Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Greetings from Zone 6B. Today was perfect tomato growing weather. It
was about 75F for the high and will be in the 50's tonight. May 5
wasn't as kind.
Around 2:00 AM on the 5th, we had the worst hailstorm I have ever seen
in my mear-half-a-century on this planet. Size wasn't the issue. It
was duration. Here in Tennessee I have seen it hail for 3-5 minutes
many times but this storm was different. We had hail for at least 15
minutes. Fortunately, the wind only served to clear some of the
detritus known as the Bradford Pear. I had 16 tomato plants in the
ground which ranged in size from 5 inches to 18. They all experienced
some damage and some were reduced to but a single leaf. Here is the
lowdown, 9 days after "the storm". I am trying something new this year
I call "bucketing". Here is how it goes. Plant as deep as you can,
usually 8-10 inches here. Use a large breed of plant. Once the plant
reaches 12-15 inches tall, take a 1-2 gallon plastic nursery planter
and put it next to the plant. Strip off the bottom leaves of the plant
to the level of the top of the planter.
Cut the bottom off of the planter. Fit the planter over the top of
the plant. Fill planter with compost. Voila, increased root volume.
So far this looks like an effective method.

Storebought plants indicated by *
Bucketed plants indicated by #

Kentucky Beefsteak - planted 3/22 - 27 inches - trellised plant - one
of two growing tips broken by hail - first buds did not set fruit -
waiting to see on second - this looks like it will be a very tall
plant

Jeff Davis - 4/2 - 12 inches - wispy plant with 1 bud set and 1 green
tomato about 1/3 inch dia. - little storm damage

Russian Black# - 4/2 - 15 inches - lush plant with first bud set -
bottom of plant denuded by storm

Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Tropic - 4/2 - 14 inches - very stocky plant absolutely wrecked by
storm - re-growth has been vigorous - 2 tomatoes on first bud set -
1/2 and 1 1/2 inches

Neptune - 4/2 - this plant was a weak seedling with choriosis due to
overwatering - lean plant but with lots of secondary growth - caged -
has two bud sets just developing

Mortgage Lifter# - 4/11 - 14 inches - lush plant developing first bud
set - bottom denuded by storm but has really filled out since
bucketing on 5/7

Super Sioux - 5/11 - seedling

Neptune2 - 4/22 - 12 inches - average plant with first bud set

Husky Cherry Red* - 5/1 - 4 inches - extremely stocky dwarf plant
taken down to one large leaf by the storm - recovering nicely

Russian Black2 - 4/22 - 4 inches - a very weak plant that was almost
broken by my mishandling then trimmed down to a stem 4 inches long
with a nub from where I had pruned it before the storm - believe it or
not it now has a 3 inch growth from the side where the nub was

Patio* - 4/26 - 10 inches - another extremely stocky dwarf plant but,
oddly, virtually no storm damage - several bud sets - 3 green tomatoes
1/2 to 1 in.

Mortgage Lifter Red# - 4/19 - 14 inches - Lush, powerful looking
plant, prettiest one I have, imho. Bottom was denuded by storm but
has responded nicely to bucketing. This plant is caged and since it
is so powerful looking, I think will allow it to have 3 main stems
from the bottom rather than my customary two.

Super Sweet 100# - 5/1 - 6 inches - another sad story - i hate cherry
tomatoes but my wife wanted some so....i waited until sunday on a
beautiful weekend to get a plant and everything was extremely picked
over. Wound up with a sad little plant that was actually growing up
the side of the cup. You could hold the cup up to the light and see
the roots. It responded nicely to being transplanted and was looking
really great at about 10 inches when the storm reduced it to a single
leaf. It now has two nice new shoots and is growing very rapidly.

Brandywine*# - 4/19 - 24 inches - leggy potato leafed variety with
lots of foliage - lost one of 3 growing tips to storm but is
recovering nicely - has two new bud sets

Bullsheart - 5/11 - seedling

Ponderosa Red - 5/11 - seedling

Mystery Plant - 5/14 - seedling - found growing next to mortgage
lifter plant. probably a Juliet since that what was planted nearby
last year and they are notorious for self-seeding - i hate them too
but i had to see - moved it to my seedling bed

I think I should be on track for my average first ripe tomato date of
Jun 4 but the storm has probably lowered my early production
considerably. I hope some of you will post so I can see how your
tomato plants are growing. I will try to post again every month or
so. It has certainly been an interesting growing season so far.

Lee Hall
Middle Tennessee - Zone 6B
"He who hesitates is lost, and vice versa."

__________________________________________________ ____________________

The first harvest was very late this year due to the hailstorm damage.
I harvested my first tomato, a Tropic, on June 20, more than 2 weeks
later than normal.

Bacterial Speck has reared it's ugly head again, affecting all of the
plants except the ones planted in May to some extent. The most
affected plant is the Mortgage Lifter Red VFN, which continues to
produce large tomatoes anyway. The Bradley plant is showing signs of
late blight.

So, here are the winners and losers, so far.

Kentucky Beefsteak - Very rangy plant, moderate production, very late
maturing.
I have just now picked my first tomato from this plant. While
advertised as an orange beefsteak tomato, what I have is a dark pink,
medium sized specimen. Will let you know how it tastes on next
posting.

Jeff Davis - Medium sized plant producing medium sized dark pink
tomatoes. They have a nice taste with a mix of sweet and acid. Very
fleshy with few seeds. Might try these again. Have picked a couple
so far.

Russian Black #1 - Large plant, moderately productive. Produces golf
ball size pretty mahogany color tomatoes with less green shoulders
than other so called "purple" or "black" tomatoes I have grown in the
past. The tomatoes have a very sweet taste which is not to my liking
but my friends who don't like highly acid tomatoes rave about these.
Have picked about 8-10 so far.

Russian Black #2 - The "given up for dead twice" plant. This little
dude is bushy, compact and productive. It is only about 2 1/2 feet
tall but is loaded with little dark green tomatoes in clusters of 3 or
4.

Hawaiian Hybrid - Shows no more resistance to bacterial speck than
non-hybrids but still producing nicely. As a matter of fact, this is
the plant i experimented with by using no additional compost on it.
It has the heaviest load of fruit of all of my plants. I am not sure
whether it is the lack of compost or the fact that it is a hybrid.
Will try same experiment next year with two plants of same variety.
Produces very tasty orange/red, medium large tomatoes with a nice
blend of acid and sugar. Will probably grow these again.

Tropic - This was the plant which had the most foliage before the
storm but it has never recovered completely. Instead, this had become
a short bushy plant with a lot of stem and not much leaf. This was
the opposite of the intent of the breeders who were trying to produce
a heat-resistant variety. Production on this plant is low, due not
only to the storm but the plants uncanny ability to attract corn-borer
caterpillars which have ruined 5-6 of these. The intact fruits,
though, are very tasty, medium sized pink/red jewels. Will probably
grow these again.

Neptunes #1, 2 and 3 - Yuck. These plants are the losers for this
year. Weak determinate plants with no resistance to bacterial spot,
whatsoever. Even before being blighted these plants were starting to
look puny. They are advertised as red tomatoes but mine are decidely
orange. Taste is fair but blander than most of the tomatoes I have
grown.

Husky Cherry Red - Surprise, another good tasting hybrid. Another
plant which was very bushy before the storm that sprung back with a
rangier habit. Produces a moderate number of large tasty cherry
tomatoes. I am not a cherry tomato fancier but my wife loves these.
Another repeat for next year. BTW, sure it's a hybrid, but still no
resistance to bacterial speck.

Mortgage Lifter - A reclamation project. This was a spindly seedling
with choriosis. Very low production of beefsteak size tomatoes.
Haven't harvested the first one yet. Mortgage Lifter was my biggest
producer by weight last year so I'm pretty sure I just have a messed
up plant here.

Super Sioux - A later addition. None harvested yet. Has a couple of
nice clusters of what should be medium sized tomatoes.

Patio - Another hybrid stricken badly by bacterial speck. Produced
the second and third tomatoes I harvested in the early season. Nice,
salad sized, pink/red tomatoes. Just now recovering enough to set new
fruit. I don't think it knows it's a determinate.

Mortgage Lifter Red VFN - This is where all the blight started. What
was at one time my biggest plant has now been denuded up to about 4
feet above ground level. The one tomato I have harvested so far was
GREAT. It was actually pink/red and about 24 ounces with a great
taste and just the right bite. Will try these again in a different
location. Still has about 4 very large beefsteaks hanging on it.

Super Sweet 100 - The other given up for dead twice plant. This one
is tall and rangy and productive with massive clusters of red cherry
tomatoes. The taste nod goes to the husky's but these sure put out
the fruit.

Brandywine - I am still looking for a strain of Brandywine that is a
better producer. This storebought, potato-leaved variety isn't it.
These are the best tasting tomatoes in my garden this year but I have
only harvested 3 from a massive 7 foot tall plant. Fortunately, it
still has about 3 more on it. I may try a non potato-leaved
Brandywine next year. BTW, the tomatoes on this plant are running a
bit small, about 12-14 ounces. They are pink/red and the taste is
fantastic with a lot of sweet and a lot of bite.

Bullsheart - There is a contest in about 8 days here locally for the
biggest and the ugliest tomato. The one tomato on this plant is a
contender for both categories. It is a hideous looking pumpkin-shaped
monster which is probably 2 pounds already. Will report on taste
later. Plant is small and wispy.

Ponderosa Red - Corn-borer caterpillars ruined the first two fruit
from this plant so I haven't tasted them yet. Looks like it will
produce medium large fruit at a moderate rate.

Bradley - Moderate production of pink/red thinskinned salad tomatoes.
This Bradley is smaller than the ones I grown in the past. The fruit
are typical of Bradley, tart and sweet. This is the only plant
showing signs of late blight despite heavy sprayings of Neem oil
during wet weather.

Late additions:

Super Sioux - Bushy plant that looks like it will produce a large
number of medium sized tomatoes. I hope they don't turn out to be
orange.

4th of July - I have grown these several times before. As usual, they
should produce a very large number of golfball sized tasty red
tomatoes. This is an early season variety so we shall see how they do
when planted late.

Mystery Plants - the original mystery plant wasn't looking too great
so the 4th of July took it's place. Have since relocated two other
volunteers which are now about a foot tall. They both look like
Juliets but it is hard to say for sure at this stage.

Clones:

I successfully cloned a Neptune (hey, I didn't know) and a Super Sioux
for my boss in late may. He says there a lots of green ones. Hope to
get a report soon on how the ripe ones taste.

I accidentally broke a stem off one of the Russian Blacks so I decided
to clone the stem. I actually didn't expect it to survive in the July
Tennessee heat but it seems to be doing very well.

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch. I need some
good ideas on varieties to try next year. Have already added to the
list Eva Purple Ball and Siletz from comments I have read in the NG.
More suggestions, please. I try to grow early, middle and late season
varieties and my personal preference is for the tangier fruits with
less sugar but I do grow tomatoes for friends and family with
different tastes.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

On 20 Jul 2003 11:39:53 -0700, (Lee Hall)
wrote:


Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch.

OK - northern PA here, Zone 5 theoretically but cooler than
Zone 5 generally is - we're in the mountains.

I started seeds beginning March 24 - got the tomatoes
planted out beginning May 8 (last frost date here is
generally May 31 to mid-June). All tomatoes were planted
out with WalloWaters to protect them - the WoWs worked - no
frost damage.

We only have six plants outside: two Early Girls, two Sweet
Millions, two Better Boys. (We also have Red Robins growing
indoors, but they don't count in this.)

May and the first half of June were EXTREMELY wet and cool.
We had six weeks of rain every day, and almost no sun. This
was followed by two weeks of hot weather, then we've had
pleasant weather since (dry - highs in the low 80s or upper
70s). But our nights are very cool - often down to the 40s
in mid-summer, sometimes even down to the high 30s.

The tomatoes all sat and sulked through the six weeks of
cold rain. I started removing the WalloWaters and caging
the tomatoes around mid-June. All were caged by July 1.

All my plants are now lush, thick and taller than I am
(5'4"). All have lots of green tomatoes, lots and lots.
blossom-end-rot and was tossed.

It's going to be a while before we have any ripe tomatoes.

I have come to the conclusion that our cool nights
throughout summer are just not good for growing tomatoes -
when we have tomatoes for only about two weeks and then a
killing frost, it's just not worth all the effort.

We're building a hoophouse next month and next year my
tomatoes will be growing in the hoophouse, where I hope they
will do MUCH better. A gardening friend around the corner
from us came here from England three years ago, and he just
normally grew his tomatoes in a small unheated greenhouse,
as he had always done in England.

I don't think he even realized that most Americans grow
tomatoes outdoors (not in a greenhouse). He has lots of
ripe tomatoes! So it's the hoophouse next year for me.

Pat

In article , Pat Meadows
wrote:

On 20 Jul 2003 11:39:53 -0700, (Lee Hall)
wrote:

I'm in Alaska. We've been eating fresh tomatoes for 2 months now.
"Tumbler" plants, in pots, on my kitchen windowsill. Golf-ball sized
'maters. Good taste, not great. (Sweet 100 is hard to beat for taste.)

Everything else is out in the greenhouse.

Jan

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

USDA Zone 8b
NW Florida

Here's my report:

Brandywine: This variety just don't seem to produce well for me, but I know
from last year that its fruits are truly delicious. The local rodents got
the few fruit it made, just as soon as they started to blush. Then the plant
succumbed to some sort of blight and I have removed it.

Brandy Boy: This is new Burpee hybrid that is supposed to taste like
Brandywine but be more productive and disease resistant. Well, it did
produce more fruits, but the rodents (and fruitworms) got *all* of these,
too. I swear they know which tomatoes taste best - they always eat my
favorites and leave the others alone! I finally got one small fruit, which I
had to ripen on my counter. I'll try it today or tomorrow. Both of these
plants succumbed to blight and I have removed them.

Empi A hybrid variety I got a couple of years ago as a "bonus" from
Totally Tomatoes. Red, juicy beefsteak tomatoes, very good balanced flavor.
Some green shoulders. Very little cracking. My biggest tomatoes this year.
Plant produced a nice early crop, and produced so many at once in its first
flush that the rodents only got half of them. :-) The next flush contained
fewer and smaller fruit (since the plant was already fighting the blight).
The small fruit were still just as tasty, though. A definite repeat,
although it succumbed to the blight earlier than the other tomatoes.

Rutgers Improved: I give up on this variety. It either doesn't like me or
doesn't like my climate. It starts off promisingly each year, then fails to
yield much fruit. Lots of cracking, and the taste is nothing special either.
I did not particularly mourn it when the blight took it.

Top Sirloin: I got these seeds as a "test product" from a gardening club. A
red beefsteak which produces large fruits. Some cracking, but not much. Some
green shoulders. Excellent flavor - a close second to Brandywine, IMO. This
plant also caught the blight, and I pruned it very hard. I thought it was
going to recover until yesterday - now it appears to have some sort of wilt
or root problem. I'm taking it out today or tomorrow, as soon it has given
its last strength to put a blush on the ten or twelve sizable green tomatoes
left on it. I am very sad to see this one go, and kicking myself for not
starting seeds for a replacement plant in May.

Floramerica: I bought this as a seedling. It's a variety developed by the
University of Florida specifically to grow in hot, humid climates. In my
climate, this is an incredible grower and producer. It is *supposed* to be a
determinate variety, but it had been planted out in late March, producing
ripe fruit since late May, and it was still blooming and setting fruit
heavily in July. It reached over six feet tall, and was incredibly thick and
bushy before the blight got it. Actually, although it *had* blight, blight
didn't actually get it. I killed it. It produced heavily, and the fruit was
tasty, medium sized, and red, but it was the worst cracking variety I have
grown, with green shoulders to boot. I don't think I got a single
unblemished fruit! Given that this has been an extremely wet season, maybe
I'll try it again next year.

Roma: Another variety I give up on. The plant got huge and made lots of
fruit, like the Floramerica. It seemed to be competing with it, in fact, and
also refused to believe that it was a determinate variety. Unfortunately, I
don't like the flavor. Bland. I did not mourn when the blight took it. I'll
find another paste tomato to plant next year.

Floralina: Another University of Florida variety, also determinate. This
plant was direct-seeded in April, in a container. By the time it got to
fruit-setting size, the blight had already started on my other plants, and
soon spread to it. I got no fruit (the rodents got the few small fruit it
made before it expired). I have not given it a fair test, so I'll try it
again next year.

SunSugar: A yellow-orange cherry tomato, very sweet, almost tropical in
flavor: delicious! Both of these plants still live, though they have blight.
So far the new growth is keeping pace with the disease, though I have
denuded the poor plants up to four feet above the ground. I don't have any
replacement seedlings (kicking myself again!), so I am going to try to keep
them alive as long as I can. They have not been very good producers, but
they have cause: several weeks before the blight started, DH was using
Roundup around the garden and a little drifted onto these plants. They
became very ill, but survived. It set them back a great deal, and the blight
started soon after they recovered from the Roundup. So, it's impressive that
they live and produce at all! I think if they'd had a decent start, they'd
be rampant and I'd be drowning in little orange globes. A definite repeat -
but hold the Roundup!

Ruby: A red grape tomato (smaller than catalog described them), excellent
sweet but real tomato flavor, thin skins, I've had maybe 10% of them crack -
not bad for such a wet, wet year. And there are a lot of them! I have two
plants, and I'm giving tomatoes away constantly because I don't know what to
*do* with them all. Rampant is an inadequate description for these plants.
They too have the blight, but are easily outgrowing it. I will definitely
plant these again next year. But only ONE of them!


New Plants: I just bought and planted these as large seedlings within the
last week; with any luck they'll produce by the end of September:

Atkinson: Don't know anything about this variety except that it's supposed
to be good for the South. The tag didn't say, but its habit suggests that
it's an indeterminate variety. Buds forming.

Bush Goliath: My first try with an ISI variety. Very sturdy-looking.
Blooming already.

Patio: A new variety for me as well. Very stocky and dark green. Buds
forming.

I am also giving Mom two new seedlings this week: Sweet Chelsea, a cherry
type, and SunMaster, a slicer developed for hot climates. I have not tried
either of these varieties.

Laura Stanley said:


Ruby: A red grape tomato (smaller than catalog described them), excellent
sweet but real tomato flavor, thin skins, I've had maybe 10% of them crack -
not bad for such a wet, wet year. And there are a lot of them! I have two
plants, and I'm giving tomatoes away constantly because I don't know what to
*do* with them all. Rampant is an inadequate description for these plants.
They too have the blight, but are easily outgrowing it. I will definitely
plant these again next year. But only ONE of them!

I dried a lot of these last year in my dehydrator. Cut them in half first. Nice
snack. Superb in a pasta dish with spinach, feta cheese, and garlic.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Lee Hall wrote:

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch.

I have a very small garden. Planted 12 Mortgage Lifter seeds on April 19.
All 12 sprouted, 11 lived. Presently picking some cat-faced maters in the
3" range for green frying. Lots of fruit in the 1-2" range. VERY sturdy
vine ... I trellis so having a sturdy vine is a plus.

The seed packet said 2 1/2# to 4# tomatoes. Is this a reasonable thing to
hope for or just seed-packet hype?

Bill
--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.

Noydb wrote in message ...
Lee Hall wrote:

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch.

I have a very small garden. Planted 12 Mortgage Lifter seeds on April 19.
All 12 sprouted, 11 lived. Presently picking some cat-faced maters in the
3" range for green frying. Lots of fruit in the 1-2" range. VERY sturdy
vine ... I trellis so having a sturdy vine is a plus.

The seed packet said 2 1/2# to 4# tomatoes. Is this a reasonable thing to
hope for or just seed-packet hype?

Bill

Bill, your mileage may vary according to climate and the strain of
Mortgage Lifter you plant. Last year, I planted a Mortgage Lifter
from seeds acquired from Rachel's. It was the best producer I had,
weightwise. The first cluster of fruit weighed over 10 pounds and
almost pulled my trellis down. They were relatively late, though,
coming in about July 20 after being planted on April 4.
Just as I have problems making Brandywine produce this far south, you
may have the same problem making Mortgage Lifter produce that far
north. BTW, the plant produced fruits averaging about 24 ounces with
the biggest being 34. Due to our very hot summers it is hard to grow
anything much over 2 pounds. The only tomatoes I have grown that were
even in the ballpark with these were the Delicious variety. You might
want to have a look at: http://www.heirloomtomatoes.net/Varieties.htm
I have heard that the Estler's strain of Mortgage Lifter is the most
productive and it is the variety I will probably use next year.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B - Tennessee

Mmmm...sounds good!

Laura

"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message
...
Laura Stanley said:


Ruby: A red grape tomato (smaller than catalog described them), excellent
sweet but real tomato flavor, thin skins, I've had maybe 10% of them
crack -
not bad for such a wet, wet year. And there are a lot of them! I have two
plants, and I'm giving tomatoes away constantly because I don't know what
to
*do* with them all. Rampant is an inadequate description for these
plants.
They too have the blight, but are easily outgrowing it. I will definitely
plant these again next year. But only ONE of them!

I dried a lot of these last year in my dehydrator. Cut them in half
first. Nice
snack. Superb in a pasta dish with spinach, feta cheese, and garlic.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Hi There. Zone 6B. West Virginia Eastern Panhandle. First year gardener.

Like many places on the east coast we had an extremely wet late spring/early
summer. Much like poor Pat we had nearly 6 full weeks of rain with little or
no sun. Then all at once the rain broke, and aside from today, we've had
little or no rain to speak of since June 20th or so. The ground was so wet
for so long my lawn had become a haven for mushrooms and toadstools of
various kinds. Frogs were thriving, and many turtles were appearing along
side the roads...

I had purchaced young transplants for Burpees. I got 3 Sugar Snack Hybrids,
3 Brandy Boy Hybrids, 1 Health Kick, 1 Big Mama, 1 Burpee's Burger, and 1
Forth of July. All were put in the ground on May 8th. It's a relatively
small garden, a total of 294 sq. feet. WV has some rather heavy clay soil,
and this plot had never been used for gardening. I hadn't prepared the bed
the previous fall, so I spent most of the early spring using a cheap
garden-claw knock off to tear up the sod. I then hand pulled every chunk of
sod I could locate, shook off the lose soil, and hand picked every grub and
cutworm I could find. Then tilled the soil up again, more picking of weeds
and bugs. And then again lol. After all this I amended the soil with peat
moss and dried composted manure, only 1 bag of each. Once I recieved the
plants I laid down some of that red plastic mulch where I intended to plant
the tomatoes. The Health Kick and one of the Brandy Boys were not at all
healthy and suffered not long after I got them in the ground (which I must
admit Burpee's was very nice about giving me a refund for those plants). I
laid out black plastic mulch between the row spaces of the tomatoes, and
each plant was given a bamboo stake. I did my best to prepare a
psuedo-raised bed for the tomatoes by mounding the dirt in the wide row.
Once in the ground, the plants, though wet from all the rain we were still
getting decent growth and seemed to be doing well. I hadn't yet gotten my
fence up around the garden...

About 2 weeks after planting, I went outside one morning to discover 5 of my
plants eaten down to almost a nub. RABBITSSES!! Well...hmmm. 2 of the Sweet
Treats, the Big Mama, 1 of the Brandy Boys, and the Health Kick had been
damaged severely. The health kick and brandy boy did not recover. I got the
fence up, at least around the tomatoes, that day...

So now it's mid July, almost August. My plants, all of them, even the ones
eaten by rabbits are HUGE. The one Sweet Treat that was not eaten is now 6
and half foot tall. They are laden with unripe fruit, and I am SOOOO happy
with the Brandy Boy and Burpee's Burger. The fruits are just huge...so much
so that the plants have broken thier stakes and begun to tip over hehe. The
big Sweet Treat has had 5 or 6 ripe cherries so far (they are tasty too )
with many more ripening now quickly. My first ripe full tomato finally
appeared on the Forth of July, which is sopposed to be a very early variety.
It was the first to set fruit. There is another ripening on it now. While
small, and not very flavorful, it was my first ripe tomato and I was
pleased. I look forward to many more. The plants are thriving, and I am
pleased. My only real problem is that they are too heavy for the measly
stakes I bought. I did discover one fat bug on one of my plants the other
day, but I yanked him off and smooshed him. I felt bad afterward. But my
plants are important to me...

The basil I have planted near the tomatoes is also doing very well. I tend
the plants daily, check for bugs, water as often as I think they need it now
that the weather is so warm and dry. The mulch helps keep the soil moist,
and the liquid fertilizer I use every 10-14 days (per directions). The
plants seem to love it, and the soil under the mulch is easy to keep weeded.
I started a compost pile in a bin I built a few weeks ago, and its nice and
hot thanks to all the grass clippings and bio-garbage I've tossed in
there...

Next year I'd like to try some Aker's West Virginia, and Mountain Pride,
which are sopposed to be good varieties for the area. If the Brandy Boy
fruit and Burpee's Burger turn out to taste well, I will definately use them
next year...

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Greetings from Zone 6B. Today was perfect tomato growing weather. It
was about 75F for the high and will be in the 50's tonight. May 5
wasn't as kind.
Around 2:00 AM on the 5th, we had the worst hailstorm I have ever seen
in my mear-half-a-century on this planet. Size wasn't the issue. It
was duration. Here in Tennessee I have seen it hail for 3-5 minutes
many times but this storm was different. We had hail for at least 15
minutes. Fortunately, the wind only served to clear some of the
detritus known as the Bradford Pear. I had 16 tomato plants in the
ground which ranged in size from 5 inches to 18. They all experienced
some damage and some were reduced to but a single leaf. Here is the
lowdown, 9 days after "the storm". I am trying something new this year
I call "bucketing". Here is how it goes. Plant as deep as you can,
usually 8-10 inches here. Use a large breed of plant. Once the plant
reaches 12-15 inches tall, take a 1-2 gallon plastic nursery planter
and put it next to the plant. Strip off the bottom leaves of the plant
to the level of the top of the planter.
Cut the bottom off of the planter. Fit the planter over the top of
the plant. Fill planter with compost. Voila, increased root volume.
So far this looks like an effective method.

Storebought plants indicated by *
Bucketed plants indicated by #

Kentucky Beefsteak - planted 3/22 - 27 inches - trellised plant - one
of two growing tips broken by hail - first buds did not set fruit -
waiting to see on second - this looks like it will be a very tall
plant

Jeff Davis - 4/2 - 12 inches - wispy plant with 1 bud set and 1 green
tomato about 1/3 inch dia. - little storm damage

Russian Black# - 4/2 - 15 inches - lush plant with first bud set -
bottom of plant denuded by storm

Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Tropic - 4/2 - 14 inches - very stocky plant absolutely wrecked by
storm - re-growth has been vigorous - 2 tomatoes on first bud set -
1/2 and 1 1/2 inches

Neptune - 4/2 - this plant was a weak seedling with choriosis due to
overwatering - lean plant but with lots of secondary growth - caged -
has two bud sets just developing

Mortgage Lifter# - 4/11 - 14 inches - lush plant developing first bud
set - bottom denuded by storm but has really filled out since
bucketing on 5/7

Super Sioux - 5/11 - seedling

Neptune2 - 4/22 - 12 inches - average plant with first bud set

Husky Cherry Red* - 5/1 - 4 inches - extremely stocky dwarf plant
taken down to one large leaf by the storm - recovering nicely

Russian Black2 - 4/22 - 4 inches - a very weak plant that was almost
broken by my mishandling then trimmed down to a stem 4 inches long
with a nub from where I had pruned it before the storm - believe it or
not it now has a 3 inch growth from the side where the nub was

Patio* - 4/26 - 10 inches - another extremely stocky dwarf plant but,
oddly, virtually no storm damage - several bud sets - 3 green tomatoes
1/2 to 1 in.

Mortgage Lifter Red# - 4/19 - 14 inches - Lush, powerful looking
plant, prettiest one I have, imho. Bottom was denuded by storm but
has responded nicely to bucketing. This plant is caged and since it
is so powerful looking, I think will allow it to have 3 main stems
from the bottom rather than my customary two.

Super Sweet 100# - 5/1 - 6 inches - another sad story - i hate cherry
tomatoes but my wife wanted some so....i waited until sunday on a
beautiful weekend to get a plant and everything was extremely picked
over. Wound up with a sad little plant that was actually growing up
the side of the cup. You could hold the cup up to the light and see
the roots. It responded nicely to being transplanted and was looking
really great at about 10 inches when the storm reduced it to a single
leaf. It now has two nice new shoots and is growing very rapidly.

Brandywine*# - 4/19 - 24 inches - leggy potato leafed variety with
lots of foliage - lost one of 3 growing tips to storm but is
recovering nicely - has two new bud sets

Bullsheart - 5/11 - seedling

Ponderosa Red - 5/11 - seedling

Mystery Plant - 5/14 - seedling - found growing next to mortgage
lifter plant. probably a Juliet since that what was planted nearby
last year and they are notorious for self-seeding - i hate them too
but i had to see - moved it to my seedling bed

I think I should be on track for my average first ripe tomato date of
Jun 4 but the storm has probably lowered my early production
considerably. I hope some of you will post so I can see how your
tomato plants are growing. I will try to post again every month or
so. It has certainly been an interesting growing season so far.

Lee Hall
Middle Tennessee - Zone 6B
"He who hesitates is lost, and vice versa."

__________________________________________________ ____________________

The first harvest was very late this year due to the hailstorm damage.
I harvested my first tomato, a Tropic, on June 20, more than 2 weeks
later than normal.

Bacterial Speck has reared it's ugly head again, affecting all of the
plants except the ones planted in May to some extent. The most
affected plant is the Mortgage Lifter Red VFN, which continues to
produce large tomatoes anyway. The Bradley plant is showing signs of
late blight.

So, here are the winners and losers, so far.

Kentucky Beefsteak - Very rangy plant, moderate production, very late
maturing.
I have just now picked my first tomato from this plant. While
advertised as an orange beefsteak tomato, what I have is a dark pink,
medium sized specimen. Will let you know how it tastes on next
posting.

Jeff Davis - Medium sized plant producing medium sized dark pink
tomatoes. They have a nice taste with a mix of sweet and acid. Very
fleshy with few seeds. Might try these again. Have picked a couple
so far.

Russian Black #1 - Large plant, moderately productive. Produces golf
ball size pretty mahogany color tomatoes with less green shoulders
than other so called "purple" or "black" tomatoes I have grown in the
past. The tomatoes have a very sweet taste which is not to my liking
but my friends who don't like highly acid tomatoes rave about these.
Have picked about 8-10 so far.

Russian Black #2 - The "given up for dead twice" plant. This little
dude is bushy, compact and productive. It is only about 2 1/2 feet
tall but is loaded with little dark green tomatoes in clusters of 3 or
4.

Hawaiian Hybrid - Shows no more resistance to bacterial speck than
non-hybrids but still producing nicely. As a matter of fact, this is
the plant i experimented with by using no additional compost on it.
It has the heaviest load of fruit of all of my plants. I am not sure
whether it is the lack of compost or the fact that it is a hybrid.
Will try same experiment next year with two plants of same variety.
Produces very tasty orange/red, medium large tomatoes with a nice
blend of acid and sugar. Will probably grow these again.

Tropic - This was the plant which had the most foliage before the
storm but it has never recovered completely. Instead, this had become
a short bushy plant with a lot of stem and not much leaf. This was
the opposite of the intent of the breeders who were trying to produce
a heat-resistant variety. Production on this plant is low, due not
only to the storm but the plants uncanny ability to attract corn-borer
caterpillars which have ruined 5-6 of these. The intact fruits,
though, are very tasty, medium sized pink/red jewels. Will probably
grow these again.

Neptunes #1, 2 and 3 - Yuck. These plants are the losers for this
year. Weak determinate plants with no resistance to bacterial spot,
whatsoever. Even before being blighted these plants were starting to
look puny. They are advertised as red tomatoes but mine are decidely
orange. Taste is fair but blander than most of the tomatoes I have
grown.

Husky Cherry Red - Surprise, another good tasting hybrid. Another
plant which was very bushy before the storm that sprung back with a
rangier habit. Produces a moderate number of large tasty cherry
tomatoes. I am not a cherry tomato fancier but my wife loves these.
Another repeat for next year. BTW, sure it's a hybrid, but still no
resistance to bacterial speck.

Mortgage Lifter - A reclamation project. This was a spindly seedling
with choriosis. Very low production of beefsteak size tomatoes.
Haven't harvested the first one yet. Mortgage Lifter was my biggest
producer by weight last year so I'm pretty sure I just have a messed
up plant here.

Super Sioux - A later addition. None harvested yet. Has a couple of
nice clusters of what should be medium sized tomatoes.

Patio - Another hybrid stricken badly by bacterial speck. Produced
the second and third tomatoes I harvested in the early season. Nice,
salad sized, pink/red tomatoes. Just now recovering enough to set new
fruit. I don't think it knows it's a determinate.

Mortgage Lifter Red VFN - This is where all the blight started. What
was at one time my biggest plant has now been denuded up to about 4
feet above ground level. The one tomato I have harvested so far was
GREAT. It was actually pink/red and about 24 ounces with a great
taste and just the right bite. Will try these again in a different
location. Still has about 4 very large beefsteaks hanging on it.

Super Sweet 100 - The other given up for dead twice plant. This one
is tall and rangy and productive with massive clusters of red cherry
tomatoes. The taste nod goes to the husky's but these sure put out
the fruit.

Brandywine - I am still looking for a strain of Brandywine that is a
better producer. This storebought, potato-leaved variety isn't it.
These are the best tasting tomatoes in my garden this year but I have
only harvested 3 from a massive 7 foot tall plant. Fortunately, it
still has about 3 more on it. I may try a non potato-leaved
Brandywine next year. BTW, the tomatoes on this plant are running a
bit small, about 12-14 ounces. They are pink/red and the taste is
fantastic with a lot of sweet and a lot of bite.

Bullsheart - There is a contest in about 8 days here locally for the
biggest and the ugliest tomato. The one tomato on this plant is a
contender for both categories. It is a hideous looking pumpkin-shaped
monster which is probably 2 pounds already. Will report on taste
later. Plant is small and wispy.

Ponderosa Red - Corn-borer caterpillars ruined the first two fruit
from this plant so I haven't tasted them yet. Looks like it will
produce medium large fruit at a moderate rate.

Bradley - Moderate production of pink/red thinskinned salad tomatoes.
This Bradley is smaller than the ones I grown in the past. The fruit
are typical of Bradley, tart and sweet. This is the only plant
showing signs of late blight despite heavy sprayings of Neem oil
during wet weather.

Late additions:

Super Sioux - Bushy plant that looks like it will produce a large
number of medium sized tomatoes. I hope they don't turn out to be
orange.

4th of July - I have grown these several times before. As usual, they
should produce a very large number of golfball sized tasty red
tomatoes. This is an early season variety so we shall see how they do
when planted late.

Mystery Plants - the original mystery plant wasn't looking too great
so the 4th of July took it's place. Have since relocated two other
volunteers which are now about a foot tall. They both look like
Juliets but it is hard to say for sure at this stage.

Clones:

I successfully cloned a Neptune (hey, I didn't know) and a Super Sioux
for my boss in late may. He says there a lots of green ones. Hope to
get a report soon on how the ripe ones taste.

I accidentally broke a stem off one of the Russian Blacks so I decided
to clone the stem. I actually didn't expect it to survive in the July
Tennessee heat but it seems to be doing very well.

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch. I need some
good ideas on varieties to try next year. Have already added to the
list Eva Purple Ball and Siletz from comments I have read in the NG.
More suggestions, please. I try to grow early, middle and late season
varieties and my personal preference is for the tangier fruits with
less sugar but I do grow tomatoes for friends and family with
different tastes.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

"Mike Stevenson" wrote in message t...
Hi There. Zone 6B. West Virginia Eastern Panhandle. First year gardener.

Hi, Mike, thanks for a very informative post.

Like many places on the east coast we had an extremely wet late spring/early
summer. Much like poor Pat we had nearly 6 full weeks of rain with little or
no sun. Then all at once the rain broke, and aside from today, we've had
little or no rain to speak of since June 20th or so. The ground was so wet
for so long my lawn had become a haven for mushrooms and toadstools of
various kinds. Frogs were thriving, and many turtles were appearing along
side the roads...

Ditto here minus the dry spell. Had maybe a week in June with no rain
and have had intermittent showers since. It is unusually mild too
with no temps over 92 yet.

I had purchaced young transplants for Burpees. I got 3 Sugar Snack Hybrids,
3 Brandy Boy Hybrids, 1 Health Kick, 1 Big Mama, 1 Burpee's Burger, and 1
Forth of July. All were put in the ground on May 8th. It's a relatively
small garden, a total of 294 sq. feet. WV has some rather heavy clay soil,
and this plot had never been used for gardening. I hadn't prepared the bed
the previous fall, so I spent most of the early spring using a cheap
garden-claw knock off to tear up the sod. I then hand pulled every chunk of
sod I could locate, shook off the lose soil, and hand picked every grub and
cutworm I could find. Then tilled the soil up again, more picking of weeds
and bugs. And then again lol. After all this I amended the soil with peat
moss and dried composted manure, only 1 bag of each. Once I recieved the
plants I laid down some of that red plastic mulch where I intended to plant
the tomatoes. The Health Kick and one of the Brandy Boys were not at all
healthy and suffered not long after I got them in the ground (which I must
admit Burpee's was very nice about giving me a refund for those plants). I
laid out black plastic mulch between the row spaces of the tomatoes, and
each plant was given a bamboo stake. I did my best to prepare a
psuedo-raised bed for the tomatoes by mounding the dirt in the wide row.
Once in the ground, the plants, though wet from all the rain we were still
getting decent growth and seemed to be doing well. I hadn't yet gotten my
fence up around the garden...

I made the mistake of ordering some Cherokee Purple plants from Burpee
a few years ago. Same result...DOA plants but Burpee readily
refunded.

Looks like your tilling approach is the same as mine except I use
progressively smaller shovels. Only way to go in heavy clay.

About 2 weeks after planting, I went outside one morning to discover 5 of my
plants eaten down to almost a nub. RABBITSSES!! Well...hmmm. 2 of the Sweet
Treats, the Big Mama, 1 of the Brandy Boys, and the Health Kick had been
damaged severely. The health kick and brandy boy did not recover. I got the
fence up, at least around the tomatoes, that day...

Fortunately, no major rabbit problems here. Most yards are fenced
here and rabbits prefer the wide open spaces. Cutworms, now that is
another matter. Lost at least 5 plants to the little buggers.

So now it's mid July, almost August. My plants, all of them, even the ones
eaten by rabbits are HUGE. The one Sweet Treat that was not eaten is now 6
and half foot tall. They are laden with unripe fruit, and I am SOOOO happy
with the Brandy Boy and Burpee's Burger. The fruits are just huge...so much
so that the plants have broken thier stakes and begun to tip over hehe. The
big Sweet Treat has had 5 or 6 ripe cherries so far (they are tasty too )
with many more ripening now quickly. My first ripe full tomato finally
appeared on the Forth of July, which is sopposed to be a very early variety.
It was the first to set fruit. There is another ripening on it now. While
small, and not very flavorful, it was my first ripe tomato and I was
pleased. I look forward to many more. The plants are thriving, and I am
pleased. My only real problem is that they are too heavy for the measly
stakes I bought. I did discover one fat bug on one of my plants the other
day, but I yanked him off and smooshed him. I felt bad afterward. But my
plants are important to me...

Amazing how they snap back isn't it.

The basil I have planted near the tomatoes is also doing very well. I tend
the plants daily, check for bugs, water as often as I think they need it now
that the weather is so warm and dry. The mulch helps keep the soil moist,
and the liquid fertilizer I use every 10-14 days (per directions). The
plants seem to love it, and the soil under the mulch is easy to keep weeded.
I started a compost pile in a bin I built a few weeks ago, and its nice and
hot thanks to all the grass clippings and bio-garbage I've tossed in
there.

Next year I'd like to try some Aker's West Virginia, and Mountain Pride,
which are sopposed to be good varieties for the area. If the Brandy Boy
fruit and Burpee's Burger turn out to taste well, I will definately use them
next year...

I'm still forming my 2004 list but it goes something like this.
(Varieties I have grown before designated by asterisk*.)

Clear Pink Early*
Delicious*
Husky Cherry Red*
Brandywine* (going to try a non-potato leaved strain to see if it is
more productive here)
Tropic VFN*
Eva Purple Ball
Siletz
Stupice
Giant Belgium

Lee Hall
Zone 6B - Tennessee

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Greetings from Zone 6B. Today was perfect tomato growing weather. It
was about 75F for the high and will be in the 50's tonight. May 5
wasn't as kind.
Around 2:00 AM on the 5th, we had the worst hailstorm I have ever seen
in my mear-half-a-century on this planet. Size wasn't the issue. It
was duration. Here in Tennessee I have seen it hail for 3-5 minutes
many times but this storm was different. We had hail for at least 15
minutes. Fortunately, the wind only served to clear some of the
detritus known as the Bradford Pear. I had 16 tomato plants in the
ground which ranged in size from 5 inches to 18. They all experienced
some damage and some were reduced to but a single leaf. Here is the
lowdown, 9 days after "the storm". I am trying something new this year
I call "bucketing". Here is how it goes. Plant as deep as you can,
usually 8-10 inches here. Use a large breed of plant. Once the plant
reaches 12-15 inches tall, take a 1-2 gallon plastic nursery planter
and put it next to the plant. Strip off the bottom leaves of the plant
to the level of the top of the planter.
Cut the bottom off of the planter. Fit the planter over the top of
the plant. Fill planter with compost. Voila, increased root volume.
So far this looks like an effective method.

Storebought plants indicated by *
Bucketed plants indicated by #

Kentucky Beefsteak - planted 3/22 - 27 inches - trellised plant - one
of two growing tips broken by hail - first buds did not set fruit -
waiting to see on second - this looks like it will be a very tall
plant

Jeff Davis - 4/2 - 12 inches - wispy plant with 1 bud set and 1 green
tomato about 1/3 inch dia. - little storm damage

Russian Black# - 4/2 - 15 inches - lush plant with first bud set -
bottom of plant denuded by storm

Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Tropic - 4/2 - 14 inches - very stocky plant absolutely wrecked by
storm - re-growth has been vigorous - 2 tomatoes on first bud set -
1/2 and 1 1/2 inches

Neptune - 4/2 - this plant was a weak seedling with choriosis due to
overwatering - lean plant but with lots of secondary growth - caged -
has two bud sets just developing

Mortgage Lifter# - 4/11 - 14 inches - lush plant developing first bud
set - bottom denuded by storm but has really filled out since
bucketing on 5/7

Super Sioux - 5/11 - seedling

Neptune2 - 4/22 - 12 inches - average plant with first bud set

Husky Cherry Red* - 5/1 - 4 inches - extremely stocky dwarf plant
taken down to one large leaf by the storm - recovering nicely

Russian Black2 - 4/22 - 4 inches - a very weak plant that was almost
broken by my mishandling then trimmed down to a stem 4 inches long
with a nub from where I had pruned it before the storm - believe it or
not it now has a 3 inch growth from the side where the nub was

Patio* - 4/26 - 10 inches - another extremely stocky dwarf plant but,
oddly, virtually no storm damage - several bud sets - 3 green tomatoes
1/2 to 1 in.

Mortgage Lifter Red# - 4/19 - 14 inches - Lush, powerful looking
plant, prettiest one I have, imho. Bottom was denuded by storm but
has responded nicely to bucketing. This plant is caged and since it
is so powerful looking, I think will allow it to have 3 main stems
from the bottom rather than my customary two.

Super Sweet 100# - 5/1 - 6 inches - another sad story - i hate cherry
tomatoes but my wife wanted some so....i waited until sunday on a
beautiful weekend to get a plant and everything was extremely picked
over. Wound up with a sad little plant that was actually growing up
the side of the cup. You could hold the cup up to the light and see
the roots. It responded nicely to being transplanted and was looking
really great at about 10 inches when the storm reduced it to a single
leaf. It now has two nice new shoots and is growing very rapidly.

Brandywine*# - 4/19 - 24 inches - leggy potato leafed variety with
lots of foliage - lost one of 3 growing tips to storm but is
recovering nicely - has two new bud sets

Bullsheart - 5/11 - seedling

Ponderosa Red - 5/11 - seedling

Mystery Plant - 5/14 - seedling - found growing next to mortgage
lifter plant. probably a Juliet since that what was planted nearby
last year and they are notorious for self-seeding - i hate them too
but i had to see - moved it to my seedling bed

I think I should be on track for my average first ripe tomato date of
Jun 4 but the storm has probably lowered my early production
considerably. I hope some of you will post so I can see how your
tomato plants are growing. I will try to post again every month or
so. It has certainly been an interesting growing season so far.

Lee Hall
Middle Tennessee - Zone 6B
"He who hesitates is lost, and vice versa."

__________________________________________________ ____________________

The first harvest was very late this year due to the hailstorm damage.
I harvested my first tomato, a Tropic, on June 20, more than 2 weeks
later than normal.

Bacterial Speck has reared it's ugly head again, affecting all of the
plants except the ones planted in May to some extent. The most
affected plant is the Mortgage Lifter Red VFN, which continues to
produce large tomatoes anyway. The Bradley plant is showing signs of
late blight.

So, here are the winners and losers, so far.

Kentucky Beefsteak - Very rangy plant, moderate production, very late
maturing.
I have just now picked my first tomato from this plant. While
advertised as an orange beefsteak tomato, what I have is a dark pink,
medium sized specimen. Will let you know how it tastes on next
posting.

Jeff Davis - Medium sized plant producing medium sized dark pink
tomatoes. They have a nice taste with a mix of sweet and acid. Very
fleshy with few seeds. Might try these again. Have picked a couple
so far.

Russian Black #1 - Large plant, moderately productive. Produces golf
ball size pretty mahogany color tomatoes with less green shoulders
than other so called "purple" or "black" tomatoes I have grown in the
past. The tomatoes have a very sweet taste which is not to my liking
but my friends who don't like highly acid tomatoes rave about these.
Have picked about 8-10 so far.

Russian Black #2 - The "given up for dead twice" plant. This little
dude is bushy, compact and productive. It is only about 2 1/2 feet
tall but is loaded with little dark green tomatoes in clusters of 3 or
4.

Hawaiian Hybrid - Shows no more resistance to bacterial speck than
non-hybrids but still producing nicely. As a matter of fact, this is
the plant i experimented with by using no additional compost on it.
It has the heaviest load of fruit of all of my plants. I am not sure
whether it is the lack of compost or the fact that it is a hybrid.
Will try same experiment next year with two plants of same variety.
Produces very tasty orange/red, medium large tomatoes with a nice
blend of acid and sugar. Will probably grow these again.

Tropic - This was the plant which had the most foliage before the
storm but it has never recovered completely. Instead, this had become
a short bushy plant with a lot of stem and not much leaf. This was
the opposite of the intent of the breeders who were trying to produce
a heat-resistant variety. Production on this plant is low, due not
only to the storm but the plants uncanny ability to attract corn-borer
caterpillars which have ruined 5-6 of these. The intact fruits,
though, are very tasty, medium sized pink/red jewels. Will probably
grow these again.

Neptunes #1, 2 and 3 - Yuck. These plants are the losers for this
year. Weak determinate plants with no resistance to bacterial spot,
whatsoever. Even before being blighted these plants were starting to
look puny. They are advertised as red tomatoes but mine are decidely
orange. Taste is fair but blander than most of the tomatoes I have
grown.

Husky Cherry Red - Surprise, another good tasting hybrid. Another
plant which was very bushy before the storm that sprung back with a
rangier habit. Produces a moderate number of large tasty cherry
tomatoes. I am not a cherry tomato fancier but my wife loves these.
Another repeat for next year. BTW, sure it's a hybrid, but still no
resistance to bacterial speck.

Mortgage Lifter - A reclamation project. This was a spindly seedling
with choriosis. Very low production of beefsteak size tomatoes.
Haven't harvested the first one yet. Mortgage Lifter was my biggest
producer by weight last year so I'm pretty sure I just have a messed
up plant here.

Super Sioux - A later addition. None harvested yet. Has a couple of
nice clusters of what should be medium sized tomatoes.

Patio - Another hybrid stricken badly by bacterial speck. Produced
the second and third tomatoes I harvested in the early season. Nice,
salad sized, pink/red tomatoes. Just now recovering enough to set new
fruit. I don't think it knows it's a determinate.

Mortgage Lifter Red VFN - This is where all the blight started. What
was at one time my biggest plant has now been denuded up to about 4
feet above ground level. The one tomato I have harvested so far was
GREAT. It was actually pink/red and about 24 ounces with a great
taste and just the right bite. Will try these again in a different
location. Still has about 4 very large beefsteaks hanging on it.

Super Sweet 100 - The other given up for dead twice plant. This one
is tall and rangy and productive with massive clusters of red cherry
tomatoes. The taste nod goes to the husky's but these sure put out
the fruit.

Brandywine - I am still looking for a strain of Brandywine that is a
better producer. This storebought, potato-leaved variety isn't it.
These are the best tasting tomatoes in my garden this year but I have
only harvested 3 from a massive 7 foot tall plant. Fortunately, it
still has about 3 more on it. I may try a non potato-leaved
Brandywine next year. BTW, the tomatoes on this plant are running a
bit small, about 12-14 ounces. They are pink/red and the taste is
fantastic with a lot of sweet and a lot of bite.

Bullsheart - There is a contest in about 8 days here locally for the
biggest and the ugliest tomato. The one tomato on this plant is a
contender for both categories. It is a hideous looking pumpkin-shaped
monster which is probably 2 pounds already. Will report on taste
later. Plant is small and wispy.

Ponderosa Red - Corn-borer caterpillars ruined the first two fruit
from this plant so I haven't tasted them yet. Looks like it will
produce medium large fruit at a moderate rate.

Bradley - Moderate production of pink/red thinskinned salad tomatoes.
This Bradley is smaller than the ones I grown in the past. The fruit
are typical of Bradley, tart and sweet. This is the only plant
showing signs of late blight despite heavy sprayings of Neem oil
during wet weather.

Late additions:

Super Sioux - Bushy plant that looks like it will produce a large
number of medium sized tomatoes. I hope they don't turn out to be
orange.

4th of July - I have grown these several times before. As usual, they
should produce a very large number of golfball sized tasty red
tomatoes. This is an early season variety so we shall see how they do
when planted late.

Mystery Plants - the original mystery plant wasn't looking too great
so the 4th of July took it's place. Have since relocated two other
volunteers which are now about a foot tall. They both look like
Juliets but it is hard to say for sure at this stage.

Clones:

I successfully cloned a Neptune (hey, I didn't know) and a Super Sioux
for my boss in late may. He says there a lots of green ones. Hope to
get a report soon on how the ripe ones taste.

I accidentally broke a stem off one of the Russian Blacks so I decided
to clone the stem. I actually didn't expect it to survive in the July
Tennessee heat but it seems to be doing very well.

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch. I need some
good ideas on varieties to try next year. Have already added to the
list Eva Purple Ball and Siletz from comments I have read in the NG.
More suggestions, please. I try to grow early, middle and late season
varieties and my personal preference is for the tangier fruits with
less sugar but I do grow tomatoes for friends and family with
different tastes.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

Something I noticed about my Brandy Boys (these are Burpee's hybrid of the
Brandywine and the Better Boy) is that several of the flower nodes turn
yellow and drop off before they set fruit. Both of the plants are doing this
and are the only plants doing it. I think perhaps this is something
particular to the Brandywines since I've read that while prized for flavor
they tend to be unruly in growth structure, and not particularly productive.
This might be the reason for them not being productive, or it could be some
problem with just my plants, or potato leafed types...

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
"Mike Stevenson" wrote in message
t...
Hi There. Zone 6B. West Virginia Eastern Panhandle. First year gardener.

Hi, Mike, thanks for a very informative post.

Like many places on the east coast we had an extremely wet late
spring/early
summer. Much like poor Pat we had nearly 6 full weeks of rain with
little or
no sun. Then all at once the rain broke, and aside from today, we've had
little or no rain to speak of since June 20th or so. The ground was so
wet
for so long my lawn had become a haven for mushrooms and toadstools of
various kinds. Frogs were thriving, and many turtles were appearing
along
side the roads...

Ditto here minus the dry spell. Had maybe a week in June with no rain
and have had intermittent showers since. It is unusually mild too
with no temps over 92 yet.

I had purchaced young transplants for Burpees. I got 3 Sugar Snack
Hybrids,
3 Brandy Boy Hybrids, 1 Health Kick, 1 Big Mama, 1 Burpee's Burger, and
1
Forth of July. All were put in the ground on May 8th. It's a relatively
small garden, a total of 294 sq. feet. WV has some rather heavy clay
soil,
and this plot had never been used for gardening. I hadn't prepared the
bed
the previous fall, so I spent most of the early spring using a cheap
garden-claw knock off to tear up the sod. I then hand pulled every chunk
of
sod I could locate, shook off the lose soil, and hand picked every grub
and
cutworm I could find. Then tilled the soil up again, more picking of
weeds
and bugs. And then again lol. After all this I amended the soil with
peat
moss and dried composted manure, only 1 bag of each. Once I recieved the
plants I laid down some of that red plastic mulch where I intended to
plant
the tomatoes. The Health Kick and one of the Brandy Boys were not at all
healthy and suffered not long after I got them in the ground (which I
must
admit Burpee's was very nice about giving me a refund for those plants).
I
laid out black plastic mulch between the row spaces of the tomatoes, and
each plant was given a bamboo stake. I did my best to prepare a
psuedo-raised bed for the tomatoes by mounding the dirt in the wide row.
Once in the ground, the plants, though wet from all the rain we were
still
getting decent growth and seemed to be doing well. I hadn't yet gotten
my
fence up around the garden...

I made the mistake of ordering some Cherokee Purple plants from Burpee
a few years ago. Same result...DOA plants but Burpee readily
refunded.

Looks like your tilling approach is the same as mine except I use
progressively smaller shovels. Only way to go in heavy clay.

About 2 weeks after planting, I went outside one morning to discover 5
of my
plants eaten down to almost a nub. RABBITSSES!! Well...hmmm. 2 of the
Sweet
Treats, the Big Mama, 1 of the Brandy Boys, and the Health Kick had been
damaged severely. The health kick and brandy boy did not recover. I got
the
fence up, at least around the tomatoes, that day...

Fortunately, no major rabbit problems here. Most yards are fenced
here and rabbits prefer the wide open spaces. Cutworms, now that is
another matter. Lost at least 5 plants to the little buggers.

So now it's mid July, almost August. My plants, all of them, even the
ones
eaten by rabbits are HUGE. The one Sweet Treat that was not eaten is now
6
and half foot tall. They are laden with unripe fruit, and I am SOOOO
happy
with the Brandy Boy and Burpee's Burger. The fruits are just huge...so
much
so that the plants have broken thier stakes and begun to tip over hehe.
The
big Sweet Treat has had 5 or 6 ripe cherries so far (they are tasty too
)
with many more ripening now quickly. My first ripe full tomato finally
appeared on the Forth of July, which is sopposed to be a very early
variety.
It was the first to set fruit. There is another ripening on it now.
While
small, and not very flavorful, it was my first ripe tomato and I was
pleased. I look forward to many more. The plants are thriving, and I am
pleased. My only real problem is that they are too heavy for the measly
stakes I bought. I did discover one fat bug on one of my plants the
other
day, but I yanked him off and smooshed him. I felt bad afterward. But my
plants are important to me...

Amazing how they snap back isn't it.

The basil I have planted near the tomatoes is also doing very well. I
tend
the plants daily, check for bugs, water as often as I think they need it
now
that the weather is so warm and dry. The mulch helps keep the soil
moist,
and the liquid fertilizer I use every 10-14 days (per directions). The
plants seem to love it, and the soil under the mulch is easy to keep
weeded.
I started a compost pile in a bin I built a few weeks ago, and its nice
and
hot thanks to all the grass clippings and bio-garbage I've tossed in
there.

Next year I'd like to try some Aker's West Virginia, and Mountain Pride,
which are sopposed to be good varieties for the area. If the Brandy Boy
fruit and Burpee's Burger turn out to taste well, I will definately use
them
next year...

I'm still forming my 2004 list but it goes something like this.
(Varieties I have grown before designated by asterisk*.)

Clear Pink Early*
Delicious*
Husky Cherry Red*
Brandywine* (going to try a non-potato leaved strain to see if it is
more productive here)
Tropic VFN*
Eva Purple Ball
Siletz
Stupice
Giant Belgium

Lee Hall
Zone 6B - Tennessee

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Greetings from Zone 6B. Today was perfect tomato growing weather. It
was about 75F for the high and will be in the 50's tonight. May 5
wasn't as kind.
Around 2:00 AM on the 5th, we had the worst hailstorm I have ever seen
in my mear-half-a-century on this planet. Size wasn't the issue. It
was duration. Here in Tennessee I have seen it hail for 3-5 minutes
many times but this storm was different. We had hail for at least 15
minutes. Fortunately, the wind only served to clear some of the
detritus known as the Bradford Pear. I had 16 tomato plants in the
ground which ranged in size from 5 inches to 18. They all experienced
some damage and some were reduced to but a single leaf. Here is the
lowdown, 9 days after "the storm". I am trying something new this year
I call "bucketing". Here is how it goes. Plant as deep as you can,
usually 8-10 inches here. Use a large breed of plant. Once the plant
reaches 12-15 inches tall, take a 1-2 gallon plastic nursery planter
and put it next to the plant. Strip off the bottom leaves of the plant
to the level of the top of the planter.
Cut the bottom off of the planter. Fit the planter over the top of
the plant. Fill planter with compost. Voila, increased root volume.
So far this looks like an effective method.

Storebought plants indicated by *
Bucketed plants indicated by #

Kentucky Beefsteak - planted 3/22 - 27 inches - trellised plant - one
of two growing tips broken by hail - first buds did not set fruit -
waiting to see on second - this looks like it will be a very tall
plant

Jeff Davis - 4/2 - 12 inches - wispy plant with 1 bud set and 1 green
tomato about 1/3 inch dia. - little storm damage

Russian Black# - 4/2 - 15 inches - lush plant with first bud set -
bottom of plant denuded by storm

Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Tropic - 4/2 - 14 inches - very stocky plant absolutely wrecked by
storm - re-growth has been vigorous - 2 tomatoes on first bud set -
1/2 and 1 1/2 inches

Neptune - 4/2 - this plant was a weak seedling with choriosis due to
overwatering - lean plant but with lots of secondary growth - caged -
has two bud sets just developing

Mortgage Lifter# - 4/11 - 14 inches - lush plant developing first bud
set - bottom denuded by storm but has really filled out since
bucketing on 5/7

Super Sioux - 5/11 - seedling

Neptune2 - 4/22 - 12 inches - average plant with first bud set

Husky Cherry Red* - 5/1 - 4 inches - extremely stocky dwarf plant
taken down to one large leaf by the storm - recovering nicely

Russian Black2 - 4/22 - 4 inches - a very weak plant that was almost
broken by my mishandling then trimmed down to a stem 4 inches long
with a nub from where I had pruned it before the storm - believe it or
not it now has a 3 inch growth from the side where the nub was

Patio* - 4/26 - 10 inches - another extremely stocky dwarf plant but,
oddly, virtually no storm damage - several bud sets - 3 green tomatoes
1/2 to 1 in.

Mortgage Lifter Red# - 4/19 - 14 inches - Lush, powerful looking
plant, prettiest one I have, imho. Bottom was denuded by storm but
has responded nicely to bucketing. This plant is caged and since it
is so powerful looking, I think will allow it to have 3 main stems
from the bottom rather than my customary two.

Super Sweet 100# - 5/1 - 6 inches - another sad story - i hate cherry
tomatoes but my wife wanted some so....i waited until sunday on a
beautiful weekend to get a plant and everything was extremely picked
over. Wound up with a sad little plant that was actually growing up
the side of the cup. You could hold the cup up to the light and see
the roots. It responded nicely to being transplanted and was looking
really great at about 10 inches when the storm reduced it to a single
leaf. It now has two nice new shoots and is growing very rapidly.

Brandywine*# - 4/19 - 24 inches - leggy potato leafed variety with
lots of foliage - lost one of 3 growing tips to storm but is
recovering nicely - has two new bud sets

Bullsheart - 5/11 - seedling

Ponderosa Red - 5/11 - seedling

Mystery Plant - 5/14 - seedling - found growing next to mortgage
lifter plant. probably a Juliet since that what was planted nearby
last year and they are notorious for self-seeding - i hate them too
but i had to see - moved it to my seedling bed

I think I should be on track for my average first ripe tomato date of
Jun 4 but the storm has probably lowered my early production
considerably. I hope some of you will post so I can see how your
tomato plants are growing. I will try to post again every month or
so. It has certainly been an interesting growing season so far.

Lee Hall
Middle Tennessee - Zone 6B
"He who hesitates is lost, and vice versa."

__________________________________________________ ____________________

The first harvest was very late this year due to the hailstorm damage.
I harvested my first tomato, a Tropic, on June 20, more than 2 weeks
later than normal.

Bacterial Speck has reared it's ugly head again, affecting all of the
plants except the ones planted in May to some extent. The most
affected plant is the Mortgage Lifter Red VFN, which continues to
produce large tomatoes anyway. The Bradley plant is showing signs of
late blight.

So, here are the winners and losers, so far.

Kentucky Beefsteak - Very rangy plant, moderate production, very late
maturing.
I have just now picked my first tomato from this plant. While
advertised as an orange beefsteak tomato, what I have is a dark pink,
medium sized specimen. Will let you know how it tastes on next
posting.

Jeff Davis - Medium sized plant producing medium sized dark pink
tomatoes. They have a nice taste with a mix of sweet and acid. Very
fleshy with few seeds. Might try these again. Have picked a couple
so far.

Russian Black #1 - Large plant, moderately productive. Produces golf
ball size pretty mahogany color tomatoes with less green shoulders
than other so called "purple" or "black" tomatoes I have grown in the
past. The tomatoes have a very sweet taste which is not to my liking
but my friends who don't like highly acid tomatoes rave about these.
Have picked about 8-10 so far.

Russian Black #2 - The "given up for dead twice" plant. This little
dude is bushy, compact and productive. It is only about 2 1/2 feet
tall but is loaded with little dark green tomatoes in clusters of 3 or
4.

Hawaiian Hybrid - Shows no more resistance to bacterial speck than
non-hybrids but still producing nicely. As a matter of fact, this is
the plant i experimented with by using no additional compost on it.
It has the heaviest load of fruit of all of my plants. I am not sure
whether it is the lack of compost or the fact that it is a hybrid.
Will try same experiment next year with two plants of same variety.
Produces very tasty orange/red, medium large tomatoes with a nice
blend of acid and sugar. Will probably grow these again.

Tropic - This was the plant which had the most foliage before the
storm but it has never recovered completely. Instead, this had become
a short bushy plant with a lot of stem and not much leaf. This was
the opposite of the intent of the breeders who were trying to produce
a heat-resistant variety. Production on this plant is low, due not
only to the storm but the plants uncanny ability to attract corn-borer
caterpillars which have ruined 5-6 of these. The intact fruits,
though, are very tasty, medium sized pink/red jewels. Will probably
grow these again.

Neptunes #1, 2 and 3 - Yuck. These plants are the losers for this
year. Weak determinate plants with no resistance to bacterial spot,
whatsoever. Even before being blighted these plants were starting to
look puny. They are advertised as red tomatoes but mine are decidely
orange. Taste is fair but blander than most of the tomatoes I have
grown.

Husky Cherry Red - Surprise, another good tasting hybrid. Another
plant which was very bushy before the storm that sprung back with a
rangier habit. Produces a moderate number of large tasty cherry
tomatoes. I am not a cherry tomato fancier but my wife loves these.
Another repeat for next year. BTW, sure it's a hybrid, but still no
resistance to bacterial speck.

Mortgage Lifter - A reclamation project. This was a spindly seedling
with choriosis. Very low production of beefsteak size tomatoes.
Haven't harvested the first one yet. Mortgage Lifter was my biggest
producer by weight last year so I'm pretty sure I just have a messed
up plant here.

Super Sioux - A later addition. None harvested yet. Has a couple of
nice clusters of what should be medium sized tomatoes.

Patio - Another hybrid stricken badly by bacterial speck. Produced
the second and third tomatoes I harvested in the early season. Nice,
salad sized, pink/red tomatoes. Just now recovering enough to set new
fruit. I don't think it knows it's a determinate.

Mortgage Lifter Red VFN - This is where all the blight started. What
was at one time my biggest plant has now been denuded up to about 4
feet above ground level. The one tomato I have harvested so far was
GREAT. It was actually pink/red and about 24 ounces with a great
taste and just the right bite. Will try these again in a different
location. Still has about 4 very large beefsteaks hanging on it.

Super Sweet 100 - The other given up for dead twice plant. This one
is tall and rangy and productive with massive clusters of red cherry
tomatoes. The taste nod goes to the husky's but these sure put out
the fruit.

Brandywine - I am still looking for a strain of Brandywine that is a
better producer. This storebought, potato-leaved variety isn't it.
These are the best tasting tomatoes in my garden this year but I have
only harvested 3 from a massive 7 foot tall plant. Fortunately, it
still has about 3 more on it. I may try a non potato-leaved
Brandywine next year. BTW, the tomatoes on this plant are running a
bit small, about 12-14 ounces. They are pink/red and the taste is
fantastic with a lot of sweet and a lot of bite.

Bullsheart - There is a contest in about 8 days here locally for the
biggest and the ugliest tomato. The one tomato on this plant is a
contender for both categories. It is a hideous looking pumpkin-shaped
monster which is probably 2 pounds already. Will report on taste
later. Plant is small and wispy.

Ponderosa Red - Corn-borer caterpillars ruined the first two fruit
from this plant so I haven't tasted them yet. Looks like it will
produce medium large fruit at a moderate rate.

Bradley - Moderate production of pink/red thinskinned salad tomatoes.
This Bradley is smaller than the ones I grown in the past. The fruit
are typical of Bradley, tart and sweet. This is the only plant
showing signs of late blight despite heavy sprayings of Neem oil
during wet weather.

Late additions:

Super Sioux - Bushy plant that looks like it will produce a large
number of medium sized tomatoes. I hope they don't turn out to be
orange.

4th of July - I have grown these several times before. As usual, they
should produce a very large number of golfball sized tasty red
tomatoes. This is an early season variety so we shall see how they do
when planted late.

Mystery Plants - the original mystery plant wasn't looking too great
so the 4th of July took it's place. Have since relocated two other
volunteers which are now about a foot tall. They both look like
Juliets but it is hard to say for sure at this stage.

Clones:

I successfully cloned a Neptune (hey, I didn't know) and a Super Sioux
for my boss in late may. He says there a lots of green ones. Hope to
get a report soon on how the ripe ones taste.

I accidentally broke a stem off one of the Russian Blacks so I decided
to clone the stem. I actually didn't expect it to survive in the July
Tennessee heat but it seems to be doing very well.

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch. I need some
good ideas on varieties to try next year. Have already added to the
list Eva Purple Ball and Siletz from comments I have read in the NG.
More suggestions, please. I try to grow early, middle and late season
varieties and my personal preference is for the tangier fruits with
less sugar but I do grow tomatoes for friends and family with
different tastes.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...


Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Just curious, what was your source for this? I have been trying to find
Hawaiian tomato seeds.

Craig

"King Pineapple" wrote in message . earthlink.net...
"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...


Hawaiian Hybrid - 4/11 - 12 inches - this plant gets none of my tasty
homemade compost as an experiment - 16 inches - splindly plant with
first bud set - little storm damage

Just curious, what was your source for this? I have been trying to find
Hawaiian tomato seeds.

Craig

I got the seed from Tomato Growers' Supply Co.:http://www.tomatogrowers.com/