Comparing Tomatoes

It's the end of May and I went out and took pictures of the tomatoes this morning. I am kind of puzzled over an interesting revelation. These are the field tomatoes. The were planted indoors March 15 (give or take a day or two). They lived in the greenhouse for several weeks before being planted outdoors. Here's the progress:

Now, the plants in the greenhouse have had the same experience, except that they were planted in the ground inside the greenhouse, a few weeks before the others were planted outside. Here is the size of the tomatoes:

Well, okay, there might be a few bigger than that, but that's the average.

Interesting, eh?

And yes, I am hand pollinating.

There are other comparisons to make yet, though... the size of plants, and color, and strength.

This is an outdoor plant. Healthy, green but slender at about 20 inches, average.

This is an indoor plant. Stocky and deep, almost blue green, with broad leaves.
The average plant is 30 inches tall.

Braving the elements outside.

Protected and warm. 

The race isn't over. 

Who will produce first ? 

More importantly, who will produce the MOST tomatoes. 

How will they compare in size?

This is my one casualty of the 100 tomato plants we have growing. 

It's not dead till it's dead, though. We'll give a couple more days TLC.

*****
PS. That tomato plant made it just fine and grew as big and as productive as any other.
So, don't give up if you have a straggler. They aren't dead till their dead.