16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Garf the love bugs, and hurricanes make up for that I think.

Up in PNW we have some disadvantages , as compared to the south, East, NE, mid west, .. but we have an advantage: We never get any storms. Hurricane is never heard of here. Well, it is no accident . The PACIFIC ocean is pretty gentle and calm.

Sey

I will!

So, fyi, my final planting is Druzba, Kellog's Breakfast, Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple and Italian Heirloom - no Cuostralee or Anna Russian to be had in my neighborhood (planting from starts, not seeds). Will keep you posted on results.

Hi ncrealestateguy,

Your reaction is expected.

In Boston we have frequent rains. I believe one can duplicate my experiment in similar climate and soil. The key is to have deep garden bed with lots of organic matters. The plants will find water deep down and nutrients made by worms.

Last year I harvested 75 or so tomatoes from (6) vines.

(In prior years I might have gotten a dozen or so, tops ...)

I took tomatoes to church and my wife took some to work.

I felt like a true tomato gardener for the very first time.

Be sure the soil is moist but not soaked. Take it out of the "greenhouse" for good and start in the house by a window that catches morning sun (continuing supplemental lighting the whole time). I'm thinking your "greenhouse" is some sort of plastic dome, which should have been removed shortly upon gemination. When it holds up to that for several hours indoors, then start it gradually outside, and always begin use morning sun when it is more humid and lower in the sky.

Pictures would help as mentioned but I think the answer will still be the same. Hopefully the plant is healthy and has had sufficient light to develop so far. A fan or breezy place is also helpful if you have one by a window. Good luck :)

PC

if by greenhouse you mean you have a seed starting system with plastic dome as sold in the stores. then the dome must be immediately removed as soon or even before the seeds poke above ground and fresh air from then on. putting the dome over the seedling will make it unable to survive. it will most likely get damping off disease from the high humidity and flop over and die. look closely at the stem at the ground level. if the diameter of the stem is smaller then it has damping off and will die. no way to save it once it gets damping off.

damping off is why people use sterile soil to germinate seeds. they are looking for soil that is free of the damping off disease.

Gary,

I don't know if the links are still active, but so far as I know the Pink Gourmet originated in Columbia, MO at the Wilkerson nursery and garden center which is gone now.They might have gotten it from UMC. I worked for the garden center in college and we would have people come in from all over the country for these plants. I would like to find some myself, I hope they are not extinct. They were a large pink, low acid tomato, very good. Many claimed they could eat these and not be bothered by the acid like other tomatoes.

If you've found them please let me know

Thanks,

Sue

So then your best source is perhaps UMC., where it was bred.
JMO

Sey

I think maybe the 18 hours under the lights could be the issue? I grew mine with about 14 hours under a T5 and had no flowering on any, stressed or otherwise.

It's my understanding that tomatoes are sexually mature and start producing flowers once they have grown 5-7 true leaves. Flowering is not an indication of stress, instead it indicates the seedling had good growing conditions.

Stress, if severe enough, will cause a delay in flowering. Deprivation of water, light, warmth, nutrients, transplant shock and the presence of pests and diseases are all stressors.

Regarding the pinching of early flower buds, it's kind of a wash. A young, soon-to-be-transplanted plant takes longer to produce a ripe tomato compared to the same plant when it's fully settled into the garden. Having said the above, I never pinch early flowers. It's too risky since we can get heatwaves in June & July which cause later flowers to not set.

Sharon, are your plants still inside?
I planted all my tomatoes on May 3 this year. Last year the tomatoes went into the ground on May 8 and I harvested the first Sungold on June 22.

Daren

I'm a newb at this. I had a garden many years as a kid and now getting back into it as an adult. I've started several batches of tomatoes from seeds. I've read the comments about the purple underside of the leaves and the purple stem might be due to cold. My guess is that it doesn't have much, or anything, to do with the temperature. My seeds have been indoors in my office where the temperature is around 75 degrees.

My uneducated guess is that the purple is a good thing as has to do with getting light. I say this because my seedlings had germinate for about 6 days before I got my grow lights. During those first 6 days they only got a couple hours of direct sunlight and the rest was indirect. At that time the stems were green and a bit translucent. After I installed the grow lights, which I keep on 24/7, the stems started to turn purple.

Nick

Yes, It has to do with getting light and there are also other factors, me thinks.
Somehow, it has to do with the uptake of "P"., as well. The experienced growers will tell you that ignore it ! The seedling will come out of it, as the time goes on. This is given that the starting soil has adequate nutrients or you supply them, when the seedlings start growing true leave. That is like the time the chick breaks the eggshell and comes out..then it needs foods and drink.

Sey

It is supposed to be but it is known for sometimes reverting to parent stock and or sterile plants.

Dave

Touch an operating electric toothbrush to the back of the flowers to get them to release their pollen.

I used this trick last year and spurred a couple non-fruitful vines into producing 50 or so pound-size tomatoes.

In my experience the younger plants acclimate better to the outside conditions. If you leave the pots indoors the plants grow faster but they'll be more stressed later.

Updated with better pics. I'll start hardening in a couple days since the temp unexpectedly dropped to around 5C at night. I'll also be going on vacation at the end of may, so I guess I'll need to mulch my newly potted tomato?

Daniel, go to local nurseries and garden centers. Ours here had lots of good varieties and some good heirlooms. Even Brandywine, cherokee purple, and many popular heirlooms. and some good hybrids like jet star. But I did see at BBS some big beefs and red Brandywines.

tx sey and jenniedhs.

Hah, good catch. That's what I get for checking the forums on my lunch break ;)

Where are you located, Dillan ? Zone Number ?
How the weather has been, Temps, Rain ? ...
It will take sometime , under normal conditions, for the tomatoes to GRAB THE SOIL and then resume growing. Then iF the plants were subject to shocked due to transplant , cold weather, wit might take even longer to get adjusted.

BTW: I have started planting almost since a month ago, gradually. I should know how slow they grow.

Sey

Hi Hudson, I have used Epsom salts in my containers and it certainly didn't hurt. Not sure if it helped either. I'm planning on trying it again this year with a few plants to see if it makes a difference.

Sometimes an overdose of one thing can block the uptake of some others. I am not sure about Mag.
I am also a container grower. I use dolomitic lime which has some Magnesium in it.
Container growing is a different ball game and it is more challenging than in ground growing. The difficulty arises from frequent watering and by that leaching out a lot of nutrients, especially those that are highly water soluble, like Nitrogen and mag in Epsom salt. Smaller the container, the more challenging it gets. For example a 3ft x 6ft raised bed is just a big bottomless container but it acts more like in ground bed. Also because you put organic matter in it, it holds nutrients better, longerJMO

Sey

Could neem oil be used as a spreader-sticker?

Priscilia,.. I don't know what " spreader-sticker" is but:
Neem Oil spray is both a fungicide and pesticide.
It is Organic equivalent of Daconil as fungus prevention and it also repels some insects.

Sey

No spray or neighbors here :-)

Those plant are just fine. Give them some time to get a grab of the soil.
Yeah, some sunburn, as Hoosier already pointed out (browning, in your words) ... That is ok. Did you pour water on them, sometime during the day ?

I would also say " MULCH IT ! MULCH IT ! MULCH IT !
In my climate grass clippings get caked when dry and mushy when wet. I use small pine bark nuggets/mulch. NO ! NO! to those colored stuff.

Another step I suggest : FUNGICIDE ! FUNGICIDE ! FUNGICIDE !
Keep on trucking ! :-)