I have been anticipating this day from the moment that I put nearly 200 seedlings into individual cells to start their own growth into full blown tomato plants; for today I conducted the first of five harvests, picking nearly 20lbs of marketable and delicious-looking tomatoes from various plants. I picked one tomato from JTO 1021 that, on its own, weighed 1.2 lbs! I expect the yield numbers to only get larger over the next few weeks seeing as only half of the strings of plants contained ripe, pickable fruit. **The NOVIC protocol states that I should only harvest from 6 of the 8 plants every week.

On the other hand, I did pick nearly 9 lbs of unmarketable tomatoes that were too deformed or misshapen to be sold at a market. The majority of the rejected tomatoes were due to cat-faces and zippers that are a result of incomplete pollination or early damage. Some of this is expected to happen and rather common in many tomato varieties. The only exception to this were the fruit from Pilu KS plot 1 and Crimson Sprinter plot 2.  The Crimson Sprinter tomatoes are all suffering from blossom end rot and the Pilu KS tomatoes looked blotchy, pale and all around unpleasant. I definitely attribute this to the disease that the plants are struggling through.

Along with the harvest, I took notes on all varieties’ picking ease, fruit characteristics, and anything else that seemed worth mentioning. Once the fruit was packaged and clearly labeled, I took weights for all marketable and unmarketable tomatoes and gave explanations  for the unmarketable rejects. In the coming weeks I will have to take a one time measurement of tomato height and width, along with a Brix measurement that records the sugar content of fruit/vegetables. 

The next step for me, at this time, is to be prepping for the tasting trials that are scheduled to take place around the beginning of October with various classes that are taught by faculty in the Food and Ag Committee. I look forward to working with and getting feedback from students in the tasting trials, feeding some students seems to be a very fitting way to use these tomatoes. This means that I will need to have some fruit to last until the time of the trials! In the mean time, I plan to store the tomatoes in the best way that I can to keep them for the longest amount of time.