Status of Tomatoes grown in Central NJ (Monmouth County) garden [will they ever get red ?]

[Justa Lurker]

I was also one of those people wondering if/when my tomatoes would ever ripen and be ready for picking. I had almost given up hope....everyday I would check the garden and they would still be green :-(

BTW, I planted them around the last week of May or thereabouts.

Finally, the holdouts have suddenly begun to ripen. Perhaps it's the cooler (relatively speaking) weather lately ? We sure haven't had much rain these last couple of weeks.

I posted two digital pictures (taken this morning) for you to see at

One is of today's "harvest", and the other is fairly representative of the dozen or two remaining on the vines.

This is my first year gardening with any kind of serious intent, so everything is "new" to me. If you have any comments or suggestions after taking a look at the photos, then I'd be glad to hear them. Maybe they will be useful to some of the other beginners too !

P.S. My wife ---and the friends with whom we have shared the tomatoes--- assure me that they taste great which is nice to hear :-)

[---Pete---]

------ JL, I'm also in central NJ and I've been gardening here for the past 8 years or so. This year was TERRIBLE! I planted April/Early May as usual but my tomatoes & peppers took an extra 2 or 3 weeks to begin producing. I didn't start harvesting until late July. Not only that, but most of the tomatoes and peppers were much smaller in size than previous years. I only got a fraction of the yield compared to precious years. I'm not sure if it was the hotter dryer weather this year or the fact that had added lots of wood & coal ashes to the soil in April this year. I never did that before.

Anyone from the NJ or PA area care to share their experience this year?

---pete---

[Boron Elgar]

I am in Northern NJ and this is the best year I have ever had for tomatoes. No cracking, no blossom rot, unusually huge and sweet yields of several different varieties. Some were grown in large tubs and others directly in the garden.

It's been tomato heaven up here.

Boron

[---Pete---]

------ Boron, Let me ask, did you do a lot of watering this year? How about fertiziling?

I'm trying to figure out why my garden produced such small tomatoes this year. I know I didn't water enough and I also didn't add any side feedings of 10-10-10 fertilizer to each plant in July as I usually do. Then there is the fact that in April I added about a 10 gallon container of wood & coal ashes to my 100 sq ft garden plot and turned it into the soil before planting. My Garden started great with 6 foot tomato plants and 3 foot pepper plants by early July. But the fruits were only about half the size of previous year. Hmmmmmmmmm.

---pete---

[Boron Elgar]

I watered every day when the heat was on, especially in the tubs. Each garden plant had a circle and mound around it & was watered within that area, so no "sprinklers," only direct to base of plant.

I used Osmocote Vegetable & Bedding (14-14-14) and organic matter from the compost of last year's garden. I toss in some peat moss and a bit of packaged manure. My only "new" add-in was Epsom Salts. That may have been it, or I was just lucky.

Oh, I still got wilt that dam near killed a few plants in tubs (even though they had been scrubbed & were filled with "fresh" bagged potting soil.) but I still got a good yield.

In all my years of gardening, I have learned that some years are great, and some are just ok, and others plain old suck eggs.

The entire garden was very productive this year. In addition to the tomatoes. the cukes, radishes, lettuce, beans, corn, zucchini, herbs, and flowers were all lovely. I have an Earth Box with 6 Brussels sprout plants that are humongous. I am looking forward to a frost to harvest them.

Boron

[---Pete---]

----- Good idea! That's how I do mine too. Only this year, I didn't do much watering so I suspect that was part of my problem.

------ Sounds like a good plan.

------- I usually get a pretty consistant yield, but something was dramaticaly different this year. I suspect that I may have offset the balance of Nitrogen-Phospherous-Potash by adding too much in wood & coal ashes this year. Oh well, I guess I better test the soil and make any needed amendments before planting next year.

Thanks for sharing! Happy Gardening.

---pete---