16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Sue,

Leaving the lights on at night a few times won't hurt. But what you might want to do is get an inexpensive timer and use it. That way you can set it the times you want the lights to turn on and off.

If you are using more than one bank of lights, I suggest a timer with ground plugs, and a "power strip" also with ground plugs. That way you can plug the timer into your wall outlet then plug your lights into the power strip. I have three shelves with lights over them and all six of my shop light assemblies are plugged into a power strip that is plugged into a timer.

The fans I use are 6" clip on fans and they are plugged into a timer on one of my power strips (I actually have two power strips with overload protection, daisy chained). The main timer is set to run for 16 hours a day. The one for the fans has the little tabs you move to turn 30 minute increments on or off. I have it set for 3 1/2 hours off and 30 minutes on.

Because my fans are 6", I do have to rotate my trays. I do it when I water. I'd like to put an oscilating fan on the plants, but there isn't room for one in the narrow spot I have for my plant stand.

It looks like a mess, but it works for me.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

This post was edited by bets on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 13:11

LOL, thanks Bets, I actually have a couple of those timers somewhere, I just have to fish them out. By the way, I have a ceiling fan in there but it is useless because the lights protect the seedlings from the fan. I have them in a power strip already, so I only need the timer.

Hi, just to be clear, I am thinking of getting some smart pots for tomatoes - would 20 gallon pots be adequate for one plant? Or do I need bigger?
Thanks Sharon

I think 20 gallons would be good for most tomatoes. In spite of what I said I would do above, last summer I grew one tomato each in 25 gallon Smart Pots and had excellent results with most of them. I grew one goose creek in a 20 gallon smart pot, and it was very productive. I used Al's 5-1-1 mix with osmocote plus 15-9-12 incorporated and also used a soluble fertilizer during the season. I think you need to fertilize pretty generously in containers.

durant7, many years ago some friends of mine with science degrees used to cite somebody's scientific law which went something like this:

Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it **** well pleases.

If you look online, there are a number of variants on different subjects (computers ... even one for science fiction conventions -- and having attended a few, I can relate).

Perhaps we should write a gardener's variant about seeds and add it to the FAQs?

This spring, I seem to have more than the usual number of tomato seeds which have decided to follow their own logic and do as they **** well please.

Sounds like there is no clear "you should have done x". I honestly feel that for the first 14 days, they were in the same plastic flats, the same watering schedule (damp until dry and then water) and ... if current growth is an indicator, I would say "Early Pick" is not going to live up to its name.

Now, I will admit, DTM I thought was from germination to fruit ripe. Thanks for the education. I started my seeds with a May 20 last front date thus my Mar 18th seeds in date.

I hear ya, "stuff happens" but I fear she will be right. We'll end up buying plants if we ever want to see something on the table. Next year I will start March 1st indoors. And maybe have two 4' 6500k lights.

Here is a picture of the difference. Best Boy in foreground, Early Pick in background after 20 days in the same environment. The Early Pick went into the peat pots today as they finally looked like they were ready for transplant. I am not a fan of peat pots....I had them and thus I am using them up. My "potting up" is a bit of a rag tag affair.

Since i have been using Dyna gro "Protekt" from seedling to maturity i have bigger, healthier, stress tolerant plants with a big reduction in BER.
Cal Mag is another product that helps in the BER battle.

A steady application of ACT's helps your plants fight off many other diseases and insects.

i use one ounce per gallon of the calcium chloride to clear up my blossom end rot problem, in my indoor growing tomatoes- this is the stuff you use to put on your sidewalk to melt the ice in winter - you water the plants with it -
it works great. add a lot of bonemeal to your growing mix and some compost to introduce organisms that will feed on it to release the calcium - pm.

I'll find it and read it digdirt. Thanks to you and ed. Should I pinch the daged leaves off to help the plants along?

No, IMO just leave the leaves...whatever green is left on them will help the plants.

I grew two Husky Cherry Reds last year in 4-gallon pots -- Bonnie seedlings from a big-box store, so I assume there'd be some near you.

They grew to only about 4' tall (12" wide), so you'd have to bend a bit to pick the early fruit, but it wouldn't grow over your head. (Mine were on the front porch, pretending to be matching potted evergreens, so I could access them from the front walk without bending quite as much.)

Though tree-types, they did need a bit of support; I started them with single stakes but apparently wasn't tying the stems to the stakes often enough: the top of one plant broke off in a minor storm, and the other plant's main stem fell over and didn't want to straighten, so I left it where it was. I added narrow ring cages, and they were enough to prevent other support issues for the rest of the season.

It was a Late Blight year, but I was able to cut off the bad bits and keep the plant going for a couple of months.

Above-average taste for a cherry.

Husky Cherry Red does great in the home depot buckers (most of my garden is in those).
I grew Better Bush in the buckets last year as well and they did okay.
Mr. Stripey did not.

Even smaller, Sweet N Neat produced bountiful, very sweet, large red cherry tomatoes in 2 gallon buckets.

Here is one of my Mr. Stripeys, he is just in front of the vase.

I grew one plant last year and got one tomato. It was a good tomato.
Despite the really poor yields I just picked up a plant for this year.

Strange, that. I just clicked on the link and got the strip.

Whatever!

Here's another way.

Thanks for posting that, qaguy. I had the same problem as bets.

Just to be clear, neither I nor Hatch claim that Costoluto was grown by Jefferson, just that it's grown at Monticello now. Having never tasted or even seen it I couldn't offer an opinion on its taste.

&&&&&&

Not a problem at all since I noted above that not all that's grown at Monticello now are heirlooms and should have added that I don't think that Jefferson grew it either,

I'd have to go back in thoe Jefferson garden books to check, but no way amI going to do that. LOL

Jefferson brought back many varieties from France and grew them, that I remember.

And yes, I've interacted with Peter Hatch before, sharing info about varieties of old.

Carolyn

Two more to look up, Kosovo and Tsar Kolokol. I'm not ordering any more until fall but are both on my short (hah!) list.

$$$$$$

You've made my day by mentioning two varieties that I was the first to SSE list and also spread them around for trial at the several seed places where I do send seeds for trial.

You must like pink heart varieties to chose those two, I'm a fan of hearts as well and have grown lots of different varieties.

Links for both of them from Tania's wonderful tomato data base, with basic traits,comments from others, and click on seed availablity to find which seed vendors list them. Tania herself sells seeds for over 600 varieties, and I almost forgot, pictures as well.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Kosovo

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Tsar-Kolokol

Carolyn

Several greenhouse suppliers offer hose-end misting nozzles, fine spray, sprinkle spray, etc.

Or you can just go to Walmart and buy a 5 in 1 hose nozzle (like the 8:1 in the pic) for $5-6

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Hose nozzles

I have numerous hose end nozzles on hand but it is difficult to get the gentle watering effect you need from them; at higher water line pressure you'll knock tender plants over; cut water pressure down and they usually just dribble a stream of water.

The Dramm sprinkle can I mentioned has a 17" neck (spout). If you can find any sprinkling can with a very long neck you'll mellow the water output yet maintain a uniform shower. An alternative is to turn trays an water more from the side of the plants than top.

Once your plants become more sturdy stemmed by hardening-off you can practically hit them with anything.

Another consideration is to followup a watering event with hand lifting of bent plants. This usually works best if you wait an hour after watering.

Filtered light will help the transition. I use shade cloth over my seedlings once I take them outside. I can't carry them in and out like I used to do, so once they go outside, they stay there.

Betsy

I usually move mine into an area that is shaded outside that gets about 2 hours sunlight and a slight breeze, the breeze will make their stems stronger over time. After about 2 weeks, I increase the sun exposure to 4 hours. Once they are about 8 inches tall, ready for planting.

Last year my favorites were Black from Tula and Green Zebra. This year trying all new ones.

I have all my toms wintersown, but so far no sprouts yet. Last year it worked great so I've got my fingers crossed that they'll peep any day now. here's what i've got started, and what i'll grow if they all work out (some will be in my home garden, some in my son's school garden, which is why the over selection of cherries):

Absinthe
Blondkopfchen
Cherokee Green Grape
Cherokee Purple
Choc Cherry
Gold Medal
Golden Dwarf Champion
Love Apple
Mexico Midget
Super Sweet 100

Picked up plants today from Lauel's. They look sturdy and healthy. All new varieties for me:
Legend
Sun Gold
Lime Green Salad
Sprite
Big Beef
Cherokee Purple
Sweet Baby Girl

I tried to find disease resistant plants along with some smaller ones for containers and sweet. Hope they will deliver.

I've found that the most significant growth acheived from the companion planting happens within the first 6-8 weeks of growing. After that the basil plants are so big that they just keep producing with continuous harvesting of the leaves. The experiment pictured above was a case where I started the tomatoes and basil right next to each other (4 inches away when seeding) in the same starter container. Then when I transplanted to the final spot in my garden, I moved the basil about a foot to a foot and a half away from the stem of the tomato plants. The tomatoes grow up a trellis and the basil sits happily right near the outside of the tomatoes.

Did you plant a control basil away from the tomatoes?

I have planted basil in the same spot for a couple of years, with and without tomatoes nearby, and have seen very little difference. This year, with tomatoes, it's even a little smaller than usual, but I think that's because it's been so cold and wet for us. Hard to be sure with such a small sample size, though.

However, if we're going by anecdotes, then I think that planting basil near tomatoes stunts the tomatoes. Because mine are healthy but certainly not jungle-like and I'm peeved!