I don't know what a "wiffle ball" is. I picked 5 of the little Bush Goliath tomatoes this morning; they are golf-ball size but ripe. Your plant looks much darker green and more lush than mine; I suspect mine are needing some nutrients but I'm tired of dealing with stuff in this heat. So they'll be on the compost heap in a few more days.
With your heat and the size of your pots, I think you are doing what I would do. Pull them and sit on the patio and drink a cold one. I fertilize every two weeks with a very light app of triple 16. I should have said pee wee league wiffle ball. They are smaller than the other league wiffle balls. A wiffle ball is a plastic hollow inside baseball ball that has holes in it. It is used for practice. Kids use them with plastic bats to play in their back yards so not to annoy the neighbors.
Acquaintances south of us have developed a way to grow u-pick cantaloupe/muskmelons. This year they have given up as the season is just too cold and the melon plants are not growing, so they pulled up all the melons plants and planted strawberries instead. I hope they work out for them. We are still optimistic but we don't depend on the gardens for income as they do.
Back when we talked of having our stores taken from us, I figured we would be fine. But after our recent weather of heavy rains in a couple of hours, then weeks of drought, lots of stuff we eat, even the wild stuff is suffering. I did notice a huge increase in wild strawberries with this but ours are as small as a pinky nail. The service berries are not ripening. they may just shrivel up and fall. My daughter suggested watering them. I think not. I am having enough trouble watering our planted fruit trees. Half the plums fell off green. I don't sell our extras but find good homes for them. The point to prepping is to be ready for a few bad years, I guess; not just armageddon.
Good trade item? We have a lovely juniper that I keep swearing to make into gin someday. I don't drink it but the berries look so impressive.
I just learned it when I lived in Japan. The plum farmers use the thinnings to make this plum "wine" so the thinnings don't go to waste. It is basically Akadama if you are familiar with that. They extract the goodness from the plums with alcohol, then dilute it to suitable strength with water. Every family dilutes it to a different concentration.
My daughter wanted to go to Japan and went as an exchange student. My neighbors up the road are Japanese and practice a few of their things from back home like flying fish kites at a certain time of year... They had these split rail objects in their yard, about a foot square for each of the two, ever since we'd moved in. I finally wrote my daughter and asked, What are the split rail items they had in their yard? Daughter said, I don't know. You mean I sent your to learn Japanese so you could go to Japan for a year and you can't tell me that one simple thing?! No. Then, one day, they removed the wood and revealed the pvc pipes sticking up about a foot in their lawn. They were septic pipe cozies.
Yummy! I find the Bush Goliath tomatoes to be very sweet and tasty, but mine have very thick skins. Not sure if that's due to how mine were grown or if it's a trait of the type.
Thick skins? They've probably been insulted so often that they just don't care anymore. (I'm a vegetable psychologist.)
This post is not complaining, venting, whining, or whimpering. It is a statement of factual occurrences and how one old lady met disappointment with positivity and took the disappointment to further her scientific knowledge. Yesterday morning as the sun illuminated my patio garden, the red tomato glowed brightly and spoke to me, "Pick me pick me" as if it was a kid, in a group of kids where one was being selected for a fun trip to the amusement park, while the others stayed home and did chores. I felt it gently and it felt right for a premium vine ripened tomato. The color was right. I plucked it and as I turned it, my eyes fell upon a gruesome sight. The bottom was rotten. Why, I wondered? It wasn't on the ground and was watered and pampered like I have no other tomatoes in my entire 72 years. Searching tomato rot, I found it was called blossom end rot, but it wasn't rot, insect damage, a fungus, nor a bacteria. It was a calcium deficiency that sometimes occurs in potted tomatoes regardless of fertilizing, watering, and the finest care. It is most common in potted hybrids and determinants. The Bush Goliath is a hybrid and in my case, genetics kept the plants from drawing up calcium from the soil. My soil was calcium rich, but the genetic defect of these particular plants, prohibited them from drawing up the needed calcium in the blooming stage and early fruit formation stage. The insides were nearly all white core. Although I have never had serious trouble with hybrids, until now, I am going back to the old standards next year. What variety will be best for a large patio pot will take some research and no doubt require ugly cages or panels. I haven't pulled the loaded vines yet as there is a glimmer of hope that the plants sucked up enough calcium for later forming ones. I did pick all I could find that were effected. Since I had the taste of a vine ripened tomato in my mouth it looks like girl road trip, a few miles up the road, to the country fruit stand and bistro. Lunch, and a couple large glasses of last falls local high octane cider, should make purchasing a few farm fresh tomatoes an exciting adventure. Feast your eyes on these beauties!
Wow, what a disappointment, Faye. Sorry all your loving care was for naught, but the fruit stand sounds like an excellent idea. I'm going to have a fall garden but I'm not planting until late August or early September. I'll start seedlings in my Aerogardens and transplant them. I can't believe it's July already!
Last year I planted two varieties, Better Boy Hybrid, and Sugar Rush Hybrid, a grape tomato. The Better Boy got the blight like yours pictured, but the Sugar Rush were fine so that's all I planted this year.