garden news-this years tomatoes

GARDEN NEWS-THIS YEARS TOMATOES

these are my tomatoes from a recent harvest from my garden
looking at last years harvest pictures at this time
i noticed there were more tomatoes and they were larger

this years crop are definitely smaller and less plentiful
so far

why
i do everything the same from year to year
eg
i add a large layer of compost plus an organic fertilizer to the soil
this is all forked in well
when i planted the tomatoes i watered them in well with liquid fertilizer plus seaweed plus molasses
i also add some of my worm compost i make to the beds
i do this every year
i use a drip system to water along with watering in a 3 gallon pot buried next to each tomato
in this pot it is about 1/3 full of compost
i fill these pots with water once a week
in some beds i have a buried 3 inch pvc pipe with holes  drilled in  the pipe
i also fill these once a week
i fertilize them with a foliar feeding every two weeks with the concoction above

so 
i basically do the same thing each year

in this picture
the big purple tomato is a cherokee purple
i saved seeds from the huge cherokee purples i grew last year and planted them to produce the tomato plant that produced this cherokee purple
so its a child of last years plant
last years largest one covered my whole hand

another one is the t tomato named after my sisterinlaw who had it growing on her garden wall as a volunteer tomato
it was proliferative so i seeded it
these tomatoes are the third generation from that mother plant
the smaller red ones are t tomatoes

the larger red ones are celebrity 
i was late planting this one
it is from a transplant bought at the nursery

the next size red one is the l tomato named after a fellow plot holder whose plant produced tomatoes for two years
i took a cutting and potted it and later transplanted it

the yellow ones are sungold tomatoes
it is a transplant bought at the nursery

the other tomato not represented in the picture that i planted is the black krim
its loaded with tomatoes but i havent picked many yet
it also was grown from seed from last years crop

i tend to pick my tomatoes early then let them ripen on our kitchen table
why
to prevent loss to animals and birds

so why are my tomatoes smaller this year
the weather
the lack of rain

this year we have had our early morning fog that burns off from mid morning to noon time
this makes the tomatoes susceptible to fungal diseases and also stunts their growth
there is less sunlight during the day for the tomatoes
it has also been cooler this spring compared to past springs weather

then we are in a drought year here
we have had only 48% of our average rainfall for this time of year since new years
it probably will not rain here again until sometime in october hopefully
so
even though i water my tomatoes the overall moisture level in our soil is down compared to last year

so
the weather
the rain
thats why my tomato production is off so far

now 
i will say that i have a lot of tomatoes that are green and i should get a decent crop
my plants are about 8 ft tall alos

but
compared to how brutal gardening can be in texas sometimes i really cant complain
at least im getting tomatoes

some years in texas i would loose my whole crop to 
hail storms
grasshoppers
way too much rain too quickly 
no rain at all 
sudden onset of late spring and early summer heat that shuts down flowering of tomatoes

yep
im not complaining
as i eat ripe tomatoes every day from my garden

the organicgreen doctor