Black Prince Tomato

Yesterday, I picked our first ripe Black Prince tomato in months. Although it was small and the only one on the plant at the time, I'm hoping that it's a forerunner of many to come in the Fall. I'm also pleased that it came off of the plant that had been completely defoliated by hornworms back in early July.

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Revenge of the Tomato!

Several weeks ago, hornworms attacked our tomato plants while we were out of town. The creatures completely stripped our Lemon Boy and Black Prince plants, while doing major damage to the Better Boy and Sunmaster. Although I replaced the Better Boy, I decided to follow a different strategy with the others.

Since I didn't have any seedlings ready to replace the other damaged plants with, I decided to try and save them. So I continued watering the poor leafless things and pruned back all of their old branches, leaving only the main stems. Within a few days, shoots of new leaves began appearing from the bottom of the plants and from the junctions of the old branches and the main stem. Instead of pinching off these "suckers" as guides advise when doing regular pruning, I figured I'd let them grow. The results have been pretty good, as the plants' have recovered quite a bit of foliage and even put on a few blooms. I suppose you could call it their revenge against the hornworms.

Sunmaster

Lemon Boy

Black Prince

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

Return of the Hornworm

When I flew into Vegas late last night after my six day trip to Alabama, I discovered that my return had not been the only one. It seems that the dreaded hornworms had taken advantage of my absence to launch another, far more devastating attack on our tomato plants. While they consumed the foliage of only one limb a few weeks ago (see post: "Attack of the Hornworm!"), this time they stripped three fully grown plants. Our Lemon Boy, Black Prince, and Better Boy have all been damaged beyond hope of recovery. The worms also ate quite a few leaves (and even some tomatoes) off of the large Heatwave and Sunmaster plants. The amount of destruction these worms can unleash upon a plant is really shocking. I wonder if there is any organic way to defend against the creatures?

Lemon Boy

Black Prince

the culprit

tomatoes for breakfast

thirteen ruined tomatoes

Attack of the Hornworm!

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that some of the few remaining green leaves on my Better Boy tomato plant had disappeared. I quickly decided that some sort of hungry pest must be eating them, but when I looked I couldn't find anything unusual. Then, as I walked by yesterday evening, I happened to glance up and discovered the culprit. A huge hornworm was feasting on the poor plant. It was so large that I don't know how I missed finding it earlier in the day. In just the few hours between my first unsuccessful search and finding the offending and well-fed creature, it had stripped an entire limb of the plant. These things can really eat!