Picked my first tomato today! It was a Valencia....

I picked the orange one on the top though it is too early. I just got too excited and couldn't wait. There are patient gardeners out there, and I'm not always on that list, especially when it comes to tomatoes. For the record, it was a cold miserable February day when I planted that seedling.

The cooler climate tolerant Valencias have been the first tomatoes to develop here by the beach.

The earliest photo of the Valencias

Latest look at the Valencia tomatoes

These are the first tomatoes to develop, the cooler climate tolerant Valencia.

Presenting the Valencias two weeks ago...

The earliest photo of the Valencias

Valencia tomatoes

These are the first tomatoes on my Valencia, a cooler climate tomato plant. Though I bought this as a seedling from Hayground Organics at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, the information on Gary Ibsen's Tomatofest site indicates this is an heirloom hailing from Maine. This seedling was planted in February of this year. In April, I took this photo of the first tomatoes. You can see how much they've grown.

Planting another cooler climate tomato: Japanese Black Trifele

Growing tomatoes one block from the beach in Southern California means making silly little adjustments, such as planting cooler climate tomatoes.

Today, I planted a Japanese Black Trifele, another beauty I bought from Jimmy and Logan Williams Hayground Organics, who sell high quality plants at the 3rd Street Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Saturday and Wednesday.

So far, I have in addition to the Japanese Black Trifele, a Stupice, a Black Cherry, a Valencia, and a Siberian planted, along with three volunteers of unknown heritage. The Black Cherry and Siberian tomatoes were grown from seeds planted in early December. I've written about how I plant my tomatoes in this earlier post.

First tomatoes

Today we are in what we call a cold and rainy spell for us folks in Southern California. That means night temps are down to 51 F while day temps are up to 61 F. Yes, absolutely freezing. And then we had amazing winds preceding the storm front. They felt as though they were directly from the frozen lands up north. We are not in the middle of tropical weather.



Nevertheless, being brave, intrepid and perhaps a bit foolish, I now have planted three tomato plants, all cold-tolerant (Valencia, Black Cherry, and Stupice) . Note that I have three volunteers growing quietly in the darkest corner of my plot while I have been railing about the need to plant cold-tolerant tomatoes here one block from the beach.



My Valencia has at least three wee tomatoes, of which one you can see in the photo below.

Here's the Black Cherry, grown from seed, December 2009.

Here's the Stupice, bought from the Santa Monica Farmers Market, Jimmy and Logan Williams, Organic Hayground.

Cold tolerant tomato, Valencia

I may be foolhardy or even a bit impetuous but I just had to do it: I planted my first tomato plant last month in February. A cold tolerant beauty called Valencia, I bought it from Hayground Organic Gardening. Jimmy and Logan Williams sell all sorts of wonderful plants at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market on Saturday and Wednesday.

We had a warm spell this week, and the Valencia responded well. I find growing tomatoes here by the coast to be a challenge. We experience cold overcast foggy summers when the rest of the Los Angeles basin basks in heat and sun. Not surprisingly, last summer, it was the cold tolerant varieties which produced tomatoes, such as my Paul Robeson and Carmello.

Family: Solanaceae, Solanum lycopersicum