May 10th Update

My four San Marzano tomatoes growing in containers. The far left container is 10 gallon and features a much younger, San Marzano 2 that was transplanted on May 10th. The center three San Marzano tomatoes were transplanted April 19th and are in blue 25 gallon containers, a good, large size for a large tomato plant. The far right beige container is about 20 gallons (?) and was also transplanted April 19th.

Good strong growth (since transplanting) despite a lack of significant rains common for April. In the future, my garden will be located in the panorama shot below.

These are NOT the ideal cages for San Marzano tomatoes, (too short & flimsy), but since I have a chain link fence behind them, I can use this to my advantage. See below (June 5th update) where I have modified these cages to accomodate the thick, bush growth.

Pink San Marzano

As noted above, I am desperately trying to get a rare pink San Marzano tomato to grow despite a late start this season. I planted 2 seeds each in 6 peat pellets and only 3 germinated. It is May 10th and all I have is some small seedlings about 2-3 inches tall. Despite this late start, I am determined to get them going this year so I can report on this rare San Marzano as well as have plenty of seeds for next year. If I have to, I will finish out the season in a greenhouse in order to get fruit from this plant.

Future Garden Area

(Opens larger image in new window.) More clearing and work needs to be done before this garden area is completed, including the installation of raised beds and irrigation. This is behind our house and includes 6500 square feet. There is probably another 65,000 square feet of garden space off to the right of this image, which is to the north, - so there is plenty of room to grow, or grow all our own food I should say. Behind where I am standing to take this picture, is a well I just found out is functional - which is great news.

Update June 5th:

First, let me apologize for not updating sooner. We are remodeling our kitchen and it's taking about 3x longer than expect. It always does.

After May 10th, we have been blessed with lots of Spring showers (later than usual, but welcome nonetheless) mixed with a lot of Sunshine and warm temperatures. Oklahoma weather is really good on tomatoes during the first few months of the season. As you can see below, growth has been just phenomenal since we last updated. Little San Marzano tomatoes started popping out around May 24th and have grown to what you see below in just 2 weeks.

Each of the four older San Marzano's have about 10 to 15 tomatoes on each plant. The far left plant is a San Marzano 2 tomato plant that was transplanted on May 10th. I hope you are not confused: Far left, one San Marzano 2 tomato transplanted May 10th. Containers 2 through 5, three blue and one beige, are 4 San Marzano tomato plants transplanted April 19th.

June 5th Update Continued on NEXT PAGE>>>