The slow, steady decline of the tomato plants

I've ripped all the large tomato plants out of the raised beds. The decline I described at the end of July progressively got worse, and the plants ended up as stringy stalks with a few sad leaves at the end. When the tomatoes started to decline in quality, too, it was time to pull the plug. The yellow cherry tomatoes started to pucker from a lack of water, suggesting that the fungus-based disease diagnosis may be the correct one. The infection interferes with the plant's ability to transfer water upward from the stalks.

  

The ripening tomatoes here were among the last of the crop. The stupice started to get splotchy and misshapen a few weeks ago and that was that. The last of the yellow cherry tomatoes held on until last week, when I hacked it apart and yanked it out.

Container planting, I'm sure, can be successful in its own way. But in the raised beds the tomatoes really had a chance to lay down roots:

The paper tube under my hand is the original defense against cutworms. The stalks of the plant more or less filled up the cylinder.

The plants grew so wildly that I had to cut them up with pruning shears to remove them from the beds. The trellises I put up were almost complete failures, listing uselessly toward the car pad. The anti-rat fence I hastily erected ended up doing just as much of the work. So if you're ever debating between those cheaper swinging-gate type wire trellises and the more expensive round ones, go round. Or don't try to get too creative with the cheap guys and make them into simply triangles for single plants. 

Even with the bulk of the plants gone, we still have a crapload of tomatoes. The two plants I didn't get around to trellising are still hanging in there, producing delicious black pearl cherries -- which are my favorite of the varieties we did. We still had enough to can three pints, make a large tomato gratin, and throw together a quick salsa.