I planted 21 tomato plants this year in a overreaction to the chipmunk massacre of 2020. I grew 11 plants last year and was only able to rescue a couple of slicers before chipmunks took bites out of all the rest that ripened from July through September. It didn’t matter what protective measures I took—they still found a way to get to them before I did.
Since my tomato crop was a failure, I did what most gardeners and farmers do in that situation, and I optimistically looked ahead to next year instead.
Last August I went on Nextdoor and asked neighbors what their favorite (best-tasting!) garden tomatoes are, and then I compiled a list with all of their comments. I got more than 50 different suggestions! People are very passionate about the tomatoes they grow.
When the seed catalogs arrived last November, choosing which cultivars I was going to try (thankfully there was some overlap in neighbors’ suggestions) proved very difficult. And that’s why I have 21 tomato plants growing in my yard (16 different cultivars)!
The first to ripen was the well-loved cherry tomato ‘Sungold’ which many people recommended and is known as one of the sweetest tomatoes you can grow. The second one was a “slicer” (I’m using quotations because the fruits are so small) that wasn’t on any neighbors’ list. I got enticed by ‘Fourth of July’ in a seed catalog because it’s a determinate that supposed to be one of the first tomatoes to ripen. I haven’t tasted it yet because I’m yanking all my tomatoes off the vine before they ripen fully. I don’t want to do that, but I’m hoping to stay ahead of the rodents this year!
Most of my tomatoes have little black spots on them—most likely Bacterial Speck.
It comes from water splashing onto the fruit. I water my plants at the base, but mother nature obviously doesn’t. Thankfully this disease doesn’t affect a tomato’s taste—it’s mostly a cosmetic problem.
Just like everything else with gardening, once you figure how to prevent one kind of attack from a rodent or bug or disease, there always seems to be another.
But I’d much rather deal with black spots on tomatoes I can still eat rather than no tomatoes at all.