16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
You're not crazy. I've actually done this -a few years back I had one 2ft deep row of aggressively pruned and staked tomatoes (not my idea) and wound up with melon and squash vines running beneath the tomatoes (the vines' idea) over the mulch. It worked well - they were rooted elsewhere so there was no nutrient/water competition, and the vines got plenty of sun underneath the poor nekkid tomato plants, which got some shading of their roots.
If the melons have their own root space and you keep an eye out for pests or diseases crossing between the two (powdery mildew? Squash bugs?) I think it's worth a shot.
~emmers
Personally, I think melons are a great groundcover around upright plants like tomatoes in cages. But you would have to fertilize them both carefully. Tomatoes want something close to 2-6-6 because too much nitrogen causes all foliage and no fruits while melons want something more like 4-2-2 (or anything to that scale).
You might consider burying a large plastic bin with the bottom cut out for the melons with their fertilizer requirements, in the middle of tomatoes around them with theirs.
We love to can homemade "V8" (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, carrots go in the mix) juice...One note on this (canning tom-based juice). I have found that it is rather advantageous to simmer the brew until the "froth" more or less goes away. Tom juice treated like that has a much reduced tendency to escape from jars in canning process. Also, the juice will almost remain homogeneous... that is, not separate into layers. Requires more time, but I do not can tom juice without first simmering.
Reggie
When I used to grow more tomatoes and was making sauce, I would lightly smash the matoes in a big pot(with potato smasher, eg) then strain the juice out for drinking. This way, my sauce would thicken faster and at the same time I would have tomato juice.
i m interested in this variety because of its late blight resistance. i grow for market in the blue ridge mountains of southwest va, late blight will keep me from growing tomatoes outside unless i find another way. this variety was recommended in the webinar i watched yesterday on late blight.
I don't have late blight, but TSWV is a plague in this area, so I tried Mountain Merit for its TSWV resistance. Similar to the other Mountain series in size and taste and does have resistance to TSWV. Tastewise just below Amelia and bella Rosa among the TSWV varieties that I have tried. 
This is a frequent question up for discussion over on the Growing from Seed forum so you may want to do some more reading on that forum here.
First, So, if I have dozens of seeds planted and the first ones sprout, how do I get them to light without transplanting them and at the same time not disturb the majority of seed still(underground) in the germninating process which is not supposed to be exposed to light?
Nothing says un-germinated seedlings cannot be exposed to light. That only applies to a few flowers. Light/no light makes no difference to tomato seeds. But the standard practice is to transplant as they sprout OR if you spaced your seeding well just let them grow there until most of the other sprout.
Second, they also say to never transplant until the first true leaf. is merely a recommendation not an absolute. Millions of seedlings get transplanted at the cotyledon stage. It is just a bit more difficult to do until you gain some experience and a bit more care is needed to avoid damaging the stem. Try some and you'll see how easy it is to do. Handle by the cotyledons and bury most of the stem.
Dave
One of the ways to deal effectively with too much rain and wet weather is to construct raised bed, in addition to amending the soil. I garden here at PNW, where we get a lot of rain. Sometimes it rains for days in the spring time. That is why I made raised beds. Raised bed, being higher than its surrounding will have a good drainage, if slightly amended. If your soil in Rock hill anything like GA red clay and you are gardening in a flat plot, then that might be the problem.
JMO
As roper said , and I agree with him, some of the special purpose forums do not get much traffic. So posting there is like blowing in the wind. Believe me I have tried some.
As far as I am concerned, this is "THE" TOMATO forum and we should be able to talk about any TOMATO related subject right here.
JMO
I clip a 3-4 inch tip growth, remove any new bloom truss if there is one, allow to hydrate in a glass of water for an hour or the day, then set cutting in a small pot of potting/seed starting mix, and within a week it has rooted.
I kept one indoors through our 8 month winter, just to try as an experiment. The cuttings I took from it in the spring grew just as well as the mother plant did the summer before. I did this because I'd developed a mistrust with packet seeds in that what I'd grown from the packet description was not what I had growing in the ground! My space is limited and tight, so I want to be sure if I am growing a specific variety, that is what I get.
I could not do it this past winter, some kind of blight attacked the plant mid summer and I did not think it wise to try to keep a less than perfectly healthy specimen over the long winter.
Plant the shorter varieties in the community garden and the taller ones at home. Utilize dwarf varieties.
The best sources I've found for plant height are these three:
= the DG Cultivar Finder (which this site won't let me link to, but if you Google "cultivar finder" (with quotation marks) and tomatoes, you'll see it). Plants are in rough height categories. Keep in mind that this is amateur-provided info.
= Ventmarin is a huge database in French, and also amateur-provided info which is occasionally totally off the wall. There are also some eccentricities due to the language differences; for example, all oxhearts are listed as "coeur de boeuf" ("heart of beef") and then the rest of the variety name.
It gives height for roughly half the varieties -- in centimeters. Multiplying by .39 gives height in inches ... or use one of the many sites which will convert from metric to feet.
http://ventmarin.free.fr/passion_tomates/passion_tomate.htm
[They also give fruit weight in grams: divide by 28 for weight in ounces.]
= Rutgers's Tomato Varieties database. I haven't used this one as much.
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/tomato-varieties/
In addition, Tatiana's TOMATObase sometimes gives height, or gives hints that a plant is particularly large. You can also look here under "Tomatoes by growth habit" for lists of dwarf, determinate, and container varieties:
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Category:Tomatoes
Another possibility is to grow tomatoes on a trellis which is not vertical but slanted or horizontal. I've seen photos of this done with CRW (concrete reinforcement wire) or cattle panels (aka hog panels, stock panels), but if that's not an option, you can use fence wire with smaller holes. If you're growing tomatoes this way, you'll need to weave the vines into the mesh every few days to keep them from going vertical. [You can also use a trellis for pole beans, cucumbers, etc.]
Agree with missing - just grow determinate varieties in the CG. Any healthy indeterminate is going to shade things no matter how it may be supported.
BUt best supports - CRW (concrete reinforcing wire) cages are best. Lots of discussions here about them.
Dave
Agreed. Tomato plants are very fragile and even if you manage to "heal them up" the stress has caused serious development problems which probably will lead to stunted growth, low flowering and few fruits. If I were you I'd re-germinate now and keep them in your house until you can properly harden them off. If you can't keep your ambient temperatures within your hoop house at least 40F, I wouldn't bother trying to grow tomatoes with them.
smithmal
Awesome advice, thanks everyone. I suspected ph but from my reading applying ample compost helps neutralise the soil? I do water with bore water that I know is quite high ph.
Off to town today to purchase soil pH tester. Reckon it will still be too late to help these plants now ey?
Cheers
Dan
moontree - if you will read through the BER FAQs here as well as just a few of the many discussions about it on the forum that the search will pull up for you, you'll discover that the primary causative factor in it is unstable, inconsistent soil moisture levels. Assuming the potting mix contains adequate Ca, and most do - that soil moisture problem prevents adequate/even distribution of the available Ca to the fruit tissues.
You are apparently trying to grow plants in containers and indoors. That creates a whole different set of problems and we'd need much more info to narrow down the contributing factors.
From the info provided, you are using a far too small container for most tomato plants - even for a determinate - and using a coir mix which may or may not be compounding both the Ca and the soil moisture issues. And doing it indoors so it lacks sufficient sun. Plus your plant food is lacking in some vital nutrients.
So given all that it is very unlikely that the low humidity is contributing to the problem. Rather the growing conditions that you have describe are far, far more likely to be causing the problems.
Dave
PS: it would be helpful to know your zone/location as well.
How large an area are you wanting to enclose? And from what pests? Different varmints require different structures. Something like the above appears far to small to be of much practical use.
Google pulls up all sorts of images of full garden protection structures. Everything from low.high tunnels to simple PVC pipe arches covered with insect barrier or chicken wire to structures made from bird netting/plastic deer fencing to sturdy wood frameworks enclosed in screening, sunshade cloth, or fencing.
Just avoid the use of any plastic sheeting as the trapped heat, especially in your location, can quickly kill the plants.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Garden protection structures
Just put some water in the shade underneath the tomato plants. I did that last year and no more birds pecking on my tomatoes after that.
Of course, another idea is just to have a nice bird bath. You will have a lot of birds visiting you garden. The may also eat some slugs , caterpillars, etc.
I won't eat it...