The $75 tomato
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sometimes all the effort, locally sourced seedlings, good intentions, and compost in Greater Philadelphia will not make for a good crop. Here’s a photo of only part of my heirloom tomato jungle. 
Big healthy plants, organically fed (easy on the nitrogen—I was careful about that), appearing to the casual observer as one heck of a tomato wonderland.
This little guy is the first one this summer. Halfway through August. 
Not exactly $75 tomato—the squat patio tomato plants have been producing, thank goodness, but still.
In early July when I should have been seeing lots of little green gumdrops and did not, I did see that lots of flowers had fallen off. I hit the books and the web for the solution. My guess is that the extreme heat caused them to drop because the night temps stayed in the high 70s and low 80s for weeks. Now, my plants are flowering again, it’s cooler outside, and I’m hoping for a late bumper crop. So hang in there to all of you who set out on the path of locavoracious righteousness and have yet to reach the mountain top.
Posted by Allison on 08/17 at 08:19 PM
It’s comforting to here that my tomatoes aren’t the only “late bloomers”. actually, mine aren’t necessarily blooming at all—yet! a damn raccoon ate my first tomatoes from my patio tomato plants (and that from my ROOF garden), so I’ve yet to enjoy those tomatoes, as well.
good luck!
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I’m also having kind of a crappy tomato year so far...although mine has more to do with the squirrels stealing my frickety frackety tomatoes than anything else.
Hope springs eternal!