Well, they're calling for frost tonight, and the inevitability of cold weather is in the air. Our tomatoes vines have all but dried up. Amazingly, though, we have more ripe tomatoes now than ever. The Peace Vine, Resientraub, Yellow and Red Pears and Isis Candy varieties are literally polluting the ground right now with ripe fruit. Unfortunately, none of them tast very good right now - I think the sugar content in them has suffered because of the shorter days. They look great, but their taste has a little bit of funk to it (dirty laundry anyone?), and the texture is generally a little on the mealy side.
It's early October and we're well into Autumn, and we are still getting huge amounts of tomatoes off the vines. The plants themselves are looking very old and tired, with lots of dead or yellowing leaves. However, the quantity and quality of the fruit are still very healthy. Although I had written the Sungolds and Snow Globes off for done earlier, they have rebounded with more fruit than ever. Other good producers right now are the Black Cherries, Peace Vines and the Green Grapes. Each of these is producing more than we can eat, and the ground below is starting to get littered with over-ripened tomatoes.
As summer starts to show its age, our tomato plants are still producing at a good pace. Although several of the vines themselves are starting to die off on the lower leaf sets, we're still getting lots of fruit from just about every variety. However, the snow globes and peace vines varieties seem to be about done. On the other hand, the red and yellow pear vines are literally polluted with fruit. The black cherry and Reisentraubs are also churning out plenty of fruit still. Sadly, the sun golds appear to be tapering off, though they're still producing. With the onset of cooler nights eminent, I'm guessing most of the green fruit presently on the vines may stay that way.
All of Jen's flower boxes have done very well this year. The boxes on the front of the house have been quite satisfying, and are looking really good despite the dry weather recently. This is especially nice since the last two years saw everything dry up and go to seed by this time. Compliments to Jen for a good job staying on top of the watering this year. See more pics of all of the boxes at Flickr.
We're past the middle of August now, and the tomato plants are still producing very well, but a noticeable slowing of the ripening process is now evident. The big producers right now are the Black Cherry, Snow White and Reisentraub varieties. We're still getting some Sungolds and Peacevines, but they are well past peak production (a week ago we were covered in both of these).
Jen and I had a tasting of all nine varieties of tomatoes this evening. The tomatoes in the picture are, from left to right: Snow White, Green Grape, Yellow Pear, Red Pear, Sun Gold, Reisentraub, Isis Candy, Peace Vine and Black Cherry. Our top five - 1) Sun Golds, 2) Green Grapes, 3) Black Cherries, 4) Peace Vines and 5) Snow Whites, though not necessarily in that order. Our least favorite are the Yellow Pears...they really don't taste like anything. For more information, see the video of the entire earth-shaking event.
I think that we've had this plant for several years now. It's been transplanted several times, and still thrives. Right now, we're appreciating a nice crop of blooms on it.
Our lone Foxglove in the yard has been working overtime this summer. It's on its third set of blooms. Each set has gotten more blue than the previous (the first being mostly pink). Last year we only got one set of blooms and then the plant sort of fell over and died.
...and the harvest is bountiful. We continue to pick up to a dozen of each type of tomato off the vines every day. I'm still battling the mites and white flies a bit - hit them with soap spray today, although I'm not convinced that this stuff actually does anything. The hot weather is cooking the plants each day, but a good watering each evening brings them back. All of the fruit is good, though the Sungolds, Black Cherries and Peace Vines are the sweetest right now.
We returned home today after a week at the beach. We were a little nervous about what we would find with our tomatoes, since the last time we went away like this (two years ago) we almost lost the entire crop. Much to our delight, the plants looked healthy and robust, and as a bonus we had a dozen or more Sun Golds ripe and ready to eat. Thanks go to our house sitter Denise who took care of our plants and cats while we were away.
I gave everything another good shot of soap solution on Wednesday. There were still a few mites hanging around, but not nearly as many as a week ago. The recent rains have made everything grow like crazy. Several plants are either approaching or topping the trellis already.
