Above: Did you notice the unusual looking leaves on the Spitze tomatoes from above? Here is a close up view. I am holding the leaf straight and normal off the tomato plant. See how it corkscrews? This unusual kind of quality must be a natural characteristic of the Spitze tomato. The leaves are also more narrower than any other variety I've seen and they like to show their undersides to the sun, instead of the top. From the time it was about 3 weeks old, the leaves on this plant looked - different. This photo was take on June 2nd, during comfortable temps, so the heat is not causing it to twist, curl, corkscrew, fold in half or flip upside down. It does this on it's own.

Update: June 15, 2009

The two OLDER Spitze and the Roma Classic tomato plants really grew a lot in the last 2 weeks. Each one has shot up another 6 to 8 inches. The Romas are 30 to 36 inches tall, and the Spitzes are about 48 inches tall. Shortly after the past update photos were taken, the Roma began producing tomatoes. (See Roma Classic journal for photos.) Although the Spitze is getting to be quite big for it's age, it has only produced two or three blooms. The same for my 2 other Spitze tomato plants. Meanwhile, not only does the Roma Classic have plenty of blooms, each Roma plant has about 6 to 8 tomatoes on them. I've been watering once a day unless it rains. The temperatures are slowly starting to climb and soon I will be watering twice a day and adding mulch to the base to keep the roots cool and the moisture locked in.

Spitze characteristics: - This tomato plant really is different from all my other tomato plants, including the non paste tomatoes. Out of all of them (about 32), the spitze has the least amount of blooms so far. About 3 on each one. That's not much compared to all my others. Further, the leaves are still curled, corkscrewed and prefer to show their undersides to the Sun. If this is a true Romanian tomato, this tomato might prefer cooler weather. Romania is on the same latitude as South Dakota and North Dakota - in there somewhere. My gut feeling when watching this tomato grow is that it is very sensitive and "dainty." - However, this may not be true as it just seems content to continue growing up and out, doing it's thing and surviving nicely, despite the small number of blooms - so far. It might just mature later than originally thought. However, something tells me that if nature goes through this much trouble with this tomato plant, then the tomatoes have to be especially delicious. Time will tell.

Here's a mistake I made that you can learn from. I didn't put enough soil in the buckets when I started. I failed to calculate that rain and water would compact the soil downward and I am staring to get more room on top then I need for the mulch. With these small 5 gallon buckets, I want my tomato plants to have as much soil as possible. If you grow your's in containers, put more soil in or fill it to 1 inch (2 cm) from the top when you begin. The rain and water will push that soil down before the time comes to add mulch.

Mini Update: June 17th

The 2 oldest Spitze's have a few more blooms on them and each one has little tiny tomato that is starting to come out.