November Tomatoes

I thought I'd start off November with a few pictures of what our tomato plants are producing. The Sunmaster that survived the Summer is doing the best by far. It has about 15 or so tomatoes growing and more starting. We're also getting tomatoes on the two Early Girl plants and the Hawaiian Tropic. The Black Prince, Black Krim, Ace 55, German Queen, and San Marzano all have blooms, but no tomatoes yet.

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Sunmaster

more Sunmaster

Hawaiian Tropic

Early Girl

Resilient Tomato Plant

A few weeks ago, several of our tomato plants experienced some form of blight. The plants wilted and dried out very quickly, beginning with their lower leaves and spreading upward. Some of the plants, such as a Black Krim and Ace 55, lost all of their foliage.

Although I disposed of the seemingly dead Black Krim plant, I decided to transplant the remaining Ace 55 "stem" from its container into our empty (and very small) vegetable bed. I figured I had nothing to lose by doing this, as every other plant that I had placed in the bed had either been devoured by unknown bugs or wilted away in a manner identical to the previously mentioned tomato plants.

Much to my surprise, the Ace plant has made a comeback after about two weeks. It's starting to put on leaves and is showing quite a bit of growth. It probably won't have time to put on any tomatoes before cold weather sets in, but I'll keep watering it just the same. I'm curious to see what it will do.

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rebounding Ace 55 plant

Fall Tomato Crop

Just an update on my plans for a Fall tomato harvest. As you may have read on an earlier post, a recent hornworm attack destroyed several of our plants (see: Return of the Hornworm). Our very productive Black Prince and Lemon Boy plants were, unfortunately, among the fatalities. While this ticked me off severely at the time, all is not lost on the tomato-growing front. The two Heatwave and two Sunmaster plants are still growing and doing very well, while the Better Boy limps along in its normal, unproductive manner.

Along with these established plants, I'll soon be transplanting several seedlings in hopes of a Fall crop. For this purpose, I have Black Prince, German Queen, Ace 55, and Lemon Boy plants all starting under the grow lamp. I've grown all of these from seeds, with the exception of the Lemon Boy which is a bit of an experiment. But that's a topic for another day.

Fall tomato plants