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plantslayer

How are your tomatoes doing this year (2010)?

plantslayer
13 years ago

So I have good healthy tomato plants, planted out in late April under tunnels, they grew tall and have had a decent number of blossoms. They have been out of the tunnels for about 2 months now. I got a single tiny red tomato around July 5 (from a Matina plant) and a few since then, but for the most part the larger fruit varieties have ripened very slowly and the plants have not been setting blossoms very well. I don't think I made any big blunders in growing them (no over watering, not too much nitrogen, etc.) so I am inclined to blame the off-and-on-again weather here in Seattle (which is still persisting even into this week!). Has anyone else found it bit harder than normal to get tomatoes to set and ripen this year?

Comments (25)

  • jwr6404
    13 years ago

    my 1sr ripe tomatoes were Matina as well. I also planted mine outdoors,mostly in large Pots. They are all doing well,plenty of tomatoes, except for 3 which were placed in the ground using Walls of Water. My tomatoes are mostly large varieties with late DTMs.
    Jim

  • gardener_deebs
    13 years ago

    My plants are very healthy, and I have 3 small green tomatoes on Stupice... and hundreds of blossoms. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

  • PRO
    George Three LLC
    13 years ago

    i went with hybrids this year. early girl is uh, not early. have not much fruit NOR flowers. sun sugar i had a small crop (i think the ones that came with the plant when i got it as a seedling), and is ready for another very soon. i got some generic grape tomato hybrid too, and that one is about as behind as the early girl.

    so not a great year so far, but the 6 or so tomatoes i ate so far were pretty good.

  • larry_gene
    13 years ago

    Early heat wave in Portland cooked first tomato blossoms. Plants just now setting fruit on secondary wave of blooms.

    Plants are otherwise vigorous.

  • aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
    13 years ago

    I'm growing Cherokee Purples, the plants grew just fine, loads of flowers but the flowers were drying up and falling off without setting fruit. I started going out giving the plants a few shakes to help the pollination and now I can see a few tomatoes starting to form. This is something I've never had to do before in all the years I've been growing tomatoes.

  • whitman
    13 years ago

    I am growing one plant each of the following: stupice, green zebra, momotaro, sungold, fantastic, oregon spring, legend, and beaverlodge plum. I started them from seed in February and put them under plastic in mid-late April. I removed the tunnels permanently in late june when the sungolds were starting to push up against them. I got my first ripe stupice and sungold tomato on july 11th. That was followed by an oregon spring, beaver lodge, and legend a few days later. The rest are indeterminate and still green.

    I have been battling some kind of black spotting on the leaves of several of the plants. I think they were not getting enough circulation under the tent. Also several plants this year have very pale green, almost yellow leaves. Have applied a few foliar feedings and it seems to have helped a bit...

    Overall I am happy with the season, though its nothing like what last year gave me.

  • Bay Area Gardener
    13 years ago

    I have these varieties:

    1. Oregon Spring
    2. Brandywine (Red, Hierloom)
    3. Stupice
    4. Cherokee purple
    5. Sweet million

    I started them from seed in late February and planted them out in a raised bed (1 foot of topsoil and compost from Pacific Topsoils) in May. The cold spring really slowed them down, but they have taken off of late over the past month. Lots of growth and stupice and brandywine have set quite a few fruits. All the fruits are in marble sized of smaller though, probably at least another 20 days to go for ripe fruits.

    Hundreds of blooms on the sweet millions, but almost no fruits strangely enough. I planted them because I wanted to see what a supposed earlier variety would do, and I have to say I have been disappointed so far. The next 15 or so days should be telling.

  • plantslayer
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I guess I am par for the course, then; I have some fairly big Anna Russian tomatoes and a couple Paul Robeson so hopefully they will be ripe by the end of the months. This last week we got cool weather again, which no doubt means fruit set is still not as good as it ought to be, but not much to be done for it I guess. Next year I will grow about 2/3rds indeterminates I think; it seems like a waste of space having these tall plants that grow very well but don't set much fruit until well past mid summer.

  • tastytravels
    13 years ago

    I'm in Oregon and was worried about our fickle weather this year. Despite everything, my Cherokee Purple has done well. I have about 5 green tomatoes slowly turning yellow and orange. My brandywine also managed to set about 3 tomatoes thus far. I also have 2 Paul Robeson fruit. I spotted a few small green zebra tomatoes too. There are a bunch of flowers still popping up and I'm hoping they get pollinated. I'm hoping an extra long summer will keep these guys producing since they got a late start.

  • buyorsell888
    13 years ago

    Our tomatoes haven't grown much but have a few flowers and green tomatoes on them. I can't remember what we've got other than Early Girl, zucchini, peppers and basil are all just sitting there looking like we just planted them.

  • pdxwindjammer
    13 years ago

    My plants are doing GREAT considering the weather we had in May and June! I started them all from seed and potted them up between April and May. Most of them have several tomatoes and all of them have mass amounts of flowers.

    I fed them with worm castings from my bin and also foliar fed with fish emulsion. I am growing mostly heirlooms:

    Green Zebra
    Lime Green Salad
    Aunt Ruby's German Green
    Green Copia
    Green Grape
    Black Zebra
    Black Krim
    Brandy Wine
    Orlov Yellow
    Brown Berry Cherry
    Black Cherry
    Sun Sugar F1
    Thessaloniki
    Druzba
    Red House Free Standing
    Sierra Leone
    Early Rouge

    I can't wait to start harvesting!

  • briergardener_gw
    13 years ago

    Huge, look healthy but not a lot of tomatoes on plants outside. Got several red tomatoes from "4th of July" (well not on 4th of July but later;)
    I enjoy harvest of yellow cherry (unknown brand) that are growing upside down in baskets.
    Campary in GH gave me couple red already, but the rest are still not ready.

  • plantslayer
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I'm still only getting matinas; my other plants are huge and have had green tomatoes for many weeks now, but the larger varieties just haven't managed to ripen yet. The weather is warm enough for the plants, but not enough for the fruit I guess. Bad year for vegetables...

  • solidago1
    13 years ago

    I have a respectable number of fruits that have set, but considering how early I planted them I would have thought they would be farther along. Most fruits are ping pong ball sized. I've gotten just 3 ripe tomatoes so far, all from the Siletz vine. I planted an Amish Paste tomato that is HUGE, but not many flowers on it, which is disappointing, cause I've heard good things about the variety and was going to save some seeds.

    Stupice seems to be the next best.

    I planted:
    Stupice
    San Marzano
    Celebrity
    Big Boy
    Box Car Willie (also huge)
    Siletz
    Amish Paste

  • Embothrium
    13 years ago

    Friend who grows them under plastic has growth reaching to the roof but only a small number of still-green fruits.

  • Bay Area Gardener
    13 years ago

    I just got my first ripe (grape sized) tomato from a Sweet Million yesterday. The weather looks like it may hold up over the next few weeks (at least in the Seattle area) - hopefully that will make things go faster.

  • plantslayer
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I finally got two ripe large tomatoes (about 7 oz each) yesterday. However, I am sad to say that this weekend is supposedly to be very cool for Seattle- under 70 and with showers for two days straight sat-sun! After that it will be in the low to mid 70s until next Thursday or Friday. Pretty depressing for vegetable growers...

  • pdxwindjammer
    13 years ago

    I had my first ripe tomatoes early this week. My Sun Sugar F1 had a couple of bite sized delicious fruit and my Stupice provided a somewhat bland tomato. I just had foot surgery so I haven't been up since Tuesday but I will see what else is ripe today!

    I have about 35 plants and most of them are LOADED with fruit and blooms!

  • briergardener_gw
    13 years ago

    silver fir tree and taxi in containers are giving me good tomatoes for salads, but i have not tried yet really big fruits. Tomatoes are so slow this year, even in GH.

  • jwr6404
    13 years ago

    have finally gotten a couple of Black Krim and Brandywine tomatoes this week,they were on the smallish size and the BKs had BER as well. Taste was much better than the Matinas I had been harvesting. See evidence that I will have some Marmandes and Anna Russians soon. They appear to be on the smallish size also. Must be the weather.

  • plantslayer
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I'm starting to get Anna Russians now and hopefully Paul Robeson soon. The earlier Anna Russians look pretty good, but the ones that set during the last few weeks are super-catfaced though, they have horns, beards etc. I guess cold weather does that to these things.

  • jaybug
    13 years ago

    I'm in Berkeley and it rarely has been over 70 degrees. Tumbling Tom has grown huge in spite of chewed half off by deer in May and I have gotten an occasional ripe cherry tomato off of it since 2 weeks ago. It must be setting less than 10% of its blossoms until recently. My Black Plums were also eaten half off by the same deer and they are just now turning yellow, but they seem to be setting a little higher percentage of the blossoms. These were both of my best producers last year. My San Francisco Fog is setting some fruit finally and the plant just started a growth spurt so it might have a good season. I planted some new ones for me like Sub-Arctic Plenty, but the deer erased them.

  • jwr6404
    13 years ago

    Got a big,23ounce, beautiful Estler's Mortgage Lifter today.

  • Bay Area Gardener
    13 years ago

    I have started getting good production my Sweet Million variety (I am picking two or three, sometimes four, grape sized ones almost every day (I have about 4 of them). Good flavor, but less than I expected.

    Stupice is also starting to produce, but the flavor is less than I expected. I do not think I will try this variety again next year.

    My Brandywine has some *huge* green fruits, but I am not sure how much longer it will take for them to ripen (my first time growing them).

  • hemnancy
    13 years ago

    The tomatoes are really slow for me too, but that may change soon as I'm about to finish a structure which will be covered with plastic again, which may take care of the cool nights and speed things up. I got a 7 oz Verna's Orange Oxheart 8/15 and a 14 oz one 8/18. 3 Bloody Butcher's so far and some more almost red. I was getting lots of several varieties by the beginning of August last year.:-( But the squash are getting to be picking size, and I've been getting cucumbers for a couple of weeks. I also picked some runner beans yesterday, and I've been picking some mustard greens planted 7/12 that are big enough to eat now, as well as some Arugula and Chinese Raab.

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