First Fall Tomato Transplants

A month or so ago, I noticed some tomato seedlings coming up volunteer in the garden.  I have no idea what variety they are as we plant 9 or 10 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and it could have been any of those.  I carefully dug them up, potted them and have been taking care of them hoping to get a good head start for fall tomatoes. 

Fall tomatoes are a little tricky.  Plant them too soon in the heat of the summer and they won't fruit.  Plant them too late and an early freeze will wipe out any of your dreams of fall tomatoes.  But hit it just right and you've got terrific tomatoes - no pests or diseases to speak of and it is fun to garden in the cool temperatures.

The tomatoes (13 plants in all) were ready to go into the ground.  Some of them were a couple feet tall already.  I transplanted them on the first row south of the okra and put in the first strand of Florida Weave Trellis.

As you can see, we already have a bloom on one of the plants.  Will it make fruit?  Hard to tell.  We're still in the hot days of summer.  92 degrees today with a heat index of 101.  So far most of the transplanted fall tomatoes look really healthy.

Except for this one.  I know what you're thinking: Tomato hornworms!  Nope, would you believe me if I told you it was a male cardinal (red bird)?  We watched it fly down to where we had the tomatoes potted and snip off the leaves with his beak and fly off.  Tricia tried her best to scare him away.

I did notice there is some new growth coming from where the suckers grow.  Hopefully, since we've moved the tomatoes when we transplanted them, they'll be safe from the cardinal attacks.

I do have a problem with my garden labeling.  We have some heavy duty plastic signs and normally use a Sharpie to write the name of the plant on the label and then stick it in the ground by the plant.  Here's what's happened: the strong, blistering summer sun burns the Sharpie ink right off of the label.  By the time harvest time comes, you cannot read what variety you're harvesting, what variety did well, and what did not.

We're trying an experiment using the same plastic labels, but a different ink.  Rather than using a Sharpie, we're trying out a paint pen.  Will the sun cook the paint off the label?

That's the burning question.  We'll find out soon enough.