My Struggle With Tomatoes
Perhaps you remember that I’ve got three kinds of tomatoes: cherry/plum, German Striped, and Beefsteak. I think I slipped up and called the last Big Beef for awhile, but they’re Beefsteak as far as I can tell. The primary problem is that the German Striped are a heirloom variety, and as such are more susceptible to splitting.
All things considered, I’ve done a good job with the tomatoes this year.
The plant that was supposed to produce cherry tomatoes has absolutely thrived, and has maybe fifty or so plum (or Roma) shaped tomatoes currently on the vine. I haven’t counted them, but that was a conservative estimate! According to my refractometer these tomatoes measure eight brix, an approximate measure of taste and nutrition (based off sugars present in the liquid of the fruit); the tomatoes from Costco are quite good for industrial-grade, which measure at about five point five brix. The tomatoes from the farmer’s market have been poor this year, in comparison, and rate the same as Costco did, but their taste was poor. Wish I knew what I’m doing right, but I’m picking enough great tomatoes for the three tomato lovers in our family.
The German Striped is another story. Out of all the fruit that I’ve thrown away I was only able to save three, all of which were split and unattacked by insects. The rain we had recently was tremendous, perhaps as much as a whole foot in the last two weeks. If I were to estimate, then I would say that we’ve had roughly eleven out of fourteen days with wetness.
But the real clincher was Sunday.
On Sunday we had several storms whip through in the wee hours of the morning. I awoke to howling winds and shearing rains at maybe 3am; by 7:30am another storm had come in with even more ferociousness. In less than an hour our yard had six inches of standing water from that one storm.
In spite of everything I’d figured would protect it, the clay soils and fifteen degree tilt to the area, my garden was waterlogged. In the night hours the hydraulic action of the tomato plants kicks in, absorbing all the water its roots can contact—and the storms had provided that in surplus. The net result is that all semi-ripe fruit on both the German Striped and the Beefsteak split.
Yet, I’m still doing something right. Last year’s tomatoes wouldn’t have survived a storm that size, being bent fully to the ground, or being stood back up. But I’ve got stems a full inch in diameter this year, and none of the tomatoes came lose during the storm. Understand that these were 60mph winds that uprooted trees half a mile away. All my tomatoes have survived that wind flattening them and are standing tall, if somewhat askew; the oddball cherry-plum tomato has gulped all the water it could with no ill effects.
If only I knew what I was doing right!
