16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Some of my earlier tomatoes did the same thing this year... something that I have never seen before. Some of my Brandywines, Big Rainbows, Persimmon and Purple Cherokee had this problem. Parts of the flesh towards the middle of the fruit were too soft to eat. Almost mushy and partially disintegrated And they were just barely ripe. Later in the season, it disappeared. I live in Charlotte, NC.

I'm not planting in the same place, that's what's so strange. Mostly in large containers and the growing medium is changed every year completely.imthinking that it might be just the frost few tomatoes.

Thanks for the reply. I think the 'ol timer probably knew what he was doing, sadly I don't ;) I'll stick to vinegar and water for my tomatoes. As far as canning the cherries, I'm leaning toward throwing them all in the blender and making a sauce out of them. I just have so many I was trying to think of some way of preserving them whole without having them fall apart.

Last year, I made spicy dilly green tomato pickles for the first time from end-of-the-season cherries. A good friend of mine in his 50s said they are the best pickles he's ever tasted. It took me a while to acquire the taste, but now I'm considering picking the cherry tomatoes early in their unripe stage if the other varieties are productive enough for my other needs.

The NCHFP site has a recipe that uses sweet peppers, but I understand that you can safely trade sweet peppers for hot peppers as much as you want as long as the total amount of pepper doesn't exceed the amount of pepper called for in the recipe.

So you know I'm 73 and can't walk either and have to use a walker b;c of a fall in 2004 when I severed all fout quads in my right leg, and someone else, actually four people help me.

Craig L in Raleigh raises my plants and sends them up here and Freda who helps with cleaning and does all my gardening for me tends the tomato plants and all else. And then Shoe and Lee in NC do seed production for me as well as Neil in IL but with the drought in IL it looks like he will lose all 600 of the tomato plants he has out, of which only maybe 7 varieties are mine.

Remember, older is bolder and also wiser and if you are older than I am it also means you are bolder and wiser than I am. LOL

And yes, I know CO well for I lived in Denver for many years and taught med students at the Med School, corner of 8th and Colorado Blvd and my home was on Locust, one block down from the 17th ave Pkway and one block East of Monaco. .

Yup, I grew tomatoes there in the 70's to early 80's, yes I did. LOL

Carolyn

Yea Carolyn I know. Got you beat by 10 years. Born and raised around Greeley. Only knowledge of Denver is VA hospital for 30 days with staph from heart surgery 26 years ago--not many of us around. On my second ICD and trust it. We are both examples of not ever giving up. I was keeping track of you a bit back when you were having some problems. God, wouldn't it be nice to be able to just walk around the yard again? But I'm glad for what I have and I bet you are too.
Sorry for all this to you health people. But I want to tell all of you to take care of your selfs and live every day to the fullest.
KennyP

Best tasting, longest lasting ones come in a can with herbs and seasonings .

Mine come in a jar. Home canned.

Sandhill will be carrying Piennolo del Vesuvio for 2013 so add it to the list of storable tomatoes.

DarJones

I've been pruning the lower leaves, suckers and some of the large leaves at the top (but only the ones that have been yellowing or otherwise appearing unhealthy or nibbled at), there's still lots of top leaves though. When it was extremely wilted, I over-watered it a bit, but only from the tray beneath rather than the top of the soil. It went from wilted to perky within the afternoon, so now I'm just watering (again from the dish beneath) in the morning to keep the soil just wet enough that it doesn't seize up. Leaves have been kept dry. What should I be ideally "feeding" it? I've used Miracle Gro since bringing it home but am open to other options.

I recommend Mykes organic fertilizer. You should use something for tomatoes. It should have a higher K content than N(nitrogen). I would not use Miracle Gro because you could end up with more leaves than fruit. It's okay to water in the pot as long as you do it slowly and thoroughly and making sure it doesn't sit in water. If what you're doing seems to be working then that's ok. I do container plantings and it's always a challenge to make sure they don't dry out or get over watered.

I'm always skeptical of superlatives in naming. its like they are trying too hard. I mean, if it really WAS superfantastic, would it need to declare it? Its like all those old time migrants who were shocked upon arriving that Greenland does not so much have lots of green land, as it has lots and lots of ice. Too much markting in a name makes me suspicious. :)

Superfantastic is a great plant and fuss free. But not much good that does me as I don't care for the flavor. There is a tomato named Fantastic, this I think is the improved version, therefore the name.

I give lots of tomatoes away to neighbors and friends as I am growing way to many to use. I found the taste challange useful for myself as I now now which are my preferred tomatoes to pick for myself.

And I want to try new to me varieties next year and now know which I don't want to bring back. That opens up room to try new ones. New to me at least!

"Given that real Black Brandywine is rare and seldom, if ever, grown by plant suppliers, the odds are 50:1 that you have one of the many much more common blacks."

I was thinking the same thing, but then I realized that I don't even know of any other black with potato leaves. Are there any?

Yes, there are quite a few black varieties that are PL, whether what I call pink/blacks which have a clear epidermis or red/blacks which have a yellow epidermis.

Here's just a few that I've grown:

Southern Night
Black Sea Man
Black Pear
Blue Fruit ( Blaufruct)
Cherokee Purple PL ( also Spudakee)
Indian Stripe PL
Japanese Trifele Black
Black from Tula called Spudatula

..... and many more.

With the Spud ones the word spud means potato.

A larger question to ask, which to me is more imposrtant is if a PL variant of an original RL is the same except for leaf form, and I posted about this in a recent post here, but I don't remember where.

Some on that above list are not variants of an original RL and some are. That is, they've always been PL from the get go.

Carolyn

Oh I'm not looking for middle eastern varieties, I'm looking for something different to try. I have a relative in the states who would be able to forward any seeds I purchase to me.

From what I read about Sioux, it looks like the thing I'm looking for. I'm also wondering if I go for partial shade or grow in a container that I would move in when the sun gets too hot would I have a better chance at growing more varieties?

It, like all the tomatoes is happier if you can grow it in a spot that gets morning sun and afternoon, but I threw a light shade cloth on it in the REALLY hot stretch.

If you decide to grow in a container, you have the advantage of being able to blend a moisture retaining soiless potting mix which will help to avoid any soil-born disease issues. And maybe the dog won't get the cage!

What else do you grow there?

Jan

thanks again Carolyn, I will take your advice, in the kitchen not the window sill, and you are right as the taste I had one that had a "blush" on it and it was bland tasting!The good news, my Ramapo's are 6 feet tall and loaded with fruit all green, but my fingers are crossed.

I have a Cherokee Green fruit ripening up nicely in a paper bag right now. It fell from the plant while utterly unripe - completely hard and green - while I was harvesting the ripe ones. I hate it when that happens! Seems to work OK although I might rethink my strategy due to Carolyn's comments about the bag method.

@Capoman: A black light?! that is AWESOME. Does it work for any other critters? I'm having a heck of a time finding the bean leaf beetles on my bean plants. it would be dreamy if they were also day-glo

Thanks!

I tried the black light last night - extension cord, CFL black light in a shop light housing - and the hornworms did show up clearly against the tomato foliage. But they weren't like Elvis on black velvet type of glow-in-the-dark. At least one moth glowed too.

I am embarassed to admit that for the second yr in a row I dont know which plants are which. Not gonna happen next yr. Just wanted to say that I have the most and biggest red yellows ever for me. I planted 6 Mr Stripeys, 2 Va Sweets and 4 Hillbillys. I have the table covered with these tomatoes. I weighed the biggest and it tipped the scales at 37 ounces. I like the taste a lot.

My gold medals just started and I'm worried they won't have time to grow and ripen. I don't know why it took them so long to have fruit. I planted them 2 nd week in June. All my other tomatoes have gone bonkers. I'm growing Mr. Stripey for the first time. I have to be aggressive with pruning 'cause it's also gone nuts. Nothing is ripe yet.

dickiefickle, If you look around these forums you will see many people having issues with earthtainers with water retention symptoms. They may have holes to drain, but they also have a wicking system. If you have a soil that is too water retentive and wicks up too much water, you'll have problems. Using an earthtainer isn't foolproof and doesn't preclude you from building a well drained soil to go in it.

About peat, There is a difference between peat-based soils, and bark based soils with peat in them. Peat based soils mean the majority of the medium is peat. I have no problem with peat - as a small component of a mix, and in fact has a crucial function of water retention control in a bark based soil such as 5:1:1. But when the majority of the mix is peat, it holds to much water (or none at all - hydrophobic). That is why so many people have problems with peat dominant soils.