Every year, one of the hot questions in the fall is, when should I pull my tomato plants. Most years, that’s like asking me to predict the weather. It depends on a lot of things. In some ways, this year is easier. Here’s my guideline for 2011:

If it has green tomatoes on it, let it stay.

If it doesn’t have tomatoes on it, pull it out.

Using that rationale, we removed the heirloom tomato planting this week. There were a few small, green tomatoes on a couple plants, but it wasn’t enough to justify continued watering and care.

On the other hand, some of our other tomato plants have suddenly become quite loaded down with tomatoes! Now if only they would hurry up and ripen. At least the warm temps this week should move things along. Who would have thought we’d be looking for our first big flush of tomatoes in early October this year?