First Official Ripe Tomato!

I picked my first "official" ripe tomato on Monday.

I had noticed it was ripe on Sunday, but I decided to wait just one more day.  To my surprise, when I went to pick it on Monday, someone else had already taken a bite!  Most likely a bird of some sort.

I found some advice by doing a "google" search and went to work. Now my garden has shiny CD's on each cage. Apparently, birds are afraid of shiny metal objects. Sometimes birds eat tomatoes because they are thirsty. So I put out a water dish for the birds. I also put some mesh around each cage so they can't get in. I think I'm covered now. Next tomato is mine! Within a few days there are several tomatoes that will be ripe.

Tomato Update as of June 13, 2012

I have already eaten 4 ripe tomatoes as of June 13 from my tomato plants. I ate the first one May 25th. However, those 4 were considered "unofficial" ripe tomatoes because I had brought them in the house to ripen. Because of the extremes in temperatures (from very hot to freezing) during May and early June, this has caused "blossom end rot" on the first tomatoes. The tomato looks great from the top, but has a black thick skin on the blossom end of the tomato. They were still very tasty on the inside. The rest of the tomatoes will be great because I've added Natural Guard Tomato food (organic) and egg shells to the soil. As of today (June 13) there are 45 full sized tomatoes beginning to ripen. They are turning a lighter green and should be ripe within the next couple of weeks.

2012 Tomatoes

I have ordered 10 Big Beef tomato plants from Fonsbeck nursery in Mendon, Utah to plant around the week of April 23, 2012. They will be about 3 feet high when I pick them up with blossoms and green tomatoes already growing. This way I will probably have several ripe tomatoes by July 4th, and possibly 1 or 2 by the first week in June. I included the above picture to show what they looked like last year when they were first planted (in wire cages with plastic and lights that go on at night to prevent them from freezing). I plan to do the same method this year.