16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Many of us who can tomatoes regularly always freeze our tomatoes whole until there is enough to justify a big batch for canning. Makes them much easier to peel too. It's a common practice.
Be sure to join us over on Harvest when the time comes to can them.
Dave
Your problem is definitely your mix. Tomatoes will grow fine and be very healthy when grown in a heavy mix. They just grow very slowly. I actually start mine out in garden soil and just start a month early.
Once you put them in the ground, they will take off. Next year, you need to either ditch the garden soil and add vermiculite or ditch the other stuff and just grow with dirt and accept the slow growth.
I'm a relatively new gardener, so take my humble opinion with a grain of salt, but I think that landscape cloth is pretty much the devil's work. We had it put down by our home's former owners all around the beds on the side of the house. The problem was that eventually you get a whole ecosystem of really rich material growing on top of it, but not blending through into natural soil layers like nature intended. Moreover, it DID stop most of the roots from growing through it, so the roots on top were spindly little things going all throughout the top of the cloth looking for a way down (and these are roots from big hardy bushes that couldnt get through). Then to make matters worse, the roots underneath the cloth had grown to press up against the cloth, creating weird air pockets under the cloth, which is terrible for the roots.
Long story short, I wouldnt touch the stuff with a ten foot pole. We put down chicken wire made of metal below our beds as a precaution. But anything, even nothing, has to be better than that cloth.
This thread explains much of what I have seen the last 3 years. Each year, everything starts out nice plants are green and growing well. When it comes time for fruit, my big beef is like a cherry tomato and the plants tend to peter out by Aug. I also have a black weed barrier about 10" down. Guess whats coming out next year!
Agree with Jim and you also need to remember that given high heat and high humidity you can vibrate them to death with whatever you want - toothbrushes included - and it won't make a darn bit of difference because the pollen isn't viable.
Dave
I can't really tell from the photos, but as the plants grow, monitor the new growth. If the very new growth is not twisted, that would indicate the twisting was caused by herbicide damage (or some other cause which is no longer present).
Mind you, the original twisted growth will not un-twist.
If the newest growth over the next week or so is just as twisted, then you have either a virus or some continuing factor like juglone in the area of the roots.
* Sorry but all I see in these pics is stress.
Don't be sorry, thats great news ;)
We'll keep monitoring the plant and see what comes out in the end. Maybe we'll end up with some nutty-flavored tigerellas, who knows ;)
TYVM all for clearing this out.
Cheers,
Djole
Sorry, no pix from last year, the plants lasted about 2 months (planted in mid-June when it dried out a bit, put in rain barrel soaker hose and hauled water in barrels in back of truck to connect to in July, then Irene wiped them out in August).
I'm planting edamame there this year since I can put netting around attached to the outside wires (as I found last year when the turkeys were taking a bite of of each tomato).
I was pruning to a single stem and just winding it around a piece of baling twine hanging down from the wire. I guess you could use a second piece to train the stem going down, but mine never got that tall. I did use a second piece for a second stem on some plants. HTH
At the very least, stop fertilizing them daily. Once a week tops and with half the strength of what it says in the instructions.
I have a couple Better Boys in ground and it can get 6-8 feet tall easy. I don't know if you'll be able to successfully transplant to bigger pot now, without loosing all those tomatoes.
You will have to water them daily in that pot, and tomatoes you'll get will likely be below par. But still better than store bought of course :D
Hi Guys,
I transplanted the tomato plant into a much larger pot since putting it in the ground isn't an option at this point. Here's a picture:
I also wanted to include a picture of how the green beans are turning out. They have finally started blooming.
And of course, the radishes I just transplanted:
Feel free to comment as you please!!
I will be using a Florida weave this year. Never tried it before but it seems like the easiest way to tame those maters.
I plan on buying 3/8" rebar from the big box store, $3 for 22' length, I will cut it into 3 lengths and I will get decent 7' sections, 12" into the ground and I got a decent 6' tall tomato stake. I want to do florida weive using these rebar stakes. This is my weekend project as my tomatoes went into ground 10 days ago and they really took off!