Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneA Speckled Roman set out on 1 June, still so small that the bag reads empty around it — four or five leaves spread almost flat, bristling with hairs, under sun hard enough to throw a crisp shadow off every grain of perlite.Week of 22 JuneA Speckled Roman tomato on 25 June with almost every leaf rolled and curled inward along its length, so the plant reads ragged gray-green rather than lush, its long branches arching away over a lichen-spotted rail bleached pale by side sun.Week of 13 JulySpeckled Roman tomatoes on 17 July, two long plum-shaped fruits still pale yellow-green and overlaid with many fine darker green streaks running their whole length, matte under a faint bloom rather than glossy, in soft flat light.Week of 20 JulyA Speckled Roman tomato on 20 July, its stripes feathering the full length of the fruit in dark green beneath the cuticle rather than lying on it, the one behind already breaking up into gray mottle, a leaf across its shoulder dried black at the tip.Week of 20 JulyTwice as long as it is wide and drawn to a small pointed beak, a Speckled Roman tomato on 20 July carries darker stripes that wander and break rather than run clean, strongest low down, the whole skin furred and finely dotted in noon sun.Week of 3 AugustA Speckled Roman tomato on 4 August, still pale apple-green with darker green stripes running shoulder to base, and a dozen short tan corky scars raised diagonally across its upper half, some paired into narrow lens shapes, in warm backlight.Week of 3 AugustFour picked fruit lined up on a countertop on 8 August, the nearest gone salmon-pink to apricot over its body while the shoulder stays pale green, jagged olive stripes running its full length and small tan corky scabs sitting along them.Week of 3 AugustSix or seven picked fruit on the counter on 8 August, the one at the center standing on end with salmon-orange and cream up two thirds of it and a sea-green shoulder above, feathered olive stripes breaking into speckles as they run down.Week of 24 AugustA Speckled Roman tomato on 26 August, oval rather than round and striped along its length in darker green from shoulder to blossom end, the pointed calyx spread flat across its crown and a second fruit set behind it.
