16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Just noting that Cherokee Green Grape was bred by Mark Korney, so not an heirloom and Box Car Willie as well as Mule Team, Pasture, Red Barn and Great Divide were bred by Joe Bratka's father and are not heirlooms.
But for me taste comes first rather than deciding if this or that variety is an heirloom, and that works for me but some others are much more strict about it. LOL
And the last issue I never want to see is a thread about how to decide the definition of an heirloom. Fact is there are many definitions and not just one accepted one. So when I see threads about that I just go read a good book and nibble on some great chocolate and watch some tennis on TV if it's on.LOL
Last so called fact. There are many many threads here at GW already on that topic and a search will bring them up for anyone interested, so we don't have to go through what Yogi Berra once said, which was.....it's deja vue all over again.LOL
Carolyn, is it vu or vue, my French is somewhat lacking. ( smile)
Correction, not all 17 varieties I'm growing are heirlooms I should have said some of these are heirlooms :). Sometimes my fingers type faster than my mind works.
This gettin' old ain't for sissies. I'm into growing a lot of heirloom beans not all but most so I have 'heirloom on the brain', is that a disease by any chance LOL.
Annette
If you get 8 hours, that is pretty good. 5 to 6 hours is on the lower limit. I get about 5 hours direct sun plus lots of indirect and defused light. Not perfect but I am doing ok. In addition to light heat is also a factor. If your highs are 80F to 90F that can help a lot. With peppers, higher temperatures is a plus.
I have a similar situation. I get lots of indirect light, and some dappled sun in the morning, but I get full sun from 10:30am to 2:00pm and full sun on the tops of most of the plants until 4pm. We are getting tomatoes, not a bumper crop for sure, but we are getting them.
Seeing a photo would really help. The diescription is just too vague.
It could just be cracking that has gotten infected with mold, it could be a fungus disease called Gray Mold, or it could be damage from tomato fruitworms.
Dave
I have 3 plants on the driveway about 2 weeks old. They are about 2 weeks into the 5-1-1 recommended by Al on the container forum. Mine are big because they were suckers from my garden but Al says that some BER is nearly unavoidable. I put a little lime in the mix like he recommends and when tomatoes first appear I water in a very little bit more to supply the calcium. Last fall I had two plants from suckers and no BER whatsoever.
OMG...I'm in East TN (Knoxville) and I have been fighting fungus non-stop. So much effing rain, and for days on end. All the containers fill up, and I'm dumping gallons of water off of my balcony every week. I have plenty of early blight and fungus gnats. I've had success controlling the early blight by removing leaves the minute they show symptoms and then coating the plant with copper spray. I wait a few days and then do it again. I spray them until they are soaking wet, dripping. It seems to subside after that.
The problem for me has been that it rains multiple days to a week at a time. Then it seems like a waste to spray because it will just be washed off the next day, but in the meantime the rain is just feeding the fungus. I've been waiting out the rain and then just spraying aggressively when the weather clears up. I also have a fan out on the balcony running to increase air circulation. It seems to help.
This post was edited by aphidsquish on Fri, Jul 11, 14 at 17:31
Well, what you have stated could be due to other reasons than just sun; Like, soil type, variety, nutrients ... Plants with less nutrients in poor soil tend to ripen fruits faster. But the plants and the fruits will be smaller in size. Probably , you are caring too much for those with smaller, green fruits and growing lots of foliage !
In my garden I start getting direct sun after 11: am.
Morning sun (shining at a low angle) is less intense than mid day/afternoon. So if you sun exposure is short, afternoon sun is more effective.
In pots (depending where the pots are (sun, shade) and temperatures , the contents of the pots (Soil and roots) can get heated. That is why potted plants will readily and it takes them much longer to recover. Problem can get even worse if the are too small and not watered thoroughly and frequently enough.
Zylo,
I wonder if your pots are too small for your plants. If they are big plants, it is possible that they simply cannot suck up the water that you give them.
It happened to me when I grew a yellow cherry in a 3 gallon container this winter. The plant is normally 6 or 7 feet tall, so I knew that the pot was too small, but I thought I would grow it anyway. I was home all day to water 2 or 3 times a day if it drooped, but it reached a stage where it simply couldn't get that water right up to the top of the plant...... At least I got some tomatoes off it!!!
Linda
Was reliable with good production for me. But I have few better ones now. One of my new favorite is producing loads in small containers. It is Early, does not take much space and good for canning and salads. Juice is just right.
Here is a link that might be useful: new favorite
If too much juice ( and reducing it) is a problem in making sauce, there are several method. I propose a very simple one here:
== after coring, dice your tomatoes and put them in a pot.
== Get a potato masher and LIGHTLY press the cubed/diced tomatoes. This will the most of the juice in the seed pocket out.
== Strain, to get the juice out then put it back in the pot and continue processing. In this process most of the seeds will get out too.
You can drink the juice or cook soup with it. Never throw away.
== cook until tomato is softened. Use a stick blender and blend/puree in the pot. Then sift/strain through a tight colander . This should get the skin, remainder of the seeds and any pulp out.
== simmer for desired consistency ... proceed with canning.
I find this method very handy and dandy in dealing with a lot of tomatoes at peak harvest time, short of begging friends and relatives to take some of them : lol
BTW: in this method the original volume is reduced by 2/3. and jar/can just 1/3 of raw volume. Some people freeze whole tomatoes. I find it a waste of freezer space.
So Amish or not, you can make sauce from any tomato and it is simple.
I personally like to foliage feed once the plants have been established. However, I also foliage feed seedling we start in the cold frame with a diluted very low number kelp solution concentrate, it helps with the development and weather distress if you will.
This AM 6 weeks after the seedlings were transplanted to the garden : (winter squash , tomatoes , potatoes plants and sweet potatoes plants these were foliage fed- as there has been rain and humidity so the foliage feeding was done early in the AM 8 :00 allowing time for absorption. I would agree that the ratio of solution and the time window is very important - We practice organic methods for our gardening
I personally like to foliage feed once the plants have been established. However, I also foliage feed seedling we start in the cold frame with a diluted very low number kelp solution concentrate, it helps with the development and weather distress if you will.
This AM 6 weeks after the seedlings were transplanted to the garden : (winter squash , tomatoes , potatoes plants and sweet potatoes plants these were foliage fed- as there has been rain and humidity so the foliage feeding was done early in the AM 8 :00 allowing time for absorption. I would agree that the ratio of solution and the time window is very important - We practice organic methods for our gardening
I have that for the first time ever this year. They attack the big red (or just turning red in one spot) "Mortgage Maker" tomatoes which are about 4-5" dia right now, only the ones near the ground so far but they ripen first anyway. I am sprinkling sulfer powder on the ground, putting out water for them, and most of all I check daily and pick the ones just starting to turn before they get deep soft red. Putting them in a paper bag in the house lets them ripen fully without being eaten. They do try to bite green ones too but with little reward. Last year was the hottest of any state ever in Oklahoma but this year looks to make up for it. Everything lush.
What animal eats only the red ripe tomatoes. These bites are big. Not rabbit or squirrel size. Today while looking at the deck I saw a big animal in the bush outside of the deck. It was big. Didn't look to be a raccoon but as big as one. It looked like it was trying to either get on the deck or back down this tall leafy weed. This creature looked big enough to take the big bites out of the red tomatoes. What is it and how do I get rid of it? Thanks for your help!