tomatoes ripening at last and pimiento de padrón harvest pending!

The upstairs tomatoes have finally started to ripen!  The Chadwick and Fox cherry tomatoes seem the farthest along, although an Oregon Spring Bush tomato has started to turn now, too. I´m really excited that soon I will have a constant supply of fresh, ripe, homegrown tomatoes!



In downstairs greenhouse news, the pimientos de padrón have gotten enormous!



I´ve really been impressed with how quickly they´ve grown.  These three are now right around 2" long.  The Renee´s Garden website (where I got the seeds) says that pimientos de padrón should be harvested when they are no more than 2" long; "At this small size, they are fragrant and flavorful; larger fruits get very spicy."  While I´m definitely a fan of spicy peppers, I think for this first harvest, I´ll follow the recommendation.  It´d be nice to wait until I had enough for a full tapa, but I think I´ll go ahead and pick these three this week.

Both greenhouses have now required multiple light fixture raisings to accomodate the growing tomato plants.  The upstairs greenhouse still houses primarily indeterminate tomatoes which are supposed to grow to be quite large.  The Maglia Rosa cherry, already measuring over 6´, are currently the tallest.  While their size is impressive, I hope they slow down soon.

One nice thing about this more recent light raising is that it required the removal of the greenhouse plastic sheeting. As a result, the tomatoes are getting direct sunlight several hours a day through the east/west windows. The plants look really pretty in the morning and evening sun, and I´m sure that the lower leaves are appreciative of the light.

I waited too long to raise the light fixture on the downstairs greenhouse, mainly because I really didn´t think that these determinate tomatoes were going to keep growing like this. They grew up into the light until they decapitated themselves with the (minimal) heat.

The light is in a really temporary and nonideal position right now.  It´s not really even providing direct light to half of the greenhouse, but at least it is again several inches above the plant tops.

Hopefully, I didn´t affect their overall plant health too much.  I´m planning on moving them all outside in a few weeks anyway.  We´re technically past our annual average last frost date, but especially given the recent cold spell and the frost warning we´re under for the next few days, I´ve decided to wait until June to move everything outdoors and do my first planting for the summer garden.  If I follow my current plan, it´ll be more than twice as big as last year!