Waiting for Brandywines

Seattle's weather has been downright schizophrenic lately. We had a pretty big heat wave over the weekend with temps up in the 90s. That's hot for us. Especially when it's humid. Then it's pretty unbearable. Before all of you East Coasters complain that "we have no idea what real weather is like" out here, remember that we have to deal with clouds and gloom for much of the year. And that in Seattle, when it's humid, it's usually raining. This Northwest gal's body just isn't built for humidity!

Every day, I go out and check the tomatoes. Following a tip from Barbara Kingsolver, I've been keeping track in my journal about which varieties are producing quite a few tomatoes, and which aren't. The tiny yellow taxi plant I damaged with a Wall-O-Water (future tip -- these things aren't really all that self-supporting) has produced three tomatoes for me so far, and there's a nice big one on the vine that will get ripe. The Peacevine cherry tomatoes are finally starting to ripen up. The plant literally has hundreds of tomatoes on it. And they're super tasty! The stupice and rainbow heirloom varieties are all producing tomatoes quite nicely, although nothing is ripe yet. But the big prize are the brandywines.

The brandywine tomato is my favorite tomato. It is big, juicy, and just about the tastiest thing ever. I know growing brandywines can be a challenge given our cool Northwest climate, but I wanted to try. Every day, I go out and check my red and yellow brandywine plants. And most days, nada. The yellow brandywine has two tomatoes on it and appears to be pretty healthy. The red brandywine has only one, and its blossoms are falling off.

Now, being a semi tech-savvy gardener, I googled why tomato blossoms can dry up and fall off. Turns out that extreme variations in temperature could be a culprit. And we've gone from 60 to 90 back to 70 again. A couple sites recommended that I change my watering practices, watering once or twice a week deeply instead of every other day. I will also try this and see what happens.

Hopefully I will have some brandywines soon. If not, I found out at the Wallingford Farmers Market today that I'll soon be able to buy 20 pounds of canning tomatoes for $25. Who wants to help me with Can-a-pa-looza?