16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I should mention that, on the coldest night, I added paper across the top.
The plants look pretty good. I put screening over them to reduce the sun burn. That's gone now and the ten-day forecast shows no lows below the mid forties. I plan to keep the wrap and water bottles for another week.
Yes, Fred Meyers garden centers have more varieties than Lowes and HD.
I've bough a few seedlings from them. This branch that I go to, is across the parking lot from HD. So there is some competition .
BTW: I grew Black from Tula and Big Rainbow from seed. And have them planted out already.
Sey
Thank you so much for the great answers. I transplanted this plant well before it was even blooming, so I think it will be okay. I was just starting to think I wasn't going to get much. This information was still very helpful for the future, I'm not really ready to commit to doing my own seed starts and I often see plants that are already bearing blooms and even tomatoes at the garden center. I will make sure to avoid those! Hopefully I'm okay, they just are so small, but our weather hasn't been overly hot. Today there were 3 more on one of the plants. I recently added some additional compost around the base of the plants, and I'm keeping the soil consistently moist, but I'm starting to wonder if I need to feed them?
I'm in zone 8b. I wish I could figure out how to add it to my profile in this new houzz system...
I, too, have realized that here in the PNW, we have to add a lot of days onto a DTM date. Steve Solomon explains it very well in his book. I finally "got it" after I read it last year. I like the way Carolyn puts it in her book - early, mid, or late.
I think that trenching has benefits, as there is more buried stem area from which roots can grow. If the plant is about 12 - 14", I'll just plant it deeper so that about 8" sticks out.
You can also support the lanky seedlings by small (1/2") bamboo stakes until they get used to winds.
Seysonn
I ended up trimming them down to half their size and rooting the cuttngs. the larger branches did really well the smar ones did not root but I was able to get 10 or so new plants from this. I hardned the trimmed tomatoes off outside and they are doing well (most of them). I will be planting them in the garden tomorrow :)
I think you are worrying too much about your babies. They look OK to me. Mine are purple too but they are purple every year and every year I have tomatoes out my ears in July.
edit: You should see my little heart tomato plants.
Some varieties do that when there is nothing wrong with them. If you want to see sick tomatoes look at some of the other pictures here. If your plants don't continue to grow or get yellow and sickly then you can worry.
This post was edited by helenh on Tue, Apr 8, 14 at 11:38
I grow marigolds on the edges of my lasagna beds, but it's more of a pretty factor than a companion factor. And with this years bed rotation, the marigolds are on the edges of pepper, squash, and bean beds, and not along the tomato beds at all, lol. And I thickly direct sow marigold seed too- that way it's a nice bushy border and if/when they get bug-tacular I can just pull those plants if needed.
This year it's carrots and leafy greens edging the tomato beds- but that's more of a got that little space left over I can cram them into rather than companionship. But hey, if it helps, why not?
I've never been sure how basil is supposed to improve tomatoes either- I always figured it was kind of an old wives tale because tomatoes and basil are so often companioned in cooking rather than the growing aspect of it.
I would never grow garlic in my tomato bed- my garlic gets it's own beds, and honestly is one of the only beds that is perfectly picked clean of anything that could compete with the garlic. Garlic might be good for tomatoes, but I wouldn't want to chance tomatoes out competing my garlic.
Borage gets it's own growing space too, because it has it's own application, and I don't want it competed with. I grow calendula aside too for the same reason. My sage is in the herb garden, and I don't grow chives because I have large swaths of my lawn that are thick with wild chives so I don't need to grow any.
Nasturtiums can be a great companion plant as far as I'm concerned- but as a companion plant only as a trap plant that I'm willing to sacrifice. I had a nasty aphid infestation last year, and the nasts trapped almost all of them- and when a bit of the plant got infested, I promptly cut it off and drowned it. I grew them next to peppers and squash last year, and they didn't get a single aphid. I wouldn't rely on nasts as a companion to just let sit and do whatever. But then I have the tendency to grow hedgerows of nasts because I use them a lot for various eating too, so I can use them as sacrificial companions and eating plants.
Was at 22.5 inch spacing on 4 ft wide rows (below) fitting 15 plants in the row. This year will go to a 24 inch spacing between plants with 14 plants in the row. Cages are remesh with 3 electrical coduit legs attached to each cage. Bottom of cage is about 6 inches above ground level.
Actually, in this climate, manure is not very rich in anything at all other than OM. Because time does such a good job of reducing the drug and bacterial dangers, I let the stuff sit for perhaps five or so months before using it. At that point there's very little N; most of it has gone off into the atmosphere. If I do use any of the un-aged stuff, it's for flowers, not edibles.
Two yards twice a year seems to work for keeping the beds full. I go through roughly four inches of it yearly and use it only as a top dressing. I don't till, but that doesn't mean the growing layer is pure manure. Pulling mixes things somewhat, and there's also trowel work wherever any plant gets put into the ground, but it's definitely a thick smothering cover. Not quite as lazy as Ruth Stout, but getting there...
There are NO weeds when you smother like that and are stingy with the watering, both drip and rainfall. Again that's local conditions. YMMV
Well, when you dig a hole to plant the layers of soil get mixed, and thats what the roots are in then , which is very good.
Eventually even composted manure will be disintegrated , becoming a kind of topsoil with less micro air pockets.. If I get a lot of organic matter, including manures, I till and mix everything together. I am a "DO TILL !" gardener.
Sey
Jeff: I didn't mean to criticize you for deleting the post, I meant to complain about how the Houz version of the site is different from the old Garden Web. In answer to your question about what happens next, it takes about 6-8 weeks from the time a flower forms until it becomes a ripe fruit under ideal garden conditions. It's not unusual for the first flowers that form to fall off without forming fruits. Early girls can ripen a little sooner than beefsteak type tomatoes.
Also, I would encourage you to stop worrying about a few bugs. Ants and grasshoppers won't hurt your plants, but too much hot sauce or dish liquid might hurt them. As someone said earlier, you're more likely to have problems with diseases than insects, and home made insecticides can make your plants more likely to get diseases by damaging the leaves.
K thanx so much I'll sit back and keep watering and give them time I'm wanting to plow off a spot to plant some okra cucomber maybe a couple rows of corn nothing real big but have I waited too long or is it still early I'd like to get a couple of Pickens off the okra n cucumber I think I still got timeon them but I don't have any idea about the corn when would be the latest I could put them out the weather is good here till late September we get first frost about first or second week of october
Hi Daniel - good to hear from you ! I read your update on the other BB thread. It will be interesting to follow your success and compare results this year - thanks for keeping us informed!
Steve - hope you will post the photo when you find it - that will be interesting!
LISTENING to others about taste. Taste is subjective, and varies from palate to palate.
Biggest mistake? I've done lots of them - not sure which was the biggest.
- I start too many seedlings
- I start them too early so then I have sprawling plants when it comes time to plant.
- I've over watered them. Then I get damping off and fungal gnats.
- I've dowsed them with too much fungicide to try and get rid of the damping off & fungal gnats.
- I plant them too close because I don't want to kill off any of my baby seedlings that made it to planting season!
- I've planted out to early and lost them to frost.
So which one of those is the biggest mistake?