16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

oooh love the cathedral of tomato worship... So I ended up not buying the vertical trellis system.... I'll stick to my cages. Although I am inspired to reinvent my tomato supports in my raised beds :)

Awesome! I love cattle panels for trellises and use them everywhere for everything! They are strong and adaptable!

I fertilize normally. Water gets through whether it has
fertilizer in it or not. Perhaps a bit might get caught up
in the mulch, but since it's water soluble, it will get
re-dissolved when you water.

I use the grass when it's green with no problems. You'd
have to put down quite a thick layer to run into decomposition
problems. A few inches is fine. Clippings dry quite quickly.

I'm using this method. I put it down right out of the mower without any issue. There is no issue with matting and water not getting thru. The rain wets the clippings and eventually runs right thru. I throw a handful of fert right on top, but the method above of pulling back the mulch to fert would work slick too.

One year I had no problems with my tomato plants.. We got tons. Now they grow for a few days and then they stop growing and the leaves start to curl a little. Last year I thought it was too hot here in Chicago. I'm trying to think of something to raise them off the actual roof because it must be making the soil too hot. I wait all year for some good home grown tomatoes and then this happens. Does anyone have this problem? And, if you did, please give me your solution, asap.. I want TOMATOES. (weeping)

This post was edited by JoMac123 on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 14:45

Well, what I do is put my pots on rocks. I got a big bag of small river rocks - they are 2 or 3 inches long max -- and I space them around the pot, maybe 3 or 4 rocks under each pot.

As far as heat, all you need to do is get the pots off the ground. They don't need to be high. (Though that's better for your back. ; >)

What taz6122 said is important: you've got to consider the roof first. I first started doing the rock thing b/c the building guy said that if pots sat right on the patio floor, the water that came out the bottom would heat up and create steam under them, which would damage the waterproof coating. I don't know, but I hope what I'm doing is helping. I really really don't want leaks!!!!

Mostly I don't use saucers because they are expensive. But also, I don't know what the soil implications of saucers would be. Would like to know though. I think it might cause the salt concentration to get too high.

Also, you could try wrapping light-colored fabric around the pot. I use butterfly clips. It doesn't look spiffy I guess, but it helps.

Well since you are in NC, and are using a 511 mixture, are you sure they are getting enough water? I would imagine that a mature plant in the classic 511 mixture, with no additional peat added for water retention, would need a good soaking at least once per day. They might just be drying up in the sun and heat.

Ed,
You are be right! We have had record amounts of rain in June so I turned off the drip irrigation system. I didn't think this could possibly be related to not enough water. We have had storms almost everyday. But there must not have been enough rain. I went out this morning and stuck my finger in the soil and it was dry. I watered the plants and left for work. When I got home they had all perked up. It's my first year using containers and this was a lesson learned about the watering needs of containers versus in ground plants. Thanks Ed.

It would help if you indicated where you are, geographically, and what the temps have been in order for folks to answer you more specifically.

I can tell you that where I am in upstate NY it's been cold and rainy and plants are way behind, And I still have my heating system on,temps to drop to the high 30's even tonight

The reason that your cherries are probably doing better is b'c they are closest to wild types and they usually have greater tolerance for weather,

Carolyn

I'm in 6b (Kansas). The weather has been mild (mostly mid 80's, lows in the 60's) and very wet. My bed is about 8" deep and I did till the ground below it. The plants themselves are growing strong, some are 6' tall already. It's also worth mentioning that I'm using a string trellis so the indeterminates are trimmed to 2 branches each.

I planted one row of cherry tomato seeds last year and they eventually took over the entire garden. This year I cleaned out everything and put new dirt down and planted nothing. Then the cherry tomatoes came back with a vengeance. What should I do? It's just June and they have out grown my plot by far.

Set-up a roadside stand and sell tomatoes:-) That's what my wife would suggest anyway :-)

Just to let you know, the husk develops first and is empty. Then the fruit grows inside the husk until it fills the husk.

Jim

Thanks Jim! Another question, once the husk is full are they ready to be harvested? Or, do I have to wait a little bit longer to harvest them?

As was said, it's herbicide damage, either drift or contaminated organic matter. And because the seedlings are affected as soon as they come up, I suggest it's due to contaminated compost/manure/etc.

full explanation at WSU, along with the bio-assay test mentioned previously:
http://puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.html

If the assay is positive, read the section that describes what you can plant and how you can speed breakdown of the herbicide.

Here is a link that might be useful: info re contaminated OM

Thank you! I'll let you know how the bioassay goes.

>>>Are there weeds that imitate tomato plants?Yes, they're called cherry tomatoes :p

(ducks and runs for cover)

sjetski,

I almost laughed beer out of my nose.

I have NEVER found Brandywine, Sudduth's strain or any other 'pink' Brandywine to be productive. That is one reason I don't favor them.

Brandy Boy has much better production, but it isn't an heirloom, and probably gives up flavor.

RED BRANDYWINE (not really related to 'Brandywine') tends to have excellent productions of lots and lots of good tasting medium sized tomatoes.

Box Car Willie and Mule Team are similar to Red Brandywine in most respects, in my opinion, and those last two have been some of the tomatoes that produced exceptionally well in my garden.

I second (or third) Jaune Flamme. So many medium-small orange tomatoes that I never knew what to do with them. And the flavor is notably different from almost any other tomato I have grown, but still a very good flavor. It has been one of my favorites.

Early Wonder always produced loads of small, flattened, good tomatoes. Most Cherry tomatoes are outstandingly productive. That is the nature of cherries.

I haven't had good STRONG PRODUCTION from any of the bicolors, like Pineapple,

This is first year of growing Amazon Chocolate for me but I am already impressed. One plant was WOW planted zone 5 Chicago May 1, currently 3-4ô tall and has 6 green tomatoes. Another plant was planted May 14 into raised beds- has 2 tomatoes going currently. Both are blooming. Weather has been rainy and on cool side till about last week.

From what I have read, very few people here prune aggressively like you do so asking people their experiences with aggressive pruning or not pruning a certain type might not yield too much advise except what you got from Dave. I have never heard severe pruning causes earlier or better quality fruit before. Actually, not pruning shields it from sun scald and gives more leaves to help with photosynthesis and give it more energy to produce fruit. Do you mind my asking what the rationale is that it would produce better quality fruit? I have found that severely stressed plants produce fruit quickly but I think it is an attempt to produce seeds before it dies and the fruit is usually smaller in those cases. I have heard some people say they think pruning might yield larger fruit, I never heard that fruit from pruned plants had better taste or less disease or anything. Is it your local conditions that make this type of practice better? You don't mention where you live.

So, I am dedicated to pruning my indeterminates to a long, vine-like habit.

Ok then you will just have to determine how many fruits you want from the Moskvich since semi-determinates produce their fruit on those lateral side branches just like indeterminates do. Pruning them will reduce production. Personally I have never pruned Moskvich but you better know the limitations you have to work with.

IMO the label semi-determinate is misleading. Better they be called something like semi-INdeterminates of short indeterminates since that is essentially what they are, a shorter plant that produces like an indeterminate does rather than as a determinate does.

But when making your decision please do some research into the validity, or lack thereof, of the claim that it will result in faster crops of larger fruit.

Dave

Just have to say how beautiful your tomatoes and neighboring flowers look. And your marigolds planted inside your raised beds. I see an irrigation system for the raised beds. Are you watering the potted tomatoes by hand? Good job!

Thanks, although next year I may just plant more tomato plants instead of flowers because they seem to love it there. The potted plants are watered by hand but we've had so much rain in June here in NJ that I haven't had to water at all pretty much.