Upside-Down Tomatoes; Year Two, September Update

Grumpy's Castle; 13 September 2010 --

Good grief, Charlie Brown!! Here it is mid-September and Grumpy hasn't posted an update on his Upside-Down tomatoes for almost two months! What has been going on? Stay here and I'll show you.

The first thing to say is that our Resident Grandson's diligent care of the tomatoes, during the Grand Mother's and Grumpy's absence in early July, resulted in them being healthy in spite of the very hot, dry Summer we had. Grumpy tries to be nice to this Grandson, since he was so good to take such good care of Grumpy's tomatoes and the lawn. It is kind of hard to do this even though there is the possibility that we will get to share a Lemon Meringue Pie some day.

The other notable thing that happened after Grumpy returned from his July vacation, was that the Sun Gold was moved from around the corner where it had been originally hung, and now hangs in a row with the other three plants, each spaced about 3 feet apart along the Southwest (street) side of the house. At least they all get pretty good mid-day and afternoon sun here.

The Sun Gold plant bears small, bite-size fruit that turn from a gold color to a deeper Orangey-gold color -- and then, if they are not picked, they drop off! Grand Mother and Grumpy agree this is our favorite tomato to nibble on. As you may notice, the plant is prolific in bearing a great many fruits.

The Early Girl has given us a few vine-ripened fruit this year, but the size and flavor have been disappointing; not as much "tomato" flavor as we would like. Also, all of the larger tomatoes seem to have pretty tough skin. Grumpy has not determined what causes this yet.

The Beefsteak Hybrid, which should have fruit about the size of a Grapefruit, has barely given more than two or three small tomatoes so far. Some of these fruit are also grotesquely shaped; again Grumpy has not yet determined why.

The Fantastic, the Grand Mother's favorite canning tomato (she used to go to Wenatchee each summer and haul back over 100 pounds of these, bringing them back and canning them the same day!), has not yet produced a ripe fruit. Some early ones developed "blossom rot", which Grumpy found was the result of the soil being too acidic. A cupful of Dolomite lime in each planter seemed to resolve that problem. Was a cup too much? Was it not enough? Grumpy doesn't know; the grotesqueness occurred before the lime was added.

Next year, Grumpy may concentrate on just two plants: maybe just two Sun Golds.