Harvest Bonus

Well, it’s late July, and despite triple-digit heat,

our tomato plants are surviving and even thriving. 

They’re still putting out yellow blooms and more tomatoes. 
I’m surprised.

But sure enough, this late in the season I always find

yellow and ugly branches to prune off.  So I do. 

Unfortunately, then I am left with top heavy foliage

and ugly bare vines on the bottom.

I guess the vine sacrifices its lower branches… 

Who knows? 

Maybe the plant can support only so much,

and the unnecessary branches yellow and die.

Anyway, my tomato plants are definitely past their peak.

Amazingly, though, they are still producing. 

I picked 65 tomatoes in the 100° heat today.

And then I noticed the foliage on the top looked wrong.

Uh-oh.

Then I noticed a few more things to harvest…

Aarrgghh!!!  Tomato hornworms!  They ate my pretty leaves!

I’ve never had tomato hornworms before,

and I wondered how I got them,

since I’m growing these tomatoes in pots
on a concrete driveway. 

In other words, they didn’t just crawl in.

So after pulling the green creatures off,

I came inside to google such things

to find out where in the world they came from.

Apparently at some point,

either on my driveway or before I purchased them,

some crazy moth responsible for these giant caterpillars

must’ve laid eggs on our plants.  Yuk.

And these suckers are fairly huge, too! 

3-4 inches long. 

And very fat and very tenacious.

 And since they’re green, they really blend in,

making them fairly hard to find.

I guess because it’s been so hot,

I hadn’t been a very good tomato mommy.

We’ve just been watering them to keep them alive,

 and not paying much more attention to them than that. 

In and out quickly with the watering can has been my MO lately.

Plus, to tell ya the truth,

I’ve never encountered them before,

so I truly didn’t know to inspect my plants for them.

But if you’re a tomato-grower, let me tell ya…

Look for dark worm poop and giant green worms! 

Oh, and stems devoid of foliage might also be your first clue.  LOL

Hopefully, we found them all. 

I took a photo last week, and the vines looked beautiful then,

so who knows when they started their massive eating binge.

We pulled off a total of 6!!  Out of the blue!

Good grief, why do I itch so much just thinking about all this??

Good thing the tomatoes are so delicious! 

<whew>

And I still have plenty of basil,

so you know what we’re having for dinner!!

Tomato Basil Pasta Dish    ß my first hyperlink!! 

Hahaha!  I’m SO not-techno!!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog

♥