16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Thanks guys. i have started things many years ago under lights once. I have just been reading about the cold frames and trying to figure out how they fit in.

So can lettuces etc being grown in an unheated cold frame this time of year?

Tammy - first things first, lettuces, yes, you can grow them in a coldframe now. I have done this for years, no problem.

As for tomatoes, I am trying them this year in a coldframe. I plan to start them indoors around feb 1, and then transplant them into the coldframe around Mar 15, much earlier than my recommended safe day of May 1 (note, I am just east of you in zone 7A (N. VA) so you may want to adjust your schedule accordingly.

As for how the coldframe works, in daytime, its essentially a mini-greenhouse. As the sun streams in, I can achieve anywhere between 20-25 degrees over the outside temperature. This is fine now, but come late mar, early april as we sometimes reach 70+ degrees, the issue then is too much heat. In years past, I literally cooked my tender greens by neglecting to uncover them on warm days. Thus, as potterhead notes, its not a bad idea to get an automatic vent opener (it operates as temps cause a cylendar to expand and lift the lid).

My bigger concern now is nightime temps as I dont want it to get too much below 50 degrees at night and potentially stunt production. In lieu of christmas lights, I am using an adjustable spotlight, facing the ground with a 150 watt bulb on a timer. I dont know if this will work, but thusfar, I am able to achieve about 10 degrees over the nighttime temps, possibly more. That said, the 150 watt light seems awfully hot - im almost afraid to use it for fear it will set some mulch on fire!

Any event, these are my plans. But again as far as lettuce goes, go for it - just be sure to somehow vent it if necessary.

Hello again, branmuffin. I'm afraid the first post is an Oops; at best the thing is related to leafhoppers and often confused with them.

I was looking for life cycle info, but failed to find that particular bug on Google Images, which caused me to wonder if whoever told me it was a leafhopper years ago actually gave the correct name (most likely my parents or grandparents, as these seem to be California bugs and I grew up in California). So I looked further, and it is actually a keeled treehopper [sometimes Keelback, sometimes Tree Hopper, etc.].

In no particular order:

http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hemipt/KeeledTreehopper.htm

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/12/27/keeled-treehoppers/

http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/green-insect-identification.html (scroll down; comments are good)

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tompests/msg0303171821790.html

http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=60935

http://www.inhs.illinois.edu/~dietrich/treehFAQ.html

Yup they look like them alright. Uuuuugly! ...and they killed my tomato plant. I now wonder if they didn't come from the Miracle Garden Soil that I purchased.

I'm beginning to wonder about the Miracle Grow soil as this is the 2nd one (bag) that I've had insect problems with.

You'd think that if you paid a higher price for good soil that you would get GOOD and NOT contaminated soil.

I mixed 1 teaspoon of Neem Oil and 1 teaspoon of Dawn Liquid Soap to one gallon of water and used that to spray the plant and it seems to kill them. But it was too late to save the plant. OH WELL ... time to replant.

The good thing here in Hawaii is that you can plant veggies almost all year round and they will grow. The bad thing is a lot of things have to be shipped from the mainland (continental U.S.) and shipping more often than not is prohibitive .. costs an arm and a leg.

Such is the price of living in Paradise as they say. LOL!

Mahalo Nui Loa (Thank you very Much) for all the work and research that you've done to find the right insect. Funny thing is I also grew up almost all my life in California (Alameda) area and I've never ran into these.

Aloha
K-Guy (I'm thinking of changing my name to Kauaiguy, which I use in most of my internet sites, but seems to be a lot more hassle than it's worth) LOL!

This post was edited by branmuffin on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 18:41

Yes I wander around this forum. This thread has been around for a while!

Occasionally I'm here too. Just lurking, learning and being entertained.

I've not had a garden the past 2 summers but am planning to have a small, but nice one this year. I hope at least some of my good 'older' tomato seeds will germinate for me, since I acquired such a nice collection. I'm planning to start seeds quite early to allow time for starting more later in case of bad or 'no' germination.

Back in 2009 I developed an addiction to collecting, growing and exhibiting daffodils and now have about 1000 different named cultivars and add to them each fall. There are approximately 25,000 known named cultivars, so collecting them will keep me busy for quite a while.

Maybe some tomato lovers would like to attend a daffodil show (or two) if there is a show nearby. See link below. I'm planning on hitting at least 5 shows (maybe more) so maybe I'll see you there.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: 2013 Daffodil Events & Show Calendar

Many thanks. Will sproat, grow and share with trusted neighbors.

Both are my favorite tomato, my wife insist on them every yr.
Plant em if you got em. Sam

I grow Juliette every year.
I use them for every thing, even have used them on hamburgers.
I never plant more then 5 plants & at the peak of harvest, I give bags of them away.

So, here are my 2 cents: the Juliet works better than the yellow and red cherry and the roma, all from my local garden center (not the big box stores). The plants stood up best against the rkn army, and made amazingly large fruits for a grape variety. Was not prone to cracking, and it sure rained a lot here lately (what happened this winter?Usually it doesn't rain for weeks?!)And the taste was good enough, they were not soft or mealy, kept good on the counter. I have yet to check on the roots, how bad it is, but the cherries are wasting away now. The Juliet still has a bit going on.

Congrats on the seeds sprouting! Ditto above. Be sure to only handle the leaves, not stems. If needed, you can plant part of the paper towel so as to not hurt the tiny roots. I would gently separate them into their own containers. Hope you get some yummy tomatoes!

Thanks Digdirt for the links,helped alot. So nerveracking moving seedlings. I only sacrificed 4 out of 60, so not too bad.
Thank you afishlady,I can't wait to taste them and my first time growing tomatoes from seed.Now I have a new hobby to start learning...Canning :)

If that site's not tomato porn, I don't know what is....

Cdon -
Thanks for the suggestion and tip. Coincidentally, I've been growing Chocolate Stripes for a few years. I like that one for skin color, but it doesn't have the crazy color on the inside like some of the others.

Getting freezing temps now. Everything that was sprouting and budding, except the clover and wild onions is brown now.

I hope the fruit trees recover!

I was afraid that if I mentioned your fruit trees and freezing, I would jinx them! I hope they recover too. Suppose it depends on how far along they were whether you'll see any blossoms later, but I think it would probably take more than this to kill them unless they aren't yet established.

I don't consider Italian Heirloom a paste because it's wetter than the true pastes. I really like it as an all purpose tomato. It does make a good sauce but it also is good fresh eating/slicing and is also a good canner. But I would say that it's not the best sauce, slicer, and canner, but it does good at all of those things. Kind of an all around tomato. San Marzano for me was a heavy producer of oblonged shaped tomatoes that were dryer, skinned and processed well and were somewhat bland. I used them as components of sauce, where I mixed in several varieties.

I like San Marzano Redorta. I get them from Seeds from Italy.

I made 24 half gallon containers of Sauce this year! Yeah I'm nuts.

Crazyoldgoose in Md

Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds from Italy - san Marzano Redorta

That would be what we'd call an 8" pot (8" diameter) which is way too small for a tomato plant, even a "young" one. Minimum recommended is a 20" (55cm) diameter pot and that is only for small varieties. Bigger is better and your plants are big ones.

From your description of the symptoms it is possible they were rootbound in the pot. But that is just a guess without a great deal more information or better yet a photo.

Dave

I'll try and take a photo later on.. It's almost 2:00 am here!