16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
Fairly common and tied to cooler spring air temps at pollination of first fruit set.
Fused blooms (aka megablooms) are terminal blooms so most growers normally remove them for the benefit of the plant and future production. Your choice but any fruit produced will be a grossly distorted fused multi-fruit rather than 1 big fruit.
We used to have some great pics and discussions here about 'megablooms' but I don't know if they are still around or not. Try the search.
Dave
Daniel, if you get any big ones don't bother saving seeds from it, b'c the individua lblossoms could be cross pollinated so all those X pollinated seeds could be present in one single fruit.
Megablooms usually appear early in the season and are especially prevalent on large pink beefsteak PL varieties.
Carolyn
if it is beneficial to plant tomatoes in the same bed (The bio intensive folks say three years is ok) is it ok to plant my peppers in the same bed as last years tomatoes? Tomatoes are semi perennial in their native tropic zones so I guess that's why they like tomato mulch for a few years. Last year I was pressed for time and noticed aphids on the stems and leaves of some of the plants but couldn't get to treating with neem. I had a couple of plants that wilted and died. Now in reflection I think the two could be related because aphids spread disease. Is this true and if so could that disease persist in the soil from last year? It seemed to only affect the german greens.
I bought a lower watt bulb because of money constraints.
Home Depot sells it: Philips Plant Light 50w. My floor lamp has a horizontal brass, tllt-able shade/cover. The light is probably 8" above the plants. Others have said should be closer (2-4") to plants/seedlings but that won't work with my lamp. I turn it off at bedtime but I do put some of them in the windows when its sunny. I think I may have over-watered the Jiffy Pots 3 when I put a little water in the bottom of their dishpan container but I've done that before with no problems so I thought maybe it was the grow light. I suppose I did over-water them so trying now to dry them out a little.
Yeah that particular light, and that far away, couldn't hurt them. It does need to be closer (4" if possible) and if you can't lower the lamp then raise the plants. Set the tray up on box or something.
The Jiffy pots have a reputation for watering problems. They get too wet and then wick the water out of the soil and dry out. Once dried out they are hard to get wet enough again so the plants get over-watered. Any plastic container works much better. Plus unless you use a really good soil-less potting mix in them the soil compacts and smothers the roots.
Dave
Thanks grow4free
Good to hear from you. I'll see if i can pin down the date for Porters introduction to see If I can determine which came first.
I've been to Hart a few times. My daughter went to school just up the road from Hart at West Texas A&M in Canyon.
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.