We ate the first tomatoes of the season last night, with the first zucchini and peppers, but I think we might have cheated. One of the tomato plants that set a lot of early fruit had leaves that turned yellow and then wilted. A lot of leaves. Most of the leaves on the plant, in fact. So, I pulled up the plant and put it in the garbage and brought the green tomatoes into the house.
The two tomatoes in the picture above are from that plant, which was a Red Chinese. Apparently, this particular variety is NOT resistant to verticillium wilt. I have replaced that plant with a gift from a friend, a tomato of the variety Eva Purple Ball (thanks Susan!). However, there is another Red Chinese out in the garden, and it isn't looking as robustly healthy as its neighbors in the tomato bed. It will probably need to be replaced soon, too.
The good news is that it isn't too late to replace a tomato plant!
Other tomato news: the first two little tomatoes on the Yellow Marble tomato plant were ripe today, and we ate them. Last year, I grew this variety in a pot that was filled with MiracleGro potting soil, and the tomatoes were very tart. I wondered about the effect of the soil on flavor, so this year I planted one of these in the ground. This year the Yellow Marble tomatoes taste like cherry tomatoes, and they aren't too tart! This, to me, is an interesting finding.
Beautiful looking harvest. I am intrigued also about the taste of the cherry tomato being different due to the soil. All my veggies are growing in containers and I will keep that in mind going forward.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain, fusarium wilt here! Holy Zucchini, girl - looks delish!
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteWe get fusarium wilt here, too, but it seems that more of the tomatoes I've grown are resistant to that than to the verticillium that is a problem earlier in the year.
And yes, the zucchini was excellent. Thanks!
Sandra,
ReplyDeleteThe flavor effect is interesting to me, too. One year a friend and I both grew Riesentraube tomatoes. Hers were in large containers and mine were in the ground. She thought the flavor was FABULOUS and I thought they tasted like sugar water!
If we had been smart, we would have gotten together with our tomatoes for a flavor comparison. It seems unlikely, though, that our taste buds were that far off in determining flavor. The difference in flavor was probably real, and I am guessing that it was a result of the difference in the soil.
I wonder whether the people who develop crops for container growing take the flavor changes into account, or whether they are going mostly for size.