16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
it is disturbing to hear that no research is known on benefits using toothbrush and how much it helps or does not help pollination.
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I'm not disturbed and IMO you shouldn't be either.Who would furnish grant money to do such research, same for a home grower as to cost and space needed/.
How many different toothbrushes would they have to test, not all are the same, as in how my rpm's/whatever.
How many varieties would they have to test with just one kind of toothbrush, and is doing it in one geographic location enough?Nope. And in one season to cut down on the variables? No way.
I could go on and on here and set up an experimental protocol, but won't, b'c it just isn't going to happen,( smile)
Carolyn
I have 3 black krim tomato plants growing right now that are about 5ft tall on a 7ft trellis. I started removing the suckers at first but then let each plant grow 2 main stems.
I then started trimming the bottom branches so that there's about a 1ft of space underneath the plants. I then noticed the plants started putting out new suckers from the leaf branches, and even from the flowering branches! Most of the flower branches are just a cluster of flowers with no leaves or anything further growing from them, but I have a couple flower branches where the ends grew into branches that are now a couple feet long with growing tips and more flowers.
I've started pruning my plants more for air flow, but I think I might just try some heavy pruning on one plant to see how it compares to the others at the end of the season. This guy here claims you still get good production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHhk7u7Xrnw
Thanks for the encouragement, jtmacc99! We've bought the CRW mesh and are looking forward to making our cages. How much size difference do you have between your cages? And how easy/hard is it to get them nested for storage?
Fortunately, we thought to count the squares before we started cutting -- a 50' roll has 100 6" squares, right? Wrong! Our roll has only 97 squares, so now I need to recalculate how many cages of which size to make (but at least I'm not stuck with a too-small cage).
To anyone still checking in on this thread .. I initially was gonna go with the crw but wasn't to keen on being covered with rust every time I worked with the tomatoes (daily tinkering) .. My solution was livestock paneling - about 12.50 a cage but they're NO joke .. Tractor supply carries the panels, as well as agricultural type stores, agway etc..
Here is a link that might be useful: DIY tomato cages
But -- isn't there a suggestion to use enough nitrogen fertilizer with that potting mix that is 70% pine bark fines, to offset any nitrogen binding?
Exactly. Most any wood chips will. Straw, hay, grass clippings, leaf mold, etc. do not. Although grass clippings if not dried first can burn stems.
Apologies to the OP for this thread going so far off topic.
Dave
Pine barks should not be mistaken with "Wood Chips"..
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On the removal of lower branches, I am for it for more than one reason:
== To provide air flow. Soil born fungi cannot thrive where is good air movement. The ones that are touching the ground are invitation for diseases (at stagnant state)
=== The lower leaves are often shaded heavily and do not make much contribution. That is why most of them aborted by the plant. So until then they are just burden. (IMO)
If the scars are hard , then maybe, the tomato was chewed by some insect and the scars initiated. My guess is that if it was BER, you would've seen more tomatoes affected than just one. Additionally the presence of 2 separate scars says something. Another point is that YOU HAVE DESCRIBED THEM AS SCARS not rot.
Although the rot happens to be on the blossom side but it does not automatically mean BER. Not every rot is BER. The cause of BER is unique.
The bottom line is that you have a single bad fruit. as long as you dont get repeats that should not be a concern.
Are you talking about what are called the "wispy foliage" varieties? If so then Tatiana's lists hundreds of them.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Wispy foliage varieties
I like your dog. He was more thirsty that those plants. Reminded me of my German Sheppard.
About you question:
I would look at it this way. Say they have a DTM of 75 days. Then you should expect some ripe fruit roughly in September.
Today I just pulled several of them but mine were much smaller.
But if you have space, it should be fun to experiment.
thanks for your reply
I never really can figure out the DTM thing as opposed to when the plant actually started to grow - when it comes to volunteer or seed starts vs market bought. even after transplant they seem to be in a holding pattern until they decide "game on" and grow and some click sooner than others.
I pulled my last harvest around oct 20 last year so hopefully I will get something out of them - I just want to know what they are - there are at least four varieties of volunteers that came up. I don't know if they are from my last years plants or from the foreign compost I used in my potting mix or some of both. The ones I did not move are quite a bit ahead of the transplants.
I have always had a few volunteers but this year was crazy - they popped up everywhere.
they are just and experiment I am putting the pots out in front of the house - curious to see how they fare out there.
The dog is my watering buddy - cant do anything with water without him on it - he is obsessed - kindler and gentler with the watering can than the hose which he attacks.
I'm having the exact same problems with these Triple L Crop tomatoes. They appear to have pollinated, but refuse to grow. These plants are 70+ days old, lots of blossoms, I pollinate daily by tapping the plants, and this is the result. Not a single flower has grown beyond the point in the photo. Other varieties of tomatoes are doing just fine. Super frustrating!
Sorry for the misspelling and thanks for correcting.
I don't see any cost to anybody or harm either. I did not start a new thread, just activated an existing one.
There is nothing wrong with it. PLUS we want to talk about our own experience with our own plants that we are growing. Maybe we can share tips too. At any rate , it is not forced on anybody to comment an partake. Also, this is about growth habit among other things. So just bear with me. Thank you !
Here is a picture of my RC ML.
It still has relatively light green foliage. I water and fertilize it the same way as my other plants. But different plants exhibit different (slightly) foliage color. This I have know for a long time about pepper plants.
BER is a characteristic of some varieties, specifically Roma and related to it, like San Marzano .....
If it was a characteristic of the variety itself rather than the growing conditions then it wouldn't be possible to grow any of them without BER and that isn't the case.
While some paste tomatoes show a higher incidence of developing BER, it is due to their structure when the contributing causes of BER exist. When those conditions do not exist paste tomatoes grow just fine.
Dave
it is due to their structure when the contributing causes of BER exist.
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Boils down to the same thing that I said. So that is a characteristic.
I should have said ONE of the chracteristics ( a = ONE)...... That is also called being "BER PRONE". Again a (=ONE) characteristic.
And we know that BER problem does not continue all season long. That is why you can grow them.
Finally, you better express your own opinion rather than continuing your fault finding mission in my posts.
The fact that you show a plant with no strong central leader stem is not related to the leaf edma, as far as I know.
Sometimes one just gets those two side branches with no leader stem.
Most of the time I can spot them shortly after germination, when you just see a green knob in the center, sometimes called a blind plant,and most times nothing happens at all, and sometimes there will be lateral branches that come out one either side of that green knob, and sometimes only one lateral branch.
Perhaps you didn't see that with the young seedling, but it does explain what you are seeing now.
Carolyn
What I thought I was seeing in this picture was a plant with a single main stem, the tip of which being so sick that the plant holds no chance of further developing into adulthood...?
Ilan.