16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Is Best Boy from Burpee anything like Better Boy, or are they just trying to capture some market share?

My mother grew Big Boy in her open ground garden in zone 4 for decades as her main variety. She never pruned them either or staked em, but she did fertilize the transplant water with MiracleGro and fertilized about half strength when she watered after that. I do not remember her ever having a crop failure with this variety. This was a farm garden and got a good spreader full of raw fertilizer plowed down in the fall. And then was retilled in the spring. It was also a clay based Iowa black dirt that had been garden for decades before I came along too; so it had to be handled carefully especially when wet, but we got very little BER. Try augmenting the soil with dolomite or epsom salts and if you use Peat Moss try switching to Coir for better pH which will help with the calcium and magnesium uptake problems that lead to BER.

I have been very impressed with Burpee's Fourth of July for an early snack tomato and Parks Better Bush ISI (I never saw one plant set so many slicer sized tomatoes - the squirrels around here got em all, too; so I didn't even get a taste test). For heirlooms try Delicious. IMO the Brandywines are over-rated and under productive on top of it. Recipes for cooking squirrel would also be appreciated ... (only about half kidding)

IIRC Burpee started the whole "Boy" line of hybrid beefsteak tomatoes in the first place, I see nothing wrong with them continuing to develop it. Or anybody else either for that matter.

I have several problems with cages. OR to me they have several disadvantages:

----- Good and Functional ones, if you buy them ready made, are expensive.

---- Good and Functional ones if you want to make yourself,require a lot of work (transporting, cutting, forming). If you make them out of PVC, they are made up of so many pieces and fittings, gluing ....

--- Winter storage is yet the biggest disadvantage of cages, unless you have a big barn or something.

They do offer, however, convenience, (once made, or paid for) during the season as compared to staking.

For the reasons above , I prefer staking/weaving combination. It require some extra maintenance work (tying , weaving), but they are easy, to make, cost less and are easy to store( be it wood, Rebar, EMT ..)

YMMV

Whether to stake, cage, trellis or even just let the vines sprawl is a matter of personal preferences and circumstances. Some people enjoy building a cage, others are willing to pay for a ready-made model or spend their time pruning and tying a staked plant. We all also have different space availability, soil, rainfall, wind, temperature, etc. All these things factor into a home gardner's choice of tomato support.

For me, I do find it fun to hunt for material to build different types of cages (and other garden structures like raised beds and trellises). So, this is what I did.

The one important thing is just to have the chosen method work more or less as intended, along with all of the associated costs and benefits, instead of suffering a nasty surprise-- like the support being too small or flimsy for the plant or get blown over by wind due.

Thanks, Linda! To clarify, I'm mostly wondering if that "black mold" (or whatever it is) poses any kind of health risk to the plants or anyone enjoying their future bounty, or if it is simply something benign.

It is basically benign but it still shouldn't be ignored as it is a definitive sign that the soil in the cups is being kept too wet. It is easy to eliminate - and to prevent in the first place - but it poses not long-term threat to the plants. There is more of a threat to them from the overly moist media.

And they definitely need to be transplanted into individual containers before the roots become even more entangles and the transplanting kills them.

Dave

I am able to purchase Neem oil at a local nursery. It's quite expensive. I will probably start with Serenade. Safers also has something for pests, so I'm not sure if I should just get the neem oil to cover both pests and disease.

I will be using Excel LG with Actinovate and molasses as foliar spray. Have some Serenade and Neem oil from last year for couple of applications if needed.

BFT frequently has mild concentric cracking. I just got lucky with the on in the pic.

Interested in the Serbian Heart tomato. The 2011 pics didn't post. Have any new ones? Any seeds for 2014?

If it is a foot tall, there is a decent chance it will grow suckers from the stem and produce new leaves. I have had it happen to tomatoes that got almost killed off by a freeze and I left them in the ground to see if they might come back.

Thanks so much! Actually, I propped up one of the 2 bigger stems left with some leaves still on it, and he's doing fine so far. He's about a foot tall and pretty sturdy, so I do think he'll be okay. :D Thanks again! :)

This post was edited by TomatoMamma on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 18:33

I grew BR last year and was surprised. The tomato was hardy, prolific and tasted great. The nursery where I obtained the plants grew them out of curiosity and they sold well. My only suggestion is to grow them where no other tomato plant has grown. This is standard advice on any tomato plant! I did not canned but froze instead and they freeze well. They did not seemed to be bothered by insects. I hope the nursery grows them again!

I grew Black Russian last year and had tomatoes about 75 days from planting. I personally did not like it at all. It was very prolific but did not hold up well and it just had no taste or texture compared to black from Tula. I'm not growing it again. Too many better varieties out there.

It is TOO LATE starting from seeds in your zone now. I would suggest that you buy plants. It will take a minimum of 6 weeks for what you may want to start now, to become an 8" plant, that you can buy from any nursery now.
I am in a similar zone (as plant out time is concerned) and I started my seeds back ob 27th of February (9 weeks ago) and have already planted some of them.

seysonn is right. Especially for a plant like Mortgage Lifter, last time I planted ML in the garden it was 110 days and still had no ripe tomatoes. I shoot for early May to plant.

People do it all the time, growing all kinds of tomatoes in pots/conts'. Then there is a degree of success.

I, personally would try to grow ONLY detrminant/ bush and very small indeterminants in pots. To me it is not so much the root space but managing the stability and top growth. I have seen pictures of top heavy plants in 25 gallon grow bag tipper over in a windy day.

It is not that it cannot be done, but it requires extra efforts , planning and maintenance. That is why, for the convenience of growers, they have developed all kinds container type tomato plants.

I would do a sweet 100 in a 5 gallon pot. I am testing 3 gardeners delights in 5 gallon pots. It is just a test at this point. I am pruning to one stem and so far it is working well and the first clusters of tomatoes have set.

That's frustrating news, but thank you for the input. That's certainly the last time I follow the directions on the tin.

Kathy, they're between two and three weeks. The seedlings that I planted in a pot were sown a week earlier and the second set of true leaves is coming in now. I probably should have realized when I saw that, that there was a problem.

Would it be worth starting new seeds this late in zone six? I probably wouldn't be able to transplant them until June.

Never found these peat round any good. Just canôt keep it right moisture and everything. Junk IMHO
Here is what I would do if you have extra seeds, soak them for few hours in somewhat warm water, not hot but just lukewarm. Put them into paper towel and into plastic bag, leave it somewhere where it is fairly warm. It will germinate within day or two. Then transplant into small cell or small cups, keep it under lights for 16 plus hrs and give bottom heat, very gentle for about a week, make sure it does not dry up. Keep it covered only for first day until you see cotyledons showing up. Remove the plastic top after. Make sure there is gentle breeze from air duct, fan or something going once in a while. It is no good to put it in direct air flow but gentle air movement is a must. Do not use same trays or wash them really really good. What I am leading to is that with extra good conditions and coddling it is possible to speed up process of growing seedlings even if you are being on late side of starting. Just like you see in the garden nothing seems to be blooming and growing, then give it couple warm sunny days and things are going gangbusters.

Thanks for all your help. I'll get some daconil and start the regimen. :)

I really thought I was going to have an easy year. I haven't gardened in maybe 5 years. I set up containers using compost that had aged that long. And yet my SuperSweet 100 looked like it had some early blight starting (clipped leaves, hoping for the best).

I can only think that the fungus came in with my plant (from a famous west coast traveling tomato road show, which I would have thought unlikely) or from my borrowed cages.

Of course, if these fungi exist in California coastal wetlands, I'm surrounded ...

I would suggest 1/2 strength fertilizing, and bottom watering barely 1/4 inch up from the bottom.

Update: My seedlings appear to be doing better! They haven't lost anymore leaves and they're growing well! I'm hardening them off now! Thanks so much everyone, I'll keep you updated on their progress. :)