16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Seysonn, Your first points make perfect sense and I'll agree that almost any commercial tunnel tomato grower will prune to optimize yield per square ft. covered space. I've been doing it for years and the yields per plant for me far outweigh the outside unpruned plants. I will clarify that I plant Indt. plants inside at least 2 months earlier than Det. plants, outside. Support for inside pruned plants is stringline, dangled from stuctural frame. For outside plants, also on plastic, I just place a cylindrical cage on each plant. The real yield difference is likely a combination of three times the harvest season, 6 months compared to 2. But I regularly will harvest more on an average harvest day inside (pruned) from 1/10 acre than outside (unpruned) 1/10 acre simply due to the fact that I have over 3 times as many plants inside as outside in that same acreage.

So thats my take on the topic. I know Dave and others on this site don't care to prune and I'll admit that it involves work. I like the tradeoff for work on "Off-days" that allow me to pick in half the time on my twice weekly harvests- Fruits are readily visible and none are burried under a tangled mass of plant vegetation. Then there is the fruit quality issue but my results are skewed due to weather protection provided by the tunnels.

take your pick. I will continue growing both ways as I have for the past 15 years. I'll just add that if I had a few more greenhouses I would abandon planting outside tomatoes completely.

Thanks bmoser

There seems to be two schools of gardening, in general:

One: Plant and let the mother nature and the plant's grow habit do as they wish.

Two: as a gardener/grower , get in there and interfere FOR YOUR ADVANTAGE.

I belong the the latter school.

Thanks so much for your advice Dave! I figured I should have stuck with my gut! They were doing so well too, but I think it's time to cut my losses at this point and start fresh! Lesson definitely learned!

Keep them. They can grow back fuller.

Yes, I've done that too but there's no one site shows all in order kind of site. Ugh :(

Check out Youtube for nctomatoman's videos, you may have to search for the dates since he uploads videos on peppers, etc. too but you can probably track the progress of a particular flat by going backwards from the most recent, he usually mentions the last video that he showed those plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC Tomatoman videos

my guess is that your Frankenbush is different then the other two plants. a out cast seed got into your pack of seeds.. :)

Boston, I was kinda thinking the same thing, I'm sure it happens from time to time. I'm just not sure if that would explain the twisting leaves...

However the changes I have made this week seem to have helped, I changed to a stronger mix of the nutrients, and switched to the H.P.S. bulb. I changed the light yesterday, but today they look better...Not sure if related or just luck...

Thanks for the reply, and Happy growing,

Bruce

I am itching and getting into planting mood.
If it is not raining, I will start planting, a half a dozen or so this coming weekend and following Monday.
Our highs are hitting 60s and lows are in low to mid 40s. This is a typical PNW spring weather
I am going to try the "cool tolerant" like, SIBERIAN, SILETZ and LEGEND among others. I will plant only in one bed. So in case of very low nights, I can put my portable hoop over them. I am also making small cages from rabbit fence and wrapping them with bubble wrap. That should work similar to WOW.

FINALLY HAPPENED

Today I planted about 10 tomatoes. The seedlings had been hardened off already. Now tonight they are on their own, in their own home in the garden. Tomorrow is supposed to rain. So the day after I will plant some more.

TEMPERATURES:
Not very warm. Lowe are around 42F and highs about 62F(average/median). We are getting more sun and less rain. Thats a plus here. If i have to wait til it gets real warm, it will be like in June some time. That feels like eternity to me :)
I know that tomatoes can tolerate cool weather, though they might not grow much but I could not baby my seedlings inside anymore. They were close to 10" , some even taller. Once it warms up a bit, they will take off.

I aim at having some ripe tomatoes to celebrate The Fourth. That is not easy here at the PNW. Our zone number is just meaningless when it comes to summer gardening.

I don't know, I figure at least 3, so you have to start more in case of poor germination, problems hardening off, cutworms, etc. Anything I think I may want to take to market, at least 6 of each variety. I usually grow about a dozen each of a dozen varieties, give or take (125-150 plants) each year.

Thanks ajsmama, that's what I had in mind so I'll go with that.

I have always heard that the rust is beneficial for your garden as plants take up the iron. Don't know if it's true or not but I know plants need iron so it sounds good anyway.

I have always heard that the rust is beneficial for your garden

Agree. Rust is just iron oxide which is a normal component of all soil.

For those rust bothers it is always just an appearance issue. Plus in this case the most likely place for rust to develop is at and below the soil where it is in direct contact with the damp soil. It wouldn't show there anyway.

Dave

Swissmiss, Your seedlings are actually doing pretty well considering conditions. They need more light intensity and the soil mix needs to dry out quite a bit. They are also showing some signs of nitrogen deficiency. Here is what I would do:

1. reduce the amount of water you are giving them. Let them dry out until they wilt just a bit before watering again. Be sure there are drain holes in the bottoms of the cups.

2. Move them closer to the light fixtures and/or put reflector foil around the fixture to get more light to the seedlings.

3. Raise the temperature to at least 65 degrees. 50 degrees F is too cold for seedlings.

4. Consider giving them some extra nitrogen next time you water. This would be 1/4 teaspoon of miracle grow 15-30-15 in a gallon of water or about 2 tablespoons of seaweed 2% nitrogen emulsion in a gallon of water. Apply once every 2 to 3 weeks.

5. See if you can put them into more direct sunlight for a short period of time each day. Don't overdo it, the leaves will get sunscald very easily. Start with 1 hour and increase by 30 minutes per day for a week.

Hello all,
I did have draining wholes in them :-). At least one thing I had done right.

Fusion_power: Since I re-pored them with MG potting mix, do you think I will still need extra N? I just don't want to over do it..

Although I think the lights are pretty low already, I will lower them a tad bit more.

I also left the heater on overnight to hopefully ease the transplant shock a little.

Most of the seedlings have recovered well when I checked this morning, I have 2-3 that are "questionable" to recover..

Thanks,
Ursula

The "BEST" in this case is subjective. But in general any tomato that is good enough for you to slice, should be good for sauce or canning too. It is like asking" the best wine to cook with". It is the same wine that you can afford to drink.

I found that you need a year to grow varieties to find out what grows best in YOUR soil to get the taste you want. Ones grown in sandy soil are different than the same ones grown in clay soils, etc.

Then you need to decide what you want to do with them, and your taste preferences. I like acidic tomatoes, others like the sweeter ones.

If you want slicing toms for sandwiches or wedges for salads, once again how do you want them to taste.

If you want them for sauce you need to choose the ones that have more 'meat' and less seeds and juice. The paste ones are for sauce, or they can be used as superb sandwich or salad toms. They are just better for sauce than the slicing ones.

Cheri

Hi there bardamu,

Romas and Black Krim have pretty different leaves when you really look at them--and I have seen a multitude of each of these popular varieties which I love and which I sell more of than almost any other plants save Sun Gold.

Romas are determinate and early on show a stout bushiness and are a little more yellowy green and more rugosa-like in leaf than most other tomato seedlings. They are very distinctive.

Black Krim leaves have just a slight hint of the weepiness found in all those deelicious heirloom "paste" or oxheart types, and also have a bit of silky hair or halo on the darker green leaves.

Hope that helps.

Vine

I appreciate the responses. My seedling mix media was peat moss and vermiculite. I made a new mix with existing mix and amendments: plenty of perlite and a tiny bit of composted material. As soon as I transplanted tomatos and other seedlings to the new media, even ridiculously tiny basil seedlings, the plants rebooted into health and vigor without exception.

Let us consider 2 types of winter-sowing:

1. "nature's" winter sowing... placing seeds onto dirt/soil/natural growing medium directly being exposed to direct weather and various critters.

2. "Human" winter-sowing where seeds are placed in a semi-closed environment (milk jug, soda bottle, salad container, etc) offering protection from critters and something of a green house effect.

This is my first year winter sowing, and although I don't have tomatoes and peppers sprouted yet, I do have cold crops and flowers sprouting. I expect to see tomatoes and peppers soon.

As I understand, Seysonn's "winter-sowing" is a hybrid of Nature's and Human's. It is direct sowing in the ground under the a cold frame. (Seysonn, please correct me if my understanding is not right.)

Doing a little Q&A tonight and came across this thread ;-)

Seysonn, WS is a genuine distinct germination method and has its own description in the USDA Thesaurus. (Disclaimer: I was asked and did help write that.)

When I first started talking about WS I had the impression that the Norman Deno crowd wanted to drag me off to the boundaries of the internet and leave me there, lol. Honestly, a kindergartner with a milkjug can have better germination than a lifelong master gardener growing under lights. I am so sincere about the method that I will give you the seeds to try it--you have to provide your own postage but I will give you the seeds for free.

BTW, tomatoes are perennial in a tropical climate, elsewhere they behave as annuals. They are from Peru, a temperate climate--the plants are not frost hardy but they are not tropical. The seeds, which are not the plants, can tolerate a broad range of winter temps and germinate the following spring when the weather has warmed sufficiently. WS is based on any plant's ability to reseed in a temperate climate. People in short or cool seasons should select appropriate varieties to WS.

The seedlings are small above the soil line, but the roots will blow you away. I transplant at about an inch into the garden.

Give it a try, it's fun.

Here is a link that might be useful: Free Seeds from WinterSown (You'll prolly want the tomato offer.)

This post was edited by trudi_d on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 8:42

I had a small raised bed, about 8x8, for a good 10 years, and primarily grew tomatoes in them. Because it was such a small space, I wasn't able to rotate. They always seemed to be fine for the most part, except last year, when we coincidentally had the best summer ever! I think there was some sort of blight- the plants didn't totally die, but parts of them, especially the lower parts, turned brown, fruit production was really low, and the plants never really took off, i.e. spindly with little branching. This year, I was lucky enough to purchase a greenhouse. I've built two 3x12 raised beds and will rotate the tomatoes between the 2 beds from here on.

My previous expierience, adding compost every year before planting, or putting in a legume in the spring before planting your toms. will be beneficial by putting nitrogen back in the soil you will also notice your fruits will be larger and healthier when the previous crop has been a legume..hope this helps!