16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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.

Thanks so much. Your answer makes a lot of sense. We have had extensive dryness in the area. I do water, but not to excess.

I tried "googling" the problem and they kept referring to wilt, root rot, and fungus. I knew that wasn't the reason.

My tomatillos aren't producing either. I'm guessing it's the same answer.

I picked a bad year to try new veggies.

Keep babying the plants along including the tomatillos, it will cool off and rain one of these days.

suncitylinda,in the pic the fruit is rotted on the side not the bottom leading me to believe sunscald

you only got 2 fruit ? sounds like it was too hot to bloom and set flowers/fruit

"Either they have these ulcer-looking sores, or they only developed half a tomato, with ulcer-looking black bottoms."

Dickie, I believe Suncitylinda was indeed addressing one of the OP's concerns.

Katkeeper, BER is not transmitted from one tomato to another nor one plant to another so It makes little difference to remove the affected ones. If less than half to tomato is dark and the rest red, cut off the bad part and eat the rest. If 1/2 or more is dark pull them off so the nutrients that would have gone into them will go into the remaining ones. Maybe. Lol

Black Cherry was the first to give me a ripe tomato this year. Maybe it was the wait, but they were great! I grew Black Plum a few years in a row in Winnipeg, where they got all the sun they could want, and they were invariably mealy.