August Tomato Update

OK, I'm sold on the heirloom tomatoes for cool coastal regions. 

We’ve been eating the Nikolayev Yellow Cherry tomatoes for a couple weeks now and those are SO GOOD.  The plant is covered in tomatoes and they're coming on slowly, but wow.  I'm not a big 'cherry tomato' fan, but we can't stop eating these.  Like fruity cherry tomatoes that you can't stop picking. 

Next year we'll plant several more of this kind to keep us in our new favorite 'candy tomatoes'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we tried our first Sasha Altai tomato.  Also loaded with tomatoes, but only one was ready to eat.  It was very good and hard to describe.  Not as acidic, but not as sweet, either.  The tomatoes are described as having 'complex flavor'...which explains why we really couldn't describe the flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

August 10th

 

Summer is in high gear and the garden is busy being a garden.  As for the current growth/production of the tomatoes, well July was the month of"take off and grow", and August is the month of "get busy setting tons of fruit".The indeterminate tomatoes (vining ones) are still growing like crazy and also putting on more and more tomatoes.The plants have all shot up and have been covered with blossoms and now they are covered in tomatoes. 

 

 



 



Even the peppers are taking off for the summer.  (Italian Roasters)

Nikolayev Yellow Cherry has been such a surprise.  This is a 'semi-determinate', but we think of it as a short little guy - covered with the sweetest tomatoes you've ever tasted.  We check this one over for new orange tomatoes several times a day...just in case one or two are ready to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heinz 9129 is loaded with tomatoes already, which surprised me.  It will be one of the latest to come ripe, but I am very impressed with how much fruit it already has and how large they are.  The tomato is stocky, very healthy and full of fruit.  We look forward to trying them out and see how they taste.

Azoychka is a vining tomato that grows and grows - and has tons of tomatoes on it.  These are on the outside of the plant as well as deep inside the shady middle.  I mistakenly thought that an heirloom may not produce as heavily as the hybrids do, but boy was I wrong on that one.