Growing Tomatoes

Mine are probably only about 2.5 ft tall. I'll take a picture when I get home

Thee only relevance of zone number to growing things like tomatillo, tomatoes, is the length of growing season : Namely ; when the danger of Lasf Frost (98% certainty) is over and when your FFD approaches. Whatever happens between those two frost dates has very little significance to do with summer growing condition I am not talking about FL, TX, AZ and SoCAL.
I can tell this with certainty that a lot of locations designated as "zone 6" has much favorable summer growing conditions than our zone 8. Then ATL, GA, Dallas Tx are also in zone 7b/8a., like Seattle WA. There is no relevance.

I pushed and pushed and started planting out on 4/8 til the end of April. Now a lot people in zones 6 and 7a are ahead of me in fruits setting.
Last year my tomatillo started setting fruits in September. (hehe , Zone 8 !!)
The best gauge for summer gardening is find out your HEAT ZONE number. Ours is ONE, the lowest, maybe similar, to zone 4 somewhere in Wisconsin.
JMO

Sey

Sey,

Big Beef OP is not a determinate. I have four of them and they are already 5 feet tall and full of tennis ball sized fruit. I don't know what is going on with yours, unless it was incorrectly labeled. If it is, no worries... I have three hybrids also to make some comparisons.

NCR, my BgBf (op) , growing in the same bed with F1 and 3 others, is the smallest/ shortest ( ~ 3 ft) of them all. The F1 is about 4ft now.

Update:
The hybrid one has fruits growing ...Finally. Here is a picture.

The first BgBf ever , here.

Sey

I grew both.

Unhappy with both.

Small and not productive both.

Will never grow again both.

I grew EG in 2013. It did not live up to its name and the claimed DTM. Plus the taste was mediocre in my garden.
This year I am growing Fo J. So far it has flowers almost 50 days from plant out where it was supposed to produce a ripe fruit by then. I know my climate is not near ideal but not that bad because I have half a dozen varieties that have set fruits before it flowered.

So I already have placed F o J in my ZAP list.

Sey

Nice, thanks for the JB review Hudson. I like the way it looks sliced, meaty & less seed, which is my preference. My mind is pretty much made up for next season.

Jenn, good news, Rutgers University has secured the original Rutgers parent lines from the Cambells soup company. I wouldn't expect a miracle tomato or anything, but since i've been eating all of the subsequent Rutgers lines my entire life, i now want something closer to the original! I'll be monitoring the Rutgers website for updates. More info on page 2 of this PDF file: http://www.njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/WhatsinSeason8-27-12.pdf

Steve

They look great I can't wait Hudson for mine as well, sorry for no photos, I took a few today and JB is producing fruits. I got some, but want to show the photos over the next few days once weeds are out ect... "I just bought a weed wacker" :). Kind of forced too by the development association but all is good. $100 fine :( It is a TORO and powered by Battery

My mother and little brother used to take care of our lawn and I did the tomatoes. But this weed wacker is gona kick some major but, was just afraid of the family of rabits and I am highly alergic to weeds and pollen, so for $95 I bought this wacker and built it tonight. I can't wait to show photos :) of the new yard

Dawn, I feel for you.

In my first year of growing tomatoes, I didn't mulch, I didn't fungicide the plants after transplanting.

I lost EVERYTHING !

Nice plants wilting.

In less than a week everything was gone !

Even today I don't know what happened.

I lost a bunch of peppers this year because of bacterial wilt. The recipe for that was a very heavy rain on a bed that was very heavily mulched. So the bed just didn't dry out. I turned the soil over two weeks later (after two weeks of sun and heat) and found big wet clumps. Gaack.

I'm not convinced that these beds are damaged in the long term. I understand that the bacteria involved can be killed by aeration, sunlight, and some drying. So I recommend turning the soil well several times during the next few months and then trying again in the fall. I had a couple of pepper plants die in the same way last year, at which time I didn't recognize the cause of death to be BW. After good cultivation of the bed I planted tomatoes in exactly the same place this year. They are doing fantastic.

Everything I have used has worked. I am just looking for that one "fix" that is crazy good. I also do not want to spend tons of money or spend a lot of time building and taring down at the end of the season. I used 5' hog panels for years...and it worked well. Then last year I saw a video of the Florida weave on Youtube and tried that. It worked...but could have been better if I didn't have my fence posts so far apart. This year I only have 2-plants between posts.

These cages above are awesome...and I know they were expensive...

I had a roll of CRW around the property for years so I made these cages...

And yes, good idea at the time was to plant beans up the north side as a trellis... note to self... unless a little shading is beneficial under the summer sun, not as good idea as I thought lol. The beans, although planted after, easily outgrew the maters.

So that they can be separated, if need be for storage, 3 panels, each 3 'squares' wide, tied together with tying wire (very easy to take apart and put back together.) The bottom horizontal is removed to create 'built-on' stakes.

keeps the bed tidy and fairly well contained (important when low on space.)

Peppers get half-height cages.

There is no doubt, it is a keeper. But my curiosity always wants to know what I am growing. I am just so glad to get a tomato without BER!
The little one is not red like my previous experience with Juliet. So I will call it Brown Juliet?

The grape shaped one is brown, and not red? Must rinse my eyes! nevermind my guess then! You could call it whatever you want though!

Today's High forecast = 88F. This is the 4 th day in JUNE , so far, that highs reached and/or exceeded 84F. So practically our HEAT ZONE is pushed to 2 from 1, just by June record so far.
But starting tomorrow the highs will be in 77F - 80F range. Even that is more like July weather , maybe even better. Last Jun was was very cold.

Anyway: I love it and take it . Give me more of it. hehe

Sey

8 pm... 67' F.

67 !!!

A few more showers later.

Jenn, the weather is just perfect. Today in my area we hit 90F. But it cools off at night considerably ( down to mid 50s).
But no ripe tomato in sight yet in my garden but they are setting. My CPs have surprised me so far while earlies like Siletz and Legend have NO fruits. My tiny Hahms Gelbe Topftomate is the winner. With under 14 inches in height keeps pumping.

Jenn- thanks for the wormgirl explanation - makes sense. Sweet 100's still produce but visiting out-of-town Gkids over the summer wipe them clean. We need back up support during the summer - haha. Staggering them gives them plenty to eat later in the summer and local Gkids barely keep up with Sweet 100's earlier. They all look forward to picking cherry tomatoes in the GH !!

I always think the first tomatoes to ripen aren't as good. Very unscientific theory, but I find the ones that set fruit in cooler weather aren't up to full potential yet. That sungold had me wanting a ripe tomato! I have four on the counter that need a couple of days.....so it will be soon.

Jennie

Very nice looking container garden! I really like how they are out for aesthetic enjoyment as well. Thanks for sharing the pics. Looking forward to seeing your full size Sungold :)

Yeah they are awful. I had one groundhog take down 10 broccoli plants just as they were heading, in one sitting. Dug under a 6 foot high fence. They are major pests where I live, between them and the deer you really need a fort knox fence to grow anything.

Here's some more pictures.

Sweet Tangerine determinates (less than ideal sun)

Jet Star (less than ideal sun)

Bush Delicata on the right, Honey Bear Acorn (bush) on the left (the acorns definitely taste better out of the garden... wonderful nutty taste.)

Beets.. several are very ready to be picked.

Sugar Snap Peas not minding the heat one bit.. 7 feet tall.

Onions in the front, leeks in the back. The Walla Walla are bulbing up, not so sure about the Red Zepplin.. the Ringmaster whites I don't see, there were few in the Dixondale seedling pack and they were small.

I keep saying I will finish mulching next weekend... just can't seem to find the time. Soon those squashes and tomatoes are going to be very large and almost impossible to mulch and I am going to regret it when there are huge weeds.

Congratulations on having a garden again. I know how it is.

I misspoke before - Green Zebra is NOT a full size tomato at all (sorry, I have not grown it and was confusing it with others). It's salad size, 2-3 oz.

I looked in Carolyn's book "100 Heirlook Tomatoes for the American Garden" and she says: "indeterminate but compact habit." Perhaps this explains the confusion.

Anyway, it looks like you have plenty of time to ripen them. The top turns gold/orange when ripe.

Last year I grew GZ. They were small indets compared to other indets.
For sure need to stake or cage them.

Sey

The easiest way to reduce the problem is to plant sacrificial, unsupported, cherry tomato plants around your caged tomato plants. After the animals fill up on cherry tomatoes that are close to the ground, they don't bother with the caged tomatoes.

The eating pattern tells me that it is not the birds. Other those mentioned, how about rats ?

I suggest using a humane trap to catch them.

Sey

I wouldn't even try to separate them. I'd just slice out a size of that mix appropriate for the container you are going to use... transplant... then, with scissors, snip away at the base until you have one per container. During the transplant, allow some of that mix fall away, and as others have said, use a medium that fits your circumstance.

Yes, Azores is amazing place with amazing climate and unbelievably beautiful views that I never get tired of, especially good climate to north Europeans. I miss the Centigrade 30s though as I used to love 32C or 90F very much, but not at night. This is excellent sleeping climate here. I am amazed here I don't use neither heating nor air conditioning, just put a sweater on in "winter" on some nights and take it off during summer.

You're all helped me tremendously and I just made 6 small pots with one cherry tomato plant in it for growing. Now I suppose I should have some tomatoes in 3 months from now.

Separating the tiny seedlings was very easy. They are still too small to be entagled. I am used to grow palm tree seedlings and now I grow them here, but germinating palm tree seeds is not easy here as it is not hot enough, but I came up with ideas and waiting for the results, with some easy-to-germinate palms (Washingtonia filiferas) already germinated.

Thanks for suggesting Neves Azorean Red, I will try to find them, unless I already bought them, unmarked.

Once the tomatoes outgrow the half gallon pots they are in, I will probably skip the 10 gallon pots and just plant them into the ground, to avoid hunting for huge amount of potting soil bags. But I will try making one 10G pot, I think. In fact, most of my pots contain mostly stoney ground soil with some potting soil from bags topped on top. Even that potting soil is not perfect, with some mulch-like woods etc. that are not exactly aged.

Welcome to visit the Azores, you won't be disappointed. It has a very good aura (spirit) and people are pure. Any time of the year is fine, but summer is somehow warmer (65F to 78F but an occasional 80F in July and August). They call it European Hawaii for a good reason. There are direct flights from Boston, which takes 4 hours. Lisbon to Azores is a 2 hour flight.