The Colors of Joy

Large and delicious Green Zebras. Heavenly hue.

Tonight's pasta sauce, freshly picked. A little bit of everything that's ripe: Black Zebra, Green Zebra, Yellow Pear, Siberia, Jubilee

Mission:Tomato -- Early Harvesting

Check out my "One Hot Tomato" page for the tally of my tomato harvest. "Better Boy" is contributing, along with Siberia and Early Girl.

Oh no, you don't!

Caught the first interlopers today on my tomato plants.

While watering upstairs in Tomato Heaven, I saw some little black dots on the leaves of my Yellow Pear variety ... and then right above them ... a small green worm. The same type of cabbage looper worm that got my plants last year!

I said aloud, "Oh no, you don't!!" and grabbed it in my fingers, squishing it to DEATH.

Yes, gross. But this is war, kids. I am so not joking about this. All vermin who try to eat my tomatoes, or leaves or stems ... or even try to look sideways at them ... will die horrible deaths.

Later, I was on the lookout in the Condo Raised Bed, and I saw a dusting of tiny eggs across both the Jubilee and Black Cherry varieties, plus caught two worms. Mine Mighty Hand of Worm Death smited both loopers down, and then I hard-sprayed the affected leaves with water to remove the eggs.

This afternoon I'm getting some natural pest control, such as Bacillum thuringiensis. No one but humans will eat my tomatoes this year.

It's Tomato Heaven upstairs

Not long now and there will be some ripe tomatoes on some of the five tomato plants I have growing on my balcony! Counting back, probably Early Girl will be red and ready around April 15.

So far the plants remain pest free, the only difficulty is watering. Every morning, I've got to run upstairs and downstairs tying a string around a hose by a downstairs spigot, hauling it 20 feet up over the balcony wall and then turning it on to water. Soon I will have to do that twice a day to keep the tomatoes from drying out.

It's going to be worth it.

Tomato crazed (or My Ode to Tomatoes)

Maybe I've gone a little overboard with tomatoes in 2011. But with good reason. I adore the fruit and would give anything to grow it well.

Last year I messed up my timing twice.

First mistake: I planted too late -- the end of March. My 2 poor vines (that I unwisely placed in the same large pot) only provided me with a handful of semi-decent tomatoes before the scorching 100-plus-degree desert summer stopped the fruit from setting and weakened them to a point where the bugs just took over. If you're keeping track, that's 0 for 2.

Second mistake: I planted 3 new tomatoes -- but too late again, in mid-October. These poor vines caught some weird disease, and then sadly provided only 2 tomatoes (that took weeks to ripen in a paper bag) before getting leveled by frost over Thanksgiving. Total 2010 Score: a pitiful 0 for 5.

So this year, with my 2010 shutout in mind and some newly acquired knowledge under my belt, I am determinate (a little tomato humor there) to raise a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes.

I have 3 varieties in my condo raised bed (CRiB), 5 varieties in containers on my upstairs balcony and 1 variety in a container by my front door. NINE kinds: Heatwave II, Black Cherry, Jubilee; Early Girl, Better Boy, Black Zebra, Green Zebra, Yellow Pear; and Siberia.
Yes, I know, I haven't planted any in my original raised bed (ORB). Probably won't. Logic dictates that the ORB's distance from my home means it should be left to species that don't need so much attention (lettuce, peas, onions, carrots, broccoli).

Planting was in late January and mid-February. I've got until early June, really, to fulfill my "Mission: Tomato." I'm going to set the bar low and call it a win if I can get 15 tomatoes from each plant.

Ready to Plant

It really is a thing of beauty. My final touches: Paver stepstones and mulch for the walkway. About 100 shovelfuls of compost and soil mixed into the dirt/sand that occupies the bottom half of the box. And my bro Nick gave me some compost/worm tea to add to the mix.
Once I get in touch with my gardening cohort, we are going to rock this box! I've got three tomato plants that are ready to be planted, plus about 15 packets of seeds. I'm thinking lettuce, radishes, carrots, broccoli, rapini and strawberries.

Ketchup

If you are ever boiling over with rage, take it out on your tomato plant.

Apparently, if you hit your plant hard with a stick for 30 seconds, it will help it self-pollinate.

I did this and felt wonderful afterward.

You old meanie

The beastie making holes in my tomatoes is the cabbage looper worm. Here is a photo of one of the suckers. I have found and squished about 10 so far this season. And destroyed 3 cocoon thingies I found under curled leaves.

Friends at mygreenriverside.com helped me identify the culprit and have said I can treat them with a bacterium (Bacillus thuringiensis), a natural remedy.

Funny thing is, they are really only attacking one of my tomato plants. I have two varieties. Additionally, the susceptible variety is the one that's not producing any tomatoes. Think I may just uproot the affected one and give all my love to the resistant one. It's a no-brainer.