Small harvest of 4 tomatoes.

[Gary350]

I picked a few tomatoes today. Smallest is 1 lb. The largest is 1 lb 8 ounces. We ate the 1 lb. tomato in a salad for dinner it was very good. Tomatoes have the flavor of Beefsteak but when you slice them you can see they are not true beefsteak inside. This is called Big Beef. There are 25 to 30 of these on each of the 4 plants and they are all going to be ripe soon.

[pepperhead212]

Those are really BIG Big Beefs, Gary! I think the largest Big Beef I ever had was barely a pound - most 12-14 oz max. How do you do that?

[AnnaIkona]

SMALL HARVEST?! it's not small at all

[jal_ut]

What fun! Enjoy!

[imafan26]

I've grown Big Beef before, I really like them, but I don't have the day length to get tomatoes that size. I only can get close to a pound. That's is a great big little harvest.

[Gary350]

I've grown Big Beef before, I really like them, but I don't have the day length to get tomatoes that size. I only can get close to a pound. That's is a great big little harvest.

I learned something by accident this year about tomatoes. My whole garden gets morning sun but the west end of the garden starts getting shade from tall trees about 12 noon while the rest of the garden does not get shade until about 5 pm. I notice soil on the shade end of garden is moist the sunny end of garden is dry. Plants on shady end are very green but plants on the sunny end are less green and appear to be dehydrated from the sun the leaves wilt in the hot 100 degrees sun then come back to life about 7 pm. Tomato plants are progressive taller from east to west 5 feet to 7 feet tall. The tomato plants that get 8 hours of shade are the tallest, they produce the most tomatoes and they produce the largest tomatoes. I have been gardening for 50 years I have always planted tomatoes in full sun and I have always noticed tomatoes stop producing in 100 degree weather and start producing again late Sept in cool weather. This week if I have time I want to put up some shade cloth over the tomatoes on the sunny end of the garden to see if the soil stops looking so dry and the plants start producing more tomatoes. TV weather man says we are going to have 105 degree weather this week. This is the hottest part of the summer Mid July to Mid Aug 100+ degree weather. My corn is planted next to the tomatoes the sun is still high in the sky 85 degree angle corn is not giving the tomatoes any shade.

[digitS']

Your Big Beefs look like what the name implies, Gary. Mine are more Medium Beefs ... productive and flavorful but not really big.

All gardening is local and your experiences in that garden of shade and full sun is showing that, on a micro level.

I also have to garden with the micro. The big veggie garden is full sun with only some wind exposure variables. The little veggie garden has a shady corner with only morning sun and a shady edge with morning shade and full sun from about 10am on.

The plantings certainly but the garden layout there is reflecting those shade and sun conditions more each year as I try to pay attention to what is going on through each day. ... also, the trees grow !

Steve

[Gary350]

Todays tomato harvest 31.6 lbs. Beefsteak, Big Beef, Beef Master, Cherry tomatoes, Rutger, Early girl. The 2 largest tomatoes are Early Girl 1.3 lbs and 15.4 ounces. Click the photo it gets larger.