Celebrity Tomatoes

Bought from Bonnie Plants: https://bonnieplants.com/product/celebrity-tomato/

Per website: matures in 65 days

Timeline (60 days to first harvest for first tomato...second tomato TBD 108 days and counting)

- 5/26/20: Purchased - already had immature flowers

- 6/2/2020: First flower bloomed

- 6/16/20: First tomato growing!

- 6/21/20: Took a side shoot off the tomato and put it in another pot to grow

- 6/30/20: First tomato grew to pretty much full size...and stayed green...

(Sometime between here transferred to larger container)

- 7/22/20: until this day when the first blushes of color appeared on that tomato

- 7/25/20: Harvested first tomatoes, then get maybe 1-2 tomatoes each week (until it got really hot...then nothing grew)

- 8/15/20: Side shoot (2nd tomato plant/cloned plant) grew a tomato too!

(Major part of summer for TX...so pretty much nothing grew)

- 10/7/20: Side shoot (cloned plant) first tomato - first blushes of color appeared - this one is actually probably the biggest tomato yet

-10/8/20: Harvested tomato from cloned plant!

TOP LESSONS (to be updated as these are still growing...):

- Very top heavy...definitely need heavy or large container at bottom to prevent it from blowing over - this thing was supposed to be only 4-5 feet and now its at 7-8 feet

- Need to find better support - I really don't think those tomato cages work that well, at least in containers - why in the world is it skinnier at the bottom and larger at the top? Shouldn't it be larger at the bottom for stability and skinner at the top? Next year I'll probably make my own support

- This variety did NOT do well in the TX triple digit heat - the immature tomatoes stayed green for forever (but I guess they still survived). They also were really tiny (not sure if because of heat) - like maybe roma tomato sized or smaller. Will either need to purchase earlier or purchase a heat tolerant variety.

Still struggling with this behemoth...it is now over 7-8 feet tall and will not stay upright for its life. A constant struggle. I think I've gotten maybe 15? tomatoes so far...(as of 10/7/20). Definitely need to re-evaluate for next year (heat tolerant variety...)

I have to say though, it's true that home grown tomatoes taste so much sweeter than the ones at the store. So for that alone, I'm glad I grew these. I can only hope to have enough to actually do a legit #tomatotuesday next year!

To be continued!

-CEC