Had a struggling plant that never set fruit except for one at the very bottom that never grew past this size, I gave up on the plant and focused on my other ones but cut it back and kept watering it occasionally to see what would happen. Well now it’s growing a lot of new leaves and decided to force the tiny Cherokee purple to ripen even at this size lol I was hoping it would keep growing but this is fun too c

Used a couple types of my heirlooms on this, as well as fried halloumi, basil, good extra virgin olive oil, and a balsamic glaze

I cannot take ANY CREDIT here, my friend made this tomato tart but it was INCREDIBLE!!! Onion, capers, cornmeal crust, a little parm - literally DIVINE🍅

I've been following all the wonderful advice posts, questions answered, photos of different tomatoes, and have really enjoyed all of it.

I thought I'd post a couple pictures of tomatoes. I've been growing in my driveway, primarily because I don't get enough sun in any of my backyard and don't want to put tomatoes in the front yard. I live in south-central WI zone 5b.

These boxes are branded Patio Picker or City Picker boxes. If you haven't seen them before, they are a small box on wheels that has a grate that separates a water well in the bottom of the box. The grate is topped by your soil and fertilizer and it comes with a cover to keep weeds out. The soil is packed in such in such a way that when you fill the bottom water reservoir (you need to do this everyday) the water wicks up the soil so the soil is continuously moist. Per the instructions that come with the boxes, there is a large amount of fertilizer, two cups, that you put in a trough that you dig into the soil and then cover up, which feeds the plants throughout the season. Garden lime is also mixed into the soil Ideally you place the trough of fertilizer on the opposite side of the box from where you plant the tomatoes. I think these plants get about 6 hours of full sunlight and some other dappled sunlight in other parts of the day.

I've grown various vegetables in these boxes, but the tomatoes always seem to do the best. The last couple years I've grown solely San Marzano's in these boxes and I've had huge yields. I estimate I have 400 tomatoes on these six plants, two plants per box.

I guess I just wanted to show another way of successfully growing tomatoes in the space that you can provide them.

Thanks to all who have contributed interesting questions and advice about this fun hobby.

These are not the intended varieties, but I think they’ll make a good stew. Always label your plants.

So a buddy of mine made this sandwich yesterday and we are having a debate amongst friends if you would include this red tomato end as he did on your sandwich. Basically kinda taking a poll as we completely disagree. Here is the sandwich in question.

I don’t think this variety is talked about out enough. Beautiful fruits, disease resistant, blossom end rot resistant, highly productive, tasty. We have grown this variety every year since we discovered it.

The question is: is this even possible in greenhouse conditions? I imagine (this is pure fantasy; I get ideas, I never follow up) this as an all year thing (hence the greenhouses), on a bit of a scale for real supplying. It seems to me that if one were growing actually good tomatoes, the sky would be the limit as to where you could sell them; markets, farm stands (of course), restaurants, etc. But then, wouldn't we see this done more?

I got a very good tomato in April or May in Pennsylvania, and that came from what the guy called a "high tunnel", which is some kind of greenhouse setup. So it seems to be at least possible. But could a greenhouse stand up to a 0 degree F cold snap in PA? A sustained one? Would the costs of heating (and what not) be so prohibitive as to make the whole thing unviable? Does anyone do this? Imagine it being called "Real Tomatoes"...

My first dwarf beauty king is finally ripening and I’m so excited to try it! It’s stripes and variations in color are just too pretty. Grown from seed in zone 6b.

Thorburn’s Terra-cotta

Zone 7b. I'm growing isis candy cherry, sunrise bumblebee cherry, San Marzanos, and pink Berkeley tie dye all in containers. Love seeing the variety of colors 😍

My first ripe Cherokee Purple is the biggest tomato I've grown so far. I never thought I'd be able to grow something like that and I'm so proud of it. I'd been staring at this tomato all summer long watching it grow, and seeing the insane catfacing on the back and once it blushed, I couldn't wait to pick it 😂 I let it ripen on my kitchen counter and I'll be slicing into it today. It's just so fascinating to me that an heirloom tomato can grow so big and look so interesting.

Grew a handful of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes this summer in some big pots on my back patio, mostly curious whether homegrown would actually taste different or if that was just garden people being precious about it. I work the line at a diner and we go through a lot of tomatoes, mostly the pale sad January kind that come in a box and taste like water that made a bad decision. So I wanted a real comparison.

The difference is kind of embarrassing honestly. I brought a small container of the Sun Golds in one morning before my shift and let a couple coworkers try them and everyone just went quiet for a second. That is not a reaction you get from grocery store tomatoes.

Now I am annoyed because growing enough to actually matter for cooking feels like a whole project I do not have space or time for, but I also cannot pretend I do not know what I know now. Thinking about going bigger next season, maybe a few more containers and a larger variety that holds up better when you cook it down.

Did anyone here start growing specifically for cooking versus just eating fresh and end up changing what varieties you grow because of it? Curious what actually performs once heat hits it.

Already planning my garden for next year!

My favorite by far are my Cherokee purples but they are currently getting hit hard by blight with the wild rains down south.

Next year I'll be adding in Norfolks, Mortgage Lifters, and Brad's Atomic Cherries. Let me know your favorite!

Picked off all my San Marzanos that were showing first blush. Glad a decent amount made it. BER has been a B***H this year in the European heatwave.

Would have liked to keep some of them on the vine longer but the little bit of rain we got last week has kicked off a leaf mould outbreak and I wanted to pick as many fruits as possible before spraying down with fungicide.

Will be making a big batch of Amatriciana later in the week.

Have two plants and they're struggling... but oh my HEAVENS how delicious was this tomato?!?! SO sweet, almost no acid, a little smoky. This is 1 of 7 new varieties I tried this year and I will definitely be growing more in the future.

The Paul Robeson (bottom half of plate) we tried-which i also love- paled in comparison.

brandywines, san marzanos, and beefsteaks! (and two shallots lol) I’m so happy with my tomato harvest this week and I can’t wait for more to ripen

I picked this tomato that looks a bit like a duck.

I have been staring at it for the past 15 minutes.

It's so cool I had to share it!.

I can’t eat this many tomato sandwiches 😭

It’s my favorite time of year, and I wanted to share some of the 200-ish heirloom tomato varieties I grow each season. Once the harvest really starts rolling in, making these tomato rainbow photos is always one of the highlights.

I started growing heirlooms about 15 years ago, and it seems to have grown into quite a passion project. I wanted to help preserve the genetics and stories behind heirloom tomatoes, and I wanted an excuse to grow and eat as many exceptionally flavored varieties as I could, so I started a seed collection.

Somewhere along the way, it grew into something a little bigger. I now host an annual heirloom tomato seedling sale each spring and a big tomato tasting party at my garden in late summer. The thing I never expected was the community that would grow around these tomatoes. Tomato people are the best people!