Pacific Northwest Gardener: Summer Finally Heats Up

After our heat wave last weekend, the tomatoes have really started taking off. Between July 31st and August 7th, my tomato count went up from 411 to 611. Here's a view of the garden on August 7th.

The two tomato beds each have 8 plants, and the tallest is about 5' tall on August 7th

Four black tomatoes planted at the corner on June 17th are about 4' tall on August 7th

The two New Big Dwarf plants are about 3' tall and beautifully compact on August 7th

Kimberley, a compact plant that produces small red fruit, was one of the earliest to set fruit in my garden. It tied with Sun Gold and set fruit in 37 days. By August 7th the largest fruit on it was about 2.5" in diameter, so in about a month it grew from just over 1 cm to about 2.5".

Kimberley plant on July 10th

The same tomato on the Kimberly plant grew to be 2.5" by August 7th

The Blush tomatoes continue to produce 1/3-1/2 as many fruit as Sun Gold, but by August 10th, the largest fruit are just over 1.5" long. Also, the foliage on Blush is rather wispy compared to other regular leaf tomato plants.

Flowers and small Blush fruit on August 2nd

Many of the flowers have become small fruit by August 7th

The same truss on Blush by August 10th

By August 10th the fruit on Blush are just over 1.5" long

Wispy foliage on Blush tomato plants

New Big Dwarf (NBD), which produces pink beefsteaks, is an heirloom tomato that was included in the 1915 Isbell Seed Company catalog, which included a description of its origin as a cross between Dwarf Champion and Ponderosa, the best known dwarf and the largest fruited variety at the time. NBD's origin helped spark the Dwarf Tomato Project, a cross-hemisphere endeavor to breed great-tasting tomatoes on compact plants perfect for containers and small spaces. NBD plants are wonderfully compact with dense foliage and a thick stem, but they still requires staking. NBD was the latest to set fruit in my garden taking over 46 days. (I don't have the exact time because I was out of town when it finally set fruit.)

I planted my two NBD plants on June 10th, a week after most of my plants. By August 7th one NBD had 14 tomatoes larger than 1 cm, and the other plant only had 7. The largest tomatoes on each plant were about 2" in diameter, but the rest were only about an inch or smaller in diameter. So far it's definitely later and not as prolific as the black tomatoes. I also noticed really strange catfacing and fused fruit on my NBD plants.

The largest fruit on New Big Dwarf was about 2" in diameter on August 7th

The largest fruit on the other New Big Dwarf has a strange appendage

A closeup of the funky looking fruit on New Big Dwarf

Spudakee is a potato leafed version of Cherokee Purple (C.P). In my garden both C.P. and Spudakee took 45 days to set fruit, but Spudakee is proving to be slightly more prolific. I planted the Spudakee about a week after the C.P., and by August 7th the Spudakee had 18 tomatoes bigger than 1 cm whereas C.P. only had 13. However, it does appear to produce a lot more catfacing and really strange fused fruit.

The largest fruit on one of my Spudakee plants was about 2" in diameter on August 7th

The cooler weather resulted in a lot of fused fruit and catfacing on Spudakee

The largest tomatoes on the second Spudakee were about 3" in diameter on August 7th

Here's another strange tomato that looks like four tomatoes fused together

An even odder looking tomato has two fused fruit with separate blossom ends

Vorlon, named after an alien race on Babylon 5, is a "stabilized accidental cross between Cherokee Purple and Pruden's Purple". In my garden Vorlon was among the latest plants to set fruit, taking 46 days. Its productivity is between Spudakee and C.P., having produced 15 tomatoes larger than 1 cm by August 7th.

The largest tomato on Vorlon is about 3" in diameter by August 7th

Even more small tomatoes have formed on Vorlon by August 7th

Last year my favorite tomato from the farmers' market was Paul Robeson because of its rich, complex flavor. I saved the seed from one tomato and grew one plant to see if I could reproduce that great flavor. So far Paul Robeson is the least productive of the black tomatoes I planted, with only 8 tomatoes larger than 1 cm by August 7th.