Tuesday, March 22, 2011

It's tomato planting time!

It's amazing to me that a plant can go from a tiny seed to this in under two months and in a couple more months, these will be giant vines (hopefully) loaded with fruit.


My tomato obsession is reaching a peak right now and I'm looking forward to BLTs, salsa, pasta with fresh sauce, tomato and mozzarella salad, sliced tomatoes with S&P...  Essentially I think about tomatoes all day long and once and a while I even dream about them.  There is a slight chance that I have some sort of problem.  :)

I'm growing all open-pollinated varieties this year, some of which are saved seeds from last summer and some are new (to me) varieties. 

Varieties for 2011:

1. Aunt Ruby's German Green
2. Aunt Ruby's Yellow Cherry
3. Amish Paste
4. Mortgage Lifter
5. Pruden's Purple
6. Black Krim
7. Atkinson
8. Orange Oxheart
9. Arkansas Traveler
10. Great White
11. Pineapple
12. Ananas Noire
13. Riesentraube
14. large fruited cherry
15. German Pink
16. German Johnson
17. Green Zebra
18. Black Prince
19. Rutgers
20. Julia Child
21. Gary Ibsen's Gold
22. Cherokee Purple
23.Big Rainbow
24. Big Red
25. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red (not sure if this one will make it)
26. Old German


I think I'm forgetting a couple, but I'm drawing a blank right now.  Some of these will be single plants, just to see if we like them and others, such as Rutgers and Amish Paste, will be planted in groups to freeze for future use.  I will also plant extras in an attempt to thwart the tomato-stealing squirrels!  Grrrr!

I had hoped to start planting today, but it was so windy I was afraid they would all just be beaten to death.  Hopefully tomorrow the winds will be calmer and I can start getting these in the ground.

Edited to add:

I knew I forgot a couple!

27. Boxcar Willie
28. Mule Team (I think this one may have been blown to death by our 40 mph winds this week)