16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

The middle bucket has a celebrity, the two buckets left of that are just called "patio tomatoes", the two other buckets are called Better Bush maybe?... I will look at the tags next time I go out to make sure. The Better Bush are by far the best producers so far. The celebrity has a ton of blooms and a few small tomatoes so far. The Patio's have a ton of blooms and a lot of small tomatoes. The ones in the ground are Better Boy's and so far they are not doing as good. Hopefully the new round of fertilizer will prod them on.....They are very sturdy plants and such a deep green color. The green bean plants are still pretty small but they are producing green beans. The cucumbers have not bloomed yet and seem to be slow growing, could be because they are somewhat in the shady part, in between the buckets maybe....but it is what it is.. lol and still fun. I can see a lot of fresh tomatoes and salsa in my future

RB.. the one in the corner is a different variety, it's a Celebrity...It was also smaller then the other's when I bought it... and actually the two biggest ones get less sun then all the others.

As soon as all of my seedlings have emerged, I take them off of the heat mat.

They go straight outside if the weather allows during the day, and into the garage at night. On particularly cool nasty spring days, they stay in the garage under grow lights during the day.

I like to expose them to full sun and weather from the beginning, before any true leaves form. This way the plant grows pre-hardened off.

Of course, I am growing about dozen plants I can easily move back and forth. If you had a large number, this may not be practical.

So you think it's better to start them inside under grow lights even when it's warm and sunny outside?

The ideal way is to start them in a greenhouse where they have all the advantages of limited spectrum, UV blocked sunlight (and supplemental light when needed) but in a temperature and air circulation controlled environment.

But that isn't practical for most small home gardeners. So yes, the next best method is indoors under lights and fans until they are established and old enough to be gradually exposed to outdoor elements.

Not only does it give you a head start on the season but it results in transplants that, if it is done properly, are almost as good as greenhouse grown plants. The problems with transplants that can result from growing indoors under lights are due to the grower not understanding how to do it properly not because they are grown indoors.

Dave

Thanks for the advise. One of the reasons I was thinking about using the mulch was due to the fact that it has been very windy and the clips are not holding the cloth. I have pushed dirt on top in places and that helps, that is what one of my neighbors does. I have always put mulch over the cloth and have found that the ground stays damp better.
Now if I can get my daughter to get the tractor out and bring me a few buckets, I will be all set!

Yes, I've used dried grass clippings as mulch for tomatoes right over the soaker hoses. I usually don't have enough, so also use straw.

Just about any medium to large slicer catfaces for me in the Pacific Northwest. Cool weather during fruit set seems to make it more pronounced. Here is one last years' Paul RobesonâÂÂs with an innie.

That one's really pretty!

I guess I need to grow more medium-large slicers. I've been growing a lot of saladette types...

How deep is the soil layer under your beds? I have less than a foot of soil over pretty much solid rock, drainage is a big issue in much of the hill country. You might want to consider doubling the depth of your beds next year if your soil is shallow.

Soil is two cinder blocks high so pretty deep and of course hill country rock underneath. I trimmed the dead/dying stuff and turned off the water and most seem to be making a come back. The yellow pears and juliets are looking strong, but the celebrities are still on the fence.

Thanks for the response!

It looks more like sunburn (sunscald) to me. How gradually did you harden them off?

That name is a good example of what I call variety name contamination - La Roma VF Italian Type vs. Roma, Roma VF, Martino's Roma, Italian Roma, Roma Italian, Little Mama Roma, etc. etc. see link below.

One never knows what they are getting. "Roma" - the name - doesn't mean Roma - the variety - any more.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: List of umpteen roma varieties

Interesting. Never seen and heard of ROUND Roma.

That plant and its flowers look normal, to me.
Tomato fruits will grow very slowly, not like zucchinis . Just be patient, as already mentioned.

Too much humidity will cause the pollen to clump and
thereby inhibit pollination. Are your nighttime temps
above 55 F? That's another major factor in setting fruit.
So are temps above 90 F.

Don't worry, put in what you want to get out of it. Here's something positive, I lve close to you and I have no diseases, in June!

Gardening is never perfect, so all you can do is try to garden in the best way for your area of the world.

If you are growing tomatoes, the spot you chose should have 6-8 hours of full sun, be at least 30 feet away from all trees/bushes, and the soil needs to be well tilled (rocks, roots, etc removed) and composted at least two feet deep.

The next three things are:
1. Picking varieties that do well in your region. Ex. I love Brandywine, but they just don't grow in my part of the world well. Pick varieties that love your area.
2. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch-mulch keep weeds at bay, water from being sapped up by the sun, and mud from splashing onto vines causing for infection (fungal/bacterial).
3. Make sure your summer garden gets at least 3 heavy soakings a week, whether by you or Mother Nature.

If you do these things, you will most often be successful in gardening. Again, things will never be perfect though:-) One year tomatoes grow wonderfully, next year it's melons and beans, etc....

p.s. It's better to water tomatoes early morning. If one waters at night and gets water on the foliage, it will sit there most of the night instead of being dried quickly. This is a major cause of tomato disease.

Why pluck the flowers? Don't we want to have that first bite on those juicy fruits? Plants are smart enough to know if they can raise those babies or not.
Also, flowering , early or late, may depend on the growing conditions and the variety. E.g, in warm weather they would flower earlier than cool, damp weather.

Are your plants now in the ground and how long have they been there?

If your plants have been in the ground more than two weeks or so, don't pluck the blooms. They know when they are ready to make tomatoes. On the other hand, if they were blooming in the pots you boght them in, they may have responded to less than ideal conditions and bloomed in an attempt to propagate themselves. (Survival of the species.)

Betsy

I usually try to get to the nursery where I buy my tomato starts, early. One because I always think I am going to get them in the ground a little early with protection and two because if I wait just a week or two too long, they are often out of the variety I'm looking for.

So I end up sometimes bringing them in the house on freezing cold nights while I wait for the right time to plant. This year has been particularly harder to find the perfect time to plant out. I ended up putting two plants in the ground a week and a half ago and they rode out a couple of nights in the low 40s. Then I put the rest in just as we were going into a heat wave. So far all of them look like they are doing fine. Not ideal, but tomatoes do love heat.

If you are actually planting them on a sunny hot day, I think it can work, if you put an upside down milk crate over them to give them a little shade and air circulation and water them very well. After all, you do usually have to tease the roots loose a little and disturb them so to put them immediately in full sun in 90 degree temperatures can't be ideal. Just a couple of days of shade provided I think can make a big difference, just to give them a little time to get acclimated.

I did end up planting out several days ago at the start of the heat wave. The tomatoes look great, some of the smaller basil seedlings look a little shocked. The tomato seedlings were well established, and I presume had been hardened off well. The basil ones were just babies. They probably could have used some shade. I did keep them all well watered and we've had quite a bit of rain too, which has helped. Weird weather!

pruning is recommended for good air circulation, which is supposed to help in the prevention of fungal disease. Thoughts on that theory?

Since the common tomato fungal diseases are airborne fungus that claim is debatable. It would more likely help prevent bacterial diseases than fungal.

One can read/hear all sorts of claims. That doesn't necessarily make them true.

I have just hear from some local, that some gardeners will even nip the end of branches and even new buds, so that the plan can concentrate on ripening the existing ones

Ripening rates are genetically controlled and there is no evidence that it is affected by top growth pruning, only by root pruning.

There is just ONE STEM that all the plants food production material channels through it.

All the secondary stems have circulatory systems too.

Pruning is always an option but it should be done for valid reasons not because of speculative claims since most are just enduring myths.

Dave

Dave, your reasoning, as always, is impeccable. I plant tomatoes four to a sixteen sq ft raised bed and have always pruned to two stems. This year I'm going to not prune "suckers" more than twelve inches above the soil. I'll let you know how it goes.