16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Juglone will severely stunt or even kill tomatoes. They are more seriously impacted than most other plants. I was not able to grow tomatoes any closer than 50 feet from black walnut trees in my yard. I now grow all my tomatoes in 25-gallon containers, and I had a very good year in Southwest Ohio in spite of the heat and drought.

If your tomato plants appeared full size and healthy, they probably were not affected by juglone. If they were stunted and sickly, juglone could be the culprit.

2011 and 2012 my tomatoes did very well. Makes me uneasy thinking of 2013 as three in a row seems too much to hope for. The really wet summers are my enemy as my clay soil will not drain and only grows weeds. I am building a smaller area tho of looser soil in another area. I had a Chapman, an orange Burpee and 4 Cherokee Purples there last summer that did well even with less sun than the big garden. I have been able to amend the soil there as it is a much smaller area.

I am a huge fan of the FW and did seem to have more sunscald this year, but I think it would have occurred with any trellis system. 2012 was a bad tomato year for me.

Normally, my FW creates a tomato hedge, with good foliage cover.

I grew in 2 locations this year, one florida weave, one regular. I had a bit of sunscald on the regular ones, but none on the FW. Perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest difference was sun exposure - the FW plants had 6-7 hours a day, the regular 10+.

Well Bart, you are two zones warmer than me. My dwarf tomatoes are germinated. I plant them in 16" clear beer cups with lots of holes in the bottom. I only put 2" of soil in them when I put the seeds in then as they grow I add soil. This way the cup is filled with roots when it is time to transplant into pots.

So, I will try - if I get no tomatoes, I will have large plants to plant out in the spring.

You answerered your own Q with this last post. Starting seed now will basically give you a month lead over my starting date for greenhouse planting. By early March you might have plenty of light depending on your setting. However you will get lanky plants in the meantime without supplemental light. Either way you are very optimistic about Winter fruit. Early Spring picking is more realistic.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - How to can tomatoes

by the way if they go bad when you open the jar there is a stench.

You can become ill or even die from eating improperly canned foods that have no "stench" at all when opened.

Here is a list of varieties that have had good fruit set in high temps from a grower in Alabama who has this problem every year. Ami

Stump of the World
Kosovo
Bill's Berkley Pink
Neves Azorean Red
Cabernet (hybrid)
JDs Special C Tex
Black Krim
Indian Stripe
Marianna's Peace

I've found that there is a certain time each morning when the nightly dew has dried and sun's heat is still not raging. Around here, it's usually around 10 AM. During heat waves, this is when I go thru the garden shaking blossoms. I can't be totally sure, but I think it helps. My theory is to catch the pollen just as it dries out and just before the temperature gets out of control.

The other benefit is that I get a good look at what's going on with each plant (critters, diseases, etc.) Now, I do realize that I can do this any time I want to because I'm fully retired.

For those that have heat problems frequesntly, I suggest you arrange for some kind of shade, as mentioned above.

Ted

"Seed" is often used to indicate multiple seeds. So what is the context? And why does it matter?

Dave

Well, they called him Johnny Appleseed, but he had a lot more than one seed. ;-)

Bigpinks:

So, the wind does not blow in Ohio? I may move there.

I use cages and try to get by with supporting each cage with a 5/8" re-bar driven 18" into the ground. When we get a forecast for our typical rainstorm with a 70 mph wind, I drive in another re-bar.

Sometimes the cages stay upright, sometimes they don't.

What I am trying to acheive is a cross between cages and stakes, where I tie rings around the plants with cloth. It worked pretty well last season, but my wooden stakes were too short.
Wot I do is the traditional staking and tying. Idealy 8' posts stuffed ~18" inground. Cannot use post pounder to do it... they are too wide. Even with 48 stakes, I use at lot of twine (about 2000 feet [ or more of it ] if I do not get lazy). If I could get 7 or 8' tall metal posts for ~$2 I would use them.. easier to pound in and do not break or fall over (if they have a bottom flange). Your plan with the cloth "cages" may work, but one needs a lot of it and also needs to resist the temptation to overly gather the stems together. With twine it is easier to select individual large stems to support. Yet in fact, what I end up with is essentially a tall twine "cage". Advantage over the caging method is that it is more flexible and fewer stems become crimped where they cascade over the concentric cage circles (or squares). Disadvantage over a good cage is that it requires more of the dreaded 4 letter word... "work".
Reggie

Nice photos Raybo! I have the hardest time with peas and beans in SW FL. Yours look great. Good points bmoser...by all means I did not mean to over look the other soil contents. I just happened to have a bag of Epsom around, I was trying to make my own herbal bath soak...which failed...so I thought I'd put the salts to some use rather than just dump em.

ooh, I just planted three tomato plants in their final pots and will be doing another tomorrow... I think I will try the epsom salt test.. two with epsom salt, two without.

I think my containers are 45 gallon... how much epsom salt should I add to each?

There are many so called blue tomatoes now available, and while the taste is not all that great as reported back by many at the sites where I read, many amateur breeders, and some not so amateur are working with the original OSU ( Oregon State) P20 selection to try and get some taste in them.

One of the listings at Tradewinds looks like it could be the original P20 but isn't called that.

There are also some GMO ones around, more specifically the one from England which has had a snapdragon gene inserted to bring in the color.

Below I've linked to Tania's superb database website and on the home page if you scroll down, under special links you'll see you can search for varieties by color and then click on the individual ones to see what seed sources might be available, many with pictures and some with comments from others.

I am not a fan of anyone buying tomato seeds off e-bay, but there are a few vendors who are OK.

If tradewinds just put up their blue jay one for 2013, or even 2012, I didn't check when I was at the site, I doubt you'll get much feedback on the specific one you wanted, and there are lots of others to consider via Tania's website data base.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tania's webpage

Yep..... went to the webpage...... that will take some time to get through ! I was wondering about the OSU..... not Ohio huh....Thanks for all the info Carolyn.

Today (Dec 10th), I mailed seeds to:

* coolbythecoast
* jonboy999
* slo_garden

PLEASE let me know when you receive your envelopes so I can update my records. Thanks.....Heather

This post was edited by hmacdona on Mon, Dec 10, 12 at 13:47

Today (Dec 11th) I mailed seeds to:

* crystalline_ca
* kristel
* redthreaddiy

PLEASE let me know when your seeds arrive so I can update my records. Thanks....Heather

Note - We have reached the upper limit of this thread. I've started a new thread to continue to post updates. Here's the new link.

Here is a link that might be useful: 5th Annual Tomato & Pepper Seed Exchange Part Two

This post was edited by hmacdona on Tue, Dec 11, 12 at 21:21

Oh, and apparently, a diluted mixture of hydrogen peroxide can help - the regular strength like you'd find in a pharmacy. I read that on another forum.
Sharon

Thanks I will try these suggestions.

Resistant varieties is a very good idea!

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