16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Thanks uncle_t,
I live in Mississauga-Brampton border, can you suggest me which type of Tomato you grow in Markham? what is the right time to sow seeds? I usually let seedling grow to 8-10 inches and then transplant. To grow upto 8 inch it can take 45-60 days, once temp goes above 20 c in daytime, it grows faster.

This year I'm growing Early Girl, Red and Yellow Brandywines and McKenzie seed's "Sweet Cherry Hybrid". The Cherry tom is amazingly prolific. I usually start seeding indoors around March 27th and plant between May 15 and 21st (depends on forecast).

I come from both Greek and Italian decent (50/50) - so growing up involved alot of family type social activities, gardening, and of course eating !!! Both sets of grandparents have taught me and are still teaching me how to love and stay together through thick and thin, lots of life lessons, as well as how to become a master gardener .... Their specialties are more towards flowers and landscaping ~ but they sure have been enjoying the "fruits" of my labor every summer, as I always bring fresh veggies to their tables ~ Tom

ps. My Mom and Pop have also been great too .... Have happy and healthy holidays everyone !

I hope this isn't too much of a faux pas here, but I just stumbled on this thread and it's marvelous.

And keeping a salt shaker in the glovebox is a great idea.

carolync1, the place where I purchased the plants is questionable and they marked them as a determinate. The characteristics all favored a determinate. It may not be what it was but that is what I am sticking with.

To me it doesn't matter. I am going to clone whatever I can.

As an example of what happens when you grow a hybrid seed, I planted grocery store Romas and got the same Roma with one seed. But with another seed, I got a large round cherry tomato. The cherry was actually pretty tasty but had the hard storage qualities of a grocery store tomato.

I also grew a Campari which had supposedly been grown out and considered an OP version. I got a hard little cherry with pointed ends that was not good at all.

A fellow has grown out Husky Cherry Red seeds and produced a tomato that grows 14 feet tall which he considers the best cherry tomato he's ever tasted and saves the seed and grows it every year.

It's interesting to see what you get when you grow a hybrid. But the results are usually not worth the effort unless you are doing it as a science experiment. You could start the beginnings of your own OP version though.

Oops, my mistake! I meant to say TOMATOES but obviously had roses on my mind, since I grow a lot of them, too.

And, I just found out that if veggies are grown in pots that have BPA, they will take it up and keep it. This bothers me a lot.

Eahamel, lol about the roses...

My tomatoes are growing in pots about 14 inches tall, I put them in spots where I have straw as a mulch and some of the roots grow in the soil, by then the plant is strong and nematodes don't affect them. I like to use any material for pots that is lightweight because clay is just to heavy to move. I have been growing tomatoes like this for many years. Grow bags are good too like smarpots if you can get them.

My tomatoes in the porch today after the the freezing night.

Silvia

Interesting. I wonder if it does have something to do with being grown in the pots? I think I'll have to do some further research on that.

One of the causes of BER is inconsistent moisture, which is more likely in (non-self-watering) pots.

For tomatoes, it's a bad idea to water using a sprinkler that will wet the foliage, as the dampness increases the chance of foliage diseases (both the wet leaf aspect and the possibility of microbes in the soil being splashed up onto the leaves; splashing is less likely, of course, when container tomatoes are well-supported, and any nearby soil is covered by mulch).

Time will also interact with temp to affect plant growth. Temps in the 40sF of short duration (few hours) usually aren't going to be that noticable in growth. I've had that happen dozens of times over the years in my greenhouses. If it occurs repeatedly or over longer intervals you can expect at least delayed harvest which is counter to your objective from earlier planting.

Thanks, everyone. I've repotted most of my tomatoes and will bring them indoors at night for a few more days, since we're having a cold front in a couple of days. I'm going to see what the ones that are already planting will do. I'm covering them with large pots at night.

I feel a little inadequate to join a thread with you tomato expects, but will offer my 2 cents anyway. I would add Brandy Boy to the list of bests. I would add San Marzano to the same list that Dave puts Yellow Pear.
Just my thoughts.
John A

No, I don't think it's misleading at all to have places be offering an F1 and also an OP version .

They aren't identical as has been discussed here in this thread and also in the link below,.

And thanks for the Google search since I was able to find the thread here at GW quickly about Sungold that I was referring to.

If you want to find out where any of the OP versions of Sungold are sold, just go to Tatiana's T-base superb website, and I think you know it b'c you've been here before, but if not, Google it and when on the Home page click on shortcuts, then on alphabetical searching and away you go.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Sungold stuff

Teeandcee - I am looking forward to meet you, I will post all the details about the party...

Eahamel - I think of my garden as an outdoor room and I try to keep it as clean as possible, a couple of years ago I had the problem with the stinkbugs and I used to go on patrol:) every morning and evening and got rid of them with gloves and paper wet with alcohol. The past season I only saw a few. You have to learn to identify them when they are young and get rid of them before they become an infestation.

And you just ask the right question today, it is cold! and if you notice all my tomatoes are in pots, not only because the nematodes but because I can move them to a warm location when we have weather like today and tomorrow. I will keep them in the porch till the weather gets better as soon as next week.

Looking forward for a good tomato season!

Silvia

Thanks! I envy your harvest. Wow! It looks like it will be cold off and on this week, so today I'm transplanting my tomatoes from 4" pots to gallons so they can grow while waiting for warmer weather. It's 39 right now, at 8:19 am.

Ah yes, that ubiquitous dihydrogen monoxide. We can't escape it, for sure it's going to get us. Even my tomatoes like the stuff and won't produce without it. Thank goodness it's not too expensive and even runs off my roof occasionally. They say it'll wear out rocks over time. Now that's some powerful stuff. Strange material that exists in three separate conditions, liquid, solid and gaseous. I think there's another name for it too. Something like Adam's ale.

Di Hydrogen Monoxide. H2O. Water. Strange people in here.

Barry, I couldn't find your heart. Here's what I did find:

1. Tatiana's TOMATObase just lists this plum (for seed sites, click on the tab):
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Giannini
She's the only one to post who's grown it, and as she's in BC, her sizes tend to be a bit small compared to people farther south.

2. If you can read German (I'm clueless), there's this (the photo looks like Tatiana's plum):
http://www.tomaten-atlas.de/sorten/g/2152-giannini

Nothing whatsoever in Ventmarin (giant French database); Cornell's Vegetable Varieties; Rutgers's tomato list; the database at the site we're not allowed to name or link to; NCSU's Vegetable Cultivar Descriptions for North America (mostly commercial varieties the last time I paid attention to it); Luc Fichot's list; Heirloom Vegetable Archive; Tomatisidan; Tomodori; the other German sites; the Canadian cultivar database; Tomato Index; etc.

Your tomato may have been a local variety people are still growing in that area, but which never came to the attention of anyone who knew how to share it outside the area. You could go to the GW site for that state/area and ask to see if anyone's heard of it. You could also try the other garden/tomato forums out there (which we can't name or link to either). You could try other Internet sites with regional forums (like city-data.com). You could also contact the older and better garden centers in the area.

ty for the reference sites they were very informative even the german language site lol.
and yes it is a hybrid of the roma tomatoe for colder climates. I no longer have the seed we used with the heart shaped fruit and the fruit was the size of a mid sized cherry tomatoe with a sweet tangy flavor. we brought it to Nevada from Oklahoma not really sure where the family got it from before. but do believe it to be a french variety. or italian grape tomato variety as it was described to be a fruit used by roman royality. I will continue to look for it and may be able to locate the original stock again. if I do will either get with you and maybe go in together and purchase from them a few of the seeds for reintroduction of a very flavorful tomato. or buy them myself and send you some of the seeds.

I don't agree that wintersown plants are hardier than inside plants and when Trudi refers to that she's talking about areas much colder than where your are, such as her NY location on Long Island and mine in upstate NY.

Uh, no.

Carolyn, please don't make things up about Winter Sowing--you don't know anything about the method. WS is for plants in a temperate climate. You don't need snow and ice to WS, you just need the season called winter. I'll repeat it as you posted the same wrong info at that other place too. No snow and ice required. Just your own local season called Winter. Oh, btw, that's covered in the WS FAQs which you can refer people to for correct information.

Winter is different for folks across the country and for some it is much milder and gentler. In 8 and 9, the winter season is far shorter and often without freezes, but it is still winter. The daylight hours are still shorter and the night temps are remarkably cooler than daytime. It's winter, not like our freezy cold NY winters, but milder and warmer but still cool winters.

Trudi Davidoff

Trudi, It was juist a matter of time before you showed up here to post.

And yes, I do know about wintersowing, you shared that info with everyone.Have I done it directly myself? No, just based on the appearance of volunteer plants in the Spring.

Do you remember the old days here when I or someone would post why wintersowing wasn't an option for us, and gave reasons, and then you'd go back to your Wintersown place here and call up the troops and there would be a slew of folks defending you?

All one had to do was to go back to the Wintersown place here at GW to see the call for troops.

You have your own opinions and are cerainly entitled to those and I and others have our own opinions and are entitled to those as well. There should be mutual respect for those whose opinions disagree.

Carolyn

I grow both.

I also grow both heirloom and hybrids. I don't choose them based on their status as heirloom or hybrid, but instead other's recommendations or my own experience tasting them. And sometimes just plain curiousity.

For future reference if you will go to Tatiana's Tomatobase and click on the variety, then on the Seed Availability tab at the top. it will provide you with a list of several seed sources for it.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Tatiana's TB - Red Zebra

Great... thanks for the info

Here he is:
http://californiahybrids.com/dr-kanti/

With that background, he really should know better.

Some of the names given to the varieties at the California Hybrids website, especially the "heirloom hybrids", seem to me to be invitations to a retailer to license a hybrid and choose their own name for it. This seems like a strictly wholesale website.

Interesting that he has apparently bred miniaturized red and yellow per tomatoes, yet called them "red pear" and "yellow pear". In the text, their "yellow pear" is called "baby yellow pear" once.