Tomato update

Here are updated photos of my tomatoes.

Cherokee Purple with several tomatoes, the largest on the right is 2" in diameter, on July 23rd

The tomatoes on Cherokee Purple from a different angle

The lower two trusses on the first Sun Gold, which has three trusses full of fruit and more flowers on two more trusses, on July 23rd

The lower truss on the second Sun Gold, which only has two trusses since I accidentally pruned off the growing tip

The largest tomatoes on Black Prince, with the largest about 3" in diameter, on July 23rd

I removed three more flowers on the end of this truss when I saw four fruits had set in early July. I don't know if that contributed to the tomatoes getting larger faster or if Black Prince just produces fruit faster than Cherokee Purple and Black Krim.


Most of the Web images of Black Prince show round fruit, so I was surprised to see the flattened (oblate?) shape. Half of the newer, smaller fruit (≤1" in diameter) are also flattened, but the other half are rounder. Almost all the leaves are rolled up on this plant, probably because it's shaded by a 40' tall holly tree until late morning. It's also been a pretty cool, wet summer, so it may just be that it's too cool for tomatoes. WSU has a "Physiological Leaf Roll of Tomato" fact sheet. 

The first Black Krim plant has several tomatoes on July 23rd

The megabloom on this first Black Krim has become a long fused fruit.

I'm waiting to see how distorted this fused fruit becomes. If it's really weird, I may just snip it off to minimize the amount of energy the plant puts into it.

The second Black Krim has even more fruit on July 23rd

The main stem on one of the Sun Gold plants got bent, probably by a cat in the neighborhood, so assuming it would decline, I got a Jaune Flammé Mighty 'Mato grafted plant in a 1 gal container from Sky Nursery to replace it. On July 10th I transplanted the Jaune Flammé, which already had a few flowers that turned into fruit a few weeks later.

A few tomatoes on the Jaune Flammé on July 23rd

More tomatoes on the Jaune Flammé

On July 26th there were over 200 tomatoes combined on all nine plants. (The trampled Sun Gold survived, and while it's definitely a runt compared to the other three, it now has two small trusses of tiny fruit and continues to flower.) There are about 30 cherry tomatoes that are about 1" in diameter on the four Sun Gold plants, a 3" tomato on a Black Prince, and a 2.5" tomato on a Cherokee Purple. These two largest tomatoes seem to be growing about an inch per week. I also have about 30 tomatoes that are 1-2" in diameter on the Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, Jaune Flammé, and two Black Krims. Even given our cooler, wetter weather this past week, almost all of the tomatoes seem to grow 1/2" to an inch per week.