BABY CAKES mmmmmmmm

Sounds pretty good, what a NAME! tell me what it's like...;.thanx, sally

I have my Dixie cups out to plant the seed tomorrow. I think I'll plant maybe 12 kinds tomatoes. Usually a couple do not make it to transplanting stage.

How many tomato plants do you people grow at one time. I grow 8 and they give me a lot. I don't can tomatoes. When you say 12 kinds is that 12 plants or lots more?

Sally...it appears you will have half dozen or more types, how many plants?

I will plant twelve plants that are twelve different varieties. I have a small yard, but I like to try different things. Every year I plant more than I have room for and then I have to find a way to squeeze them in or pitch them. It's survival of the fittest in my yard.

Twenty eight plants here, at least four each of Beefmaster, Big Beef, Jetsetter and First Prize, and at least two Aunt Gerties Gold for a little color. For the cherries it will be Husky Cherry Red, Sweet Baby Girl and Sweet Chelsea, and for a little color it will be Dr. Carolyn, Black Cherry and Nugget.

Tom

Not sure yet but know for sure there w/be several Black Cherry and Yellow Pear, also Everglades and yellow whatever the name is---TOM! what is the name of that little yellow wonder you provided! Cal and I will eat every single one of the BC and YP so have to have several of each! we work our way thru' the garden eating eating eating..... I'm oogling the Tomato Growers catalogue but impossible to order them all...but we both like extra sweet, low acid, and hope some of you-all can give me some hints and suggestions....love this time of year, sally

I can only get 9 or 10 plants in my cage so varities are always an issue. Sun Golds are in and probably Brandywines again. I expressed an interest in "black" tomatoes and Sylvia gave me several varities of seeds. Some day I would like to try Sweet Baby Girl, Steak Sandwich, and Giant Syrian.

Papa Jim

ignore this double post.

This post was edited by TheTradition on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 14:41

I just ordered some Beefmaster and Sun Gold. I'll also start some Supersweet 100 and Better Boy from seeds leftover from last year.

I also ordered some Diva cucumber and Pacman broccolli.

Finally, I ordered some Mirai sweet corn.

I'll get some lettuce and onion seeds later in the year.

I start way too many and make up my mind when I see the seedlings and what hits my joy at the time!

Will certainly have some Cherokee Purple (one of my favorites), Juliets, and brandywine. Started about a dozen different varieties on 1st of July and got a really good germination rate.
Will see how they do! Just got my last spring tomatoes about a month ago and am already tired of store tomatoes.
Will post a pic when the seedlings get their first real leaves!

TOM! what is the name of that little yellow wonder you provided!

Sally, it's just a yellow currant, same as Everglades but yellow and I think hardier.

Will certainly have some Cherokee Purple....

Dang Bernie, I wish I could get a black larger than a cherry to grow here :-(

Tom

""...but we both like extra sweet, low acid, and hope some of you-all can give me some hints and suggestions...""

Sally.....I grow a lot of bi-color and yellows to try them out...My suggestions:

Azoychka...a medium sized yellow with great flavor

Virginia Sweet....A large sweet red/yellow bicolor
(I first got this as a bonus from TomatoGrowers)

and I'll add one more.....
Dixie Gold.....a big heirloom yellow that I grow from collected seed

I grow about 30 tomato plants in containers...about a dozen varieties....

Tom....where you been?.....I'm sending you snailmail...My favorite Black:
Black Krim.....Will it grow in your location ???

dougandpam

right now i'm dealing with serious overproduction, so the idea of planting a fall crop isnt that tantalizing. that said, let me once again pimp magic mountain. what a great campari-sized tomato!

i really like virginia sweets, too!

Thanks abnorm, I'll try those, I love the yellow and bi-color, I'm not crazy abt. red 'maters but grow a few, my Calvin likes them more than I do.... Thanx, sally

I put 2 Cherokee Purple grafted to Celebrity root stock in the garden just before the monsoon started. They were an experiment, so that's why they got created so early. I have 6 Maxfort rootstock up and growing. along with more Cherokee Purple and some Super Souix just starting up for the scions.

Doug - do you think I should make some of these up for the fall party (I hope Silia will have us again) or would that be too late for planting.

Larry

I'd like to SEE your "larrystein" creation....""ahahaha... It's alive!!!! ""

But the reality of a successful grow starting in October.....hmmm

Where's the pictures ?...............doug

Hi Sally

I just got back from Jamaica, still don't know what and how many tomatoes I am going to do this season. I will look over my seeds when I am ready to start mine, and check for some varieties that you may like and will mail them to you.

Larry, like Doug said I would like to see one of your creations, you never know...If they are big enough by the time that we have the party, that will work. You know the party is 1 week before Halloween, and do I have a haunted story to tell all of you! lol

Silvia

right now i'm dealing with serious overproduction....

Michael - sure wish I had that trouble here this time of year :-( Tasti-Lee's from Publix are okay, but I'd sure love a fresh home-grown tomato. I'm happy for you.

Tom....where you been?.....I'm sending you snailmail...My favorite Black: Black Krim....

Just dealing with other stuff Doug :-(

Black Krim was also a dud here, I've tried eight different blacks. I honestly think they don't tolerate either my high humidity or salt environment. Only Black Cherry and Japanese Black Trifele have done well, and the Trifele must be picked green here, it's already going bad by the time it turns :-(

Larry - you are the man! Maybe when I retire I can consider trying a little grafting to handle so much humidity.

Sally - A word of warning about Doug's recommendations above for bi-colors and golds. Your micro-climate is identical to mine being right off the bay. Were a bug-fest and here for some reason Fruit Flies love moderate to large-sized bicolors and golds, you'll get NO tomatoes unless picked green and moved inside to ripen, not sure why this doesn't happen with the reds but it doesn't. For me here Virgina Sweets was a moderate producer but I didn't get many until I learned to pick them green, and they don't ripen the best inside. I've tried several others and had the best success with Aunt Gertie's Gold, heavy producer and ripen beautifully even when picked green. I purchased some Azoychka seeds to try this fall as I'm not yet ready to give up on gold/orange now that I know the secret here is to pick them green to avoid Fruit Fly problems.

Tom

ill-mannered, Michael

I am going to be in DeLand area for a week, starting the 15 of July. Will have time to kill, maybe we can do breakfast and talk veggie gardening.

bernie kerr, jbker at juno dot com

give me a note and we can swap phone numbers

HELP1111111111111111 Where oh where can I purchase these wonderful sounding seeds. Havre tried garden centers here (Venice) but no luck

flokla: You're best bet would be Tomato Growers Supply Company in Ft. Meyers. They won't have everything because some are proprietary, but they will certainly have enough of them. Web address tomatogrowers.com

Papa Jim

Well, I bitt the bullet and ordered my seeds from Tomato Growers....Stupice, Honey Hybrid, Poseidon, Italian Sweet, Virginia Sweets, Carbon, Azoychka, Dixie Golden Giant, and the freebie is Cherokee Chocolate....I can't believe it either, must have a hole in my head! Will prob. start 3-4 of each, and actually plant-out one of each, I don't have the room for more....and freeze the rest--- are there any here that anyone would like to tell me abt.? how they do, or don't do??.... of course I'll still plant my favs, Black Cherry, Yellow Pear, and the Everglades and the Yellow Current....and w/my luck they'll prob. be the only ones that actually bear any 'maters!! LOL...sally

Tom, have you tried Burgundy Traveler? It was developed for heat and humidity. That plant lasted quite a while for me here, and if I had been more diligent with the Serenade, I probably wouldn't be pulling it even now.

I am not as hot up here as you are down there, but then you grow in fall/winter/spring when at least the nights are cooler, right? Where I am it is plenty humid - I'm less than a mile off the bay as the crow flies. However, I don't have the salt problem you do. I can't say whether it would withstand that.

BT has an excellent, rich taste with sweet flesh and slightly tangy gel, which adds a nice contrast. The tomatoes are 4-6 oz, round, and moderately crack-resistant. I got the seeds from Marianna's (link below). Mine turned out darker than her picture shows - "burgundy" is a good description of the exterior color when completely ripe.

Here is a link that might be useful: Burgundy Traveler at Marianna's Heirloom Seeds

Tom, have you tried Burgundy Traveler?....

Thanks LiF, looks good but I'm pretty well done trying new varieties, other than a gold or orange here and there, I've got my main-stays and tired of trying new things...just don't have the energy anymore with work trying to do me in. :-) :-(

Tom

Understandable, Tom. Hope work settles down for you soon!

Tom, your 'mater-pot is cleaned and ready to come home, I e-mailed you, do you want me to bring it to you? also, do you remember the name of that red 'mater that I liked, I forgot the name--- sorry...thanx, sally

...do you remember the name of that red 'mater that I liked....

Last season? Year before? Beefsteak or cherry?

My Aquaponics set up is still making tomatoes. I think the water evaporation from the fish tank is keeping the tomato plants cool and they are still setting fruit. The tomatoes however are smaller than normal but still tasty, yummm. It sure beats the Publix red plastic handballs they sell as tomatoes.

My tomato plants in the wastebasket pots are all dead and gone from the heat of summer.

Lou

Tom, the red I did like was one you brought me this last grow season, it seemed to fare better than others what w/.spider-mites, I have been invaded by them this year but that red one did very well, and was a very pretty 'mater also....unfortunately, when we had those storms and heavy rain, the tags all disappeared..you did mention the name but my memory is a sieve, sorry.... thanx, sally

Might have been First Prize Sally, it was the only new red I tried and it did hold up well....

Tom

Thanx Tom, that's the one.....I planted 18 cups yesterday, 3 seeds in each...stupice, honey hybrid, Italian sweet, azoychka,, Cherokee chocolate, yellow pear, black cherry, everglades red, yellow cherry.... still more to plant and put under lights (thanx Tom)....and realize I have lost my senses, whatever it is that makes me do this??? especially if all these things come up! sally

Sally, you're a month early. Per the Undergound 33704 isn't predicted to hit nighttime temps of 73F til 9/30, six weeks back from that for starting seeds would be 8/19 - otherwise your plants will be 3-4' tall before the blooms start to set fruit :-(

Tom

Tom,

It really depends your exact location, my weather station on my farm is reporting 73.2F at this moment and has been reporting lows of around 73 or below. (KFLFLORA5 on Wunderground)

Lou

I live in Highlands County...do you think its too early to plant tomatoes (the ones that they sell at HD or Lowe's from Bonnie's) that come in a 4" pot the first week of August?

I checked the over night low temps from Sept 1st 2012 through Oct. 1, 2012 for my zipcode on weather underground and I only had 6-7 days of temps that were 73 degrees and slightly above...most of the over night lows were low 70's to upper 60's...

This should give the plants a month to size up before the blooms start...that sound about the right time to plant them here?

Thanks!!

Lou - My sister is in Lecanto and she can grow cherries all summer while all I can grow are the currants. I used Sallies Zip Code...another problem for both of us is that we are both within 50 yards of bayous to Tampa Bay so our humidity is so high blooms won't set til the night temps are down some.

N - My FIL is in Okeechobee and he can start a month ahead of us here as the night temps in the central ridge are much lower, so I'd think you can too. Maybe Bernie or someone over your way will chime in soon.

Tom

I think early August is fine for planting out into the yard. Much later than mid-August and you risk losing tomatoes in the event of an early frost.

... Much later than mid-August and you risk losing tomatoes in the event of an early frost.

So true, it clearly depends on where you live. Sally and I usually get frost once every 10-12 years, but I have had frost the last two years so so much for Global Warming :-(

Tom

Thanks Traditions and Tom!!...I think I will plant them then and see what happens :o)

Thanx Tom -I depend on your advice...I had read here that now was the time so went ahead, but now that you break it all down it does appear I jumped the gun.... well, they don't do all that great for me anyway so will plant some more seeds next month!! LOL...sally

Hi, Tom
My orange currant tomatoes are doing very well. I think of you every time I pick a few. We are grateful out here for your generosity.

It's all good Sally, I'm sure we'll both have more maters than we know what to do with :-)

KQ, my pleasure, got another request for seeds today. If it wasn't for currants I would not have any fresh garden maters today ;-)

Tom