16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I only planted borage once in my garden and it has come back every year since. It's not what I would call an invasive, but they do self seed readily.

My borage variety gets huge needing to be cut back just to keep it in bounds so planting closer than 2 feet would mean it would be inside the tomato plant.

Mine is not planted as a companion plant, just in the same area when I rotate the tomatoes from year to year. I haven't noted any special benefits.

Except I'm about to start my fifth year with smart pots, and they're still looking good.

I've never heard of these, so I had to do a little search and saw them on Amazon. How interesting.

Where are these available?

This post was edited by socks12345 on Sat, Mar 30, 13 at 22:23

Actually there's no one variety called a tree variety. If you go to Tania''s database look up ClimbingTrip-L Crop and that one is called a tree tomato as well.

The tern tree has been used in kind of a slang way to describe many varieteis that have very long vines and when grown upright they can reach great heights,

True Dwarfs have been called tree varieties as well, since they have a very thick main stem that many refer to as a tree trunk. Those true Dwarfs all come from the first one known, which is Tomato de Laye, found at Chateau de Laye in France in I think about 1862 or around that time time, I didn't confirm the exact date,

Then there's another one called a tree tomato, I think the genus and species have been changed, but Iknow it as Cyphomandra Betaceae and it's not even a tomato but the fruits look like roma tomatoes and it grows as a tall shrub. THey used to be featured for sale in the Sunday Supplements.,

Carolyn

Thanks for the information. I had seen the listing on Tatina's site but it didn't include why it was called "tree". I have other orange ones that I like so will probably not use these seeds.

I would strongly discourage the use of larvicides or pesticides indoors because you probably don't want to breathe that stuff in.

If you are growing stuff like tomatoes, just try getting a cover, or a simple zip lock bag locked onto your pots with a rubber band to hold the bag in place.

I do it with my seedlings until they are big enough to handle themselves. Gnats only seem to go on egg laying sprees when they see small seedlings that are vulnerable.

steve, gnats could care less about 'vulnerable seedlings'. The larvae, which are the problem, wouldn't even do damage if they weren't confined to a little container. The adults will lay eggs in a container with no plants in it, as long as the potting medium is on the moist side.

ryse, be sure to read the attached label all the way through. It warns of several things, including that you must use enough water at each watering to insure that the active ingredient is distributed throughout the growing containers. Use it each time you need to water, but allow the mix to dry out somewhat between drenches. In other words, don't add to the problem by watering more often than you have to.

I did post before but it changed. Some I started didn't make it after attempting to harden off in a freak storm.

And I kept finding others I *HAD* to have. Others I'll plant if I find them are Gold Medal & Dr Wyches orange.

The new list:

Arkansas Traveler
Aunt Ruby's German Green.
Black Cherry
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Black Zebra
Burgandy Traveler
Carbon
Charlie Chaplin
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Purple Heart
Chocolate Stripes
Eva Purple Ball
Frank's Large Red
Grandma Viney's Y & P
Green Doctors
Green Doctors Frosted
Green Zebra
Hazel Mae
Hillbilly
Indigo Rose
JD's Special C-Tex
KBX
Kentucky Striped
Kosovo
Marianna's Peace
Matt's Wild Cherry
Medovaya Kaplya (Honey Drop)
Momotano
New Big Dwarf
Pineapple
Prue
Snow White
Striped Cavern
"Suprise" (an unknown dwarf from Craig LeHoullier)
Sun Gold
Sweet 100
Virginia Sweets
Wes

I was given plants in bulk by someone that's the main tomato guy locally so with certain varieties I have easily 10-15 plants.
I'm at around 200 plants. I think I went a bit overboard this year, lol.

Yellow Brandywine
Red Brandywine
Big Beef
Early Girl
Campari (seeds from store-bought tomatoes)
Starfire
Roma
Sweet 100

Thank you!

I repotted them about two weeks ago into the plastic nursery pots, I had had them in peat pots and they were either too dry or overwatered, and starting to look unhealthy. I'll probably repot next weekend. I'm rearranging my light shelves this weekend to accommodate the growth of both the early girls and the cherry tomatoes. I probably started them too early, though I was hoping to have good sized plants when it came to planting time, LOL, guess I'm succeeding.

I have brandywine and big beef tomatoes that I started later. Avoided the peat pots this time and have them currently in the 3" nursery pots.

Exactly. Some will say remove those blossoms, but it depends on what you want. I wanted an early tomato, so in my case I left it on and got my "June" tomato. Kinda sets the tone for my whole summer if I can get a June tomato. Otherwise it would have been at least 2 weeks later.

Have not been there, Humble is around an hour away. I'm hoping you post your best paste as the the season goes on.

Will do -- right now I have Viva Italia, Roma, and San Marzano growing, and they all look really good (compared to my last try, anyway, certainly not monster plants or anything).

I'm thinking of starting some varieties that are supposed to do well in the heat as a "summer" crop, with more paste varieties in the fall. I have space for about five more plants, so I bet I can squeeze in ten if I really try, hehehe!

It's funny but I didn't really see many of the hot tolerant ones anywhere near here. I would have thought the nurseries would make bank on them.

Arbor Gate is well worth the trip, although you have those nice boutique nurseries in the Heights. I'm totally envious -- I wanted to go to Buchanan's but couldn't convince my designated driver, even piggybacked on a trip to Penzey's.

Sometimes I feel like Chicken Little around here. ;)

Lindsey - Its is not to late! I always grow two batches of tomatoes about 6 weeks apart. : )

I ordered from Double Helix just this spring and was pleased with their service. The seeds I planted from them germinated and are growing in my basement. I will just have to see how I like the tomatoes. I think Happy Jack is one I bought there.

OK, its planting time! I am starting a week or so later this year and will see how it goes. I want garden ready plants by May 15--20th. So far my list is as follows:

In the garden:

Repeats
Brandywine Sudduth
Kellogg's Breakfast
Wes

New to me:
Estler's Mortgage Lifter
German Red Strawberry
Cherokee Purple Heart
Linnie's Oxheart
Fishlake Oxheart

In large pots:
Kosovo
Anna Russian
Orange Minsk

I would love to include Hillbilly, Omar's Lebanese and Box Car Willie, but have limited space. I am not sure if I should substitute one or more of the potted plants for Danko or Donskoi. If you would recommend changing any of these out for others on the list, please give me your opinions. I am going to start planting hopefully tomorrow and do some more next Monday and Tuesday since I am working all weekend. I hope to be finished by then. I really appreciate all the help I have received. Wish I had the time and energy to expand the garden.

Shoot, looks like I have mostly late season varieties. I may need to substitute Ananas Noire, which I think is mid season and I have wanted to try, with one of the late season varieties and switch one other late season with an early or mid season. Is Mortgage Lifter as good as the others? I have not been wowed in the past but only tried it a couple of times and never the Estlers. I don't want to wait until August for my first tomato, or have a short season and get hardly any. I would really like at least one early and one or two mid season in the garden, but the other 5 can be late. Still open to suggestions.

This post was edited by sue_ct on Fri, Mar 29, 13 at 2:26

I am not questioning missing's formulas above but the application of it. There are standard conversion tables for dry mix available from nursery and commercial grower associations.

The average 20" straight-sided pot holds 10 gallons of dry mix soil. Taper sided pots will be 1 -1.5 gallons less. The distinction is dry measurements vs. liquid measurements.

Straight-side nursery pots

a 4" pot= pint
a 5/6" pot= quart
an 7/8" pot= gallon
a 10" pot = 3 gallon
a 14" pot= 7 gallon
a 20" pot= 10 gallon
a 24" pot = 15 gal
a 30" pot= 20 gal
a 35" pot = 25/30 gal

Based on fill to within 1" of the top rim.

Dave

Dave, I'm not sure where I originally found the 231 cubic inches per gallon number, but it appears to be a liquid gallon, and is the only figure I find online for liquid gallons.

The figure for dry gallons seems to be 268.8 cu. in. (which would be 1.16 liquid gallons).

Okay ... so how large is a 5-gallon bucket? Well, the one in the basement which I bought at Lowe's is a dry 5.0 gallons (within measurement error). Which is the same as 5.82 liquid gallons.

And if you filled that 5-gallon bucket to within an inch of the rim and planted a dwarf tomato in it, the 5-gallon bucket would hold about 5.48 liquid gallons, or 4.71 dry gallons.

This is just going to be one of those things I don't see the logic of. Dry mix is not a fixed volume: it can be compressed; it can be fluffed up.

[I am now wishing I could go back to the custodian's closet in the library where I used to work and take a look at the 5-gallon buckets of custodial supplies ... all of which held liquids ... to see what size they really were....]

I water them every day with blue miracle-gro

Man I hope you are kidding! No. These are 5 days old! Please don't do that. Not only do they not need to be watered every day but seedlings do not need supplemental fertilizers much less all that.

All that can only drown them but burn them, stress them, even kill them. Please do some research into how to grow tomatoes from seed. There is a great FAQ here on it.

Dents, nips, tucks on the edges of the cotyledons (first baby leaves) are quite common and pose no threat to the plant. All that water and fertilizer sure does however..

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow tomatoes from seed

Yea kinda figured the Miracle-gro and watering every day was too much. Just wasn't sure about the leaves being irregularly shaped. This is the first time Ive grown tomato plants from seeds, usually I just buy plants already but figured Id give the seeds a try since their cheaper.