16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

There are two places offering Mr. Brown for 2014.

Please see the link below.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mr. Brown

Thank you. I'm sorry Carolyn. Larry's tomato is Mr. Brown's not Mr. Brown. I was confused about the name.

That is quite the introduction to GW. I would like to email you so questions...but you do not link one....

I am new to GW but not new to the industry of Horticulture. I think you are now able to send me an email of questions.

Tomatoes are annuals. From the time you plant them outside , in a container till they practically expire (due to cold or frost) is about 5 months in most places. And root bounding should not be a big concern.
Having said above, I believe that they do not need a huge container. Even a 5 gallon bucket is big enough. Soil itself is just a medium. What the plants need are: Moisture and Nutrients. As long as you provide those to the plant REGULARLY and PROPERLY, that is all they care for.
Most pot/container and in ground spacing is for the TOP consideration and head room than for root requirements. Just look at fruit trees like cherries. They are spaced mostly because the need head room, IF YOU WANT TO HARVEST FRUITS OFF OF THEM. I have seen towering, oaks, maples and other trees growing in clumps and share the nutrients in a common root space. If the soil is rich and they get enough moisture, they all will be just fine. The same is true about garden veggies. Even more so true b/c garden veggies are mostly annuals and thus have a short life.

The commercial farmers provide a lot of spacing btween tomato plants, NOT BECAUSE it is required for the plants sake, but for maintenance and harvesting in a mechanized environment. But in a limited space in my backyard I dont do it that way. Then some have developed the concept of "Square Foot" gardening which is aimed at utilizing the garden space to its fullest. Planting in container goes even further in optimal use of space and soil. If one enjoys the luxury of space, soil, container space, that is perfectly fine too.

Very informative, thanks

And if you do import stuff, make sure it's well incorporated
into your existing soil. A spading fork is an excellent tool
for this sort of thing. Or a rototiller if it's that large an area.

If you don't get them well mixed, you could end up with a
boundary layer between the two types of soil. That's not
a good thing. It can cause problems with water pooling
and bad root penetration.

I don't know your location, but here in SoCal there's a
product called Kellogg's AMEND. Its supposedly aimed
at clay soil. I used a lot of it (well incorporated with the
native soil of course) and my tomatoes grow like
wildfire.

Plant-based compost may be better than animal manure where the soil is high in salts. Salt can build up over years of planting. If you have a defined bed at least a little above grade, salt may accumulate where the soil level is the highest (you can remove some of it). Try not to make the highest soil level where the plants are.

I'm going to a tomato grafting seminar put on by NCSU next week. This thread is very interesting to me as I too recoil from the rootstock seed costs. I had already decided to try Celebrity, Sweet Chelsea and Big Beef for rootstock and thinking about Florida Highbush as an alternative or additional - just to see what happens... and b/c I have them. Cherokee Purple, Angelo's Red and Isis Candy are going to be my first attempts after the class.

Matching rootstocks with scions is somewhat like picking parents for hybrids - some work very well together and others don't.

How well a match does is predicated on what one wants/needs to accomplish.

I see grafts as:

• another potential management tool especially for commercial growers

• a marketing angle for growers and garden centers to increase profits

Didn't watch the video but Cary frequently points out in these talks that resistance for verticillium is almost useless now (even in lines not grafted) as almost all verticillium samples assayed now are race2.

However there is one line currently that is resistant to vert race2 but it has been locked up in a utility patent (I did hear of a processing line for west coast production now available with V2 when in Corvallis).

At what stage should you plant into a larger pot myne are starting to get pretty decent size and the roots are hitting the side of the of the cup I posted a photo earlier but they are a bit bigger now.
Thanks Jarryd

I was told by several ppl that final repotting would be at 12in height mines 7in tall now

My faves are Black Krim, Black from Tula,purple Cherokee and green zebra i love them all except The bland yellow one.

I suggest pondarossa brandy wine, Rutgers, Beefstake

Here is a link that might be useful: TheItalian Garden

I have started a few , on Feb 14 th, among them SIBARIA. Then I am just germination about 15 varieties. They have not yet emerged. So we will see.

The best I've seen is 75 days for Boney-M. The plant is ultra dwarf, about a foot tall and only makes 4 or 5 fruits.

Jagodka is a good example of a super early determinate that produces an entire crop in about 95 days. That is the earliest I've seen for the plant to make about 2 gallons of 1 inch diameter fruit and all of it ripen. Flavor is pretty good also.

There are several other early varieties like Stupice that are not really that early. They have the precocious flowering gene but spread out fruit maturity over a few months.

If you are looking for a good early tomato for planting outdoors, the traits needed are precocious flowering, stress tolerance, cold tolerance, and very rapid growth and transition into flowering mode. Sub Arctic Plenty gets fairly close on these traits, but flavor is mediocre.

hi rosefool - there are some 200 different specices of leaf-foots and the one in your photo is a young Eastern Leaf-foot (which is supposedly rarely seen west of the Mississippi or in the deep south except in unusually dry years.

If that is true then you may not have the same problem this year. Then again, you might.

Controls (organic) for that specific sub-species are frequent egg patrols to remove them before hatching and the eggs are quite distinctive in appearance (see link below), tachnid wasps (you can order those) and a dust application named Surround (TM) that blocks their ability to feed and irritates their bodies.

Hope this helps.

Dave

PS: Here are a bunch of pics of various garden netting structures for some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eastern leaf-foot bug

Dave,

Thank you, you have been extremely helpful! I may give the organic methods you describe a try, including the wasps and the Surround dust--that's the powdered kaolin clay, right?

Thanks again.

Karen

Exactly what it says. A share cropper did not own land, but farmed someone else land on shares. Normally 1/4 of the crop. That was upped to half if the land owner provided seed etc. It was popular in post civil war south, where much of the land was lost by southerners who could not pay the taxes. Some large land owners used tenant farmers who were provided a house and a small salary ( in my youth $15.00 a month) to work on the landowners farm.

Thank you. Oops, I didn't mean to hijack the thread !

Which member joked about using Juliet tomatoes for batting practice? ;)

Ammo is expensive! You mean i can just grow tomatoes? No more breathing in lead dust when going to the range? I'm sold..

My nightshade family plants (tomatoes, eggplant and peppers) all HATE Miracle Grow mixes. They like the blue stuff just fine but those mixes they HATE (shaking leaves in shudders). I use Metromix 360 and feed Miracle Grow and Epsom salts after a good soaking every 2 weeks. 1t MG and 1T Epsom salts in 1 gallon of water about an hour or so after a deep watering. I also reuse potting mix by upending on a tarp - top in first and bottom on top. Earthworms are always present and they go in the middle. This year I plant to have a water garden in a 300gallon galvinized trough and will use fish poop from that in the garden when I change the water by a 1/3 every month or so.

Growing tomatoes organically, in a container can be very difficult. Tomatoes tend to be heavy feeders and organic ferts are not directly available in the same way that synthetics could be. Organics must first be broken down by microbial colonies that are present in dirt and are largely absent in sterile potting mix. Those who grow successfully in containers generally use various specialty products to introduce and maintain those microbes.

I have done that with the Texas Tomato cages. They rather pricey but very sturdy. It worked out well. Since I now have enough, I don't have to, but I would do it again if I had a larger garden and could increase my number of plants.

Thanks, all, but I am quite determined to limit myself to 24 plants. No volunteers this year, no extra seedlings, nothing. This should prove more than ample for 1.25 tomato eaters (me and SomeOne who likes 'a slice' on 'a sandwich' - incomprehensible) and I am much more interested in getting a handle on my festering cesspool of disease so that they are healthier.

But no one seems to think I should sacrifice my variety for science - thanks for the enabling there! I'm going to be dizzy with 24 different varieties to taste and keep track of.

Dave and smithmal, thanks for the suggestions on varieties to cut. You're right, Long Keeper is at the top of the list to go (was more prone to ordering novelties in my gardening youth 4 years ago). Anna I'm surprised to hear since I thought she was generally well regarded, but she hasn't ever done much for me compared to Cour Di Bue, so she can go.

Delicious might have to stay in just because it was a freebie 4-5 years ago and I haven't ever grown it because it's always been high on the cut list. I don't store my seeds for longevity so I might be running out of time on that one.

Lucky Cross I have grown before but I don't think it did well - I don't seem to have a recollection of it -so it might need to stay in to get properly evaluated.

So between new varieties I want to try, freebies I really should try, and returning players who fill a specific position, I might be down to Sungold or possibly Jersey Giant for my last cut. I've grown and liked both, but haven't come even close to consuming the Sungolds other than for some snacks in the garden, so they just make a mess. Jersey Giant has a sweetness that I enjoy, but has been rather low production and I have all my other 'Jerseys'.