16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
For the first time last year, I used Texas Tomato Cages in 25-gallon Smart Pots, and didn't prune. It worked very well. Here are a couple photos. Mortgage Lifter-Estler's at front left, Earl's Faux at front, right. Behind them are Kosovo, Omar's Lebanese, Cherokee Purple, and Goose Creek. All except the Omar's Lebanese (a complete dud in my garden) produced very well. I had less disease than when I used stakes. By final harvest in September, most had climbed over the top of the 6-foot cages and were a couple feet on they're way back down.
Three weeks from planting out, June 8, 2012:
Six weeks from planting out, July 1, 2012 (Mortgage Lifter in forefront):
Here's how I do it. Just PVC. Cuts and handles easily.
They disassemble and you can store them in a a very small space.
Follow the link for full instructions.
Here is a link that might be useful: QA_Guy's PVC cage page
Old fogy here and yes the aspirin claim has been around forever it seems like lots of old gar-an-teed to work myths.
Ranks right down there with putting TUMS, egg shells, a dead fish, or any one of a hundred other weird things into the hole IMO.
Have grown thousands of tomato plants in over 50 years of gardening and not one of them needed an aspirin.
Dave
In zone 9 you are probably ok and shouldn't have to replant. Those day time highs will warm the soil well and the ground won't cool off that fast. But when the night temps fall to that low you might want to cover them. No lower than 50 is considered the ideal minimum.
Dave
Flavorful ones of course!
Last year I discovered Cherokee Purple, by sheer chance bought only one plant, it performed magnificently and EVERYBODY in my clan loved it. Come to find out it is a consistent favorite among many tomato connoisseurs here and other sites, soooo I started picking up on some of the other 'consistent favorites' of the connoisseurs and formed this year's grow list:
Anna Russian
Black Cherry
Brandy Boy
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Purple
Indian Stripe
Kellogg's Breakfast
Kosovo
Orange Oxheart
Appreciate the answers. I have a large, sunny area inside with grow lights,etc., that run up to 18 hours/day for my plants when weather is poor. I already assist with pollination of my container citrus trees. Even though the tomato plant will likely die this winter, I'm still going to try. - can't hurt.
I routinely grow cherry tomatoes up chicken wire trellis, in summer temperatures that are over 100F for several weeks. Never any problem. In fact, the wire intercepts very little sunlight, so it won't get any hotter than the air. The air temperature is what determines the wire temperature. Also never had any problem with the wire cutting the vines.
I believe that floral wire is of the same gauge as the lightweight chicken wire I use, so support is unlikely to be a problem. Don't try it with pumpkins, but cherries are fine.
Potting up will take care of those long stems. Use a larger pot and place it so that the stem is covered with soil leaving only the top leaves above the soil. Roots will grow along the covered stem. Then put them closer to your light. It will look like you have started over again but you will have stronger plants to set out later. If you don't use a fan tweak the plants a few times each day to help build up stem strength.
Harden off slowly then you can take them outside and inside as temps indicate until you can plant them.
carolyn, the biggest question in my mind is what happens to the plants vining habbit? will det/indet give favor to the bush traits or will the plants be more prone to vining? essentially, what genes will prosper over the other? also, i'm alright on that link, thank you. i also ferment my tomato seeds with great success; but if you'd like, you can still post it for others to see in the future. it's relevant to the thread.
I like your answer mule..
"As one gets into other generations they will segregate out between det and indet. The intermediate types should eventually disappear."
this is very interesting. why do you think (or know) that the vining traits will disappear?
why do you think (or know) that the vining traits will disappear?
Mule didn't say the indeterminate vining traits would disappear. He said the intermediate (the mixed middle) ones will disappear. The pure lines will sort out.into determinate or indeterminate.
The reason - the basic laws of Mandelian Genetics. Dominant genes will dominate and recessive genes will recede. They are recessive to the point where they are no longer dominated at which point they become the dominant gene.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Mendelian Genetics
Grew them in 2010 and growing them this season. My niece says it's the only one she likes. For me, it is not as sweet as Sungold and is a large cherry that is globe shaped. More of a Semi Determinate, it really loads up with fruit while the plant is staying fairly compact.
I wouldn't call them a "close second". Sungold is much too sweet with a richer "old fashioned" taste and its vine is larger and more sprawling - a true indeterminate.
Ted
When I planted in a row garden I would give the tomatoes 4ft ea way and they would crowd each other out. By the end of the season you couldn't walk down the aisles. But I never pruned the suckers then either.
With SFG I have grown many, many volunteers all in one 4x4ft frame. And I am still not a religious pruner still yet.
I had a problem only one year (last yr in row garden) with powdery mildew on the tomatoes but that is wind driven and only so much you can do. I never ever had the Late Blight even the year it was rampant in CT. But I think most folks got that from plants purchased from big box stores.
Hornworms I have only had 1 worm on 2 separate years. It's Scissors for the hornworms when found. I stopped using insecticides and commercial ferts years ago. I let the spiders and other predators take over the garden. I make due with compost and compost tea. Oh and lots of leaves.
That's my story and I'm stickin to it.
I had good luck last year with building an A-frame trellis. It sorta looked like an A fame swingset.
Lots of options on building materials:
1x2s
bamboo
PVC
I dropped a bit of twine down for each plant and also added vertical lats to support the branches.
See my answer in your other post of this question.
You know you can combine all these posts into one. They don't have to each be a separate post.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: your other post
Yes. Which garden zone are you in in NJ? When is your last frost date + 2 weeks? Did you pre-warm the soil? I'd make plans to cover them in some fashion to keep them from stunting and to keep them alive until the ground warms up enough for them to begin to grow.
Dave
Jersey, yes. More than likely. I have the same problem.
One "cure" is to learn which crops are warm weather crops and which are cool weather crops. And then grow some cool weather crops "to get it out of your system"!
Onions, broccoli, etc can handle the cooler weather. Try growing them from seeds. My cool weather crops are planted out in the garden now; they can handle the weather. And the tomatoes (and peppers) are still safe under grow lights, only getting set outside for a few hours on nice warm days. All is well with the world.
Yeah, I thought about that later. Yes, I think you are a couple of weeks ahead of me and you started your seedlings a couple of weeks before me too. My last frost date is about 5/15. The only reason I don't warm the soil in my containers with the WOW's persay, is because of the diurnal variation in temperature. Any sun and the container soil warms, cold night, they cool. If I wanted to plant in warmer container soil there are many ways to get warmer soil other than setting up the WOW's ahead of time. That's just too inconvenient for me.
One of the things I really like about my large, black smart pots is that they do warm the soil enough to plant a little earlier. Of course, that becomes a bit of a draw back in July. Thanks to both of you for all the advice. I can't wait to get started.
Once it breaks there isn't much anyone can do to help. It will either heal and survive and send out new growth or it won't and it will die. Preventing the breaking in the first place is what needs to be done. But it is a leggy plant and sometimes they just can't support the weight of the leaves.
I assume that is some sort of rag or something tied around it? And tape? They will only interfere with the healing process so I'd recommend removing them. You can carefully slide a pencil or a thin strip of wood into the soil alongside the stem to help support it but you have to take care not to do more damage trying to fix it.
Or you can take the whole plant and transplant it into a very deep container burying all that stem to above the break. It will try to develop new roots and send up a new shoot.
Dave
Here's your original thread, with some responses:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0400430325518.html?3