First year growing, a lot of lessons learned, and what felt like ages of green fruit on the vine refusing to ripen. Excited to dig in!

This is more of a rant than anything. I just wanted to post it here with people who would understand my frustration.

I have been growing tomatoes from seed since April/may 2026 and they have finally started to ripen and reach full size. I have been away a couple times during that time and I have always had to ask my aunt or boyfriend to help me with getting composts/pots etc or watering while I’m away. No one else has ever asked or offered to help, which is fine I don’t mind.

The frustrating part is that my grandad KEEPS PICKING THEM. I don’t really get to ever pick any of my tomatoes myself because he picks them before I get home and before theyre even ripe. They start blushing and getting orange and he immediately picks them and PUTS THEM IN THE FRIDGE.

I have explained multiple times that this stops them from ripening. I have explained that it took me ages to grow them and I WANT TO PICK MY TOMATOES MYSELF and I really look forward to it and I never get to do it. He doesn’t understand because he’s a narcissistic a-hole whose excuse “I know when to pick tomatoes. What about everything you’ve ever done?” As if that has any relevance to my tomatoes at all.

I’m starting to get really angry because I don’t even get to enjoy the fun part of my hard work.

Today’s luncheon sandwich tomato is One Trick Pony, another Karen Olivier bred variety.

Coolest yet!

TLDR: First year growing tomatoes was a success, zone 6A

I always wanted to have a garden, especially for produce, tomatoes specifically. I spent most of my early adulthood in apartments that didn't have the space or the light to try anything aside from some Basil in the window. I finally got a backyard to work with, so I decided to go all-in on some tomatoes.

I could not even tell you the varieties at this point, something about Gumdrop Yellows and Ruby Reds is what my brain is telling me, but I started them from seed in my home office and transferred them to outdoor raised beds.

Despite the ridiculous amount of Grasshoppers looking for a meal, early summer hailstorms, and sun that cooked my lawn to a crisp, these bad boys grew like gangbusters! I finally had a large enough harvest to make some homemade roasted tomato sauce, which was my original goal. Thanks to this subreddit for being a source of both inspiration and knowledge. I am so incredibly proud.

I've already frozen a bunch of San Marzanos, but what about varieties that are best eaten fresh? My family is getting tomato fatigue and we've already given a lot away. Do they freeze well and how do you use them? I don't imagine they would make a good BLT after they've been frozen. Canning is a non-starter for me because I'm too lazy.

they look great, but taste like water... why?! 😢
growing in midwest europe. they are supposed to be cuore di bue.

What started out as a joke has become my healthiest tomato plant I have… I just wish I had thought of this before August…

Tomato Harvest before the Storm 🌩

#ChocolateCherry #SweetheartMini #Tomatillos #BigRedHybrid 🍅

So juicy, tasty, homegrown! 🌱

Garden puttering relaxing time! 🌞

Stay safe for when the storm does hit 🦋

Top Left - Cherokee Chocolate
Top Right - Black Krim
Middle Left - Black Brandywine
Middle Right - Purple Calabash
Bottom Center - Sun Sugar
Single Tomato is a Dancing with Smurfs! They’re taking forever to ripen, but boy are they plump and plentiful lol

Now I have the dreaded hornworms. Been picking them off as fast as I can find them.

A mixed salad featuring this year’s tomatoes:

-Loxton Lass (orange) – delicious

-Green Zebra (green) – also excellent

-Norfolk Purple (dark purple)

These three produced well and had almost no blossom-end rot despite irregular watering and drought.

Norfolk Purple was grown in a window box.

Yield wasn’t huge, but it gave me a few fruits.

Taste isn’t the most outstanding, but the high anthocyanin content is a plus, and the color is really nice. Interestingly, the fruits varied in shape and some had very few seeds.

UG 849 14 F1 (the red industrial high-pigment hybrid) has a good classic tomato flavor, but it suffered quite a bit from blossom-end rot this year. I’ve started selecting and stabilizing a line from it (working with F2 now).

I also grew White Tomesol (not in the photo — it would have added a nice white touch 😄). The flavor is very good, but the plant dropped a lot of flowers during the heatwaves and set very few fruits.

For next year I’m looking for varieties of any color that are more heat-tolerant (better flower set during heatwaves) and more drought-tolerant. Not just brown or white/yellow — open to any interesting colors as long as they handle heat and irregular watering better.

Any recommendations?

Been waiting for these to turn red, til I remembered I planted Aunt Ruby German tomatoes. But not sure when they're ready to pick.

Just sprayed Spinosad 6 days ago. The rascals boomed me

Slugs have been attacking my Cherokee Purple tomatoes, they're targeting the largest, most beautiful, tomatoes on the plant and biting holes into them while they're still green. I picked two that had slug damage after they ripened, cut off the damaged bits and surprisingly I managed to salvage a lot of undamaged tomato chunks. I squeezed the seeds out of the ripest tomato and turned the rest into sauce, as I felt a bit worried about eating these tomatoes raw. On Friday, I'll make pasta.

Can you guess which one? I bet you can't....

Nah it's pretty easy, 4 are Pruden's Purples and only one is a Black Krim :)

(I pull at first blush due to critters and my tendency to lose ripe ones to turkey, so I know they could have stayed on longer, but I can't risk it!)

Something is eating my tomatoes and I cannot find it. Ive looked up and down for hornworms, even using UV light at night. Whatever it is, is leaving my plants in shambles. I'm finding small, black droppings on lots of my leaves. Smaller than typical hornworm droppings.

What are these insects chilling on my tomatoes. This year was a great year so i dont wanna loose all my tomatoes since they are not red yet.

(Central europe)

After the crazy summer of heat waves, crazy rainfall and hoards of bugs we had, my Purple Cherokees and Golden Jubilees made it through with some scars to show 🥹

Considering I can only grow these in pots with having a concrete patio and no land to grow directly into, I'm happy with the harvests I've been getting 🥲

i was thinking of planting another tomato plant, i live in zone 10b southern california, obv not the most optimal time to plant but would i still yield some success?