Tomato and Pepper Update 26 Jul 2011

The tomatoes and peppers are looking pretty good. I have been trimming away and disposing of any yellowed or spotted  leaves and spraying with copper once a week. I am trying to prevent wilt disease from hitting the toms, which wiped out most of my heirloom tomatoes last year.
So far the heirlooms look healthy. This year I planted a Mr. Stripey since I couldn't find a German Striped or German Pink. It seems to be climbing straight up without a lot of suckers. Not many fruit yet but it is flowering a lot.




The Brandywine is really looking great. It set fruit very early which is now of significant size. It is still flowering and setting fruit. It is growing with a single stem, although at about 3 feet it has decided to bifurcate into two growing points.



The Cherokee Purple is setting a lot of fruit and still looks very healthy. None of the fruits have reached a stage of ripeness where you can see the purplish blush on the tomatoes. This is a great tomato and I hope it produces a lot of fruit and stays healthy.



This is the first year for me growing the Sungold cherry tomato. Based on eating a couple of these in the garden, I think Sungold is going to be a standard with me. The flavor is very rich and exotic, almost tangerine. Sure beats the insipid sugar-sweet red cherries like Sweet100 in flavor. The plant is slender and very prone to climb. It is already near the top of the pole.



My main tomato this year is Jet Star. I have grown Jet Star in the past with a lot of luck. Last year I had Mountain Fresh as my main tomato and didn’t care for it’s performance or taste. Jet Star has been a reliable producer for me in past years. This year some of the fruit exhibits catfacing, a tribute to the weird weather this year.



Finally, I planted four Roma tomatoes from a 6-pack I purchased. Three of them are growing nicely, about 2 feet high, clearly determinate, and setting plum-shaped fruit. The fourth is now at the top of its cage and setting round, striped fruit. Obviously a mistake, but was it the grower or seed merchant? It will be interesting to see if I can identify the rogue tomato. At the least I hope it is very productive.



Since I stopped over-watering the peppers, they have come back to life within just a few days. They have greened up and are producing new foliage and setting fruit. The Lady Bells have fruit set and in a few days I will have enough for a batch of stuffed peppers. The Cubanelle are flowering and setting fruit, but none are big enough to harvest yet. Even the Poblanos, which looked like they were about to croak, are turning dark green and starting to flower.



Finally, I have to throw in a photo of the salad garden I am getting almost every day.