16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Tomatoes should never be stored at temperatures below 50 F. If you refrigerate them, the volatile compounds that contribute to the taste breakdown and the texture becomes mealy. I even notice that the flavor of tomatoes left to ripen on the vine is not as good when we have nights in the 40s in the fall. Part of the reason store bought tomatoes taste so bad is that they have been transported in refrigerated trucks.
Due to space requirements, I have been seriously looking into some good early determinants. Here are some that I found. The source is selling only plants not seeds .So I am interested in seeds not plants:
--CASCADE LAVA ...DTM..70
-- 42 DAYS ..DTM ...42
---GLACIER MIGHTY MATO ... DTM ...55
MANITOBA ...DTM ...66
-- BLACK SEAMAN ...DTM ..75
Then I can get following seeds: Bush Beefsteak . Beaver Lodge, Siletz.
Anbody has grown any of these?
Asalamua'laikum Ameera
Its great to have someone from UAE. I was actually looking for someone on GW from my part of the world. Glad to meet you. I even thought of recommending to GW admin to have a Middle East Gardening Forum :-)
And thanks for all those advices along with pictures. I actually for some reason did not plant them in the final containers. Will wait for some more time.
One thing I wanted to ask you was about those containers of yours. What are those? They seem to be some sort of fabric type. Are they available in UAE? Many things I could not find in KSA (Al Khobar) but found in that tiny island of Bahrain. I believe UAE would have much more to offer. Though not a concern right now, but I think with coming seasons I will be increasing my gardening activities and since container gardening is the only option for me (at the moment), the potting soil cost is going to get heavy which I will have to reduce. Any suggestions?
Wa aleikum salaam :)
Unfortunately those pots are not available here... I bought them online from smartpots.com and they delivered them to me from the US. This was over 2 years ago and they actually under-charged me for shipping because once I received the package I saw they paid a lot more for shipping than they charged me. I just looked and they did raise their shipping cost.
There are cheaper brands that I found but the sites don't ship overseas... just in case you are interested in at least seeing it (maybe you would want to buy some if you ever travel to the US or know someone who will be there) ...here is one brand:
http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/fabric-pots
I chose fabric pots because of the extra air flow in hopes to extend the chance of ripening tomatoes a bit longer once the heat sets in (keeps soil cooler than a plastic or ceramic container). Also because it causes air pruining:
http://www.smartpots.com/smart-pot-air-prunes
For supports for the tomato plants I found everything at a Japanese store named Daiso --I looked and there is one in Al Khobar so hopefully you can find some good stuff to use as support. Other stores like Ace Hardware or other Gardening stores were way more expensive.
My supports ended up looking like this (I gardened on my concrete roof so no soil to dig the stakes deep into the ground):
I did a combo of two things. I got some plant cages but since they are too weak to support a tomato plant by itself, I supported them with those green long plastic stakes and added plastic rope horizontally as the plant grew taller.
Now, my very first try at growing tomatoes I did successfully grow them in 7 gallon plastic containers (but they were Determinate varieties that only produce tomatoes once and then the plant dies) :
For soil, I fortunately found a local company and spoke directly with the owner who sold everything at wholesale prices. I was very fortunate because I needed to buy A LOT of soil.
But before I found that here is some advice I got previously:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg091512275112.html
As I said on that old thread of mine, if the soil is on the expensive side, I would just buy a few bags here and there over time so you aren't stuck buying all of it at once and being shocked by the price.
If I were you I'd leave the flowers. You need something for your efforts. Maybe you will get a tomato. Keep trying and learning. Your local nursery is selling tomato plants so that means others in you area are growing them. Maybe someone at your nursery could show you how tomatoes are grown there or you could meet someone at the nursery and discuss their methods. You will find information here but someone in your area would know what works there. You seem to love plants; good luck.
Thanks Helenh for your advice.
I too feel that since this is my first attempt at growing anything, I will let the flowers grow to see what happens.
As for others that buy the tomato in my area, I spoke to the nursery guys and they told me that perhaps I was the only one growing in containers. All the other have large plots for in ground planting. However, I still have found one guy who will come over to my place and see how things are going at my end. However, I have noticed one thing that the in ground planters over here are not too very aware about the change in dynamics when growing in containers. But lets see.
Yes it I seems that I love plant. But as one member of GW said, my love of plants results in too much attention which can kill them :-)
Thanks again for your input.
Saood
Found this in search of something else, stupice should be pronounced correctly as STUPITZE or STUPIZZEH , c being as Z in Pizza...u being pronounced OO...E as EH.
Walked over the mountain road called Stupice many times, think I ought to trade for the tomato seeds. Irregardless the name as long as it's enjoyed.
Bea
graanib ... your pronunciation sounds more natural to me. I don't know Czech but "C" in stupi"C"e is not pronounce as " c in nieCe".
Also "E" at the end should sound like "eh". So if "C" in Czech sounds like "Z" in German then we will have"
"stoo.peetz.eh". Nothing sounding like "STUPID" : lol
I grew tomatillos this year for the first time. I received the seed in a trade. The plants were very prolific (I had 2), but the fruit were marble size and totally useless. What varietie(s) do I look for to get regular size tomatillos like I see in the store?
John A
I figured I would use the top of the planter to grown something because why waste the space!
Wanting to plant something in the top of the planter implies an upside down tomato planter to me. If it was a hanging basket then it would be the tomato that was planted in the top of the planter.
Deeby - from what I have read from the So. CA growers planting there is much earlier than for most of us - like late Jan to early Feb. rather than in the spring. That's why I suggested the CA forum for best info on planting times.
Dave
Thanks Farmerdill ... yes, It was marked"Heirloom". As you pointed out it is some kind of so-called BLACK. I figure it must be productive to grow it commercially. My Black Krim performed very poorly this past season. I hope that this one will be better.
helenh - Nothing special - It comes from a Farmers Co-op
The poisons they sale now are very weak. BONIDE - Vegetable, Fruit & Flower. I only spry when stink bugs become a problem. The poison was weak but it did fair.
I used a different spry for my peach tree and it only made the worms fatter. Total loss. BONIDE Fruit Tree Spray and I followed directions.
Corgikarma - I once meet a man at Wal Mart that worked for the people who solded the store tomatoes that looked perfect. He told me the same as what you have written.
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You said = Grocery store tomatoes are picked green, treated to ripen and shipped across country. That's why they look perfect but have no flavor.
Well I had a small canning party Sey, the mixed Green Ramapo and 4th of Julys with shreds of carrots and napa cabbage with some bell peppers for the non spicey people that I plan on bringing to thanksgiving. Then the others are a mixture of Poblomo (what ever it is called lol), Beaverdam, Some more green tomatoes for fillers, carrots and cabbage again, Beaver Dam, Hungarian Hot wax, Large red cherry (but did not color yet),Bell peppers and some secret Cayenne peppers chopped that were just about turning color to surpize people.
I didn't want to mess with the scotch bonnets. Next pickling will resume in 2 weeks if the tomaotes dont turn. Also I checked out my plants it was hovering around 32F last night and they seem to be ok, next close frost is in about 10 days. Also right before the evening I very heavinly watered the fabric bags and soaked the surounding area.
This picture shows my ollas with a tomato plant, garlic and lettuce. I have four 1 gallon ollas. This picture was in Feb 2012, the tomato plant was a volunteer which was an experiment to let it grow in winter. I usually put 3 tomato plants in the area in spring. The ollas are about a foot from the plants (not perfectly evenly spaced) with each plant next to 2 ollas. It doesn't freeze here and we don't have a mosquito problem. I haven't broken any of them yet. We even had raccoons dig one out of the ground and it still was not broken.
I still deep water the ground with a hose periodically in addition to filling the ollas.
One fall I took some very small (like 4") healthy looking tip and sucker cuttings from a plant that was going down to disease. The ideas was to see if I could overwinter them in the house. They did fine in a sunny south window, even set some small fruit in the spring, and eventually were planted back out into the garden. I think the dryer environment in the house was not conducive to whatever fungal diseases the mother plant carried in our cold fall weather, because the cuttings remained healthy. It's worth a try -- you can always toss them out if they start having problems.
I just ran across this site because I was looking for a cause of this and if and how to plant my tomatoes. I have 2 tomatoes, on the same vine that were bought in the store about a week ago. My house temp is about 68-70 degrees and I have sprouts that broke the surface of the tomato. It looks rather cool but like I said, I don't know if and how to plant them or if I can this time of year.
I just put a link on here, not knowing what I am doing to see if you can get the picture.
But, can I just plant it inside, whole in the tomatoes so that I don't mess up the cause of the growth?
Just happened to me from a tomato I got from a food shelf. It was a vine on variety with two tomatoes. I ate one about two weeks later and the other waited at least 3 weeks. I can't say it's been chilled. No. I had it at room temperature for all of about 3 weeks. Normally I see tomatoes rot and go bad if not eaten in enough time.
But this one was different. It got softer but didn't rot. When I opened it, I saw the seeds beginning to sprout. I removed those, planted some. Ate the rest of the tomato without the seeds. I found this thread looking up the phenomenon.