tomato heaven

TOMATO HEAVEN

recently i went to an organic farmers market near a friend we visited in north texas
now when i left california i felt real proud of my tomatoes
until
i saw the ones he grew
in the picture above are early girls and celebrities that i recently harvested
his were larger than mine
mine were tennis ball size
his were softball size
same type of tomato
big difference in size
why
ill explain below

as an aside he said you know i use to raise rice and soybeans in east arkansas
now this will make you feel good about what stuff gets sprayed on our food
he said you know that agent orange stuff
well when the military banned it the us government let us spray that stuff on our crops for another 8 years as the generic version of agent orange

on my trip someone i know said yep when i was younger i would spray that stuff around our soybeans
my leg would be blistered at the end of the day on the side i sprayed as i rode a horse around the crops
the horse had no hair on the side i sprayed on

makes you feel good about our food supply doesnt it

he the farmer told me he decided to quit farming that way and moved to north texas and started a smaller organic farm making a living doing it

we used his tomatoes and other veggies as gifts as we traveled to visit folks
that way we got to eat the veggies and matters as we drove around visiting

these tomatoes of mine the early girl and celebrity are two varieties that grow well here and obviously well in texas

i started them as 4 in plants i purchased at the ace hardware here
i potted them up to a 3 gallon pot and kept them on my porch and living room for a month
thanks to my wife she for putting up with this movable bunch of plants
then
the first week of march i planted them into my garden
originally i planned to plant 6 tomatoes but i ended up with 9 plants
two of them nature planted for me
one appears to be a heirloom plant the other a roma plant

i wrapped the early girl tomato cage with thick row cover to keep it warmer
now it doesnt freeze here but this tomato would get warm and toasty during the day
this early girl outgrew the others by a lot

when i left for vacation it was about 10 ft tall and loaded with tons of tomatoes
so
what i did was harvest the largest green ones off the plant
i would estimate around 20
i wrapped them individually with newspapers
put them in a large reusable grocery bag with a banana to help them ripen
then hug it in our kitchen closet

when i returned from my trip
i unwrapped them and what you see in the top picture is what they looked like on my return to california

i also now am putting green ones on a platter topped with a banana then placed a newspaper over that to see if they will ripen that way

now on my return
alas
all the tomatoes in the garden mine and the other gardeners got a fungus that killed a lot of the leaves and caused rotted areas on about half the tomatoes
i was bummed
but
even with all that i right now in my condo have about 70 tomatoes in different ripening stages
so i guess i cant complain

i removed all the dead leaves and rotten tomatoes and added fish emulsion and seaweed and molasses over the plant and now have a lot of new growth so im hoping for another good crop of tomatoes soon

why did it happen
well in texas and arkansas its hotter and sunnier in the spring unless you get too much spring rain
here in santa barbara well it dont usually get hot
we get in may and june a fog layer that moves in overnight and may not leave until mid morning to mid afternoon
tomatoes dont like fog they like heat and sun
so
they are susceptible to a lot of fungal diseases
so
you have to plant them farther apart
trim the leaves up off the ground a foot
cover the ground with mulch like pine straw to keep water from splashing up on the leaves
this allows air circulation
even when you do things right like this year you still get fungal issues from too much moisture on the leaves

even with all this i lost about half of my tomatoes
but
what are left healthy are red and delicious

in fact ive eaten so many tomatoes in the last week my mouth is sore i guess from all the acid in the matters
i eat a tomato cuke squash onion mixed green sandwich each day for lunch
and
a mixed green salad with lots of tomatoes
with
a sliced tomato on the side for supper
so
yes
im in tomato heaven right now with more tomatoes on the way

the organicgreen doctor