will be starting a couple of weeks, I thought now would be a good time to add some more potting mix. If the potting mix isn't mounded, then water can collect on top of the plastic mulch and effectively top water. This can cause too much of the fertilizer strip to dissolve and over fertilize. I have also noticed that the Big Boys have symptoms of Leaf Roll (not Leaf Curl) and the lower leaves are yellowing/browning. This isn't much of a problem with the Early Girls (same 18gal EarthTainer) or the Celebrities (5gal SWC). One possible cause is too little water or too much water, so while I had the boxes open I checked the moisture levels. The potting mix was more than moist or damp, but not wet. It was the same in all the 18 gallon SWCs and the buckets. I can't know for sure, but I blame the Moisture Control. I'm using 50% Miracle Grow Potting Mix with Moisture Control and 50% regular Miracle Grow Potting Mix. I have read other reports that the Moisture Control formula wicks and holds too much water for SWCs. I'll phase it out over time by mixing in more regular potting mix at the beginning of each season.