My Tomatillo Plants Don't Look Related

These are my two tomatillo plants next to each other. Click to see them larger.


The left plant is very much a sprawling vine. If not for the cage, it would just sprawl on the ground. The plant on the right has thick stems and holds itself up. The leaves are the most striking difference. The sprawler has small medium green leaves and the other has large dark green leaves. Weird.

Hornworms Suck

What else is there to say? I caught a big one before he could eat the whole plant, but he ate most of the top half. Luckily, it was Celebrity #6 which is the straight bucket container and as a result is the smallest plant with the smallest fruit. On the other hand, I want some fruit off Celebrity #6, because it is the only straight bucket. Does that effect flavor?

And the wasp larva got a small one before he could even get started.


Here's the big one on a branch that has been stripped of leaves and a small fruit that was starting to blush.

So How Do They Taste?

So blogging and taking pictures and fawning over tomato plants is fun and all, but the whole point is tomato sandwiches. BLTs. Tomato and cheese. Just plain tomato on toast. That's what I'm talking about.

Early Girls are not that great. They go from hard to mealy. Not very sweet, but go pretty good with mayo. And the skin is annoyingly thick. If the tomatoes were truly early, I'd let the rest go. But they aren't that early. A week earlier than Celebrity and Big Boy? I'll probably try something else early next year.

Celebrities are pretty good. They are a little sweet. Not too juicy for a sandwich. The meat is tender and there aren't too many seeds. Really good on a BLT. These also get pretty big for the size of the plant. Pretty good 5 gallon container plant. Will probably plant a few next year and take better care of them.

Big Boys are pretty good too. A nice balance of acid and sugar. Kind of juicy, but not too bad. Based entirely on the name, I was expecting larger fruit. They remind me of the Jetstars that my Dad grows. Mmm, good.

Bigger Big Boys

I complained here that the Big Boys weren't very big. Well, as the season has progressed both the Early Girls and Big Boys are producing larger fruit. Nothing approaching 1 pound, but around 6 ounces. A decent slicer.

Don't Leave Your Container Tomatoes Alone for a Long Weekend

Pam and I had a great time in Denver. I didn't play golf, because I was recovering from a nerve injury. But I did get to walk the first few holes and watch the team. They placed third, so we won't be going to Portland for the nationals. We got to see Bert and Lisa and Tank, which was fun too.

But the tomatoes didn't have such a good time. I don't have any kind of automatic watering system. The containers were pretty dry when we got back Sunday night. The Early Girls and Big Boys were very wilted and slouching on the stakes. The Celebrities were also wilted and falling out of their cages. A very sad sight. A couple of the Celebs dropped small green fruit. They have all since recovered to one degree or another. All the blossoms have dried up and no new fruit has set in the past couple of weeks. It hasn't been that hot, so I don't think it's a problem of sterile pollen. I has been rather humid for a week or so. Maybe the pollen is clumping and won't pollinate. One of the Big Boys is having Blossom End Rot (BER) problems. All the fruits that were small when we were gone are showing BER. That's too bad, because I like the Big Boys best.

The Celebs are still looking rather haggered. They are semi-determinates, which I understand to mean that they will stay compact but produce until first frost. Looks like they may not make it to first frost.