1st tomato of the season.
 

Sweet 100s

You guys in the south are killing me! So envious, we had a light dusting of snow early this morning here in the DC area. :cry:

Great picture. Won't be long now.

sun rave roma

Dwarf Wild Fred
sown 1/19

Oops. I think the 2nd pic is called golden rave Roma.

[QUOTE=lexusnexus;459491]You guys in the south are killing me! So envious, we had a light dusting of snow early this morning here in the DC area. :cry:[/QUOTE]

Same here. Garden is covered with snow again. :(

I'm in the south and haven't put a single tomato in the ground yet. Due to the late freezes and frequent heavy rains preparing my beds is nearly a month behind schedule.
The cold winter also slowed down my seed starting because my greenhouse stayed so cold and dark. I have a bunch of tomatoes and peppers more than ready to go in the ground if I can just get the ground ready.

Bill

Decherdt nice! How densely are you planting? Those look like tons of small plants behind the subject plant and tightly planted.

Ok, now I see you have a picture album - very cool. Did not know about that feature. So you are planting Elbon rye and Vetch as a winter cover crop? Would love to hear about! How is it working? Do you till it under at some point, etc.

Dewayne mater

:wait:C'mon Dwayne, when/where's you 1st mater pic?! Bet you got an Indian Stripe hiding somewhere{/end obligatory neighborly tomato rivalry element /goto pertinent info}

Rye cover topic is (started) over here..[URL]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=35455[/URL], tilled it under last Spring, trying no till this Spring with live cover since it won't burn down organically, vines on 30" centers, bushes a bit more crowded on 24" centers.

Sungold, one of many setting fruit.
Worth
[ATTACH]47717[/ATTACH]

Guys I really feel for you, I have lived in the deep south most of my 60 yrs. I cannot imagine anyone having a choice to live in the north year round and put up with that crappy weather. It's April 2nd at 11:00am 71 deg. with a light westerly wind. Wish you were here!
Mark...

Gosh! I am so envious. The weather has just started to stay consistently above freezing point during the days. Nights are still very cold. Maybe in a month we will start putting tomatoes in the ground. For now all we can do is watch you guys with fruits on the vines. Why did I choose Chicago as my town? I could be somewhere south with tons of sun and on top of it all, I am a biker. I took my bike only a couple of times this year. Maybe in a month everything will go back to normal and I will be less jealous.

These are growing in a greenhouse, or came out of my basement after being grown under lights during the winter, but a tomato is a tomato...

Ot'Jagodka. My earliest most productive tomato. I am guessing that this particular plant is a naturally occurring F2 hybrid, because the flower structure is more open than typical for this variety and it (and it's mother) were more precocious and more productive than the rest of the Jagodka plants.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/tomato-ot-jagodka-2015-04-04.jpg[/IMG]

F1 hybrid between DX52-12 and Ot'Jagodka. I'm expecting these to ripen in the next few weeks which will be just in time to provide F2 seed to grow out for the current growing season. I am more excited about the cross between Hillbilly and Jagodka, but that's taking it's own sweet time.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/tomato-hybrid-DX52-12-X-Jagodka.jpg[/IMG]

Finally noticed the first few tomatoes today. This one, embarrassingly, is mislabeled as Black Cherry. I grow that one annually and this is definitely not BC. Hmm, its a mystery.

I also see a few green peach aphids in the pic. (Need to hit everything with some soapy spray) and see if I can discourage these guys who are pretty numerous. Decided to go with Lady bugs and nectar. Put out both tonight and hope they stick around long enough to do the job. All bugs seem to be prolific this year after a very wet late winter early spring with the last freeze being about March 3.

Dewayne Mater