Ball and Chain

This is a picture of my Black Cherry tomatoes. The first two are about to ripen and there are probably 30 unblemished fruit on the vine. I'm quite excited about this since it is consistently mentioned as a favorite among the e-growing community, but is completely new to me.

I've been out of town a couple of times in the last two weeks. This, combined with a week of 90 degree weather has left my rooftop garden somewhat weary. There are still plenty of greenies on the vine, but not as many as if I had given them the constant care and attention they want at this point. The bigger pots really want 2+ gallons of water a day in this heat.

I'm still picking off a fruit or two a day with blossom end rot, but this seems to have subsided on the bloody butcher. I also picked off my first tomato horn worm yesterday. Basically, it's a 3 inch green caterpillar that I found because of all the former-tomato plant-now-caterpillar poop next to one of my plants. I'll post a picture of the next one; this one had to die fast.

In spite of the various things afflicting my garden, I'm still going to have toms soon. Here's Big Beef. The yellowing leaves you see are the result of one of my vacation-droughts the poor guy suffered.