16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Interesting thread, guys - looked over it once just now and will have to do so in more detail over the weekend. Always more to learn.
This does bring a question to mind, given all the talk about putting in chopped-up leaves, rotted wood, bark nuggets... how about the plain-old hardwood mulch that I currently layered on top of the bed? It's purportedly all-natural non-colored etc. Instead of scraping it off the top at the end of the growing season, could I do just as well mixing it down into the soil for next spring? Or do I want to add wood that's already more rotted/soft?
My experience- attempt to keep it over the winter, may apply some manure on top. Mixing it down will get you too much of nitrogen loss and next season you will be hard pressed to keep adding something as your plants will have stunted growth. Otherwise yes, scrape it and use for compost pile. You can also look up ramial wood chips which are different ball game but might be better suited for what you looking.
Two Pineapples growing for sure - the pea size one is now nickle size, and there's a new pea. Big Rainbow may have set a fruit but it's hard to tell. Big Rainbow seems stingy with its flowers for me so far. I know it is my fault for starting it so late, but Mortgage Lifter which was smaller when they were put in has a lot more blooms. What about everyone elses?
Good to hear that , Jenn.
I hope my BrBoys will also start growing.
My sole Big Rainbow is one of the biggest plants. It has flowers but so far no fruits insight. I also have a Bear Claw which is supposed to have large tomatoes. But still in flower stage.
Sey
I use CRW, and I try to keep anything fruit-bearing inside the cage. If a future fruit bearer escapes and gets beyond being able to be pulled back (happens quickly sometimes) I train it back like any other vine growing up a trellis. My cages are 9 squares round (actually, 3 tall panels of 3 squares wide each linked together with tying wire so they can be later separated for storage and laid flat.)
That said, I use beds 3 plants wide and have my cages around every other plant, checkerboard-style... that way the un-caged plant in between caged ones has an effective cage on at least 3 sides. The only non-reinforced areas are on the edges of the bed for every other plant. There, if, and when a branch shows future need of support, I use a short length of the CRW tying wire run from the cages on either side.
I do prune suckers where I feel appropriate, but not all, and not always at the main stem. I personally like to have 2 main stems. Like many here, I try not to prune determinates at all. Like grubby's, they have free reign, only trained into the 'best' (usually empty if possible) available spaces.
Sometimes a branch on an indeterminate does get free, and if the space it found is empty, it's allowed freedom as long as it's supported for fruit bearing.
However, as grubby alluded, these are just what I find as methods which fit my preferences and style.
Edit: Dave's post wasn't showing yet, but as he said, leaves have no need for support, they run hazard.
gotcha... thanks!
You mean leaf branches? Yeah they just poke out of the holes in the cage. Sometimes, if you don't catch it is time, a secondary stem may make it outside too. If that happens and you can't work it back in without breaking it you just lightly tie it up to the outside of the cage.
Yes, Dave, this is what I am doing! I am letting leaf branches protrude out the side of the cylinder and (trying) to keep the stems in cylinder. Btw, other than pruning of the leaf branches next to the ground, I don't prune my tomato plants at all.
Thanks grubby, Dave, & rg!
South Central Ohio Seysonn. . Summers are hot and humid from early June thru mid August. So now it is June 11 and we are going to have ripe tomatoes by , say July 10 if not sooner. Just the Early Girls, the Brandys and Better boys will be a bit longer. Most of the EG plants have golf ball sized tomatoes now. Not much rain in May or so far in June so I have had to water a few times.
High dbrown
I think you will get it. From June 11 to July 10 is 29 days..
According to general tomato time line it takes about 19 days from peach size to ripe fruit for beef steak type. EG has smaller fruits and it should take even shorter time. You have a good chance at it on or before The Fourth.
Please report back. Thanks.
Sey
I don't think that is correct. EB is the concentric circles, not Septoria.
The pruning and spraying are both preventive measures. Do them both on all of your plants regardless of infection. Myself, I tend to rotate fungicides, usually between Copper, Daconil and Mancozeb. About the stem, I am not sure because the picture is a little blurry, but could be bacterial lesions, but I have had similar injury from twine rubbing stems if I was staking/tying.
I made 15 remesh cages a few months ago, for the first time. I didn't want to use anything additional.
I just bent the ends with a drive extension bar of my hex ratchet wrench (you know - the set that was $5 made in China from Autozone on sale for ... Father's Day LOL) so only a reproducible length of the tip looped inward. When you do this a small hook is there. The approach I took was with some vise-grip pliers. I adjusted it to close incompletely, up to a gap of about half the thickness of the CRW diameter. Then I crimped the remaining distance to close the hooks tightly, driving the hook-tips into themselves to make closed loops.
The closed loops present no sharpness danger for these done this way. It took a little practice to get in assembly line mode, but if you get the knack of it the sharpness is totally neutralized by catching the last mm of the tip the right way. I prefer this design because it maximizes the circumference rather than wasting the leaders or putting them to protrude where they could present a danger. I used ten squares plus the complete leader up to the 11th on many without including the 11th vertical, which was left to begin the next cage. If I were not pressed for space I would have wanted one more square though. Compromises, compromises.
No blisters, but I did sport a couple of cool Wolverine cuts on my legs in the process of making the cages ;-) A protector on the end of each might afford something extra, but that extra would have been unnecessary as far as I can judge on these.
Hope that presents yet another option.
PC
So how did the pots come out? I got 10 boxer brown longest lasting root pouch 25 gallons and 10 of the 30 gallon pots this year. I am growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, watermelons, eggplant, and peppers. These are very large pots. It costs a fortune to fill them. I mixed wholly cow, peat, a ton of perlite, and some homemade compost. A few of the pots have a small amount of pine bark. Most all of my plants are doing well. I ordered these pots from greenhouse mega store two separate times paying 10.00 shipping each time, since they ship from Illinois I also paid sales tax. The pots were a fortune too. I want to order about 20 more pots in a 15 gallon size for some strawberries that are getting eaten by slugs and other things in the ground. I like the root pouch longest lasting the brown, they seem like they will hold up for a long time. I have had a few yield pots last year and they didn't even hold up the whole season. Looking for strong pots that I can maybe buy cheaper. Dave you still use those grow pots? I seen them very cheap online maybe too cheap to believe. Thank you so much.
I have done it in 90 nents grocery store bags. They did better than plastic pots. Also they did not rot or fall apart. But they were like 4 gallon capacity.I strictly used them for hot pepper plant. If you want an 8 or 10 gallon, you have to take the expensive rout; buy commercial bags.
For medium , I blended/made my own 5-1-1 mix
Sey
Jennie, was it contagious to other tomatoes nearby? I'm thinking of uprooting it and planting it in a more isolated area - if not uprooting and throwing it away.
My leaves might have "fuzzy spores" or at least something white-greyish but it's not very obvious.
What fungicide did you use?
Akaur, I grow in containers and they are very close. I sprayed with Daconil weekly and it did keep the other plants healthy until late in the season. My other plants did get the same thing late in the season, but by removing the bad stems and leaves on the other plants they remained healthy. The spraying did not stop the progression of this disease n the Cherokee Purple.
Jennie
That was the most fun thing I've written today ... and your Mom has very good taste! Make it a big dollop! Mayo on raw tomatoes is part of authentic Southern eating in some parts ;-) Did you know that when a tomato grows like this, we call it cat-facing? Yup.
Meow!
PC
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the photo, that has answered a whole host of queries. Here in England we would class this as a determinate variety (Bush) and not an indeterminate (Cordon/Vining) variety.
Mine are grown in a glasshouse to help maintain a decent temperature and are currently about 3 feet tall. I have been removing side shoots as the seed packet stated that they were cordons. I shall stop doing that now and allow them to put on side shoots. Support will give me a few problems but I will find a way around that as they grow. I may have to remove a plant to make room for the bushy growth as I hadn't appreciated how big a plant this variety would be.
The flowers on the lower truss are fertilized and fruits are setting, so I'm looking forward to sampling the taste, fingers crossed!
Thanks once again,
Kindest regards
Tony
Tony -
I usually consider determinate/indeterminate to be indicative of the fruiting schedule. That is, determinates do it all at once, while indeterminate do it continuously. Certainly indeterminate varieties tend to be somewhat more vining -- cherries are very much so. But Costoluto Genovese fruit throughout the summer, unless the temperatures get really high. No question that one can try to get vining tomatoes to bush by trimming. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.
Now, having said all that, I am somewhat perplexed that while my plants are now loaded with fruit, and growing like crazy, the flowering has stopped. That's unusual. I hope these plants aren't going "determinant" on me! It may be that the plants are simply smart enough to know that they can't easily support any more fruit until a lot gets harvested.
Dan
Yeah black crispy leaf edges is usually nitrogen burn and the yellowing color can indicate over-watering. If it is just a few of the older leaves just remove them. Plus there might be some minor insect damage in the spots on the leaves. And there is a tomato in the pic that is past picking time.
Dave
Thanks! I will look it up. And that ripe red tomato shade is a camera phone automatic color correcting illusion. It's still a day away from being picked.