16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Yes, I will enjoy it for sure. It helps to know that it looks like a Roma to you, too. That's what I was thinking although I thought they grew in bunches. Thanks for your response.
Perhaps switching tags was someone's idea of a joke! I'm still happy with it.
Well, speaking for myself, not everyone is willing or able to wrestle with making their own CRW cages. Not everyone has a place to store them. I have both the TTC and Burpee. The Burpee is definitely sturdier than the cheap round ones I can buy locally. But they are not even in the same league as the TTC. I am currently using the Burpee for my grow bags and for peppers and such in the garden and the TTC for the garden tomatoes. Both are convenient because they easily fold flat. I would use the Burpee for determinates, but not for large indeterminates unless I had to. Basically it comes down to how much you want to invest.
I made my own extenders after I realized my burpee cages weren't cutting it on their own. For each cage I used four stakes, zip ties, and jute twine. Not the neatest solution but it works well.
Here is a link that might be useful: DIY cage extenders
Thanks :)
I love the cinderblocks for raised beds. They were easy to put together and have worked great. I used the holes for various herbs, some onions, and flowers.
Kathy, the tomato bed is ~2' by 5'.
Here's another cinderblock bed, this one's being used for eggplants and peppers.
And this one I built in the alley on a little strip we had in front of the hedge. It used to be all weeds there, so I put it to good use for root veggies.
oh yeah I should add that the Bell Peppers are about 5 feet from the East facing wall of the house with some overhead sun shielding, so they get the morning sun, but not the directly over head sun that happens between 230-430 pm. I did this since we are having so many 90s to triple digit days so far this summer here in Sacramento, and more in the forecast this coming week
Agree with tomatovator above - Bacterial Spot. But to be sure tell us about any symptoms on the plant itself - any dark spots or black specks on the leaves, holes in leaves with a gray-brown ring around them, any discolored places on the stems?
Another possible is Alternaria Canker but with it the plants themselves would have many symptoms too.
Dave
No specs or holes in the leaves, no problems with the stem that I can see. I bought some liquid copper spray and will give that a try this evening.
If it is bacterial speck, are the tomatoes that currently are affected by it -like the one in the picture- beyond saving (should I just cut them off and toss them), or will they be good to go after the spray treatment?
Last year around here we had several solid weeks of 100+ temperatures in July and August (very unusual). I didn't get any tomatoes during that time because it was too hot for the pollen to set, but the few that I got in the fall were all like what you describe - miniature versions of their normal selves. They may have even been smaller; they weren't much bigger than my Sungolds that kept producing though the heat.
This was Cherokee Purple and a hybrid - I think Beefmaster - and not BK, but it was definitely environmental (and really weird).
I am in central Indiana and 4 out of my 5 BKs that I picked have been pretty large (bigger than I expected) - bigger than baseballs. 1 was a bit smaller.
These 5 so far have come from 2 different plants. I have a third that I planted later that is bearing fruit but none ripe yet. So, we shall see how those turn out.
This post was edited by mambooman on Mon, Jul 15, 13 at 15:22
>It looks like a bumper crop this year.Sure does, dog_wood. Funny how bad last year was, but how incredible this year is! This will probably be the best tomato year of my gardening career. :)
Dave, I amended the soil with composted manure before planting the bed, and added plenty of compost, a bit of bone meal, and even some crushed egg shells at the bottom of each planting hole, so I'm pretty sure it's not a nutrient issue. Watering with a drip line, and it never seems over soggy out in the garden, so I think that's good to go too.
I appreciate the replies. :)
Did you use the MG Moisture Control mix or the plain MG mix? The moisture control mix keeps plants too wet in self-watering containers. Adding compost and vermiculite only compounds the problems.
Those plants aren't getting enough sun exposure so they are leggy and they look starved for nutrients too. So too wet, too hungry, and not enough sun.
Dave
Hi again, thanks all for the chat still. Now, in reading this, I'll morph this question to also add, should you deep water and, if so, how often. I've read that yes, 1 inch a week or deep water once a week. I've added organics and the soil isn't drying out but remaining really solid, moist but not too bad.
So, in conclusion, yes, I think I'm now leaning to not overwater but not scale back. Does this mean, now mid summer, should we deep water once a week or once in awhile or .. .cut back in general, probably never deep water unless you see the plants wilt. Continued thanks for your thoughts !! Bob
I think people tend to water a little more in the summer due 1) hotter temps drying out soil faster. 2) 10x greater plant mass. 3) less rain than springtime typically.
The "water when wilt" method seems better suited for pepper plants imho, which tend to prefer a drier soil.
This post was edited by sjetski on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 10:47
Update- Amazon Chocolate and Paul Robeson have changed the color today. Yay! two fruits on each. Planted out WOW May 1. Have had few Sungolds and HHHS so far. http://www.rareseeds.com/hssiao-his-hung-shih-tomato/
Linda, I very much like the beaver lodge for an early. The skins are a little thick and they vary in size from golf ball to slicers but they are tasty. The fact that they are so early though makes them especially appealing. I have had some problems with blight this year so I lost a lot of shade leaves and so I have to deal with some sun damage but overall I am quite pleased.
Most tomatoes are of the common species which we normally use and are completely cross fertile. So ability to cross breed is not generally something you need to worry about. However, there are a few other, closely related species of tomatoes and these might not cross breed as easily. Most of those related species tend to be very small cherries, even "Currant" cherries, so you are unlikely to be dealing with them if you have anything like a standard cherry tomato.
When you cross a cherry with a large tomato, you generally get something in between, but it will probably be closer in size to the cherry tomato. This is because the cherry tomato is closer to the ancestral type, and frequently will have more dominant genes. However, you will get a wide range of progeny on grow outs of future generations, ranging from cherry sized right up to close to the size of the original large tomato parent.
Thanks, everyone. That is the information I was seeking. Now I just need to perfect the emasculation/pollination process. I'm having a little difficulty harvesting pollen.
Jim