Sigh of Relief

When my Black Krim had gone for over two months with only one tomato and a string of blossom drops, I was not feeling very happy about the plant's prospects. I couldn't imagine what I was doing wrong, as my other tomato plant (the Lemon Boy) was doing just fine with bearing fruit at nearly half the height.

I had tried "spanking" my tomatoes and spraying apple juice on blossoms, but it just didn't seem to be working (the apple juice appeared to encourage blossom drop). Then I started flicking the sepals of open flowers, causing them to vibrate that way. I didn't know if it would work. I had to be patient and wait.

Well, about a week later I can breathe a momentary "sigh of relief." A number of blossoms on the Black Krim started to show possible signs of being pollinated. First, the blossoms weren't dropping after the petals began to wither. Second, the connecting stem to several flowers were thickening. Third, the sepals were actually growing longer, instead of closing up. And fourth, I could start to see a slight bulge in the base of the blossoms. This was all looking VERY good.

But of course, I didn't want to get ahead of myself. At the 4 week mark after the first tomato had appeared, another fruit started to grow. In my eagerness to get a better look at it, I pulled off the withering petals that covered it. There it was, a pale green little pearl. But two days later, it started to develop a brown spot on it that completely enveloped it within a few more days. The fruit died. I'm not sure exactly why this happened. It could have been my early exposure of the fruit by pulling the petals wasn't a good idea. Or, the plant just wasn't quite ready to support another fruit. So, whatever the reason, I decided never to pull the withered petals again!

I'll wait a couple of days before taking photos, because I'd rather show more substantial development. Meanwhile, we had a rather extensive rainy evening yesterday that extended overnight.  When I checked on my tomatoes this morning, the smaller Lemon Boy had started splitting! It wasn't quite ripe, but there was no choice to take it off the vine.  Alas, I didn't think to use my camera and ended up eating it without any visual evidence.  How did it taste?  Good!  A little "green", in that it could have used a few more days to ripen, but it was certainly better than store bought.  The larger Lemon Boy is still on the vine and hasn't split. It's still firm so I may leave it another day, maybe two. When I remove it I'll definitely document it and review the flavor experience.

Tomorrow: First eating!