Right now it's pouring rain, and I'm not sure that's a good thing for an almost-ripe tomato. I think it will make it more watery and possibly split. Although we have had rain consistently, so at least it won't swell up a lot at the end. Tomorrow is going to be dry and partly cloudy, and then I should pick it Monday morning. And what am I going to do with it? Well, I'll probably just slice it and put a little salt on it and eat it, while taking careful notes and pictures.
This tomato seems to be coming in almost a week before its stated Days to Maturity (75). The Cherry Tomato has lots of green tomatoes but no sign of red. Its Days to Maturity is 70, and I usually expect cherries to be faster than the biggies. The Better Boy is on the side that gets a little more sun, so that probably accounts for it.
I'm obviously really eagerly anticipating tasting this tomato. And I'm starting to worry that it will be very disappointing. And since I'm building it up so much, that is probably true, but since I feel like I'm having success with a non-cherry tomato, I'm feeling brave enough to try a real Heirloom next year.
Not only that, I think I'm capable of starting these from seed. That gives me a wider selection to choose from, so I can get exactly what I want. Wedgewood really only had 3 or 4 varieties, none that I was that excited about. Lowes and Home Depot have a lot more, but I think those poor things are kind of damaged, physically and emotionally. There may be a better source, like the Gateway Gardens my mom goes to, but I do think I want to try growing from seed.
Luckily, if I'm not successful with the seeds, I can recover from that without much expense. I'll figure out pretty quickly if the seed-started plants aren't going to work, and then I can go to Plan B. Worst case scenario, I'll buy the exact same Sweet 100 and Better Boy from Wedgewood.
So now I want to figure out what tomatoes I do want to get. I have to be honest with myself; I really only have room for two plants. And I only have the two towers. Now, the towers are on sale right now, $45 instead of $55! (Jesus, did I really pay that much for them?) If I really want to, I could grow a Determinate variety in a container on the patio, where it will actually get some great sun. I think I do want a cherry tomato; I primarily want them for snacking and I totally will eat all of them and they're pretty much a guaranteed to succeed.
Cherry
- Sweet 100's- 70 Days- 1 oz
- Yellow Pear- 75 Days- 2 oz
- Sun Gold- 60 Days - 1 oz
Determinate
- Tumbler- 50 Days- 1 oz
- Patio Princess- 68 Days- 4-5 oz
- Fresh Salsa- 75 Days- 4-5 oz
Biggies
- Brandy Boy- 80 Days- 14 oz
- Better Boy- 75 Days- 16 oz
- Stupice- 60 Days- 4 oz
So, I should of course stagger them so they have different Days to Maturity. Although... the early ones never taste that great. And I don't think I can do 90 days; I don't want to have a huge plant that doesn't even start producing until August. Then I'll have like, 6 weeks before it gets cold. But I am feeling brave enough to try something a little more ambitious than the Better Boy. It's down to either the Brandy Boy, or Stupice. They're both likely to have better flavor than the Better Boy, right?
Obviously, I don't have to decide now. I was thinking I could go ahead and buy these when they go on end-of-season sale... I think they end up being half price. Part of me thinks, what is the point of saving, like, $10? If I'm going to go through all the effort, not to mention the additional $60 I just spent on more grow lights, shouldn't I get the best quality seeds to start with? Why introduce an unnecessary source of error?
On the other hand, people save seeds all the time, especially tomato seeds! And if I get them at the very end of the year, Burpee has been storing them in what I hope are the ideal conditions, it's not like they're sitting around in my damp house. I'll start them in like, February, and I'll know pretty quickly if I don't get enough germination. At that point, I'll have plenty of time to start over with 2016 seeds. So I either save $10 by just using on-sale seeds, or I waste $10 by buying those and then have to order them again at full price. Yeah, I think it's worth doing.
I was a little surprised to see that you only get 10 seeds in a pack! I expected more like 50. I guess that is a more reasonable number, if it was a lot more than that, you'd either need to be starting a tomato farm, or you're throwing out or saving most of the seeds. Actually, it varies- of the 6 varieties I've picked out (Jesus, how did I go from 2 to 6?!), the Patio Tumbler has 10 seeds, the Yellow Pear has 125, Stupice has 25 and the rest have 30. 30 is a nice number; I can do 2-3 seeds in each cell and get 2 six-packs for each variety. And yes, I will start all of them. But ok, no I cannot buy 6 varieties. I can either do Yellow Pear (75 Days) and Stupice (60 Days), or I can do the Sun Gold (60 Days) and the Brandy Boy (80 Days). I think I can get away with the two Determinate kinds. The Tumbler is so early, if it really is 50 days, that would mean I'd have started getting tomatoes in mid June. Then, since it's Determinate, it should be finished after a month, when the Salsa tomatoes start to come in. Also, I think the container tomatoes are more appropriate to give away at work if I end up with lots of nice extras.
So we're looking at 2 six-packs each of Patio Tumbler, Salsa, let's say Yellow Pear and Stupice, Actually I could probably do more of the Yellow Pear if they're really going to give me 125 seeds. Christ, I could do like, 5 six-packs of those. I only have 10 trays. More importantly, I don't have enough light for these poor fuckers. I'm probably going to end up getting another light, aren't I? Good thing I'm going to save $10 getting last year's seeds!
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