My first home grown food: two celebrity tomatoes

[undeterred]

You've got to start somewhere! I'm having them in a salad tonight.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

1. We took pictures of our first tomato in PA

Boy, that soil was fertile; we must have had 150-200 tomatoes! We planted some here in Texas, and we've picked exactly one (and a second is rotting on the vine without ever really ripening).

Enjoy!

[havocmom]

2. Good for you! You're off to a good start on a grand experiment.

Now that summer is wanning a bit, toss out some salad greens seeds. Time is right to grow more lettuces again. It will build your confidence and taste wonderful!

I have to harvest more Swiss Chard this week and put it up as chard patties in the freezer (eggs, seasoning, chard, cheese, breadcrumbs, delicious). Beets get picked and canned pretty darned soon. The tomatoes are always last where I live but there are a couple on the menue for this evening.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. mmmm chard patties sound wonderful

[havocmom]

4. They are! And they freeze well, making for lovely weekends when brunch

is just waiting to be nuked and doesn't get in the way of reading and DUing!

Want I should PM you the general outline for making them? Recipes! I don't follow no st-ink-ing recipes! Cooking is improvisional art as far as I'm concerned! ;)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. yes i would love it

I grow chard as well so I am always looking for chard ideas!

and I don't need no steenkin recipes either :D

[MountainLaurel]

5. Celebrity tomatoes?!

For a minute there I thought you were going to post pics of a tomato that looks just like Jesus!

[WCGreen]

6. Jessica and Ashely Simpson

[undeterred]

7. Do you see what I see?

[shanti]

9. i am growing maters too

3 plants in one halved wine barrel. one of them is golden, one is 'early girl', and the other is an old fashioned variety, striped.

despite our 100 plus heat (which wilts them badly), they were going gangbusters until they got too big for their cages and started bending. i had to break off about 3 large stems (w/tomatoes).

any ideas on how to prevent this in the future?

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Cut out side shoots beginning when it's a small plant.

Once a stem has set fruit, keep pinching the new flowers off at the top - you'll get fewer but bigger tomatoes and they'll be clustered lower on the vine. Ruthlessly prune branches that never flower too.

Three plants in a wine barrel is bound to be a bit crowded. Consider letting a few outside stems grow outside of the cages early in the season, and then trail down the outside of the barrel or if you have room, set up a second cage outside of the barrel for more spreading space. A little wilting is actually good for the tomato and will trigger a new round of flowering.

Early Girl is such a dependable variety. We grow mostly heirlooms but always have a few Early Girls to start the season off. If your striped variety is a Striped German, you are in for a wonderful treat.