Tomato Harvest in 10A !

Let me tell you more about what I do and don't do - and then you won't be so impressed.

1) I have a drip irrigation system that waters briefly everyday. I have not hand watered the tomatoes but twice the whole season.

2) Half way to harvest, I cut off the tomato shoots close to the bottom of the plant, even if they had flowers or small fruit on them.

3) Also halfway to harvest, I spent about an hour in the garden using green zip ties to stake up some of the longer more unruly tomato limbs that were going to fruit but were trying to pull the plant over, or were lying on the ground.

4) When I planted, I did use the ubiquitous tomato cage, and these were helpful in keeping the tomato limbs in line when staking.

5) I would do a tomato wander every few days to see how things were progressing, and to check if any creatures had been in the garden. Lest you think that I am always this successful - last year I had barely any tomatoes because uninvited creatures came by and ate all the Madmae Marmande, and all of the other larger fruit. I mostly only had SunGold last year, and because of that I did not even do a taste test.

6) I read somewhere that planting basil in the tomato garden would ward off creatures. I planted two vertical basil plants at each end of the garden. I don't know if this worked or not, but I definitley had a better harvest. Usually I plant marigold around the perimeter, and they were completely ineffective last year so...make your own conclusions!

7) I did not use any kind of bug spray at all. Nada.

8) There have been several weeks of milder weather and I think this helped, so as not to force the tomatoes to ripen too quickly, and while we have had hot weather, so far, no days over 100 degrees and I think that helps too.

9) Overall, I just think that tomatoes are very hearty little guys, and this year they made me really happy. I'm going to try to make a recipe for some spaghetti sauce from our neighbors, the Germanos, that I remember as a kid. I'll let you know if it works!