Undersized Romas - Frustrating

10 years ago

Hi everyone. I've gleaned a lot from this forum in the recent past. I've got one really good frustration left that I'm hoping I can get some insight on.

We moved, the other year, and so this is our second season growing in northwest Ohio. All new plant sources, soils and planting styles (last year in large planter boxes and this year two big raised beds). So just about everything has changed, but it's only kicking our butts in one area - Roma Tomatoes.

Our Roma plants are really healthy - actually all of our tomatoes are strong and healthy. They're so big that I'm pretty sure, now, that I've over planted a bit because they are growing into each other even with adequate spacing. They are trellised with U-posts and heavy wire and are loving it.

I feed regularly. During our growing, I start off with fish fert, move to MG tomato fert, work in some organics and then some bone meal, back to MG, then I switch up to Schultz's higher potassium tomato food when they are starting to fruit. I water regularly (last year with drip irrigation) this year two strong waterings a day unless we get enough rain to take one of those out of the picture.

I have great looking plants. I have lots of flowering. I have lots of fruit. I've even got determinates putting out a second time. But for the past two years, our Romas that my wife needs for her sauces and salsas are just down right tiny.

Last year, I ended up searching the web high and low for pictures of every different kind of Roma and I believe we ended up getting screwed over by being sold "ballers" type of Romas - barely grape size and not even worth the effort to pick and cut, let alone savor for sauce. We ditched that place for new sources this year.

Now I've got red Romas hanging in front of me, the "grandest" of which is an inch and a half by an inch. So they're twice that size of last year, but still far from the Romas I'm used to growing and seeing everyone else grow.

Our mountain pride and big beef tomatoes are the only other plants I have right now that have any fruit close to ripening, but what they have on them are their usual, heavy, good sized fruit. These Romas are killing me, though.

I tried several other types this year to try to get a feel for what I wanted to grow at our new home, long term. Mountain Pride, Rutgers, Opalka, Amish Paste and Valencia just to name the new ones. All of them look headed in the right direction.

Are these just lousy plants, still? Or are they requiring something I'm not giving them? These are definitely Roma plants, but so were last year's disappointments.

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Comments (7)

labradors_gw
10 years ago
There is a variety called "Patio Roma" and I had the opposite problem to you one year when I ordered seeds for that variety and received the regular "Roma" instead. I wonder if your plants are "Patio Roma?"

Have you thought of growing Roma from seed next year?

Linda
bkraz
Original Author
10 years ago
If I understand correctly, Patio Romas are a much shorter (2 to 3 feet in height) plant, as well as producing a smaller fruit. My Roma plants that I planted first are about 4'4" with those that followed crossing 4 feet at present. And they are definitely still growing.

Last year, however, my Romas were only about 3 feet tall. But we ended up figuring out what was going on, with those.

I have thought about trying to grow most of my crops from seed, and especially so with this issue I'm facing, here. It's frustrating as heck to put a great looking cuke and really nice Anaheim chilies in the basket with these tiny Romas.

I've never bought and grown from seeds, though. So that'd be a new bit of research.
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seysonn
10 years ago
I think that size of PLANT and size of FRUIT not necessarily go together. So a ROMA plant might be patio/window box type but produce regular Roma fruits.

I happened to have a WINDO BOX Roma(as said on the tag). It is about 3 ft tall now and seems to be growing normal size fruits(Nothing has ripened yet).
Then there are MINI Roma too, which relates to fruit size not necessarily plant size.
GreenThumb85
10 years ago
The Roma's I am growing seem to stay flat to the ground but i have around 150 of them. They are the size of an XL egg. I thought they would be much bigger than that.
MzTeaze
10 years ago
My Romas are about the same size. I was expecting 3-4 inch fruit...but most of it is more like grape tomato sized.
seysonn
10 years ago
They are the size of an XL egg. I thought they would be much bigger than that.

**************************
@GreenThumb
That sound about the normal size for Roma: XL EGG !!
But then fruit size can vary, depending on the plant's health and growing conditions.
GoldEmbossed
10 years ago
I'm having the same problem with my roma's. The plants are strong and healthy with loads of bloom, but so far the tomatoes are thumb sized. They are growing in my greenhouse to protect them from summer hail and I know it got exceedingly hot for a few days, but I would go out during the hottest part of the day and hose down the outside to bring the temp back down. I'm hoping that the first few tomatoes are just "beginners" and that they'll produce bigger later on. Fingers crossed, sigh.