16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Thanks a bunch!

Good place for staked cattle panels to work.

Dave

Don't worry about it Lesuko. It wouldn't be viable anyway. You can't keep pollen alive long enough to ship it through the mail.

This person spammed this post all over the forums in any discussion even related to tomatillos but I doubt he will return to read any of the replies explaining why his post not only violates the forum guidelines but isn't possible in the first place.

Dave

Thanks Dave. Bummer

Sorry I wasn't more specific. I am new to this. I live northwest of Denver, CO but still on the east side of the Rockies. The previous owners of my house had a garden but obviously didn't amend the soil. It is pure clay. I added compost and leaves but it will take a number of years before it is reasonably fertile. I was teaching an intensive college course during June so everything got in the ground late as I had no time. Actually, I only put in 2 tomatoe plants as I live alone. My "Sweet Million" is doing fine as usual. I have a volunteer paste tomatoe that has some tomatoes and the single "Pineapple" tomatoe with blossoms but no tomatoes. I didn't realize that extreme heat affected fruit set. I appreciate the information! :)

I misread your post. You said 5 feet not 5 plants. There are some high producing open pollinated tomatoes but some of the big ones are late and only have a few tomatoes. I have good luck with medium sized tomatoes that mature fairly early. The big ones are exciting and impressive, but not good if you only plant one plant. I don't know what grows best in CO but others here do.

Removed surgically?

Give me a break b'c with what I went through in Feb of this year and some prior experience with scalpels being used on me I don't want to go near anyone with access to a scalpel. LOL

Did you look at any of the pictures I linked to above and saw nothing that resembled what I think you're talking about. The catalouping was interesting and I'm assuming that was a kind of netting feature, which isn't that removed from the weather checking one can see on tomato fruits on the shoulders.

So I'll look forward to seeing what your pictures look like.

Carolyn, who in Feb had 7 stiches put in, butterfly stiches at that, with BLUE whatever, so she looked like a punk rock star with those stiches, just above her right eyebrow. The Dx was a critically low K level which was responsible for her rather spectacular fall at home b'c she was absolutely paralyzed. The cardiac unit was nice, though, after she got transferred out of the ER. At least in the cardiac unit they buffer the KCL going in whereas in the ER they put it in straight and by G that hurts.LOL

I looked at the pictues but it was not what I am asking about. I will post pictures when I get a really good example. Thanks. Sorry about the low potassium and the fall.

My neighbors think i'm crazy for going outside to spray at night, as late as 11:00pm, after the rain subsides.

This year i'm rotating between 3 different fungicides, copper sulfate, serenade bacteria and Triticonazole. Next year i'm going to swap out the Triticonazole with Daconil and heavy mulching.

I definitely favor the Serenade because it can be used often, is the least intrusive and seems to work well as a preventative. The lower branches on my tomato plants are still all green with hardly a blemish and no mulch on the ground.

Just thought I'd bump this.....another good day to spray in the NE. A widespread wet system is in the works for tomorrow. I already have one container tomato infected with something. It's all fun and games until I see lesions on the branches. Hopefully it won't spread.

A few late blight tolerant varieties will be available next year. I strongly suggest getting some of them and giving them a try. So far, I have a good red beefsteak and a comparable green when ripe beefsteak. I have a pink but it may not measure up in terms of production. I am working on getting a good yellow or orange for next year.

DarJones

I will be on the lookout for those, but I just cannot abandon my heirloom favorites. More storms expected here on Friday which will spread the fungus, no doubt. Still I am harvesting well, though. Keeping my fingers crossed that at least a few plants make it to frost. Another fellow in town who got about 100 plants from me at the start of the season is also suffering a lot of blight loss. It is widespread in my area now.

I notice a lot of people picking tomatoes when still green or just starting to turn. I don't understand that at all. If I wanted a tomato that is matured off of the vine, I would buy them at the grocery store.

This was my opinion until a couple of years ago when I read (on this forum--thanks, Dave!) that you could pick at the breaker stage. Out of curiousity I gave it a try, and I could not tell the difference. So this is what I do now, too.

To answer the OP's question...hypothetically, I would pick tomatoes everyday IF they were at the breaker stage. But as I'm in Portland, OR the tomatoes got off to an exceptionally slow start this year.

I've checked U of Illinois and U of Iowa Extension Office online literature and both indicate that tomatoes should be left to ripen on the vine before picking. Several other sources indicate the same. I highly value the opinions of gardenweb members and have received great advice many times. But, I am now conflicted on when I should harvest my tomatoes.

I have 20 tomato plants, some heirloom and others hybrid. Until today, I have been harvesting tomatoes close to full ripeness. But, none of the varieties have been exceptionally flavorful. So, today, I decided to harvest some that were not close to full ripeness. I will let these ripen indoors in my basement (low light, 75 degrees). Maybe picking them early will improve their taste??

Maybe the Indian Stripe just isn't enjoying the Southern AZ climate this year. It and the Aker's WV are no more than three feet apart in a raised bed on the same drip system. I'm glad to hear that it isn't genetically predisposed to cracking because the flavor is exquisite and I'd like to try them again next year. Aker's will definitely be back next year.

I've had horrible cracking on my C. Purps and German Pink this year. My solution has been to pick them as soon as they start to blush and ripen them on a rack(stem side down, yo).

Possibly spider mites? I do see a bit of a web
on the last picture.

Check for them especially under the leaves. They're
very, very small.

Tomato russet mites?

I don't know what your soil type is or what it needs but will say I have NOT tilled or turned over any of my soil since going to raisedbeds and the Square Ft Gardening method.

The idea is to never walk on the soil in the beds and let the worms do the work. Not only is it less work, I can drop the fork and it will go into the soil far enuff to cover the tines.

Describe how you plant your tomato plants - that could be a factor in your problem too.

The new soil is just from 75 bags of inexpensive top soil from Home Depot and 1 bag of peat moss. I can easily get my times in deep enough to cover the tines but I know the bottom soil is fairly dense. It's a rather small bed so digging deeper is not that daunting a task.
As far as how I plant them; I basically dig a hole and drop them in.