Hopefully mine is just the way it grows too. Trying out all new varieties this year. 
Those are nice Maria. I am growing Black Japanese Trifele, have you ever grown them, or just the Pink version? What kind of flavor do they have? I don’t have BFT, but am trying Black Krim again this year. How do these two compare to each other?
I was out in the tomato patch last night spraying maybe 15 plants with Bonide and pruning off a bit of diseased branches/leaves. Most of the plants look OK, but it seems like all this rain and humidity is starting contribute to some disease outbreaks. Have you had problems with this where you’re at? I know we are in different locations, but was just wondering. Our weather this week thankfully is supposed to be dry and warm (hi 80’s), so that should help out.
We have some really big fruit on several plants. The biggest ones are about tennis ball size. I think the biggest ones now are Yellow Brandywine, German Green, Black Brandywine and Cherokee Purple.
Some of my fruit is showing some blossom end rot, especially my Russian Queen. I don’t know if it’s all the rain we’ve gotten, and/or maybe a calcium deficiency. But, I’m planning on fertilizing this week with some Tomato Tone, which includes some calcium.
We have a couple plants that are just about as tall as me now, at about 6’. It’s really getting to look like a tomato jungle out there. I tried to give the plants about 4’ of spacing, but some of them are almost touching.
I’ll pass along some new pics of the plants and fruit soon.
@Brenda_nearOmahaNE, what varieties are you trying this year? I kinda went overboard with my selections this year, at over 30 different types (see above). I was looking at seeds online back in the winter, and there were so many that sounded good, so thought I’d try them. Ain’t gonna do 70 plants next year! Just maybe pick 15 of our favorites from the last couple years, and do 2 or 3 of each.
I’ve been out there every day adding more stakes, pruning, weeding, etc. It’s almost a full time job. But, it seems to be paying off, we have lots of plants over 4-5’ tall with plenty of fruit growing. Just hope to keep the deer and diseases at bay long enough to enjoy some mature, tasty fruit.
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I only have a few plants because of my tiny yard. I started with 2 romas, a better boy, and a german queen. One of the romas got hit bad with early blight due to about a weeks worth of rain and 55° nights right after I put them in. I took that one out and sprayed all the rest with a fungicide as soon as it stopped raining. Then it seemed to move straight into summer and so few plants were setting. Luckily July actually cooled off and fruit are setting like crazy.
I don’t see deer here very often. I actually live in the middle of my small town. I do have some VERY rude obnoxious squirrels that have gone so far as to eat the stuffing out of my backyard swings cushions. My new neighbor thinks they are cute and has started feeding them. 
I just keep cleaning up the empty corn husks and hope that keeps them from my tomatoes.
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OK, some new pics of some 'maters, some that you may have seen before, just bigger, and some other varieties.
Gordost Sibiri
Costoluto Fiorentino, a very fluted fruit, looks like a little pumpkin
Yellow Pear, some folks call them little Christmas bulbs. These plants are beasts, they are at least 5’ tall and sprawling out everywhere, and I’ve staked them a lot already.
De Barao, supposedly started in Brazil, but cultivated mostly in Russia nowadays
Mischka
Unknown, maybe some type of Brandywine or German Johnson
Watermelon beefsteak
Orange KY beefsteak, still very green for now
A couple looks at the tomato “jungle”. Sometimes at night I go out there with my spotlight when I’m out doing some varmit patrols, and it almost looks kind of spooky with all those tall gangly plants standing there silhouetted in the dark.
I’m getting impatient with my plants, I just wish they’d break color soon, but I realize it’s still early. Just trying to stay ahead of some disease that’s been rearing its head by spraying with some Bonide. Thankfully, it’s only on a few plants right now, but this week’s weather is supposed to get warmer and dryer, so that should help matters. My double perimeter fence still seems to be keeping the Devil Deer out for now, plus I sprayed some Liquid Fence repellent in the area just to make sure. Fingers crossed until harvest time.
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@subdood_ky_z6b,
I have grown Black Krim a couple years ago and although it was a good tomato, it cracked badly in my climate. Most tomatoes do that in my garden but the Black Krim was especially bad. Black from Tula had medium size round fruits, very prolific, disease resistant and not very tall. The taste was OK, but not excellent with green gel. It cracked somewhat, but not so bad. This year I grow potato leafed version of BFT. It has all the good sides of BFT, plus the deep purple color and very good taste. I hope it will keep its genetics next year.
I grew Japanese Truffle Pink last year in the memory of when my mom and I grew the variety with the same name in Russia. It was very good tasting back then. The recent JTP was fun to grow, the unusual shape and prolific, but not so good tasting, it is more of a cooking tomato. I was very surprised when I saw the truffle shaped tomatoes on one of my BFT plants. So it is a hybrid and I like it very much so far. It is very prolific, do not crack and it is compact. I did not grow Japanese Truffle Black and I do not know how they’ll be comparing to each other.
My garden has very high disease pressure, and I am looking for the disease resistant varieties. And also for the crack resistant and compact indeterminates. This is on top of the production and taste. This year I have less leaf problems, but more rot on the fruits. I spray with neem oil and copper about every week. I have no blossom end rot, possibly because I add powdered eggshells under each plant. I figured out that it does not hurt and it is a free source of plant food.
Very nice tomatoes you have. It seems like they will ripen in a two-three weeks time.
You know Brenda, it’s odd, but out here in the boondocks, we don’t seem to have a lot of problems with squirrels getting after our gardens, it’s mostly deer, and maybe a few rabbits. Guess the squirrels have plenty other things to eat out in the forest besides my crops. But, the deer more than make up for them. It is maddening sometimes dealing with them, I’m always reacting to attacks on our various crops and fruit trees by them.
Good luck on yer 'maters, I too, am glad to see my plants setting all kinds of fruit. Just gotta keep the varmits and disease off them 'til harvest time…
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Tomatoes seem to be prone to problems! I too have had few leaf problems, but they are starting now. Mostly my fault for sloppy watering. Also my lack of spray this year. I only sprayed once or twice.
Thanks for showing that harvest, very good photo too. I’ll post some photos when I have more than green. I am, and have been picking cherries (tomatoes) for about a week now, a steady flow of them.
Blueberries from Brad Gates @Wildboar Farms
Yes I’m dealing with EB and or sepitoria, we had a miserable spring
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We had a similar circumstance here last year, in that we had a very wet spell in June and July. Soon after that, our tomato plants started to rot from the ground up from blight and or septoria.
The difference this year us that I mulched much better, and tried to keep the plant’s branches off the ground. And, I’ve done a bit of spraying, but usually if the plant is showing some signs of disease. I know I should be spraying beforehand as a preventative, but that is cost prohibitive with the amount of plants I have. I may regret that strategy, but that’s what I’m doing now, maybe I’ll change later.
I need to adjust the planting mix next spring, it doesn’t hold water as much as I anticipated, gonna add more organics and vermiculite. I also didn’t get my mulch down soon enough so what I thought was water stress was actually some sort of blight/leaf spotting, been spraying copper, will hit them again tomorrow.
We have had a dry year, yet I still got it too. Although it’s just starting so kinda late.
Green Giant, and Rutgers is showing no signs and look great! KBX has some, but also about 25 tomatoes, amazing!
What is a kbx? Is that one of yer dwarf plants? If not, how are they doing, and how do they seem to handle diseases, this year and years past?
I don’t know if it’s early or late for us, because we planted out a month later this year, so my timeline is off. Some varieties do seem to be more susceptible to diseases than others. Think I’ll keep a log of how varieties handle diseases in our environment.
It’s gonna be a scorcher here this weekend, calling for mid 90’s and dry, so that should help the plants. My Mom is here from OK visiting us for the first time, and she believes our heat isn’t as bad as back home. I agree, this heat and humidity is way more tolerable than back in TX for summer.
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How much pruning do you all do on the tomato plant leaves. All your pictures show these big, beautiful, OPEN plants while mine look like they just escaped the jungle. I’ll admit to not pruning my tomatoes much at all. 
KBX is a cross (X) of an unknown with Kellogg’s Breakfast. It is a large yellow beefsteak. It grows better than KB. I also myself like Amana Orange. Also prolic, and a good tomato. Yellows usually are low acid. Amana is, never tasted KBX (yet!).
I’m only growing one Dwarf, Tennessee Suited. It is doing well and also appears to be disease resistant. It is the darkest green of all the tomato plants. No ripe fruit yet. I’m sold on the Dwarfs. I’ll be growing more next year.
The only pruning I’ve done is mostly lower branches that are touching the ground, so as to not pick up mud and possible pathogens. The straw mulch helps keep the bottom branches pretty clean, though.
Plus, I’ve cut off any leaves/branches that are showing signs of disease with scissors dunked in a water/bleach solution to keep from spreading any disease to other plants.
Some varieties have a really thick bushy habit, while others are really sparse and open. Some of the Russian types have that open, weepy look, but from what I’ve read, that’s just the way they grow. They seem green and healthy otherwise, and have some decent sized fruit on them.
I was just out there with the wife inspecting them and most of the plants are looking pretty healthy. But it seems like my Yellow Pear and San Marzano’s are showing some disease already.
Had to come in, it’s 90, with no breeze, so you can get pretty hot without doing much. But, about to head out a stake a few more plants. I think I’m about done staking the plants, some have 5 or 6 on them already.
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I’ve heard a lot of good reviews of KB’s, might consider that next year, along with maybe a Hillbilly variety.
My favorite toms from last year were my yellow Brandywine and orange KY beefsteak, both low acid, with a little bit of sweetness. And big, too, a lot over a pound.
Some of our other yellow/orange types this year are Jaune Flamme, Dr Wyche Yellow, Yellow Pear and Korol Sibiri.
It seems we have an abundance of good yellows/oranges! I really only need one. I’m growing two green when ripe types, which are acid tomatoes, the first one was decent, I need more examples before I decide I like them… One plant has about 12 tomatoes, and they are still green, well I guess they will be when ripe too! One tints orange when ripe, so easy to tell when ripe. The other variety has no ripe fruit yet.
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More pictures of tomatoes. This is the time of my first wave of tomatoes. The next wave should be in September.
I have several pink varieties and a couple of bicolors. Yellow tomatoes.
These are Dina tomatoes. They have very nice peach color a lot better than you can see on the picture. They remind me of roma tomatoes, firm and dense, almost no cracks, they are keeping good. Did I said early, tasty and prolific? They also remind me of my last year favorite Persimmon tomatoes.
King of Siberia, they are more lemony in color. They are very big hit in my neighbor’s garden very productive there. Almost no cracks. In my garden they are not so good, they like shade and jungle. Very meaty tomatoes with few seeds, juicy and soft, mild taste.
Both Dina and King of Siberia look more like fruits then tomatoes.
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