16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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.
Carolyn- I was hoping my question wouldn't be misconstrued, but I think it may have. I am not wanting to grow as many tomatoes as I can just for the sake of it. I am a greedy eater and I find the different flavor profiles so exciting. From one tomato to the next there is so much VARIETY! I grew up in NJ, city lifestyle and all the tomatoes looked the same, round and red. Probably Rutgers tomato. I had no idea there were striped tomatoes, green when ripe tomatoes, or white! Who would have guessed it...not me. One day I was having lunch with my grandmother who I adore and respect and she was on a Mansanto rant. I asked her what I could do about it since she said my generation is lazy and oblivious to what's going on and she told me to become a seed saver and protect a variety. Ok I told her, calm down I will protect one variety. She said she could die happy if I knew how to save seed from something and re-grow it. She gave me a Bakers Creek catalogue to pick one out and when I saw all the variety I was overwhelmed, in a good way, once I started growing and tasting...I was hooked. We even moved to a multiple acre lot so I could grow more. I just want to experiment with so much, finding what works for us. Plus, I do it all with my little girl. I plan on saving all the good seeds for her and passing them on to her- she won't have as much of a learning curve as I am having now. I will be able to help her. No one in my family grew food. All semi-recent Europe immigrants who lived in Philadelphia.
I usually buy from Bakers Creek, Seed Savers Exchange, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and then do online trading which I have had great success with.
The ones I save seed from regularly are:
Pink Brandywine
Purple Cherokee
Violet Jasper
Italian Heirloom (from SSE)
Emmy (from SSE)
Juane Flamme
Red Zebra
Riesentraube Cherry
Pearly Pink (My daughter really loves this bland tomato, my husband and I don't like it much!)
Ones I tried and didn't continue to save:
Green Zebra (yuck!)
Yellow pear
Black cherry (they taste great but ripped and molded a lot)
Beauty King
This year the new ones:
Jersey Devil
Beefsteak
Traveler
Dr. Wyches Yellow
Moonglow
Pineapple
White Queen
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Lemon drop
Sara's Galapagos
Isis candy Cherry
Blondkopfchen
Gypsy
Gold Medal
Rhoades (probably incorrect name)
Matina
Novogogoshary
Cour d'bue
Fantome du laos
Omar's Lebanese
Hawaiian Currant
Oh my I am so sorry for the length of this!
Lindsey
Oh and Carolyn, right now the trickiest part I am having researching is how to know if the tomato I have is labeled correctly. I read the descriptions, pull back the tomato skin, to check color, check how many seed pockets, leaf growth and such, but sometimes I think, and this may be way off, that people are just naming tomatoes an heirloom when it is already a named tomato. You know, to sound enticing. I could be wrong. I have noticed this feeling with one company.
I'm not sure how to tell if I have the correct Italian Heirloom tomato, from SSE, but I'm not complaining b/c I LOVE it! I bought it last year from SSE public catalogue. The picture they show has red round fruits. I have read a few descriptions on this forum from SSE members catalogue. SO I am not sure what happened to my 6 plants I grew, but they had all different tomatoes mixed on the plants...some were red, smooth and round, some were small and ruffled, some had a ruffled heart shape. It was really fascinating. And such sweet cooking tomatoes for sauce! Here is a picture. Now I want to try more heart shaped tomatoes.
khabbab is from Pakistan, so the temperatures are probably Celsius. In that case, the 20s are 68 - 84.2 degrees Fahrenheit: nice tomato-growing weather.
khabbab, the fruit on the left shows cat-facing (the holes: and no, I don't know why it's called that) and also zippering (the brown scars: which look like a zipper).
It's not related to pest or disease, and the fruit is perfectly edible.
Catfacing can have various causes. It tends to happen more with beefsteaks, and more with particular varieties (I don't know which varieties).
Causes are said to include high nitrogen, uneven soil moisture, cold temperatures while the blossoms are forming, and exposure to pesticides (I don't know which pesticides). It is often blamed on the very large blossoms which are called fused blossoms or megablooms.
Zippering is often found on catfaced fruit, but can also appear as longitudinal lines on otherwise-normal fruit, caused when parts of the flower adhere to the fruit.
The fruit on the right is an example of fruit abortion. The cause may be incomplete pollination or heavier fruit-set than the plant can support. The fruit will not develop, and will fall to the ground.
Thanks to all for your replies. I think I'll go with a cage 4-7 feet. 39-40 feet seems a little too high for me. I doubt I'll be able to build something that tall!
ajsmama - Sorry for my late reply. I actually got my seeds from a friend and have just enough to plant myself. Although it would be nice to have some beefsteak toms I don't have enough seeds to trade. Sorry and good luck in finding some elsewhere.
I have posted this information here many times so here it is again:
I was fortunate to discover Brandywine Pink through the old Seed Savers catalogue when this variety was first introduced. Back then there was only one Brandywine Pink (Sudduth or Quisenberry strain). Today many seed companies offer inferior strains of Brandywine Pink so the first thing you have to make sure is to get the true Sudduth (also called Quisenberry) strain, e.g. from Johnny's of Maine Seed Company. Of course there are other Brandywine varieties but Brandywine Pink is what is usually referred to "a low yielding variety".
As experienced Brandywine Pink growers know, this variety does not set fruits in hot weather (possibly due to defective blossoms or split calyces as was pointed out on this forum by Carolyn and I think Craig), even here in Southern CTâs zone 5. As VP International I had to travel and live in different parts of North America and Europe. I grew Brandywine in Northern Germany, Dublin/Ireland and Northern Italy. As Brandywine is a late season variety, starting the plants early and getting them into the ground early was absolutely necessary in Germany and Ireland and is also important here in CT. I use efficient Metal Halide grow lights and cool basement conditions which gives me sturdy stocky plants. It allows me to start Brandywine 9 weeks before setting them into the ground. I plant well established, hardened, stocky plants out in early /mid May depending on the weather conditions and go out of my way to protect them against cold temperatures. I noticed that Brandywine did really well in the lower sun intensity countries so while my other tomatoes are planted in full sun, Brandywine does best in an area where high trees block the summer sun around lunchtime. However, you will also get good yield if you follow these rules:
Most gardeners are growing tomatoes in far too rich soil or over-fertilized soil and often use too much fresh compost. Carolyn Male, author of â100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Gardenâ said it best, quote:
The result of using compost in the planting hole and added to the soil and using too much fertilizer and too many amendments is that plants are stressed by growing too fast and the stress helps induce blossom end rot and also makes the plants far more susceptible to various diseases (end of quote).
Over-fertilized soil prevents early fruit set. Add to that the fact that Brandywine does not set fruit in hot weather and what do you get: Disappointing yields.
By observing the above mentioned suggestions:
1. Start early
2. Grow the plants in soil that has been fertilized the year before
3. Try to provide some shade during hot summer month in order to increase yields.
I foliar feed with a marine brown algae extract and water once with a stinging nettle manure tea after first fruit set. This procedure is repeated when the first fruits start to turn pink and after the first significant harvest. After fruit set while tomatoes are ripening I will side dress sparingly with a high potash natural fertilizer blend.
Thatâs it. Follow these instructions and you will be astonished about the yield increase of Brandywine Sudduth strain. And if you have never grown Brandywine, get ready for a treat.
missingtheobvious, these were purchased as simply brandywine pink. When I grew brandywine pink from another source they did not set fruit as well. I don't think they are a different variety per se, they just seem to set fruit better. And because it has only done so for two seasons does not mean that the third season won't be a poor fruit set. Who knows it may be that this year they don't set as well. There are enough Brandywines out there as is, so I don't want people to think this one is different than what is widely available and start some new BW type. But I don't rule out that there may be some minor differences between Brandywine seed sources. I also don't rule out the possibility that the label was brandywine pink and Suddeth's seeds were used.
I have also grown brandywine OTV, Suddeth's, Platfoot, Brandywine Red RL. And this year I will be trying Cowlicks and some brandywine crosses. I find OTV to be a very good tomato that sets fruit well in hot weather. In fact, I have found that many of the varieties that Carolyn Male has introduced/stabilized and recommended on this site are great. For what it's worth, I think that we should drop the Brandywine from Brandywine OTV and just call it OTV. That way it would reduce confusion.
I have to defend the Black Cherry. Not sure why people are getting poor tomatoes. I would suggest buying seed from the best possible source. I got mine from Tomato growers Supply 3 years ago and have great results. They taste great. I also like sweet tomatoes. I've never grown Sungold, but from everything I've read, Sungold is the only better cherry. This silly little plant produced over 1000 tomatoes.
I have a little greenhouse up here in cold Alberta and grew black cherry last year and it was the biggest, tastiest, sweetest cherry we grew. Not as many fruit as other cherry plants but still enough to be happy and give away. It's skin was was not thick and it did easily split. I'm growing it again. I usually grow 6-8 varieties of cherries and 2 sweet million plants is all we needed for red as they literally produce a million. Haven't tried sungold but trying golden honey bunch and a few others. Will check back when I have some feedback.
Apparently the night time lights are not preventing these seedlings from doing their thing! I went out to check on them today and had to dig higher supports out of the snow from 18" to 24" to allow them room to grow and the German Giant, Better Boy, Super Marzano and Brandy Boy all had clusters developing - yeah!
This post was edited by Hudson...WY on Wed, Mar 27, 13 at 22:44
According to the CRC Handbook of Flowering most tomato lines are not photoperiodic.
Only a few lines have been reported to have problems with flowering when there are bright security or street lights nearby. But for the most part the effect is minimal. Especially at this time of the year for most varieties.
The heat to keep them going out ways the set back that might occur from this brief period of uninterrupted light.
Looks like just environmental damage from cooler temps, a bit of sun scald and maybe some windburn on older leaves. New growth looks food.
Maybe transplanted out a little too early or not hardened off enough first?
Odds are they will recover if weather cooperates.
Dave
Hi Dee - if you'll buzz over to the growing from Seed forum here you'll find answers to all your questions in the great FAQs there. Check out the one titled "What do I do now?" for starters.
Then you can join in the many discussions going on there now about how to grow from seed.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Growing from Seed forum
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. ;)