16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

How big is the bed? How heavily is it planted (is there room to work around the plants without disturbing them)? Do you have access to a large amount of compost and soil to add to the bed - enough to add several inches of each to the entire bed)?

How big and how long have the plants been in the bed - can they easily be transplanted? Do you have access to replacement plants? Do you know how to clone cuttings off the existing plants?

Lots of factors to consider in deciding what you can do but just adding nutrients won't solve the main problems..

Dave

Answers:

Bed is 10' x 10', 6 tomato plants, so yes there is room to work around them. I do not have access to soil/compost.

Plants are maybe 10" tall, and have been in the ground for two weeks. I have access to replacement plants, and don't know how to clone cuttings.

Replacing is not a big monetary hit, just want to make ensure that the replacement plants do not suffer the same fate as the originals.

The plant that's weird looking.

The plant that's doing well.

On the weird plant, which is way more yellow than the camera on my phone will have you believe, I haven't noticed anything munching on it like one of the others, which was some kind of weird flat bug that turned green when on the leaf. This plant is just yellow and skinny. I'm not using the fert. spikes as I researched them and found they weren't good for containers as you said Betsy. This was just granular fertilizer which of course I found out after the fact isn't good for containers either. Meh, i'll learn one day :)

I'm heading to home depot tonight so I'll see what I can find there that's liquid. Thanks for the advice :)

As for potting medium, yeah..... I'm new. I used miracle grow potting soil. I really wanted to get the super duper expensive stuff like Foxfarm, but my husband looked at my puppy dog eyes, laughed, and said no. He then proceeded to get MG and Sta Green as it was more in our price range. House payment or fresh veggies.... I hate hard decisions.

Sadly, i think it's too late to start over as they are kinda huge. My poor tomato cages can barely be seen. I don't think my soil choice has hurt though. Next year of course, I'll be living in the house I'm paying for and its previous owner had a really nice garden that I plan on revitalizing.

I live up near Panama City, pretty close to the Gulf. That's why I used containers as beach sand just doesn't grow anything well save sea oats :P New location is farther inland and so far my only problem will be lack of sun from too many shade trees. But that's an issue for next season.

I've seen a few bees and I have roses in bloom, a hibiscus, some petunias, and will be planting lavender and a butterfly bush tomorrow. So far not a single hummingbird has thought my feeder or my petunias look inviting, but that will take time. The bees are nothing like they were last year off the wildflowers and tree that's in bloom now, but I have seen a few. Something finally pollinated my squash as they are just about ready to be picked so I'm guessing my bees are just out when I'm not.

Yes that second plant looks a mess, but hindsight is always awesome and we realized way too late that we put the mater plants in a bad location. Aside from my cage that you can barely see, the chain link fence is doing a great support job LOL. Stakes are on my get list for tomorrow too as the cage just isn't cutting it all by its lonesome. Or maybe I should prune..... that just seems counterproductive :( I swear these plants just mutated overnight. One day they were small and growing into the cage and the next is the above!!

Thanks for the replies so far. Maybe I am over watering TBH. That's the only tan bag I have and it's the biggest. They were all a gift from a friend. It might be holding onto more water than the smaller black ones.

Cas

Haha, I love the Charlie Brown description...I have one of those too! I squeezed in a better boy transplant by the fence where it only gets about 4 hrs of direct sun. It's doing okay, but definitely rrrreeeaching!

Heres a photo of my Husky Cherry Red to fuel your plant envy. ;) I didn't realize yours was mostly living outside; I thought it was doing pretty well for a houseplant!

Goodness. Sort of like comparing a Kia to an Aston Martin. LOL! This is what my plant dreams about being like. ;-)

This monster is really starting to take off.

there are blooms everywhere and every day more blooms turn into fruit.

close up of the first group of fruit. they are starting to turn red

The hair on the stem absorbs moisture. And if buried in moist soil will develop roots but not every hair will become a root. Based on that principal you plant a small young short branch and it will root and become a plant. Many vegetables do that like basils, shiso, mint.. So planting deeper and/or hilling around the stem of tomato can helt it to develop more roots and be more stable too. Same goes for squash and cucumber.

Thanks seysonn, but I was really looking for some science, that I could understand, as to how the roots are formed and which cells/structures on the stems have the potential to form roots. The ability of many plants to root from stems is well known and exploited by gardeners. I use it myself when I plant Brassicas deeper when transplanting. Carolyn's info about the root primordia was what I was after. I was trying to find out whether it was indeed the trichomes (hairs) which became roots and it seems that it is not. The growth of adventitious roots appears to be caused by a flow of auxins towards preformed root initials (primordia) in a response to excess moisture and is a defence against oxygen deprivation in flood conditions. At least I think that's it, if I have understood it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato stem rooting

It is not, probably a BER. The rot is further away. Also the stem looks like being chewed by something too. Could it be a caterpillar? I have never seen a thing like that on tomatoes. But I have seen rats doing it to cukes and melons.

We dont have rat issues, thank god I hate them. We do have coons though. Just seems like they would do more damage. They are pretty big. Not sure.

Yes, 18" of soil is definitely on the right track. Adding more might be better, but honestly, given everything we've talked about here, I'd likely just let it go and see what happens

Regarding the weather, cherries seem to be less fussy than regular tomatoes, so they may actually be a better choice for you after all. I hope you'll keep us posted. :)

I will definitely keep you guys posted, and I want to say thank you all so much for the help and support as I figure out what the heck I'm doing, LOL!

It is without a doubt in my mind, a tomato. And what is more , it has kind of potato leaves too. BrandyWine ?
Did you have brandy wine last year?

That's one healthy little volunteer tomato plant!! It looks great despite the unpredictable spring weather this year.

The fun part, besides eating them, will be guessing what type it is, do you remember what types you planted last year?

Remember it can also be a seed from someone's salad or sandwich. If the tomatoes end up tasting dull and lifeless, then i'd say it was an errant seed from someone's lunch :)

- Steve

This post was edited by sjetski on Thu, May 30, 13 at 22:22

Like I mentioned, there were so many opinions I was just getting more and more confused and just decided that I needed to make a decision and hopefully this mix will work for me.

It can be confusing but for future reference, peat repels water for the most part. It is difficult to get wet and then it dries out quickly and once dried becomes water repellant again. It becomes a cycle of water control issues.

The reason it can work in bagged mixes rather than making your own out of plain peat is the bagged mixes have additives. They come wetting agents already added to eliminate the water repelling and they are already pH balanced by adding lime to the mix.

Better to move while it is already shocked then to let it adjust some and then send it back into shock again. Kinda like folks - we'd rather have all the bad news at one time then get hit with a series of bad surprises. :)

Dave

Ah ...that makes sense about the peat moss.

Would you suggest using straight Miracle-Gro mix or do you have another mix you would recommend?

I'm debating just moving them into the ground. There is a spot next to my house that the dogs can't get to that gets plenty of sun. I feel like the tomatoes would probably be happiest there ...provided I do some soil prep.

Sun Gold in a 10 gallon will be stressed - more and more as it grows. And it will get root bound just because it is a Humongous plant.

But from the looks of the leaves I'd guess a combo of salt accumulation, N tip burn, and some sun scorching. But that is just a guess based on the pic. Need to know what all you have been feeding it and how often and what mix is in the container and what the weather has been (air temps) please?

Dave

PS: keep in mind that Smart Pots dry out 2x faster than plastic containers when it comes to watering.

Thanks Dave,

I recycled most of last years Miracle-grow potting mix. Added some organic fertilizer (about 10-1-2) and organic tomato fertilizer to the mix. After it starts fruiting, I fertilized it with Ammonium-Sulfate and miracle grow 24-8-16 fertilizer, about half table spoon per 2 gal water about once a week.

Like you said, there maybe too much nitrogen and salt accumulation. Also, the leaves facing north looks better than leaves facing south. I will try to leach some salt out of the potting mix. Thanks.

I didn't use grow lights but I didn't use them last year, either. Everything did fine last year. I have a very sunny, south-facing window sil and thought it was enough.

Maybe I didn't harden them off properly. That is probably part of the issue.

Thanks for letting me know, Dave, about the problem of adding leaves. I need to learn more about soil and compost. I really lack knowledge and skill in that area, and it's so important.

I did add blood meal last week but so far it hasn't made any difference.

Thanks, again!

Half of my tomato plants look identical to yours and I'm also debating whether I should pull them or not. Here's some background on my situation which may shed some light on what's happening to both of our plants.

I planted some of my tomato plants in one garden plot. I had tilled compost into this plot several years ago. After that, I simply cover the plot with leaves in the fall, the leaves which remain in spring act as mulch. These tomato plants are doing fine.

I planted other tomato plants in my second plot. I built up this second plot using the lasagne gardening method by piling on coffee grounds, leaves, and grass clippings atop a bed of cardboard. I did this two years ago, and all my tomato plants grew well in this plot last year. I also cover this plot with leaves in the fall. This season, all of my tomato plants in this plot look like the ones in your photo.

I have planted some identical tomato plants in both plots, yet they are not doing well in the second plot. All tomato plants were planted at the same time, May 15, with the same additives in the holes (fish, bonemeal, epson salt, tomato tone). It was warm when they were planted, then it cooled off significantly, and it is now warming up again. We have also had a significant amount of rain since May 15th.

If the additives or weather were a factor, I think it would have affected all of my plants rather than just those in the second plot. This leads me to believe there is something about the soil in my second plot that is affecting the plants.

Strange how we both have similar looking tomato plants in similar soil. I do not till my soil in either plots so the leaves sit on top until they decompose.

This post was edited by jaidog on Thu, May 30, 13 at 19:03

I am planning to save seeds for the first time this year, and would like to know if tomatoes that are left to fully ripen or even over ripen on the plant will produce more viable seeds than those picked at first blush.

Makes little difference. As long as there is obvious blush at the blossom end the seeds are mature. Just let it continue to ripen indoors before harvesting the seeds.

Dave

Thanks so much, Dave!!! Clarity ... gosh how I love it!