16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
The San Marzanos are in 6.5 gal. containers. They were transplanted from 1 gal. pots 3 weeks ago so I don't think they're root bound yet. The potting mix is 5-1-1 with good drainage. I'll try to back off on the watering.
Here is a link that might be useful: 
So you are assuming that pruning the plants to just a couple of stems will speed up the ripening? I don't know that that has ever been proven to be true but I'd be curious to hear about your results.
How many of those large indeterminates are you putting in each Earthbox? I ask because i use them too and have found over the years that while they will handle 1 indeterminate plant or 2 determinate varieties, they don't cope well with 2 indeterminate varieties. But then your weather is very different from my heat.
I do know that it will reduce your production substantially but if that is no concern for you and if you won't have any difficulty supporting the much taller vines, sure give it a try.
I am also curious though as to why, since you are growing in Earthboxes, you are using grafted stock? They were developed to resist soil borne diseases and in Earthboxes that is no concern. Plus they are so much more expensive.
Enjoy your tomatoes - and your weather. :)
Dave
I live just outside Portland, Oregon, and while I'm not so very close to the ocean, I do get a lot of marine influence coming up the Columbia. Seldom do we have more than a handful of night time temps above 50 to string together here and there over the summer.
I have two side by side plots. One, I prune plants to two leaders, the other are un-pruned in CRW cages I plant the same varieties in each plot. Purely anecdotal, but the Plants trained to two leaders produce, on average, slightly larger fruit 7-10 days earlier, Than the caged, but production is significantly hindered (it does mean I can get ripe fruits from a few long season varieties that often remain green in the CRW by season end).
Similarly, with grafted plants, I'm not after disease tolerance, but the added vigor. Again, anecdotally, I noticed significantly higher yields with ripe fruits 7-10 earlier on the few grafted varieties I had last year (again I had the same varieties un-grafted growing in close proximity), and this year I did my own grafting onto colossus rootstock with a modicum of success. If you do it yourself and only get 50% success rate (my first year and IâÂÂm over 60%) It ends up costing you about and extra dollar per plant. In difficult conditions like my maritime climate, IâÂÂm handsomely rewarded with many more tomatoes that more than make up for the extra cost. At least thatâÂÂs how it worked out last year. ThatâÂÂs just my experience so farâ¦
i have planted tomatoes in the same raised bed 30''x6'x24' for the last 12 years and have had no problems..it seems to work for me. i just add a little fertilizer to it every year and this year i'm addind a water system made of 1/2'' pvc pipe with timer that will water my plants instead of a sprinkler that i used before..
Daniel, I think you said where you were in NYS, but I've forgotten where. it's important to know if you grow in an area where soilborne diseases would not be common, or not.
THe primary diseases we have in NYS are the foliage diseases and if your plants in previous years have had any of the fungal or bacterial foliage diseases, those can drop to the soil and the next year can reappear starting on the bottom leaves as what's called splashback infection.
However, all NEW foliage infections are spead by air and embedded in rain droplets, so despite splashback infection, there's always the possibility or airbore new infections.
So if you can remember if your plants in previous years have had foliage infections, that would help; Those pathogens can remaina in the soil for several years and can continue to build up to higher levels.
So take a good look and report back what you see this summer.
Carolyn
Will the air temps be different than where they are now. Will the sun exposure be different than what they have been exposed to?
Odds are the answer to both is yes. Then they need to be hardened off first.
Hardening off is nothing more than providing for a gradual adjustment to any change in environment.
If you can't move the plants to allow for that gradual adjustment then modify the new environment somewhat - rig up some temporary shade in the hoop house and monitor the day/night temp extremes carefully for a few days. You may have to lightly cover them on cool nights.
Dave
Right....when you break it down like that it makes sense, so my instincts were right.
My next question then is : I had them under lights 12 hours a day, so now I will harden them off by bringing them outside, but if I put them in the shade/direct sun combo are they getting the same light as they were under grow lights? So am I done with grow lights at this stage ? I know this probably seems like an obvious question but I guess it seems hard to understand the difference between artificial lights vs sunlight at this stage for me !!
As long as it is an indeterminate, it is virtually impossible to kill through physical damage. It will grow back very easily, it will just be bushier than before.
Also, if you want two plants, stick the broken top piece in the dirt. Don't even have to do anything special to it, just stick the broken bottom in wet dirt. It'll root and you'll have two plants.
It's 55, not 65. Zone 6b plants can normally go out in mid-late April but even with the crazy weather this year they should be able to go out this coming week given the forecast.
Personally I would remove them before you transplant them outside. That puts the plant back in to vegetative growth and root development mode which should be the focus right now.
But you can leave them if you wish. The odds are the plant will kill them off in some fashion anyway due to all the transplant stress.
Dave
Hard to give best opinion without pics, but in my case, if there is a problem it's usually human error. Like Linda said, too much fertilizer will kill seedlings (been there done that,) overwatering (how do you know soil is dry?,) light, temperatures, etc.
What did you do differently since they were green and healthy?
I have a couple big gardens myself and still enjoy growing some in pots.
Indeterminate's...25gal. nursery pots work well for me, you can use smaller but need to feed and water more. I like some time to myself. lol
This post was edited by pasco on Thu, May 2, 13 at 20:05
I had BAD experiences with those 5 gl. buckets from Home Depot: short, thin plants, no fruits. Maybe I over-watered, maybe I made too few holes at the bottom of the bucket, maybe the soil was not fluffy enough, maybe⦠Anyway, IâÂÂm not going to use those buckets anymore.
I had EXCELLENT results with BIG 
like this one - the bigger, the better. Probably because they are biggerâ¦
So, everything will go in the ground, where ALWAYS everything was fine.
I got my tomatoes planted in containers on our last average frost day, April 28, which is about three weeks early for me. I had them in WOWs for about a week, but we had a couple days in the 80s and my plants were outgrowing the WOWs and looking overheated, so I removed them. The 10-day forecast does include a few nights around 50, which makes me nervous. But I'm hoping the warm soil in my black smart pots will make up for the cold nights. We'll see.
Thanks to advice from Big Pinks, 2 of my 10 plants are Mortgage Litter Estlers. I fell in love with them last year and was able to save a few viable seeds.
Yes Edie I bought 18 nice plants at Joyce's Greenhouse and have them in the garden. Should have plenty of big pink softballs all derived from your great uncle back to 1922. A lady who waited on me said Mrs Estler was there for her plants a few days before me and I guess she told the clerks there that she would be raising many less plants than Uncle Bob. I am gonna start saving more seed. Nice hearing from you!