These cherry tomatoes are ripening rapidly. Just last night I harvested about 50 ripe ones. You can see that there are another 20 or so that are starting to blush on this plant alone. This variety is “Sweet Million” and I hope it lives up to its name. The fruit so far is fantastic – sweet and with that fresh acidic bite that makes them so much better than store bought.
We’ve had yet another cold front push through our sunny domain. I can’t remember having such a chilly winter since I moved to Florida in 1986. I love it. We get enough 94° weather here and I get sick of sweating. Gardening is much easier when it’s cool, too, but the fruit is slower to mature and ripen. Presently I have about 500 cherry tomatoes and 20 or more beefsteaks on the vine. The cool weather doesn’t really affect them, although it’s a well known fact that chilling tomatoes below 40º changes their flavor. I don’t think that holds true for fruit that’s still on the vine. At any rate, I’ll let them have a few days of full sun before I harvest them.
Pictured at left is a cluster of 5 beefsteak tomatoes on the vine in my third bed. As you can see, one of these beefsteaks is already blushing. I’ll probably pick it later on today, as my neighbor just told me it’s supposed to get down into the 30’s again tonight. I have lots of blossoms again on these vines since I fertilized last week, so I’ll probably cover the tomatoes and lettuce again tonight. Sometimes the plants have a hard time setting fruit when it’s too cool, and I want my second crop of ’maters. So it’ll look like a ghost town again tonight and tomorrow. That’s ok.
Do you see how the bottoms of all my tomato plants are bare with the exception of the tomatoes themselves? That’s because I’ve stripped off all of the branches that didn’t bear fruit to give the plants more energy to feed the fruit that’s growing. Doing this also helps to prevent mildew and fungus from growing and killing the plants. It also makes them easier to photograph. But the greatest benefit is that the plants behind the tomatoes now are getting enough sunlight to grow. Tomato plants automatically lose some lower leaves anyway, so make sure to pull them off the plants as well.
Check the weather for your area – especially those of you in west Palm Beach and Broward counties. Cover if you must, and enjoy the cool temperatures.
Happy gardening!
Recent Comments