Photos of my heirloom tomatoes from September 2007 – Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian

Sliced heirloom beefsteak tomatoes and a bowl of heirloom cherry tomatoes. — Sliced heirloom beefsteak tomatoes and a bowl of heirloom cherry tomatoes, all from the container garden of Cynthia Yockey from 2007.

The little red cherry tomatoes are called Wild Cherry, or Matt’s Wild Cherry — they are one of my must-grows. The lone yellow cherry is my other cherry must-grow, Galina’s Yellow Cherry. The dusky ones are Black Cherry. The yellow-orange ones that look like cat’s eye sapphires are Isis Candy.

In the plate of sliced tomatoes, the green ones on both sides are Aunt Ruby’s German Green. The red ones on the left with the pink tag are Stump of the World (a religious reference to Jesus). The pink ones on the left with the yellow tag are Prudens Purple. The red ones on the left are both categorized as black tomatoes: Carbon in the front and Cuban Black in the back with the green tag.

Beefsteak heirloom tomatoes. — Beefsteak heirloom tomatoes from the garden of Cynthia Yockey: Brandywine Platfoot strain (orange), Cuostralee (red, ruffled, center front), Off the Vine Brandywine (red baseball-size, front and center), Carbon (second from right), Brandwine Sudduth's strain (pink, far right -- my favorite), Pruden's Purple (above the Brandywine Sudduth's strain), and I think the purple ones at the top right with the spiral cracking are all Cherokee Purple. I think the green and yellow ones are Aunt Ruby's German Green. The yellow one on the right is probably Spark's Yellow.

The average time from planting to ripe tomatoes for the varieties I choose is 80 days. Thanks to you, gentle readers, I was able to buy the supplies I need to plant my heirloom tomatoes this year — so you will be rewarded with lots of heirloom tomato pr0n. In a few minutes, I’ll go outside to bring the rest of my containers to the front yard. The next step is to create my deer fence, if the ground is soft enough to drive in the stakes. If not, I’ll start getting the soil in the containers mixed.

Last summer was the first my tomatoes didn’t prosper. The weather then was not good for tomatoes — too cloudy — but I did some research last week and I think the real problem is that the soil had compacted in the containers and the plants couldn’t thrive because they weren’t getting enough air. I unwittingly did the same thing to my transplanted seedlings, some of which were put into potting mix from last year that was very compacted. I could not figure out why those seedlings were pale and not growing like the others — but as soon as I squished the cups they were in to loosen the potting mix, they began to send out leaves and thrive. I’ll show pictures sometime this week. The garden supplies I was able to purchase thanks to the donations of my dear gentle readers should ensure that this year the tomatoes will have the air and nutrition they need to thrive — I thank you, and the plants thank you!

One reply on “Photos of my heirloom tomatoes from September 2007”