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| Have blossoms all over, some fruit, but not the amount I had expected by now. Still watering in hopes of setting more fruit now that the nights are warmer. Mid July we picked a few Early Girl, Sun Sugar, and Oregon Spring. Last week I picked a few Roma to ripen inside after the 1st one was ripe outside. Seems like fruit set in late spring and nothing set in June.
All our plants are looking good. I don't think we gave them too much fertilizer just the usual handful of lime & complete organic fertilizer at planting time & mulched well. Watering with soaker hoses enough that they don't wilt, but not excessively. Soil drains well and has been amended yearly with manures with bedding. Marigold flowers are blooming and doing well right in front of the plants. Where are all the tomatoes? Even my dad's containers aren't full of fruit though usually is heavy by this time. Corrine
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by larry_gene USDA8b-OregonPDX (My Page) on Sun, Aug 12, 12 at 22:58
| You have to have the same philosophy growing tomatoes in PNW as a losing baseball team has: Just wait 'til next year! |
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- Posted by mariev_seattle PNW Z8a Sunset Z5 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 14, 12 at 0:49
| This is only my second year growing tomatoes, and my plants are about as productive as last year. Last year I shook my plants only at the start of the season, and the larger tomatoes (e.g. Cherokee Purple) stopped setting fruit in August. This year I've been shaking them at least every few days since I transplanted them in early June, but again the larger tomatoes seem to have stopped setting fruit this month. Based on my count today, I have just under 700 tomatoes on 27 plants, about 400 cherry tomatoes and about 290 larger tomatoes. Two of the cherry tomatoes (Sungold and Isis Candy) continue to set fruit, but Blush also seems to have slowed down. So far Kimberley and Jaune Flammee have both produced about 20-25 tomatoes, and the fruit on Kimberley started blushing this past week. Of the black varieties Spudakee, Indian Stripe, and Vorlon are producing about 50% more fruit than Cherokee Purple, Paul Robeson, and Gary'O Sena. Here are some photos of the fruit on my plants: The first almost-ripe fruit on Kimberley on August 13th Jaune Flammee has 2" fruit on August 13th Spudakee has 3.5" fruit on August 13th Indian Stripe has 4" on August 13th |
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- Posted by larry_gene USDA8b-OregonPDX (My Page) on Tue, Aug 14, 12 at 23:44
| Unless in a greenhouse or other controlled condition, an outdoor tomato that sets in mid-August will not amount to anything in PNW. Night-time temperatures have been good, but daytime temps of over 85 degrees affect tomato pollen and fruit set is reduced. Remove all blooms and new growth after 1 September to help any fruit on the plants to ripen. |
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| I removed all new growth and bloom last week on all my big toms. Little guys get about one more week. |
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- Posted by plantslayer 8 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 21, 12 at 1:01
| It's just a bad year, again... I made a mistake this year: I did not prune my plants down in July, because the weather was so warm then and I thought I would let them set more fruit, since it looked like it was going to be a warm summer (yes, I know that's stupid of me). Anyway, you can see on my plants what happened this summer; there is fruit set near the bottom, where a blossoms from early July etc. set well, then nothing for about another 2 feet or so, then more fruit set near the top, most of which will not have time to ripen. If I had just pruned the plants down I would probably have more ripened tomatoes by now. Also my two bush tomatoes are almost devoured by blight. I need to pull them up, but I want to get a couple of more big fruits off of them. I guess Sophie's choice is not disease hardy enough for where I am. Indian stripe has been the best heirloom for me around here so far. It catfaces less, and seems to be as disease resistant as a hybrid, at least with regard to whatever has been attacking my other plants. It has fairly good fruit set. Black cherry is good too, but it's rather late for a cherry tomato. |
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| Next year it's just semi-determinates for me. No prunning, no cutting, just sit back and hopefully watch the Toms. get ripe quicker. |
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