Friday, June 26, 2009

Mister Early Is Missing!

Well harvesting some things for Thursdays Garden Meal I thought I would check in on the tomato on Mister Early. This is what I found:

It would appear that some creature decided they wanted it more then I did. I am almost certain that it is not a creature of the human variety as the tomato was well hidden within the foliage. In fact it was rather hard to get a photo of because of its camouflage. So that leaves raccoons, skunks, possums, squirrels or that family of chipmunks that just moved into the yard. Anyone ever experience tomato theft?

I searched all over the yard and didn't find any remnants of the tomato so I am guessing that rules out the chipmunks. So it would appear that I will not be having early tomatoes this year and will just have to wait. What a bummer! I think next year I will be putting netting on the early tomatoes.

15 comments:

  1. Oh No! :< I hate when that happens. Last year for me it was the chipmunks. They love to take a tomato eat a little bit of it then discard it. Alice has already had one of her little tomatoes munched on and they aren't even close to ripe. And yeah I think you are right, it isn't the chipmunk. It is something bigger.

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  2. Deer did that to me two years ago. But they left the tomato after a bite. Was that the only tomato on that plant?

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  3. Oh gosh, dan.....that sucks! I'd have to build a homemade flamethrower, and create "hell on earth" in the garden. Ha!

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  4. Pooey on the animal who stole your tomato!

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  5. Oh, how disappointing! I hope another ripens soon for you.

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  6. Not Mr. Early ! Awww :( That sucks big time !

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  7. Dan, I'm so sorry. We were all rooting for Mr. Early.

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  8. Say it isn't so! Totally not fair. It even had a name!! Poor helpless tomato out there defenseless. Whatever creature snagged it has no heart.

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  9. And here I was hoping it was going to be a GOOD mystery today. :( I was really enjoying the continueing saga of Mr Early - it's like a death in the family! LOL!

    Okay... he would have met his demise in one of your Thursday Garden Meal posts eventually... but this is just does not have sufficient closure.

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  10. At least we don't have chipmunks to contend with here! I've never had a tomato stolen before - although I believe chickens love them. Fortunately there's a lot of fencing between the chickens and the greenhouse!

    What looks like being the next to ripen?

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  11. Thanks for all the comments.

    Marcia - This was my lone early tomato that would have been ready to harvest probably today. I do however have lots of tomatoes the size of golf balls but I have to wait for them :-(

    Vegetable heaven - I think Cherokee Purple will be the first to ripen but that is at least 20 days away.

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  12. Oh my, how tragic that Mr. Early has vanished into thin air! We have deer, rabbits, raccoon, squirrels, opossums amongst other creatures in our yard and have never lost a tomato before! I have seen squirrels steal fruit off the trees next door and take a bite then leave it on the ground. Hum, wonder if they liked it, if they would take it into their tree nest? Sorry for your loss, I know that must have been a sad moment to go check on Mr. Early to find an empty spot on the vine. :( Sigh...

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  13. I wouldn't be surprised if my dog Buddy hopped on a plane and came to your garden for some pickings! Stuff is always going missing on my patch, and I blame all sorts of other people and critters!

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  14. Sorry Dan! That's happened to me before too.

    Lately, I've even begun harvesting the tomatoes just as they start to ripen LOL Just in case, you know what I mean? LOL Then in a few days they are ready to eat.

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