16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Growing indet varieties will invariably lead to green fruits being on the vine during first frost. I have yet to see big improvement from topping plants and cutting off new growth etc in terms of speeding up last few greens to maturity. However I am very curious to know if I can play with growth vs fruiting fert requirements like adding extra soft rock phosphate with liquid calcium nitrate, tiny bit of ammonia in July but then again in beginning of August... I am not familiar with this type of game but am thinking out loud...

I can play with growth vs fruiting fert requirements like adding extra soft rock phosphate with liquid calcium nitrate
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Thank Linda. I have never heard or thought about that method to improve fruit ripening.

End of season (around first frost) we all get tons of green tomatoes. Few near color break might ripen inside. Then I make some nice green tomato pickles. But I end up composting bucketful of them. That is why, on suggestion of MANDELL, i experimented topping toward the end of season. I will do it this season too, more conservatively: say top any new growth, buds from 45 days remaining to FFD on. This way I should end up with enough green ones to pickle.

This post was edited by seysonn on Sat, May 31, 14 at 5:51

"I vote for steer manure." Is that better than bull manure?

I guess that makes it testosterone free? ;)

I'm just kidding, I couldn't resit!

OK, everyone be nice now please?

Build your soil. That is most important thing to do for any gardening. Am working on mine and yeah, science is getting there, so much excitement!
Canôt help but be on pins and needles to try my new fert Urban Farm Texas tomato fertilizer. Have heard tons of great reviews about it. I am pretty much Neptune person and love the products. For NPK I have used in the past Amaze from Intern Ag Labs. Great stuff because it has soluble Ca and phosphate. Canôt use it till tomato fruit is set though... From Urban Farm I ordered one pre fruit set and one for after. We will see and compare.

Definitely sunscald, the other leaves are a good color but that mulch looks very chunky, and make sure it's not right against the stem(s).

The mulch is pretry chunky.we have manure on the bottom, then soil and mulch.

She does look amazing--thanks for posting the pic so we can stop speculating.

Lots of green growth. If it were mine I would do some pruning just to redirect some of its energy to ripening fruit. Or just wait it out--I've seen alot of BER and blossom drop in other tomatoes in the beginning of the season, esp. during heatwaves which the 90's is around here. But like someone said above Juliet is usually foolproof...

I think your mgrow was poss. too high in nitrogen. I would get some fishbone meal scratched into the top to give the roots some phosphorous which will definitely help the fruits ripen.

Cheers!

Lots of green growth. If it were mine I would do some pruning just to redirect some of its energy to ripening fruit.
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That has been exactly my thoughts before you (vinemaple) posted.
Then I know of some experts who would probably say : Don't touch it!, It can cost you production.

This post was edited by seysonn on Sat, May 31, 14 at 6:04

You can also use French/nylon tulle. They also have gift bags made of them. Use Onion bags ...

Pantyhose - yeah, I sort of remember those. I bet I've still got some from back when I actually used to wear skirts! :) The t-shirt idea I did try at some point, but maybe I didn't make my slings wide enough. Thanks, guys for the suggestions. I'll look into the tulle idea, too. There's a fabric store I pass by occasionally, that I could go in and buy some yards worth.

If on the blossom end and not the stem end, please consider the condition called zippering,link with IMAGES you can click on and several good links as well in the link below,

Carolyn, who notes that zippering can start with a small scratch and then enlarge, but not always.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zippering

dragonfly - I dug up all my notes on Ace for the two years I grew them - not impressed so gave up on them - and I find I noted "Very prone to BER" about them both years.

I was growing them in containers - Earthboxes to be specific - so since BER is so much more common with container plants I tended to lay the blame it primarily on the containers. Are yours in containers or the ground?

As Jean said if it is BER the key is evenly moist, consistent soil moisture.

But I also noted it was a very thick-walled fruit. So I'm now wondering if another factor might be that the thickness better disguises/hides the BER symptoms so that they aren't as obvious early on as with most other fruit.

If you have any green ones showing the blossom end you described - the hardened scratch - could you post one? A pic of one of the ripe tomatoes would also help.

Cracking is a totally different issue and both types of cracking are associated with the stem end, not the blossom end.

Dave

Thanks Ajs,

I Feel better now, I was gona let it grow if it was just to see what happens but now I will scrap it and probly alter the mix or just add new and put the fresh seedlings in there and hopefully correct the BER I had last year.

Weed. Probably ragweed.

determinates have terminal blooms at the ends of the branches.

That isn't the only difference. And don't take that statement too literally and then claim that unless the blooms are right at the very tip of the branch it must not be a determinate.

I suspect this means there are more or less 100% chances it is hybrid...?

Hard to say. Odds would favor it being hybrid but I don't know what the percentage might be in foreign markets.

Dave

determinates have terminal blooms at the ends of the branches.

That isn't the only difference.
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I did not say that it is THE ONLY difference,

I had Yellow pear last year. I liked the shape and color. Cannot remember the taste. But it was not a good producer in my garden. AND after reading some NOT SO positive reviews , I was scared off. hehe

We planted a YP once. My goodness, it was like a jungle!! Outgrew every cage and/or stake we tried to put in. We ended up giving up and just letting it take over a whole section of the garden. Wish the tomatoes we got off of it would have been worth losing so much real estate to it. But now we grow Sunsugar, a yellow cherry instead. We love the flavor much better and it is a better-mannered plant. However, having said that, if someone were to offer me a bowlful of YP's, I wouldn't say no ;^)

Edie

My digital was at 39F at 6am. I'm in a valley with a large pond, so I assume that contributes to cold.

Have to go pull off the covering on 40 ground planted tomatoes now. I won't even begin with the peppers...

These last two weeks have given me such anxiety, with all the rain and erratic temps. At least the cabbages, lettuce, and radishes are in heaven.

Oh, yeah, frost pocket. Good luck!

Yes, you should have a light directly over them. An inexpensive fluorescent shop light works pretty well. However, leggy tomatoes can be planted deep or trenched.

Thanks. I will look into that if artificial lighting will work. I am definitely not going to feed my plants chemical fertilizers to make them presentable. I do want them to be healthy and I know the key is to make the soil healthy and to keep bugs off them. Tomatoes need a great deal of light too. If I can figure out how to put a light over the plants on the balcony, I will do that. Thanks again.

Seysonn, the reason that most tomatoes shipped in in the winter from FL and Mexico, etc. do not taste that great and are a pale pink instead of red is b/c they are picked green and then gassed with ethylene in huge chambers.

Ethylene is normally produced by the fruits in the ripening process, It's one reason that some folks still put fruits in paper bags and add either a cut apple or a banana, since they produce ethylene as well, and the paper bag allows for concentration of that gas.Same story for those who wrap unripened fruits in newspapers.

Most greenhouse tomatoes these days are grown hydroponially and many of them are darn good tasting. There's a hydroponic tomato place near me and their fruits are sold all over upstate NY and they take them to the Green Market in NYC as well

The first time I went there to see how the operation was run Phyllis asked if I smoked, I said yes I did, and she wouldn't let me in.LOL. I tried to tell her about TMV but made no progress.

I stopped smoking for a while, was let into several of the greenhouses and it was really interesting to see, and yes, the tomatoes they grow, special ones for hydroponic growing, tasted darn good.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Shushan tomatoes

Thanks for the explanation Carolyn but you've only further convinced me that vine ripened are better tasting. A neighbor farmer always picks his tomatoes pink so they have fewer blemishes but his sales have dropped over the years because the consumers can definately tell the difference. Some have told me that they taste like gased tomatoes (which he doesn't); others say the flavor is just lacking.

I'll even go one step further against the lacking scientific evidence in the complex flavor of tomatoes in stating that tomatoes ripening in cooler Autumn weather have poorer flavor profile and those tomatoes found under the tangle of vegetation that never develop more than a pink color take on the musty rotten flavor. There are some who will swear that the imitation flavor additives taste better than the real thing but common sense tells us better.

From what I can tell from your photos the new growth looks healthy, correct? These older leaves are showing some signs of environmental stress and nutrient deficiency that can be caused by several issues including the excess rain which means - if nothing else - they need feeding.

The problem with using organic fertilizers in containers is that there is no active soil food web developed in the container to convert the dry fertilizers to useable nutrients for the plants. Liquid organics, ones that can be suspended in water, are the quick fix in that case. Things like fish and kelp emulsions and even epsom salts for magnesium to eliminate the yellowing.

The environmental issues should disappear as the plant settles in and matures although you may lose the damaged lower leaves.

For next year I would suggest planting them much deeper as there is a great deal of leggy stem exposed that may weaken as the plant grows. Are they getting enough sun?

Dave

Thank you for the quick and informative reply. I will definitely get some liquid organics on them and see how they respond. This was my first shot at starting from seeds (which I pulled from a great tomato appetizer at a restaurant last fall). For next year, I think my light/heat set-up needs some work so I don't get that leggy stem you mentioned. I suppose I could try to reset them a bit deeper, but that wouldn't be wise at this point, right? Sun in our yard is a problem. Right now they get sun for about 10 hours a day. That will go down a bit as the trees get some more leaves.

A successful tomato is like a successful party. Prepare the best you can let nature take it's course. Lately my best trick is to make sure the plant is fed properly. In past years I've had a bias toward underfertilizing. Not this year. My plants are dark green with bright yellow blossoms, and they look really healthy. Also spray fungicide early rather than after it's too late.

I'm a gifter... always sharing good tom crops with friends and neighbors.
In season around NYC and NJ, the farm stand toms can be very good and abundant.

Store bought, hot house grown, picked early and green, varieties grown for transport and shelf-life, are bland and watery. Companions for iceberg and Diner salads...bottled blue cheese dressing or 'ranch'.
-the exception being the Cumato i had this past snowy January when my local market had them on sale for 4 lbs for 5$. A winter treat.

Finding what does well in your healthy soil and climate/zone, will give exceptional flavor picked just shy of ripe. Some i eat in the garden as snacking, ripe on the vine...others are counter ripened if a heavy rain is expected....
Anna Russian here may not be the same there. I grow many varieties not knowing what my season may be like. My first tray of starts is a mixed variety as is the second...the third tray is all oxhearts from TGS (tomato growers supply)...a row of each. They consistently give a good crop of meaty toms without trouble and great flavor. Sweet and tart.

A local small garden center can give great advice as to what grows best in your climate and soil as well as a neighbor or friend...
Buying a few healthy starts locally is a good beginning.