Tomato Journal

[William Schlegel]

That plant it sooner advice is even more broadly true. Minimally viable seed and anything that impacts seed quality, means seed of any species should be planted sooner and not long stored.

I have several tomatoes of a couple varieties in the shiny stage already. Would have a lot if I had won the spring weather lottery or just held things back till a more appropriate time to plant.

Talking about weather heat wave starting here. Will expect poor to no tomato pollination till it passes. Not as bad as on the coast but still a few days of 100 then 90s for as far out as the forcast goes. Could mean I get several ripe tomatoes soon then don't see another one for a month. Google says 75 to 85 highs are ideal. Also nights above 55. I suspect my tomato plants can handle colder nights than that.

[Steph S]

Weather here has been hot by local standards, well above average for the time of year.  Lots of sunshine and UV 9 on the most scorching days.  It is perfect enough for the outdoor tomatoes with highs in the 70's and humidex into the 80's, but potentially deadly in the greenhouse.  I used a couple of fans to try and cool a bit, and it seemed that kept the temperature in the shade down to 80's but of course it's a lot hotter in direct sun.  Most years I have not used a fan, preferring to let the plants eat the stress.  But with so many plants, I want fruit back for the effort this year.  IMO the fan was worth it.  Just the past two days, I did have a few drops from the heat but not as many as when I used nothing.  So, William, I hope you get some good breezes and maybe a few fruit will get made in spite of heat.
We have one more day of those 'hot July' temperatures tomorrow, and then we are flipping to a 'lower than normal' pattern for the rest of the week/foreseeable forecast with highs in the 50's and lows in the 40's again, some rain too.
No way of knowing how long that will go on, we have seen some horrible July weather in recent years -  you just can't expect anything to be normal.    So this will be interesting for my outdoor plants, and although it should be fine for fruit set in the greenhouse, the less sunny weather is going to encourage more growth, when it's already too crowded... I'd like to move another ten plants out but... will wait and see for now.
On the fruit set, I did a cursory count of pea size or larger sets at 90 days from germination/35 days from transplant and quite a few plants have at least 15 fruit coming on at that point.  Lots of full size or close, "shiny stage" as well, and some first ripes expected in the first week of July, if conditions are not unreasonable..  the outdoor fruit will be later, for sure.
The Amish Yellowish-Orange oxheart flowered as early as the rest (which are all crosses) but at 90 days had just set one pea sized fruit.  It is not as cold tolerant as the rest, definitely had a lot of purpling after stress events, and seems to have those 'sticky' type flowers that struggle to open and shed their pollen.  But I did manage to extract some pollen from it and made a cross to one of the rugged determinate minibeefs, and those crosses are swelling so I'm happy with that.

[William Schlegel]

Tomatoes in general are doing well. Direct seeded are all weeded around.

Worst weeded is the slushy garden. Best weeded are probably the two seed growouts. .

I think I got at least a little water on or near all tomatoes this weekend.

Most transplant plants are blooming.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a first direct seeded flower next weekend.

[Steph S]

Our bitter cold and rain spell lasted 4 days with highs close to 50 F.  At least 36 hours did not get to 50, and buckets of rain.  The plants with no overhead shelter looked so wet and miserable, I stapled a tarp over the top and north side of their enclosure to keep them from drowning in their pots.  On the fifth day we had a little sunshine in the afternoon and the temperature went over 60 F for 6 or 7 hours.  It wasn't warm enough for outdoor plants to want watering, but I did water the greenhouse plants and opened up for air.  Temp inside didn't go much over 70 F with two vents open.  It's been steady around 60 F inside the gh in spite of lack of sun, because there was no wind.   Not so this morning - I opened up around 8:30 am but when I checked at 10 am the temp had dropped from 60 to 50F, so I closed up again.   We are supposed to get sun this afternoon and 22C which is over 70 F, but not closing in on that yet and the wind is really icy.
The outdoor plants have some leaf purpling and/or disease especially some leaves that were starting to show signs of mildew during the damp heat.  It is noticeable that both of the Skipper lines are showing the least cold stress and damage, compared to the F2's and F5 in the same row.  Yellow Project and others which had a roof overhead for the whole event are looking fine with no leaf issues or sign of stress.   As in other years, the "bus shelter" approach really seems to work for the tomatoes.  They don't get as much sun, but get enough through the open side to compensate for having a roof overhead, and that seems to keep temperatures from plummeting to the same degree as well as protecting from rain.
According to the forecast we should have a couple of 70/60 days and then a couple of 60/40's before we hit 70 F again.  I'll give the plants some water when the sun comes out and prune off unhealthy leaves, and see where we go from there.

[Greenie DeS]

Up north where I am, last year was exceptionally cold and wet and nothing ripened. That spurred this year's variety trial to find anything that would ripen without cover in my very cool climate. Of course this year took us up to 40C and started breaking all-time heat records; nature likes to keep us humble. Seeds were planted indoors March 7th and the transplants were huge and full of flowers when they went out June 10th despite a month on the deck at 10C that had them looking a little chlorotic and purple-speckled.

Plants now are looking happy and starting to take off. My heavy clay with a slight subsurface seep from the pig wallow is perfect for this weather. I've had my first two plants ripen: sweet cherriette from Adaptive was first, but then bloody butcher from Casey's came in second, third, fourth, and fifth, one fruit carried over from pre-transplant stage per plant. It's a consistent and determined plant for sure, and was first for me in 2019 too. An exserted orange looks like it will be third but I'm not certain yet.

The row of assorted exserted orange, q-series, panamorous, and wildling tomatoes I set up as a pollen trap between the rows of named varieties is visually distinctive as a group: the plants have hunkered down and started putting out green fruits instead of working on vining structure or foliage. Tonight I get the treat of the first walkthrough where everything has flowers and most everything has fruit.

Last year I bought in tomatoes at the grocery store and ate one of the best cherries I've ever had: a green grape-looking one. The saved seeds are producing remarkably uniform, heat-hardy, and early-producing plants. Instead of a dehybridization effort it looks like I will be trying to track down the cultivar. I want to see if the flavour holds true and if it does those flowers will be getting a lot of use.

[William Schlegel]

Sweet Cherriette is fun, I've been using it as sort of a standard since 2017. Last year and this year I've noticed just a tiny bit of exsertion on it. I only have one clump this year.

Exserted orange was grown in my NW isolation garden last year for the seed EFN supplied. Made it to France and now Canada! The new generation is looking nicely exserted so far. Growing it in the same garden. This generation I froze and then it resprouted.

I grew Bloody Butcher in 2017. I can't recall how it ranked. Only had about one plant. It worked direct seeded. Wonder what catalogue Casey's is.

[Greenie DeS]

This is my first year with sweet cherriette, it's a very well-behaved plant. When I think of what I want from tomatoes very long-term in this short season, it's small self-supporting plants like that one or like silvery fir tree. As fun as a treasure hunt through mounds of foliage is, it's not an efficient way to harvest tomatoes and especially not greens and blacks or browns or whatever they're called now that anthocyanin is on the scene.

Have you tried any interesting crosses with sweet cherriette?

(To digress, I've heard rumours of Lucinda, which is supposed to be a silvery fir tree x green zebra cross, and I'm very interested)

Exserted orange has definitely earned a place in next year's garden, it's early and robust-looking enough. I tossed one in the greenhouse and it hates it in there, will not set fruit at all. There are pollinators in there but I'll try hand pollination next.

Caseys is in Canada, on the prairies so very short hot seasons. He also rotates his catalogue every year so there's definite variation. He can be found here: http://caseysheirloomtomatoes.ca/

I did my walkaround tonight and noted any exserted flowers. I think there's a lot of that first-flower stress exsertion right now, but it was a surprising list and I'm interested to check them for consistency in a couple weeks:

karma miracle
mikado black
longhorn
JD special c-tex
cherokee chocolate
alexander b
karma purple miracle
pollen trap row: # 6 (wildling), # 7, # 8 (panamorous), # 9 (wildling), # 16, # 24, (only those out of 25 plants, many of the rest distinctly not exserted)
sugary pounder
carbon
big hill
moravsky div
native sun (this is another pretty reliable ripener but not much flavour)
karma purple multi
alex b
rinon rippled delight(v serious about it)
taiga (biggest fruit so far and consistent in setting early, though not many fruit)

Looks like Karen Olivier's work tends to be slightly exserted though I guess taiga and the karmas were all selected from the same cross.

[William Schlegel]

I have not managed any deliberate crosses with sweet cherriette in the five years I have been growing it. It produces relatively little pollen and has a very fine stigma. I think I could use it as a mother indoors. The emasculated flowers tend to dry up on me outdoors.

As far as natural crosses, it is possible. I have a few envelopes of crossed earliest reds where Blue Ambrosia was the cross mother. Though many other possible parents as well.

It may be the most interesting ordinary red tomato in my collection. I may plant it with something like Big Hill in an isolation garden to get natural crosses I can ID. I thought I would keep it in the greenhouse this year for deliberate crosses but changed my mind due to a now past trip my wife made to visit family. It might also work to make crosses over the winter by growing a generation in doors.

[Steph S]

My plants were like purple gargoyles on one side cut out of green, and stayed in their poses of angst for several days.   I was beginning to think they would not recover at all but after a couple of warmer days they finally started to recover their optimistic outlook.  The F2's, which have not been through the rigors of outdoor selection through generations, took it worst.
We are continuing to blow hot and cold.  25 C today with humidex 32 and gales of wind.  But two days ago we had another frost warning, and look no further than next tuesday for another high temperature of just 12 C.  The temperature can drop 10C in an hour or two, any time the wind changes.
I expected to have ripe fruit from several by the first week of july but I guess the cold week put that on hold even for the greenhouse tomatoes.
It would be great to breed tomatoes that tolerate every kind of stress but as of now I think it's unrealistic to expect all things from one tomato.   Some will have the edge for cold tolerance, others will do better with the heat.  Which is okay, because who wants to grow only one kind of tomato anyway. 

[William Schlegel]

Picked two Big Hill tomatoes today. Wouldn't be surprised to pick a exserted tiger and another Big Hill by Sunday. From some plants in a crossing experiment that didn't get caught in the frost because I was going to grow them in a container originally.

The two tomatoes I crossed MMS x BH are still staying green.

There are sure a lot of tomatoes flowering now. Few are setting fruit in this heat though.

The direct seeded tomato plants are big now!

Exserted orange is nicely exserted.

[Steph S]

First blush today - at least a week later than expected, but that's okay.  Row of four plants of Skipper Pink each blushing a fruit this morning.  115 days from germination.
We're back to the hot weather pattern, and humidex went to 33C today before we started to get some breezes.  Not good setting weather in the greenhouse but I'll take what is already set and be contented.

[William Schlegel]

Picked my long awaited MMS x BH hand pollination today at first blush.

[Steph S]

First blush on my F1 involving the PI 120256 lineage yesterday as well.   This is great for a larger fruit, to be only a day later than my earliest small fruit.   This plant suckered vigorously and set lots of clusters, so I think it will make a fine early determinate, and definitely showing more heat tolerance as well as cold tolerance, compared to some others.    Large number of locules are present in these fruit, so the size should carry over pretty well.

[Greenie DeS]

Exserted orange is the third to ripen, three in three days. I'm especially interested in saving seeds from these first couple fruits because they were pollinated when everyone had weird flowers and when the bees were coming to drink from my garden in the heat so there may be fun crosses. Stupice (heritage harvest seed) was next, less uniform in dates across plants than bloody butcher and exserted orange.

Sweet cherriettes are starting to pour in and I find I really like the flavour. Exserted orange didn't have enough of a tangy spine for me but one can never tell with the first fruits. Does anyone know, does it save true?

It looks like next to ripen will be "a big wild cherry tomato that sets tiny fruits and grows huge" from my friend.

We're still very dry but have resumed normal temps of 10C at night and in the neighbourhood of 20C during the day, give or take. Everything has slowed way down to the kind of growth rate I've come to expect here. Lots of veg formation, green fruit, and blossoms on the tomatoes.

Bearing out William S's experience with direct seeding, a bunch of tomatoes have volunteered in my cornfield (also my pig field, so full of seeds from scrap veggies) and are as tall as all my other tomato plants already, though there's no sign of flowers on the volunteers yet.

In slightly related news, my first tomatillo to ripen by a long long long shot was amarylla from Annapolis seeds, it was a lovely sweet snacking fruit that would make terrible green salsa but will probably be my first go-to for fresh fruit for awhile now that rhubarb is done.

[William Schlegel]

Exserted orange segregated out some bicolors last year in the field from which your seed came and has some size variation. I want to discourage bicolors, stabilize exsertedness, and allow size variability this year. So far 18 of 19 are exserted and the other is a probably exserted. However in my field they froze to the ground so will be waiting awhile for fruit. Planted close to other varieties it should out cross to the extent the bumblebees cross it.

Sweet Cherriette hasn't produced any obvious crosses in five years but have noticed some exsertion.