Sunday, June 14, 2009

Finally Fruit!

While slightly out of focus it is still ample proof that we are finally getting tomatoes. I know many California gardeners both in the north and south who have already had tomatoes starting to ripen and in some cases ready for harvest, we got a later start. I was trying to be patient and heed expert advice to wait until the soil was indeed warm enough for setting out the garden. (I almost never wait this late -- we planted May 10 -- but with the late rains, things didn't get going as fast as I would have liked.)

With the recent weeks of almost coastal-like weather we've been having, I have been seeing more tomato blossoms fall than set. Skies have been partly cloudy for more than a week, temperatures have remained about 10 degrees below normal only reaching the low 80s and a 10 mph breeze blows throughout most of the day.

So this morning I was pleasantly surprised while taking a look at how things are progressing to find this specimen, about one-inch in diameter, it is a Mr. Stripey. Further inspection resulted in a find of two smaller fruits on the Shady Lady. I had resigned myself to not seeing fruit until temperatures were well back into the normal range of upper 80s to low 90s.

With the weather expected to heat up late in the week I am hoping for many more similar sightings. Now I just have to figure out how to keep those pesky scrub jays away once they begin turning red.

4 comments:

MAYBELLINE said...

Scrub jays haven't bothered me yet. In fact, they help glup down the grubs and caterpillars. Sparrows are the beasts I call on my "cat crew" to eradicate. I'm trying to find the metallic tape to shoo them away.

Sadly, we have to endure the heat to enjoy a bounty of tomatoes.

Bill Bird said...

Christine!

Win $100 at the Home Depot! Visit my blog for details!

http://sacramentogardening.blogspot.com/

MAYBELLINE said...

Curious to know how your tomatoes are coming along.

Christine said...

Funny you should ask, I just picked the first three to ripen last night. I have lots of beautiful large green tomatoes, however. This year they have done so much better than last. I'm looking forward to a bumper crop...eventually. I did hang a few CDs from fishing line to deter birds. So far, so good!