16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

The sweetest tomato that I ever had was a SWEET CLUSTER. A medium size indeterminate that was unbelievably sweet! Hard to find now.

I think Indian Stripe is excellent. It is smaller than Cherokee Purple same color and smoother shape

I took others' advice and never did fertilize my seedlings. They have grown nicely... and were planted out today. Over-fertilizing is easy to do with the babies.

I agree with over fertilizing.
MG potting mixes often has fertilizer ENOUGH for bigger plants. It should say on the package {{ No need to fertilize up to 3 months }} or something like that on the bag.

Seysonn

That makes sense. If soil warming isn't the highest priority, but blocking light to weeds is, black plastic is what you want. If soil warming is the highest priority, then one is better off with clear plastic. Both will help with moisture retention.

Clear plastic is ok BEFORE planting out any thing. Otherwise the soil can get too hot for the plants roots. JMO

Seysonn

ugh *forehead slap*

Always trying to kill 'em with kindness I guess.

Luckily, only a few seem to be hurting -- here's hoping they're not so far gone they can't bounce back.

Thanks, everyone, for your insight!

Too much watering and probably lack of nitrogen result in yellow foliage. Seedlings need to get thirsty between watering. I water mine about every 5 days or so. And I fertilize at about 1/3 strength wit MG blue water soluble (24-8-- 16). I have never used fish emulsion. So I cannot comment on that.

Seysonn

I found 2 giant hornworms and smeared them. They had damaged several greenies.

Looks like my season is about over. I have 3 surviving backup plants I may plant to see what happens thru summer, but we'll see.

Interesting use of Tomato Tone. Might have to try it when I eventually get around to having seedlings growing.

Rodney

I use calcium nitrate, once in awhile so no worries about calcium. Also dynamite slow release is something I like to use too. Has everything, and a good ratio of NPK too.

Thanks Dave ! How you guys do this math thing I can't imagine ! Anyway, mystery solved !

Let us settle at ~ nominal 20 gallons; Hehe.
Deeby said::

It took about 1 1/2, 2 cubic foot bags of potting mix to fill it.

1.5 ( 2 c.f) = 3 cf >>> -3x 7.5 x 0.83 = 18.7 dry gallons

Also Beeby said:

I actually gave the pot away

What ???

Deeby, .. you've got to find that pot and measure it accurately LOL

Seysonn

It's not supposed to be one ultimate tomato. I was asking which tomato fulfills each of those descriptions from your experience. For example, last year I'd say my Black Plum had the best flavor and the most productive, as opposed to my beefsteak (not sure which one it was), which probably only had four or five total and I didn't really like the taste. If I grew more I'd have more on the list.

<I was asking which tomato fulfills each of those descriptions from your experience.>

That's why I linked some of the previous discussions above. You'll find many discussions for each of your categories with the search and each has lots of suggestions/opinions. It is a frequent question.

Dave

And don't forget the tomato mascot dancing on the side of the road.

That will be my boyfriend's job! hahaha

Indigo Rose is not really representative of what most of us think of as a "dark" tomato a.k.a. black tomato since its color is basically from the same stuff in the plant's stem, which is different from the coloration in other dark tomatoes. For example, I feel it has the most terrible taste of any tomato on the planet.

I'm growing growing the black tomato varieties Margaret Curtain and Purple Calabash, and if there is room I'll stick in an extra Cherokee Purple. Without them, the tomato season wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable!

PC

shijitake,

My local HD or Lowes (no longer sure which) has BrandyBoy in their Burpee seed rack. Even though Burpee had free shipping going on it was easier just to pop down to HD for the one pack I didn't order that I felt like trying. Of course while there I ended up buying 3 more packs of stuff I felt like trying.

Andrew

ARBUZNYI ( watermelon like ?). I have seem some green stage patterns that resembles watermelon rind. Its leaves also have similarity to watermelon leave. So this make ARBUZNYI an interesting tomato.

Now that ARBUZNYI is on my 2015 grow list , I like to get more opinions on it.
I like its color, both when green and ripe. I see some resemblance to Ananas Noire as shown in the last picture posted by habman

I also like its mean DTM (75 ?). That is early to mid season .

Lets see if anybody else has grown it since 2009 . (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 ). It has been a long time.

Seysonn

My ABRUZNYI is just germinating.
When I ordered the seeds (from SSS), I had no idea that it is a black/brown/purple tomato.
Now this year I will have a collection:

Arbuznyi
Cherokee Purple
Black from Tula
Japanese Black Trifele
Black Cherry.

I have grown CP and JBT before. They are not work horses but their fruits were outstanding. Now remains to be seen how Arbuznyi and BFT will do in my cool PNW garden.

Seysonn

cara took the words right out of my mouth...haha. The clamp lights are cheap...and most of all, handy. I think the 100 watt equiv are 23 actual watts. The reflector does intensify the rays...so back it off a bit.

Jennie, the other thing you might have done, is to run your lights 24 hrs, and rotate out half of the plants for each 12 hour session. I've never had to, but know others that have done it when faced with overflow.

Grew them both (CP and spudakee). In my opinion the spudakee blew the cp away in taste, size and production. I saved the seeds but am not sure if they come true since they were grown amongst many other varieties.

Interesting.
Right now, according to my unofficial survey, Cherokee Purple is among TOP 5 tomatoes grown by the members of this forum. Now comes SPUDAKEE.

Seysonn