16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
digdirt,(Dave) would you say the benefit is the same whether you pot up into a 4" pot or, say, an 8" pot?
No we are talking about the normal incremental potting up to slightly larger containers - aka staged transplanting - not jumping from say a cell pack to an 8" container.
Putting tiny seedlings in huge containers creates all sorts of problems for them - primarily root development due to all the excess moisture.
Dave
I was at Lowe's a couple of years ago and saw something organic which was labelled as (Somebody's) "Garden Plant Food." Not a brand I'd heard of.
Anyway, they claimed their "garden plant food" was good for everything -- but the cover of the bag had a photo of a 10" wide tomato from one side of the bag to the other -- no other plant or veggie, only the tomato. The fertilizer was 4-3-2. I don't know if that makes sense for organic fertilizer, but it wasn't what I'd read was recommended for tomatoes.
It seemed so odd that I wrote it down (and actually remembered where I'd written it).
2/2 Cont.
Will show up August 8-12th. That is not uncommon for us to have an off week picking tomatoes around that time.
Overhead Irrigation during the heat of the day (11am-3pm) can help a lot. I even leave sprinklers going over the whole greenhouse tying to keep things cooler.
I sowed amish paste tomato and austin pear seeds around 20 each( I live in N.jersey area). I bought from Tomatofest.com. Not a single one germinated. I don't know the reason. I bought around 13 varieties from tomatofest.com. Other 7 varieties had more than 75% germination rate. I don't the reason for this neither I could find the reason from net. Anyone has any clue. The same germination condition for other varities applied. The germination rate of Italian Heirloom,Ildi,arkansas marvel , ammana orange was very low( 40%). ..( I bought brandywine red,yellow,aker's west,italian heirloom,ammana orange,Ildi,sprite,wisconsin 55,san marzano & arkanasa marvel).
Wow, sorry to hear that! I hope you got lots of tomatoes from the plants that grew though.
I don't know what went wrong, I am a new tomato grower. (Though it sounds like maybe the seeds weren't so good. Since all the other kinds grew.)
You might want to post your question separately in the forum, you'll get more replies that way. Also, maybe contact the seller, they might have some thoughts. Maybe those kinds are just tougher to grow.
Sneezer, tell them that for $100 you'll tell them where they can buy seeds for the F1 Dona.LOL
Carolyn, and then split the money with me for my dark chocolate budget since I am the first to suggest to you to tell them that. Wait, up it to $200 so be both get $100. LOL Wait a bit more, give them a wee hint by saying that you just love omlette avec jambon. ( smile)
Sorry, Carolyn, I was too dumb to think of that and I've
already told them. Let's see if they have the sense to
take advantage of it. Actually, I don't know what their sales
would be; I guess about the same as now but at least it
would be an honest deal and probably make them look
a little better. As in "cachet".
FYI, the source I revealed is www.ducrettet.com
Oh, and if you like I could send you some dark chocolate!!
Too bad about the omelettes, though. I already get those
from eggs that I buy at one of the local farm markets.
Every time I go there the chickens tell me, "Those eggs
were mine. Enjoy, enjoy".
Call your county's Extension office and ask them when your area's average last frost date is. (Google your county's name and "extension office" if you're not already familiar with your office.) Start your tomato seeds 3-4 weeks before this date. Expect to transplant your seedlings into the garden when they are 6-8 weeks old, or 3-4 weeks after the average last frost date.
To give you a more specific example, I'm in west-central Indiana, which is likely similar in climate to northwest Ohio. Our average last frost date (50% chance of frost afterwards) here is around April 20, so I start my tomato seeds around March 20. Last summer (2012), I was able to transplant them into the garden on May 14, but if the weather hadn't cooperated, I could have kept them inside under the lights for another 2 weeks. Usually by Memorial Day, it's safe to transplant the most tender of plants here.
You might need to push those dates back a week or so if your average frost date is different from mine, but that should give you an estimate to start with. Good luck!
Kathy
Start your seeds April 1st in 16 oz. clear beer cups with holes in the bottom (I use a cheapo soldering iron but a knife is fine.) Put about 2" of seed starting mix in the bottom, plant about 4 seeds to each cup and cover with saran wrap. Once they germinate, uncover and keep in a sunny window. Once the babies have their true leave and 2 real leaves, start back-filling with soil. Do this until the leaves reach the top.
You will end up with super healthy seedlings with lots of roots (that you can see through the cups). Start hardening them off once the temps outdoors are in the 60's/70's. Just a few hours a day at first and then leave them all day and bring in at night. Once the temps outdoors are settled and the soil is warm (60 deg.) you are ready to plant. Soooo easy and no leggy plants. Also, no need for indoor lighting, etc.
I've been doing it like this for about 20 years and it works!
I am interested in Cherokee Purple, Arkansas Traveler and Black from Tula.
None of those are new varieties. Those are all available any time of year.
Tomato seeds are viable for decades so there is no reason to wait for what you think might be "fresh" seeds. Odds are they will be 2-3 year old seeds in 2014 packets and you wouldn't get fresh anyway.
When a seed pack says "packed for 2013" it doesn't mean they were just grown last year. That they were "just harvested" is a common misconception often discussed here.
Dave
I continue to plant seeds of two of these and many more that I collected in 2001. I keep thinking I should replenish my stock and will this year (yeh.) but they continue to germinate just as well as they did when they were first collected.
If you save your seeds (completely dried) in zip lock baggies in a regrig. they will last a very long time. Or even if you don't. Remember, many of these seeds we grow now were brought over by the pilgrims and they didn't have zip lock baggies or refrigeration. BTW, I also plant perennials/other veggies that I have saved for decades. Each is a little embryo that wants to be a life. They don't die easily.
Okay, I guess I didn't check the C's in Ventmarin.
Ventmarin has it with a cryptic note I've seen before:
Crovarese OP: Variety from Italy registered in the official journal of the European Union (which is called something along the lines of) "The common/joint? catalog of varieties of types of vegetables."
(Crovarese OP Variété originaire d'Italie inscrite au journal officiel de l’Union européenne dans le catalogue commun des variétés des espèces de légumes.)
http://ventmarin.free.fr/passion_tomates/tomates_cl_cz/tomates_cl-cz.htm
So it's from Italy, and it's open-pollinated, and it's listed with all the other vegetable cultivars in Europe.
It doesn't appear in the sites where I did check the C's: Tatiana's TOMATObase and the database we can't name.
http://compagniedetomates.free.fr/crovarese.html
tells us it's an early cherry (1/2 - 1 oz.) on trusses of 15-30 fruit, red, few seeds, thin skin, indet, 4-6 1/2' tall, keeps well, productive. Photos at the link.
Other sites if you search by name. The vast majority seem to be in French, with the rest in Italian or other European languages.
missingtheobvious,
Do you still water from below when you transplant into 16 oz cups?
I generally water from the top, but water slowly. The top inch or two seems to dry out fairly quickly.
I just unpotted one of my stunted tomato seedlings and the roots seem thin and the stem seems to have gotten thinner. The soil actually looks wet, but feels dry. Maybe the problem is underwatering?
From the picture my first instinct would be to get the seedlings transplanted to a different media ASAP. Sure, the Al pan is a "No-no" and temps or light may be undesirable but occasionally you just get a bad media mix. I started a few plants in last year's media and I could tell just from the way the flats drained that something just wasn't right. Many coteledons were "Yellowing" as the seedlings emerged. Now that they are all transplanted into a new batch of an identical brand of media all growth and drainage characteristics are going back to normal.
There are a whole host of things that can go wrong- many were mentioned. Change your methods and start again taking all suggestions into account. I would suggest you not fertilize at the start and even scrutenize your water- Is it chlorinated; is salt level high due to softener; Are you watering with ice cold water? any of these things, seamingly minor, could cause problems.
Glacier has my vote for the sweetest early tomato. It does ripen ahead of most of my tomatoes and I can plant it extra early as it tolerates cool weather very well. I also have to give a nod to Stupice. Neither Matina nor Kimberly top Stupice for me. I have a Stupice that over-wintered and is now setting fruit, so I should be getting ripe fruit extra early.
If you use trellis for determinates you can get a larger harvest per square foot. I learned this from seeing a small farm show how they had a whole field of determinate tomatoes that where not staked. They said how it is not worth the work to stake them as far as profit goes.
When your just the home gardener looking for the highest yield per given space, then staking them would allow them to hold more fruit.
I plan to grow tons of determinate tomatoe along a 3 foot fence this year and I think I can use the fence as a 'trellis' too!
Happy growing everyone!
I don't believe the issue is so much of the plant being able to hold the fruit because whether or not one stakes the plant may still have branches laden with fruit break over. But the percentage of quality marketable fruit will increase due to some form of support. The added attention given to support usually has rewards for the home or market gardener; the commercial grower for a processing market may not feel that staking costs are worth the return.
Wow! I never thought of that with indeterminates I grew. I bet it really works well with determinates!
Cutting from indeterminates work just fine and many routinely use cuttings to extend their season. There are many discussions here about how to do it.
Determinates are a whole other matter with different growth genetics and a totally different circulatory system. They are not generally recommended for cuttings. Once the terminal bud on a determinate plant or a lateral branch cutting blooms/sets fruit the plant/cutting will not grow any more. That is the nature of determinates.
Dave
You mean that's the label recommendation, right? So they can create product-dependent plants and sell more of the product. Seriously.
Sure not the recommendation offered around here much of the time. IF one must use it try using 1/2 strength max instead. Better yet, switch to one of the many better balanced, more plant friendly water soluble fertilizers.
Dave
growneat, I will also suggest that most people aren't good at math and don't keep a lot of measuring implements in the garden. 1 tablespoon per gallon is easy to mix, whether you're stirring it around a 2 gallon watering can or letting a hose sprayer mix it for you.
["Higher math for the gardener" involves fun stuff like figuring out the correct amount of Ortho Poison Ivy Killer concentrate to add to the not-quite-1-qt. spray bottle for the next batch of poison ivy eradication. If I were more organized I'd find an indelible marker and write it on the spray bottle....]