Nature and Gardening

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Crazy the difference a long cool spring makes on harvest timelines. My first four ripe tomatoes I picked today vs. what I picked on this date last year! (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Located in inland southern California, zone 9b.

[Image description: split image, the top photo is four tomatoes on a cutting board, the bottom photo is hundreds of multicolor heirloom tomatoes covering a kitchen counter.]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I'm jealous right now. A tomato seedling just sprouted mysteriously from a vase I put outside a couple of weeks ago, it's a see onion who's been in my room for a few years, I have no idea what tomato variety it'll be or how this seed got there, but I'll take it as a sign.

Once that seedling is big enough I'll put it on the ground and we'll see what it is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Wow! What a dramatic difference. We have like five tomatoes plants and all are producing fruit but they're ripening slowly, imo. (I'm also in socal). Hot weather is coming this week though so hopefully we both have better luck 🤞

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Omg a LITERAL mighty harvest!!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Omg, what did you do with so many tomatoes?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Desperately try to foist them on friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, passing dog walkers, the mailman... anybody who'd take some 😆

Beyond that, we'd eat tomato based meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we canned dozens of pints of salsa and sauce (that we're still eating!).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

What my family did was make liters and liters of tomato sauce and then freeze them, so for the rest of the year we had really good tomato sauce.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Well then ur neighbors are so lucky because those look really good. I imagine they taste far better than any you can find at the store

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Oh they certainly do, once you've had homegrown, store bought will forever taste bland. And there's such crazy variety, some are intensely sweet, others tart or savory.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Omg that's a lot of tomatoes. I wish my garden was half as productive as that!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

So does OP this year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm in zone 6a and envious! All I have are flowers and pea-sized green cherry tomatoes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

7b, same here. I'm eagerly awaiting late July, when I might actually have something to eat!