16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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'.

I agree that is a very potent fertilizer, especially if it is being used at full strength on a container plant. Try diluting it to 1/4 strength and use it carefully.

The stress of growing in such an artificial environment can be enough to trigger blossom drop. Add any additional stressor to that and it is almost guaranteed. Clearly the plants are quite leggy and stretched so insufficient light is one issue they have to deal with and the light spectrum required for blooming and fruit-set is another. Container size is another stressor.

Good luck.

Dave

Thanks for the thoughts. I went out today and bought some fertilizer designed for fruiting that is a 2-8-4 and flushed the plants like bmoser suggested. I will give it a shot and keep an eye on them over the next few weeks to see how the second set of blooms act.

Viv I did not say "liquid fertilizer isn't going to help". I said you have to understand how organic fertilizers work if you are going to use them so that you can choose the right ones and that the ones you can use in this particular situation will be the smelly ones.

There is plenty of info available on this subject on the organic gardening forum here. But basically most organics require active soil bacteria to convert the fertilizers to a form useable by the plants. It is referred to" the soil food web".

None of those soil bacteria exist in a soil-less potting mix unless you add them yourself in some form or use one of the soil-less mixes that already have them added.

Fish emulsion works but smells, kelp and various other seaweed based products work because like the fish emulsion, they are already suspended in a useable form, but it too smells, worm tea, and compost tea can work for the same reasons but smell.

Bottom line, you want to use only organics then you have to put up with the smell or use a mix that has beneficial soil bacteria already added. Otherwise, like most do, use diluted synthetics when dealing with young seedlings and save the organics for when the plants go out into the garden.

Please keep in mind that organic growing/gardening is a whole school of thought with a big learning curve. It requires time and experience so it isn't something one can just jump into and expect success. While all that research and learning is being done you sometimes have to accept compromises. In the case of growing young seedlings one often has to choose between odors or synthetics. :)

Dave

Dave, thanks again for your reply. I've fertilized them so we shall see how they do. I'll post an updated pic in a few days.

~Viv

OK> But the topic is :

"Parthenocarpic Tomatoes" !!!

I am sure there was life before hybrids and Parthenocarpic Tomatoes and again there are ways to deal with cool season and short season and there has been many topics/discussions about it.

But here we would like to talk about CONS and PROS of parthenocarpic tomatoes. Obviously, there are those who reject it as a useless concept . Certainly they are entitled to their opinions.

Another thing is that I never taught that HIGH HEAT should be a problem up way north in Ontario, Canada. I have gardened for years way down south, in Atl. GA(zone 8a), and though we had hot summers but I always had tomatoes all summer. Only Brandywine shut off.

This post was edited by seysonn on Mon, Feb 17, 14 at 5:36

I grew Siletz, a parthenocarpic tomato, in the summer in over 100 degree sustained heat. Yes - they do set fruit in the heat but the fruit is virgin fruit and will not produce seed until the temps cool down dramatically. The production in the heat was very good but the fruit shape and BER was a big problem.

I have never had luck with anything but a few determinates and hybrids down here in Tucson. All the indeterminates I have ever grown produce tons of foliage and very few tomatoes.

Tomato plants are a big liability for a vegetable gardener. In my opinion, their ability to develop and transmit so many diseases compared to the 2-3 small fruits I harvested (specifically on my indeterminate plants) each year was never worth the work (and related problems) required to grow them in my climate.

surya55- No, I didn't. I haven't got the space nor lighting to grow cucumbers inside.

Rodney

surya55 - that's the funniest part - the brand name of these tomatoes-on-the-vine is Magic Sun! You can see the sprouts trying to push through the skin here.

Yes, early blossoms can and often do slow plant growth potential, for the reasons I mentioned in my first post here.

There have been folks who have done the obvious, that is snip off all buds and blossoms on plant A and don't do it on the exact same plant in the same season,hopefully.

Results have varied, as one might expect , since different folks grow their tomatoes in different ways, some use amendments, some don't, and the weather in any given season can differ widely depending on where the plants are being grown.

I think someone above mentioned what I'm going to suggest but Im too lazy to go back and check.

I can't see the need for starting new plants when all you have to do is take some sucker ( lateral branch) cuttings, stick them into small pots with artificial mix, not water b'c if you do that the roots just have to readapt to a solid matrix.

Quite a few folks keep varieties over the winter and as the plants get bigger they have to take sequential sucker cuttings to get a plant the size they want to set out.

Carolyn

Oh forgot about that carolyn, you did mention it!

Hypothetically, if you never let a tomato plant bloom, would it grow longer with new foliage indefinitely?

And Im planing on popping off that sucker that shown... I read they should get about 3 inches and then be removed. The genes on the plant shown must be really good; its blatantly out doing all the other plants, even though they were all planted at the same time and have had the exact same conditions.

Not as if the other plants are doing poorly though... this one is just doing something stellar.

Here's my favorite tomato of 09 so far:

A little desert bounty with a blocky PDC in the middle.
This shows the deep pink better, hope.

The earliest ones were a little bigger. About half of them have an interesting cube shape. It's been over 100 degrees daily going on three weeks now, and these are going strong, still setting a few and looking like a plant that will make it to fall out here. I have harvested 38 and have another dozen looking good with about a dozen more very small ones recently showing. I imagine that number could be doubled or more in better conditions. They're a winner for appearance, taste, and heat tolerance. I wish I had more to share with friends.

4 more coming in soon:

I have a lot of blossom drop from the high heat, and the trusses could easily have held 10-12 maters in more hospitable conditions, instead of 3 to 6.

From what I understand, "Hybrid" didn't always used to mean F1. People used the word to describe stabilized crosses. Saw an article by the granddaughter of the founder of the Porter Seed Company (at Victory Seeds) which describes what seem to be stabilized crosses as "hybrids".

The nomenclature of the Porter family of tomatoes is confusing. I have what I think are the original pink Porter and the red Porter Improved (from Willhite seed). I've never seen seed offered for Porter Pink Slicing. Victory sells a pink "Porter Improved" (Porter's Pride), so maybe that's it. An inch and a half sounds a little small for a slicer, though.

TomatoFest sells a Porter Dark Cherry, but Bonnie has switched over to a pink "Porter Improved Hybrid" which they say is an inch long. They still use the same photo they've always used for various Porter tomatoes.

Your F1 results are impressive, HoosierCherokee. I've got Traveler 76, Burgundy Traveler and Bradley started this year. Also Indian Stripe and Eva Purple Ball. And some larger pinks. Drought permitting, maybe I can try a cross or two.

Great thread thanks to all.

They don't have to be exactly centered, just not so tight in the corners. As Destiny said a foot to a foot and half in (although I guess that would pretty much center the front ones anyway. :-)

Dave

Not going into details, I would/could plant 12 tomatoes in that raised bed/box or whatever, easily. That will be an average of 2.0 sqr-ft per plants. Considering that the planter is quite deep, this is my conservative approach. THAT IS 8 CUBIC FEET (over 50 gallons of root area/soil per plant)