16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Debby, there are many eggplant varieties and they come in ALL kinds of shapes so that doesn't help much.

Does pasta type to you mean a paste variety used for sauce? A long red one with perhaps a knob at the blossom end?

If red, there are hundreds of long red ones, but I don't know of any with ruffles at the stem end.

I don't really think anyone will be able to ID it for you even if you show a picture since so many look alike.

Lastly, there are more problems with traded seeds in terms of crossed seeds and wrong varieties than one would ever find at commercial places, which is one reason I don't trade seeds. I used to do a wrong varieties thread here at GW, so I know that to be true. And I read at several message sites and in general it is still true , but does depend on which specific site (s) you do your trading,.

Carolyn

What you are asking is impossible to do even with seeing the tomato and the plant first hand. Much less from a photo or just a vague description.

There are literally hundreds of possibilities.

Just eat and enjoy if they are any good but do not try to apply a name to them and please do not trade any of the seeds. The trading pool is already far too contaminated with wrongly labeled seeds.

Dave

You can also disinfect them even further as many of us seed savers do by using a 1:10 chlorine bleach brief soak or spray on the seeds before drying for storage.

Dave

On the subject of saving tomato seeds, a question or two. Do folks prefer large seeds to smaller; and does lighter or darker color matter?

I usually just take seeds from my one or two best heirloom cherry tomato plants of the season.

I have two heirlooms ( Black Krim and Brandywine), both are doing very poorly. Maybe it is my climate to blame. Everything else (all hybrids) are doing ok. The next year I have to be a bit picky about the heirlooms and OPs.

Any good suggestions for cool PNW?

Well, there's this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Rutgers Tomato Tasting

Stringy malformed leaves sounds like herbicide damage. I'd be suspicious of any compost from yard wastes unless I knew the people whose yards it came from. Did the city test it for herbicides (and other chemicals)?

I agree with ajsmama, it sounds like you have some herbicide residue in your compost. The unfortunate thing about yard waste from unknown sources is that there is a very high likely hood that some of them use something like weed and feed or other herbicides to control broadleaf weeds in their lawns. Since tomatoes are "broadleaf" plants and very sensitive to herbicides, they will show typical symptoms such as mishapen and curling leaves.

If you do a Google image search for herbicide damage in tomatoes, I am pretty sure you will see pictures that resemble your tomato plants.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to correct the problem unless you want to go as far as repotting them in some clean commercial growing medium (not "soil" since you are growing in containers) after removing as much of the compost as possible from the roots. The drawback to that is it will probably stress the plants tremendously and set them back a lot.

Regrettably, this experience is probably going to have to go into your live and learn file.

Betsy

Never too late to transplant if you can take a large rootball with it, IMHO.

The neigbor just moved some of his large container tomatoes into the ground. Then the deer ate all these whole plants!

OK, I moved plants around and gave most of them away and they all survived. Yay. Thanks everyone! And @robertz6 - so sorry about those plants!

Well, now I'm looking forward again to next season, armed with amended mix! Almost ready to give up this year, but I'll give it another shot. Thanks Sharon and seysonn.

There is a brand of pine bark mulch available here at Lowe's and HD that seems to be the correct size, and tends to be flat "flakes" rather than "chunks."

-Bruce

That's the stuff. You'll get it for next year. Don't give up! There are lots of people with great knowledge who re willing to help.

Sharon

Has anyone actually tried tomatos in a fruit salad??...Just asking.

This, picking after color break, is the best idea since the invention of the ball point pen. This way you beat the birds, squirrels, rats, and the rest.

My Brandywine is BLOSSOMING. hehe

Thats a bit more than blushing ! They do look great Yum Yum !

I know how you guys are feeling. I have been there when the rats did eat my melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, seedlings. I never thought that the squirrels did it. Because there was a lot of acorns and other stuff around. Plus, squirrels have a habit of taking a bite, throwing it away, getting another one.

I think the best way is to put traps. I made one of those "HUMANE" traps myself and kept catching rats, never a squirrel. I also put baits( such that the birds wont see them).

Simply put critter damage ! What kind of critter who knows. Down low Racoon, possum,squirel. Up high birds .

I have grown the pink for 3 or more years and love it....awesome ! It is a must have for me,

Thanks for the responses. Agree that all tomato flavors can differ from year to year. I just wanted to make sure that I understood this variety's "temperaments" within the growing season as well as from year to year. My research indicates that between the pink version and ivory version, the ivory is the most consistent between the two in regards to color and flavor.

This growing year has noted certain varieties in my garden having low flowering vs. others as well as slowed ripening. I do know that the Dr. C variety takes longer to ripen than a typical cherry variety (75 days) and was thinking maybe the first ones off the plant are milder in flavor than the later ones.

In my garden this variety has flowered and produced fruit well and the plant is very vigorous so I'm hoping that it's flavor will improve as it seems to do well in my garden and I'd like to keep it in my rotation.

smithmal

Ir's probably running out of water fater than you think because it's still operating on what is essentially a small rootball from the 4-inch pot.

Perhaps temporary shade will help.

Thanks. I can try that.

Cheers,
Linda

Wish I could say the same! I'm growing BK for the first time and from what I've read it does have a tendency to crack.

Gorgeous plants and cute girl! BK's are extremely susceptible to splitting and usually circular around the top. As far as the others ripening, I can only speak to the Roma's. Mine are usually among the first to ripen, but not always. Once they start they will go fast and usually mostly all together.