16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Well done, thank you from the 'littles' :) Keep that paper in line.

Thanks all.

There is a link in the article to the plans. Not terribly
obvious, but the blue letters that say 'his PVC design'
is a link.

But I'll put it down below anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plans for the Matkey cage

Well the small container size and the pruning - removing what you are calling 'suckers' - are whole other issues for other discussions. And there are many of them here. But yes both will contribute to your original question about fruit size. Stressed plants produce smaller fruit.

The container is far too small for an indeterminate variety, especially one that gets as big as Whopper does. And removing what are actually fruit-producing lateral branches will not only reduce the amount of fruit produced by the plant but make it substantially taller.

Then there is the issue of feeding. The nutrients in your potting mix are very limited and quickly lost. Container plants require regular feedings. The smaller the container the more often it has to be watered, the more it is watered the faster the nutrients wash out of the continer and more feeding it requires.

So with all those issues don't expect normal size or normal levels of production. This is not to say the fruit you do get will all be small or won't be fine just that the growing conditions are far from ideal so the plant will be limited in its performance by those conditions.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I have read where they say to remove sucker leaves. I did not know those would be fruit bearing branches. I will stop removing them. As for feeding the plants what would you recommend with fertilizing them? How often would you suggest?

The voles got all my strawberry plants last year, and since nobody in my family is wild about them the bed got dug up and a hardware cloth bottom was put in. So far it seems to be working, but I have been told they will come in from above. My cats are doing o.k. with they chippers, but I understand your dilema. Good luck.
I don't know if it is the presence of the owls, or what, but there are fewer squirrels than a month ago. Maybe they are at the beach

Fantastic pics Harvey!! Thanks for sharing them with us all.

Dave

Thanks!

Tomatoes can't set fruit when temps or humidity are too high.

When daily highs are above 90-95 and nighttime lows are either above 75 or below 55, pollen becomes unviable and fruit can't set.

The same is true of really high humidity, but I don't know the numbers.

Some varieties will set at higher temps than other varieties. Cherries are among those who tolerate heat better.

I don't know anything about your region, but if you aren't finding seedlings for sale at this time, it may be because the weather is unfavorable. You might ask your county's Cooperative Extension office when would be a good time to plant. Click on your state here, and you'll get the county list:
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

My zone wasn't showing up automatically either after I followed "missingtheobvious" directions UNTIL I logged out & logged back in. I cleared my cache & that didn't work but logging out & back in did. FYI

Scotty, 8 is my favorite number and I like b better than a, so your zone 8b means we definatly are long lost brothers or something. Or perhaps your my dad?

CH

I don't see any signs of a viral disease, but it does look like hornworms have been munching on the plant in the first photo.

The leaf roll could be too much water, too little water, or even the stress of the heavy fruit load. Unfortunately it does make it easier for the hornworms to hide: their pale stripes look just like the veins on the rolled leaves.

When in doubt about hornworms, wait until it gets dark and take a handheld blacklight out and scan the plants with it. Hornworms fluoresce under blacklight just like scorpions. Makes them easy to pick out when they're literally glowing in the dark.

Definitely cat-facing, likely caused by cool weather.

I can't tell about the sibling with the small black spot. It looks as if the spot might be accompanied by a narrow line running from the stem toward the blossom end. If you do see such a line, that's called zippering, and is sometimes found with cat-facing.

Zippering is caused when part of the flower (the anther, the central "cone" of the flower) is connected abnormally to the baby fruit. Last year I found a 1" fruit with a piece of the anther (still fresh and yellow!) firmly attached on the fruit's equator like a little flag; there was a narrow zipper from stem to anther to the fruit's blossom-end.

photos of zippering (and some that aren't)

8-)

Missingtheobvious you are correct again, the small tomato does have the zipper line. Two actually. And we've had some cool nights so I'm glad to know what it is and what caused it. Thank you everyone!

A neighbor gave me 4 black tomato plants.(He didn't remember the name but his wife does, I've not remembered to ask her. LOL) One of them died, I decided to plant a sucker off one of the other plants to utilize that space and fertilizer. The adjacent plant had two trunks about the same size so I broke one of them off (almost half the plant) and planted it about 8 inches deep. If I keep it watered it should put out roots and produce fruit. I'm sure that damaged the remaining plant but sure it will recover. If not I will publish a warning on here in the future.

Topping indeterminates (digdirt Dave):

I read some threads about why this should not be done. I never have before, but am thinking about doing it, starting this year.

You said it would reduce my yield (production). I've been growing tomatoes for 8 years in 5' tall CRM cages, and have never had a ripe tomato produced from the growth above the top of the cage. (I have a short growing season, and strong winds that sharply crimp the plant over above the top rung.) I do not use green tomatoes at the end of the season.

I'm considering topping my plants this year (and pruning upper suckers as necessary to keep the plants from flopping over the top, which just makes them harder to remove from the cages at the end of the year.)

Determinate tomatoes would be a lot easier to handle. Unfortunately, I don't know where to get seed for determinate: Brandywine, Carbon, Cherokee Purple, Cuostralee, Earl's Faux, Gregori's Altai, Kellogg's Breakfast, Lucky Cross,... that I am growing this year.

I believe I will try topping half of my plants this year to see how it works and if it will make it easier to get them out of the cages at year end.

Here the supermarkets sell slicer tomato's for around $2.00 a pound. I sell mine for $1.25 a pound. Just go to your local stores see what they sell for and come down off of that some.

I agree - the .59 per lb tomatoes are nothing you would really want to eat but neither are the $2.79 heirlooms. Only way to get a good tomato seems to be road-side or grow it yourself. I would imagine anyone who has ever eaten a grocery store tomato would probably pay a premium to a home seller.

In my area, I would start at $2. If I was close to selling out I would raise prices until demand slowed down. If they started to rot, I would lower prices until they started to move. Just be flexible and you will find the sweet spot where supply and demand meet.

A weak solution of dish soap works but killing them by hand is what I do these days. I had a lot of aphids on my tomato when I transplanted them out so I killed as many as I could find by hand twice a week. Once the plants start to take off I no longer notice much aphids on there. I would suggest making sure your plants are as healthy and vigorous as possible because healthy tomato plants can easily outgrow limited amount of aphid damage.

I am more concerned about aphids if I see them on my rose bushes.

The excess nitrogen your tomatoes are getting is more harmful than the aphids. Fix the fertilizer problem and the aphids will go away.

No cherry tomatoes here yet....don't even think I have blossoms, lol.

HOWEVER! I do have green tomatoes on the non cherries. A couple tiny green romas and a hybrid variety.

I planted 300 or so plants. I can alot, we eat alot (my son eats them like apples) and I might sell some. If i have enough :)

Bitter-sweet night. Ate my first full sized cherokee purples and my last lettuce of the season. Made for some good fish taco's. Won't get to enjoy that combo again until the lettuce is back in October.

Hi RemoteDoc,

I can't tell whether it's Early Blight or Septoria, but, in either case, I recommend you pick off (and throw away) all infected leaves. Then start a regular (once every 1-2 weeks) spraying program with Daconil (AKA Ortho Garden Disease Control, amongst other brands). This will not cure the disease, but will help keep it from spreading. Also, if your plants are not mulched, you should mulch them very soon. Both of these leaf diseases are very common. With care, your plants will survive and produce a good crop. Good luck!

Thanks for everyone's input. I have trimmed all leaves I thought were infected today. It looks greener and less infected, that's for sure, but it also looks more bare! :) I will keep an eye on it, and even getting some Daconil as mentioned. Thanks again for the help!

You didn't specifically mention it, but since size is a component of the yield, I'd include that for me both eggplant and (to a lesser extent) tomatoes are generally smaller in EarthBoxes. I've always attributed this to root crowding. But I can get earlier harvests and no disease, so it is still a good trade-off.
-WC2K8

jll0306..
Thank you for mentioning those "Smart Pots" I have never heard of them before and quite likely will be buying 6-8 of them next year for the Dwarf Tomato plants IF they do really well this year.
They sound like an excellent idea, wish I had heard about them prior to buying the 15+ gallon pots I have now.

I didn't really consider 15+ gallon pots with over 55-60 quarts of soil to be "tight" for "Bush Tomatoes" that were only supposed to get no more than 36-40" tall but are now over 52" and have only stopped because I have a Bird Net over them. They were easily on their way to 5 foot or more.

Depending on how large these Dwarfs get and when I pull them how large the roots are in the pots I have now I may buy either 6-8 15 gallon or 20 gallon Smart Pots.
Will put them on plant dollys so I can roll them around and they wont rot my wood deck.

I think the largest of the Dwarfs is supposed to get no more than 4 feet tall at the most so 15 gallon pots should be ample.

Now if I were growing my usual 10 foot tall indeterminate's like I have in the past I would probably put them in 65 Gallon smart pots.
No reason at all for container grown tomatoes to not do every bit as well as ones grown in the ground, all you need is proper amount of soil and 5-10 gallons is not it.

Tomatoes with psychological problems? Who knew?

And all these years I thought it was the tomato growers who were suffering from stress ... caused by all those uncooperative plants, vicious hornworms, and wildlife hooligans ... not to mention the vagaries of weather....

I 'think' Steven means physiological, which is what tomato leaf roll is, a physical problem not a psychological one.

And I agree they show definite signs of tomato leaf roll which is caused by inconsistent soil moisture/watering (one extreme to another), not over-watering.

As to the other issues, trying to grow tomato plants in straw bales is one of the many fad approaches. it is not used by many so it is difficult for any of us to advise you on the issues associated with it.

Clearly, inconsistent moisture levels around the roots would be an obvious problem. The straw's inability to retain nutrients for the plants would be another.

You might get more help from one of the websites that advocate this approach to growing tomatoes.

Dave