16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I agree Lucille about pruning. I was just thinking about doing that to try more varieties. Just a few tomato plants is probably enough for most of us, but suppose you wanted to try 15-20 different tomato varieties in a small garden. You could grow small plants and do it that way.

I grow my tomatoes (DET & INDET) in less than 2ft spacing, maybe 18 - 20 inches.

Spacing , mostly is to accommodate the top rather than the roots. Lets do a math: A 1.5ft by 1.5ft area with 1ft depth will have 2.25 cubic ft of soil or about 15 gallons(3 bucketful) . That is MORE than what the root system needs to spread, as long as the nutrients are in there. The extra spacing is really more for convenience of the gardener rather than the need of the plants.

ANOTHER IDEA:

I have read this not foo long ago, right in this forum:

PLANT TWO PER HILL INSTEAD OF JUST ONE. that is how cucumbers squash and potatoes are usually planted.

Here how to do do it:
In the same hill plant the two plants 6 to 8" apart.
Space the next hill (center -to- center) 30".

So in effect it is alike planting at 15" spacing but this method offers some convenience. I am going to try this method myself.

Let me say that there is nothing wrong with extra spacing if you have the resources. If nothing else, if offers convenience.

brain,
wants to find a way to grow with no leafs. they keep getting in the way! :)

Oh no, my faith may have been shaken, but I'm in no way turning over to the dark side. I don't prune healthy leaves!

Boston: I'll experiment with the sawdust this coming season. According to the article, it can be done. I just need to find out how, because Lord knows, sawdust is just not useful for a bonfire.

Dave: You're right, a lot of the content in the article is not applicable to a home gardener like myself. However I do think some of the ideas presented in the article are interesting, may be useful, possibly worthy of discussion?

I've read people describing tomatoes as having vegetative and reproductive states. This has always confused me since I have never seen these states. Instead, all my tomatoes produce new shoots and leaves, and at the same time produce new flowers and fruit.

My understanding of the article is that a particular plant can be viewed as either more vegetative or more generative depending on the ratio of leaves to fruit; and that you can get a balanced plant by raising or lowering the temperature.

This is not immediately useful for a home gardener as temperature is beyond our control, but a better understanding of tomatoes and the effects of temperature might come in handy.

Daren

Additional Information on The Japanese Tomato Ring

By: Daniel E
There are several reasons why this occurs, and you can recreate this same growing condition by installing a Japanese tomato ring. ...www.santarosa.fl.gov/extension/articles/japtomatoring.html

Tomato Ring
The Japanese Tomato Ring, which, by the way, has nothing to do with Japan, originated in South Carolina with a postman named Callahan. ...www.pamga.org/Tomato%20Ring.htm

Tons of Tomatoes From A Small Space
Want to grow a ton of tomatoes, but plagued by evil soil or limited space? The Japanese Tomato Ring allows you to grow 5 lush plants in a space 3" x 3", ...
http://floraldreams.net/Plant%20Care/Tons%20Of%20Tomatoes.html

Urban Gardening Help - High Yield Techniques - Small Spaces
Square Foot Gardening and the Japanese Tomato Ring are two gardening methods ... The Japanese Tomato Ring is an unusual growing technique that one gardener ...www.urbangardeninghelp.com/highyield.htm

Japanese Tomato Ring Websites People Who Like Japanese Tomato Ring Sites
http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/japanese-tomato-ring/

found a similar method i might try this year....use 20 or 30 gal trash can in the middle of ring...plant around it in good composted soil...put compost in can and water your tomatoes by putting water in can...which leaks out water slowly to water deeply...later, up till bloom time, just make compost tea and use it to water tomatoes...might work and also save water too...the indian

Thanks Dave. I did 2 searches and didn't find anything. Loads of threads but nothing jumping with sun-dried.

No body does SUN DRYing anymore, with today's dehydrator technology, sun drying is out of fashion, except in some remote places in the world that do not have electricity or have not heard of DEHYDRATOR.

Cherry tomatoes certainly come up faster than the regular sized ones. I get them a month earlier

OLD thread.No need to go back.

I agree with "snibb".
Because of its shear smaller size, it will take cherry tomato less time to grow and ripen (from flower to fruit) . Then of course there can be EARLY and MID cherry too. That is to say, NOT all cherries will be early.

EARLY varieties WIIL be early RELATIVE to MID and LATE season varieties, growing in the same garden.

Probably those leaves got pest.
Examine closely under good lighting with a magnifier.

definetly watering issue

I have tomatoes growing on my bay window sill. They have extremely deep purple undersides of their leaves. The tomato plants growing of the same variety 12 inches away on a table in front of the bay window are not purple. I think it has to do with the cold. We have been getting some night below freezing. The purple tomato plants on the window sill are much healthier and larger looking then the ones further away due to more sun light near the sill despite the cooler conditions.

It has to do with cold : NOT cold air but cold SOIL, that the roots cannot uptake the nutrient, especially "P"

Too much watering (with COLD water) can also aggrevate it.

THAT IS WHAT they SAY.

I never really perceived there was a problem with my seedlings.

Unfortunately most don't realize it until the leaves develop a bit more and become too heavy for the weak stem to support. The plants fall over and often the stem is damaged or broken.

That's why transplanting them deeply now, burying all the stretched stem, is important as it prevents that from happening. Plus it allows roots to develop all along the buried stem and strengthen the plant at the same time.

Dave.

if you have èlight handè using fork and lifting them out of the cup and burying deeper in same cup works wonders as well.

Woohoo! Now if it would only get warm outside...

I agree. I'm in NB and we just got walloped with a storm (nasty storm) and on Sunday we're supposed to get another! UGH!

Jon, your seedlings are looking great IMO - like others have said - keep the light an inch or two above the plant. I don't think they look a whole lot different than mine looked 6 weeks ago and you can see how they turned out and what they look like today. The photo shows the same tomatoes as they grew and were transplanted to larger pots. The photo does not show the seedlings in the 3/4" blocks but the photo was taken the day I moved the 3/4" blocks (seedlings) to 2" blocks.

I planted the seeds in 3/4" micro blocks which makes it easy to move to 2" blocks and then planted them in 4"wide X 5" tall square pots before going to the GH. Using the block method - I did not disturb the roots in any of the transplanting (except for a few stragglers seen on the 2" block). Leggy tomato seedlings are easy to correct when you transplant them up to their necks every time you transplant anyway IMO.

They aren't perfect but after 6 weeks we planted them in the GH up to their necks.

This post was edited by Hudson...WY on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 5:48

They seem to be doing fine. You'll see that some of them are deeper or doing better than others.

I am gonna buy a cheap fan and may end up moving them farther from the peppers so they can be cooler. room temps are 60-70 but it gets warmer than that under the lights even though the tomatoes are on the bottom rack.

Thanks, bigpinks. My wooden stakes either break or rot by the end of the season so I think I'll try rebar.

Wooden stakes ,other than cedar, will rot. And any wooden stake can break easily, IF they are not thick enough or if you force them . Rebar is a good choice, I think. I am also going to try 3/4" EMT (electrical metal tubing ?). They come in 10ft length and cost about $3.50(I think). So 2 stakes is made out of each costing about $1.80. Not a bad deal. Considering they are stronger than wood, and should last longer.

I'm wondering whether any of the chemicals in the paint may be absorbed by the veg. plants, over time.

Plant systems don't work that way. They have a very active filtering system and if they didn't, given all the things that are naturally found in dirt, we'd all be eating contaminated vegetables. :)

This is not to say that one should freely add anything they wish in the way of chemicals to a garden, they shouldn't. But some paint flakes from a T-post scattered over the soil over many years, even petroleum-based paint if that is what is used, are a very infinitesimal part of garden soil overall. Plus many of the components of paint are volatile chemicals that evaporate into the air.

So think of it this way, we walk in our gardens and track in all sorts of things, we use metal tools, metal cages, plastics of all kinds, cars with exhaust drive by, dust and fungus and bacteria drift in from all over, etc. The garden isn't a sterile or even a clean place so if the plants were going to suck up all the contaminants then we'd all best give up gardening.

But if it concerns you then you can always re-coat the stakes with fresh paint or scrape it off before using them and just let them rust. Rust (iron oxide) is a normal component of soil anyway.

Dave

I'm not worried about anything "dirty," just the chemicals. I guess using rebar would solve that problem. :)

If asking about X pollination between tomatoes go to the top of this page, click on FAQ's and scroll down to find the best article I know about it that's called How To Prevent Cross Pollination.

You'd only detect X pollination from saved seeds of fruits that had been X pollinated in one season and those saved seeds planted the next season.

And you sure would know you had X pol since the plants you grew from X pol seeds would be very different from what you started out with from the original plant.

Of course that depends on what the X pol male parent was, as to traits, meaning if a red X pol a red, it might be hard to tell.

Carolyn

how could you tell?

If they were crossed before you bought the seeds? The simple answer is you couldn't tell. There are numerous variables to be examined and unless there is a really obvious change from the norm you'll never know - unless you want to get the DNA tested. :).

What is the name of the variety? That is the place to start. Then look up that name and learn what the characteristics of that variety is supposed to be - the shape of the leaves, the size of the fruit, the color of the fruit, the shape of the fruit, the shape and number of the locules inside the fruit, etc. etc. and those are just the obvious to the naked eye issues.

Dave