Green Tomatoes Anyone?

I went out a little while ago to check on the tomato plants. The weather has been quite unsettled lately, so I wanted to check and make sure everyone was doing OK.

Celebrity Hybrid Tomato

I brought my camera out with me, and I shot a few pictures of a few of my tomatoes-to-be. Some are (I think) getting ready to ripen, others are “newborn”. Normally I would have had something ready to eat by now, but we’ve had a colder than normal winter so far. And when the weather is cooler, the slower the tomatoes mature.

Celebrity is the first of the tomatoes I got my photo op with. It’s actually Bush Celebrity, but has been acting a little more like an indeterminate of late; guess it’s due to the weather. The tomato in the photo gets a bit larger each day, and I know one day it will be ready to pluck. Nice shape, though, and blemish-free.

Husky Red Cherry

Next up is Husky Red Cherry. The two tomatoes in the photo have looked like this for the last month now; no size change. It’s only been in the last day or two that I think the color has barely started to change — it’s not quite so green as it had been. Lots of tiny new cherry tomatoes, but these two are the closest to being grown. If they don’t do anything soon, I may consider a doll-sized green tomato pie…

Patio Tomato

Patio has finally quit growing (the tomato that is) and so I’m waiting for it to start changing colors. Then again, it may (again) just be the weather. This particular plant has been less than generous with its flowers and fruits, although I am seeing a bunch of new flowers just starting to be formed.

Baby Tigerella Tomato

The last for the day is the newborn Tigerella tomato. Just about the size of a blueberry, it’s the first one on this heirloom tomato plant. Lots more blooms, though, so hopefully production will start ramping up.

Like I said, with the weather unsettled, the tomatoes aren’t at their best. I’ve even had to bring in most of the seedlings that I had been hardening off, to wait for better weather. Well, growing tomatoes in South Florida in the winter isn’t a whole lot different from growing in the spring further north. At least, not this year.