16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

My homemade seed start mix is 1 part perlite, 2 parts worm castings, 2 parts peat moss. Mix well, then steam sterilize. Since I am working with bulk quantities, I mix 10 gallons of perlite, 20 gallons of worm castings, and 20 gallons of peat moss. Put the mix in a modified 55 gallon drum that has a sheet of perforated metal in the bottom with about 5 gallons of water, then place on a turkey fryer and steam the water through the mix to sterilize it. This makes enough mix to fill up 80 to 90 standard nursery trays.

I tried this mix without sterilizing last year and lost several thousand seedlings. After steam sterilizing, I produced the prettiest seedlings I've ever grown.

A google search will turn up several worm casting suppliers.

Seysonn,
Good point - I think vermiculite works better for a seedling planting medium (when added to soil for 2" & 4" pots) with it's moisture retention abilities where perlite works better in raised beds/containers where compaction and drainage issues become important. Plus, I don't know about your area but perlite in my market area is almost 1/2 the cost of vermiculite! That is a huge difference! Even though I didn't mention that in my container/raised bed formula above - I do use perlite in all mixtures except seedlings where I still use vermiculite (that is in 2" & 4" pots - I don't use either in 3/4" seed starting cubes).

When we built our GH and raised beds 5 years ago we only used vermiculite in all of our soil mixtures and haven't changed our formula descriptions. Since then - we have discovered what you already knew - that perlite is much cheaper and better suited for drainage and aeration - IMO.

We have not had a sterilization problem in our small GH seedling soil mixture quantities as Fusion_power has experienced. We have a very high % of germination success. I can definitely see the need for a sterilization program in a large or commercial setting though!

I've tried keeping my plants going over the winter, but I
think I'm too close to the San Gabriel mountains and it
gets below 55 deg quite regularly. When it gets that
cool (being from Chicago, that's not cold), there's no fruit
set.

If you drive north from my house about a mile, there's no
more roads, just mountains. In fact, the Colby fire a week
and a half ago, was right above my house a couple of miles.

Gosh, glad you're OK. Saw that on the news.

Wow. I can't remember where I heard or read that but it I remember it was a source that was reputable enough that I never questioned it. It might have been in some old canning guide when I first started canning. Good to know. That opens things up a bit!

PS: coming up this year on the 3/4 century mark Carolyn so yeah, it is an old tongue. But I'll take the "refined taste buds" part. :)

........ wrote Dave,

And I'll reach the 3/4 century mark In June.

Carolyn

I have grown them and prefer them to most other early varieties. Small, smooth, good flavor, early, red, potato leaf. I liked it better than varieties such as 4th of July, Early Wonder, Early Girl (obviously), and even Stupice

If space limitation and wanting early fruits, I am with you iin the same boat. I have already bought seeds for the following:

Bloody Butcher
Bush Beefsteak
Matina
Early Treat
Legend
Siberia
Silets

I bough the seeds from the big box stores. They have indicated DTM of 50 to 70.
There are DET or small INDET. and are very suitable for container growing. I will plant some in containers myself.

Since wild tomatoes apparently originated in or around the Andes mountains in South America, I think it quite likely that they will do well at high altitudes.

I think the MAIN effect of high altitude on tomatoes is to shorten the growing season, since from a climate point of view, going UP is very comparable to going NORTH

Talking about BETTER BOY, I grew it some years ago. As I remember it was productive, early AND it was not very huge plant like some indterminants. Fruits size was about 2", as I recall. If the big boxes carry it this year . I will get one.

Saving whole tomato as frozen, requires TOO MUCH storage volume. But if you convert it into sauce you will reduce its volume by more than half. There is no advantage in freezing tomato as whole or as smashed. When you lightly smash it, you get the juice out quickly. Then freeze the remainder in zip bag.

But as somebody mentioned, freezing them whole is easiest and the quickest way to deal with it. Call it comfort factor.

Why does freezing adversely affect tomato flavor? Does canning?
Last season I froze some peppers, they lost the crispy fresh pepper texture but were very flavorful in cooking.

Here's an example of the use of two rows of cattle panels to "sandwich" a row of tomatoes.

If you have access to galvanized field fencing with large spaces between the wires like cattle panels, you can also use that, along with the T-posts. I've only seen it in 300 foot rolls, though. Cattle panels are more rigid than the fencing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Double cattle panel tomato trellis

This post was edited by carolync1 on Fri, Jan 31, 14 at 1:05

When using cattle panels, you really don't have to tie many plants. I find that just sticking them through the holes works at least 95% of the time. I had something like 50 plants last year, and I didn't have to tie but a few that grew sort of wild.

Here's a pic of my setup about 2 months into the growing season:

Moisten your seed starting medium at the beginning prior to planting and then try watering from the bottom. It has worked for me for the past 50 years. The comments about light and darkness above are good ones to take heed of. I do not put them under lights until they germinate. Some plants need light to germinate but I do not think tomatoes are in this company. To repeat, a cooler temp in the 60s would be helpful for sturdy seedling growth. Gave up on peat pots during the Reagan Administration. They just don't work well for me. (No political statement intended). I have been growing about 20 varieties of hybrids and OPs for many years. Usually grow about 200 seedlings of which about 180 are given away to friends and neighbors. Great fun.Good Luck to you aand keep us posted.

I tried peat cells. Didn't like it. Why? Because, being so small, porous and the starter mix is also mostly peat, what do you get ? They are soggy when watered, for a while then get dry fast. For this reason I transplant from paper towel to 2 1/2" round or square plastic pots. They stay more consistent and manageable.

Yes, you will need to make sure you have more posts, and that the panels are very securely wired, because the post attachment wires will be taking a lot of stress from the weight of the tomatoes as well as the heavy panels themselves. I'm a lazy gardener, so it's easier for me to just rest them on the ground, though I would love to have an additional couple of feet in height. Good luck! Let us know how it goes. I abandoned cages years ago and will never go back. I also used to trellis by stringing to horizontal overhead 2x4's wired to 7ft posts, and still have a couple beds that way. More work, because you have to keep adding strings and weaving throughout the season, but since I check my tomatoes daily it's not a big deal unless I am gone for a week.

I can imagine that with a VERTICAL trellis you have to do a LOT of tying. If I were to use it, I would make half-circle wires (about 12" in diameter) that hold the branches while the two ends are tied onto the panel. This can be done by using a cloths hanger size wires. Thicker is better.

see sketch

This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Jan 30, 14 at 15:33

ebay is a very easy way for me to look for the seeds I want. Nobody that I am aware of in my area sells seeds as early as I want to plant. The three people I have bought from all have nurseries, and I can go to that site and see what is what. Where is the line? If a nursery starts as family owned and operated, but does very well, is it wrong that they are now 'commercial'?
Not sure what to think about added time, the only problem I had the seller sent me replacement seeds well after the feedback time. Guess I am lucky.
Now I am saving my own seeds, but you have to start somewhere.

I recently have been buying seeds on ebay.They have some good deals.And have been very disappointed.I think they should have feedback longer.To make sure the seeds are authenic .

Wil add in it is quite possible to breed an early, mid or late season tomato from any variety by consistently choosing to save seed and replant seed only from the earliest, middle-est, or latest fruit for a few generations.

Seed saving instructions to maintain an existing variety generally say to take some seed from each of the early, mid & late fruits, otherwise you may be accidentally breeding for different characteristics than your original plant.

Wil add in it is quite possible to breed an early, mid or late season tomato from any variety by consistently choosing to save seed and replant seed only from the earliest, middle-est, or latest fruit for a few generations.
%%%%%

Several folks I know have tried that and it doesn't work b'c the seeds are the same as to DTM in the earliest of fruits, mids, and lates. One good example is the variety Joyce's strain of Brandywine when Chuck Wyatt saved seeds only from the early fruits and said he had an early strain of Brandywine, But no one who grew it got the same results. Again, b'c the seeds in the fruits were the same, or pretty much so, some exceptions, but not related to time of ripening.

(Seed saving instructions to maintain an existing variety generally say to take some seed from each of the early, mid & late fruits, otherwise you may be accidentally breeding for different characteristics than your original plant.)

With this I agree. There is genetic heterogeneity within a single variety, so it's important to preserve those traits. And here I'm talking about internode distances, subtle changes in leaf form, etc.

Carolyn

Carolyn

I grew Grandma Mary's last year, and Speckled Romans the year before - both peeled very easily, and I thought the taste was good, though I mix with slicers (not the purple/blacks, though, it ends up making a muddy-looking sauce). Haven't tried making sauce with *just* the paste/plum types though.

BTW, there is a big difference between making SAUCE and PASTE.

How do you make tomato PASTE ? I have a great way to do do it. But I usually make just SAUCE, like spaghetti sauce consistency, NOT too watery. Once I add all the Italian type of herbs and spices, and adjust acidity by adding some sugar to it, it makes little difference to me how the raw tomato tasted.
But because we don't get a big crop/harvest, I am not into planting JUST FOR SAUCE?PASTE varieties. I can always squeeze the extra juice for drinking.

YMMV.