tomatofreak,

I look forward to the responses you get.

I put out 7 plants (8 if you count the one I gave the neighbor) about two weeks ago. The two varieties were Better Boy (5) and Super Sweet 100 (3). I wish I would have asked your question before starting these as I don't know if these varieties are good for fall planting or not. Probably not since I'm growing them. This is the first time I have ever grown tomatoes so I just asked the nursery guy what is a good tomato. He didn't tell me if they were good for fall or spring planting. I started these from seed in early July and they were starting to get pretty big so I had to put them out. They seem to be holding up fairly well considering the heat we're currently experiencing. Most of the plants have buds forming and a few now have flowers. Not that the flowers will do anything in this heat.

Wade

I do not have much luck with tomatoes.
I plant them from the six pack bought from the nurseries and
they put lots of leaves, lots of flowers but very few tomatoes and what makes it is either eaten by birds or have the bottom rotted.I read that the bottom rot is due to the
lack of calcium and I fertilize with lot of compost and fish and seaweed emulsions.
I wish somebody would tell me their secret of growing lots
of tomatoes.
I remember my father use to grow them on the window sill in the middle of the winter with no problem.

Please help us the tomato impaired.

Thanks

Rodica

Rodica, from what I remember you are one of the few organic gardeners on this forum. The problem isn't with calcium--we have tons of it in our soil. Have you heard of calcium carbonate? Sometimes we refer to it as caliche.

More likely, it is due to the lack of phosphorous (middle number in NPK). I had a problem with fruit setting on citrus when I went organic the first year and remedied that by adding cottonseed meal and bat guano. The next year, fruit started setting on the trees. Wood chips are also a source of phosphorous, but need to be broken down by microcritters first before it becomes available to plants.

If you still believe that calcium is the culprit, just grind up some eggshells and toss them around the plants. You can also use bonemeal which is a source of both phosphorous and calcium and see if that takes care of your problem. There is nothing wrong with using fish emulsion--it is just that it usually has an NPK of 5-1-1, which won't supply the necessary phosphorous for fruiting plants.

Good Luck and HTH

I have Juliet, Better Boy and Sweet 100's in the tomato garden right now. These are from last September. I have found that these are great producers, with Juliet being the best, Sweet 100 next and Better Boy last. The smaller tomatoes just seem to set more fruit. Everyone raves about the Juliet tomatoes (I don't like tomatoes, I just like to grow them, go figure!) and the 6 Juliet plants I have out there produced the most tomatoes and kept everyone at work and some people on this forum :) well supplied!
In about 3 weeks, I will cut some of tops off of them, about 1/4- 1/3 of the plant. This will encourage more branching (they got leggy this summer),and new (larger) leaf growth. They have small leaves right now, to conserve water, smaller leaves mean less area to evaporate moisture. Pruning them encourages new growth in conjunction with the changing weather. By October they should be producing tomatoes again.
Tommy- you can start seeds right now, just do it inside. Within about a month, they will be good sized and it will be just right outside to transplant them.

I had problems with blossom end rot with the Better Boys. Now I don't know the exact problem, but I know it is related to the calcium as discussed. I also read somewhere (tomato forum?) to just crush up some Tums and sprinkle them around the plants, 3 tums to a plant. I thought what the heck, I have Tums here, so I did. No more blossom end rot!

My tomatoes are in raised planters with compost and dirt from our yard. We don't have caliche- we are in the old Salt River river bottom, the soil is loose, rich and slightly sandy. I know, this is a blessing! Our area used to be a watermelon and melon farm. I remember buying melons here when I was a kid. They were still growing them across McKellips when we moved here 21 years ago. I use those tomato food stakes, just put them in the ground around the base of the plant (about 4-5 inches away)and water!

Susie

Susie, thanks a bunch! Maybe Wade and Regina and I can get a crop going. I don't know where I went wrong, but for some reason I lost the touch and haven't had a decent tomato from my own yard in several years.

Now a question: When you prune back the scraggly plants that have all the green on the ends that are 3 to 5 feet out from the base of the plant ("leggy" is a conservative word here), how much green do you cut away? My old plants are doing what Wade's new plants are - they're blooming, but in vain of course.

Well, two questions - when choosing for fall tomatoes, should we be looking for the shortest yield times?

I cut about 1/2 of the green away. This leaves some growth and leaves to support the plant while it gears up to send out new branches and leaves.

I grow the same type of tomatoes year round, so I guess I don't really look at the yield times.

Lots of mulch around the plants, but not actually touching the base, is important to good growth. We have almost made it through the worst of the summer (if we can get through the next 2 weeks) and when the soil cools down, stuff will start taking off.

Susie

That's a good question - will you actually get any more 'maters on a plant between now and winter or are you just getting them established to get them through till spring?

hhhmmmm an excellent question! I do remember having tomatoes for Thanksgiving last year, so I think I may have planted them in September. My memory is very good, it is just very short!
If you only get them established, then they should be heavy producers for spring. Either way, you win!

Susie

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I am very happy that I discovered this site.I already thanked my friend for telling me about this site.
Everyone is so nice and knowledgeable.
Like Birdlady I do not have caliche since for 18 years I improved my soil with compost either store bought or my own.
My husband dug every inch of my flowerbeds and sifted it and we added the sifted soil half with compost.
I save everything including eggshells that I put in my two compost bins.
I do not have a problem with the plants setting fruit.
I have lots of grapefuits, lots of grapes, watermelons,
peppers, cantaloupes and I get tomatoes but a lot of them have the end rotted and what it's left is picked by birds.
I will try some of the remedies that you mentioned and I will hope for a nice crop.

Thanks again and good gardening

Rodica

ber or blossom end rot can be happening because of uneven watering the plant takes the calcium from fruit when soil is watered after drying out. try not to let plants wilt. i watch very closely and rarely have problems with ber. big e

I planted a 6 pack of Celebrity and 2 Early Girl today, Hoping we have a long "fall" this year. If it's short like last year I should get some from the early girls, but celebrity will be for some fried green maters. I also planted some bush beans today. about two weeks later than I normaly plant beans for the fall, I hope I didn't wait too long.

j

Jeff,

I'll be planting some bush beans later today as well. We're still in the planting window according to the Maricopa County planting calender. I'm new to growing stuff here so I've been referencing this calender a lot lately. Hopefully we'll get something from these.

Wade

Filling a 4ft x 8ft above ground garden with dirt today (9/11) in Green Valley, AZ. Hoping above all hope to be able to grow a few good slicing/eating tomatos yet this fall. What types would the group recommend? Appears maybe they will winter over with just a little care and protection? Any specific advice appreciated.

Thanks

Well, fayrankin (Fay?), I am so jealous. All my plans for making my raised beds are kaput for the moment. I hope someone from SE AZ will answer as I don't think we in Phoenix have quite the same conditions. Unless you get really long cold spells, you should be able to overwinter the plants with some TLC. Best of luck.

I think Green Valley is basically about the same temps, etc. as Tucson - fayrankin, you'll probably know better than we do about that. I do recommend getting some of that frost fabric (BTW, it does disappear quickly once frost warnings come around, so you wanna get it early!). If you're growing plants you're kind of limited as to what you can find around right now. If you're going for seeds, I'd say look for as quick of a harvest as possible - not sure even that will work before winter.

If you read the postings above, I think you'll get a better idea of types than I know of. Someone said Brandywine gave them the best - danged if I got one fruit off of them. I got 'Razzleberry' last spring and got very nice 'pink' tomatoes, lots of them, not really huge but sweet.

Good luck!

Thanks to all for input. Finally had to settle for what plants local Wal-Mart had. Now have huge leggy plants with few tomatos. Had used shade cloth when we were near 100 and now giving full sun during day. I'm now wondering too much fertilizer (used Wal-mart potting soil and yard smelled like a feed lot for about two weeks) too much water too little water? Still have this leggy plants and warm days. Any advice on how to make some production happen? PS to tomatofreak, I can give you ideas on raised bed. I built in 2-3 1/2 days out of treated lumber. I'm no carpenter but it was pretty easy. Can provide pix.

Terry L aka fayrankin

You may want to pinch back the new growth at the tips of the plants. This will encourage them to grow side branches. Give them tomato food - any other kind of food promotes green growth but not fruit production. I like to use the tomato stakes that you push into the ground around the base, 2-3 per plant seems to be about right. If they get yellow, they are getting too much water, otherwise your watering should be ok.

Good Luck
Susie

Yeah I planted tomatos. Here is a picture of one of my beefsteaks. The picture doesn't do it justice, those 2x4 are 8' tall. Also, I put a short video on youtube of my garden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YmONwhc-O8

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