16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Regardless of the reason occurances like you experience can be very frustrating. Last year I tried a new variety called Grandpa Dutches Favorite from a seed Co. I'll not mention. Each of the 4 plants I trialed produced drastically different fruits; one even turned out to be a cherry type. I now have come to expect 5-7% "non-typical" plants in any heirloom variety planted. If I see 1% "non-typical"with hybrid varieties I'd be extremely surprised.

There may be an occasion that you get different color scheming such as with non-segregated crossings; Copia is a good example. Those are more tolerable and might even be looked on as pleasant surprise. I plant thousands of tomato plants and sell buth plants and fruit and I get concerned about other's results as well as my own. If you only plant a few plants those oddball ones can be deal breakers.

I grew Red Robin for the first time last season. One plant was absolutely wonderful-great little tomatoes with a beefsteak flavor. But one plant turned out to be cherry sized fruits that were deeply pleated and very sour. So now I'm paranoid about wasting my efforts on Red Robin seed which I really want to grow regularly.

Good new, We have Merced tomato seeds. We were able to get some to sell from a family that has grown them for 40 years. We sell them at maggiesgardenseeds.com or you can find us on facebook at Maggie's Garden Seeds. Hope this helps, maybe we can bring this favorite back. :) Have a great day. Maggie

I'm back, or you can e mail me at maggiesseeds@aol.com :)

It is time to update this. Also to bring something to the top that is not another how awful things are since the big change. (A shot at humor. I am still adjusting to things as well.)

I potted up 24 from the starter cells today. I have been needing to do it for longer than I care to post. I have been busy with so much as of late it feels like I have two full time jobs, and another part time job on the side. I will be potting up more tomorrow as well.

Yesterday I had to spray all of my plants with neem oil. After a weekend away for Valentine's with my wonderful wife I came home to find and aphid infestation of my pepper plants. The tomatoes appeared to be left alone. Though I am not going to take that chance. I lost 5 pepper plants.

I have 24 plants spending the night in my low tunnel. They are now sun hardened. Now to keep them out, unless there is an extended cold snap. Then they will come inside. 36 will be starting their first day outside tomorrow in the shade.

Long story short. This year is so far a way better start than last year.

Thanks all,

Nate Guilliams
Temple, Tx.

THat sounds great, Nate.
I am germinating my first batch of 8 varieties. The rest I will start end of FEB. That will be roughly 6 weeks to plant out time.

Seysonn

I have a pack of seed for Sara Galapagos. I want to try them soon.

yes: 2 die 4 … that's what the fla seed provider said … we'll see. i have about 8 types of cherry toms i am testing, along with the sweet 100s, which come up vol, and never make it in to the house.

I've grown Riesentraube for at least two decades, originial source for me from Curtis Choplin who got it from the German Seed Bank. But known to be grown in Philadelphia in the mid 1800's and also grown in several other European countries. I think it was in Hungary that it was called Goat's T#T for the small nipple at the blossom end of the fruits.

And no, I've never had a problem with seed germination from the ones I got from Curtis or the ones I saved seed from in susequent growouts, primarily for my then many hundreds of varieties listed in the SSE Yearbooks, And it's also one I featured in my tomato book.

I'm sure there are pictures at Tania's website and know that each blossom stalk can have 200-300 blossoms but only about 40-50 of them set fruits.

Almost forgot. One person I know made wine from them and sent me a few small bottles and it tasted like a wonderful dry sherry with color to match,

Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn, interesting histories always make it more fun to grow a variety, and I'll be sure to watch for both billie-goats and trolls that try to nibble on my baby goat Riesentraubes ;-)

I see now that some (like yourself) with more dependable seed seem to have no issues, but on the other hand, I'm not the first to to have trouble specifically with this variety. For example, take a look at the comment in this link selling Riesentraube seeds (not my source unless by coincidence, unfortunately mine are likely not traceable to origin): "The germination time of the seeds tends to be a bit longer than that of other varieties." Opinions on seed sources aside, I found the same comment in other places since my OP.

Perhaps there is something different about how it hibernates or goes into dormancy or more to the point the way it wakes up. I'd better admit, that my seed starting conditions haven't been as controlled as I should, but really it was my only variety of nearly 25 that gave any indication of difficulty. I wonder if you noticed whether the emergent seedling was extra fine leafed (leaved sp?)... That is something I haven't seen addressed anywhere, if in fact there is anything to address, seems like most people don't pay too much attention to that aspect as long as they eventually get healthy plants. I'm curious for curiosity sake at this point, but the knee jerk reaction originally was I had received something wild.

You mentioned in your book that not all plants express the heavily bunching trait. Is that still true or I wonder if growers have managed to select it out by now.

Thanks (as always) for you kind input!

PC

Hoosier,

That sound like a real good idea. I am definitely going to try that. I will have to put some kind of ground cover around them. I usually use the black landscape plastic or heavy paper grain bags around them but I can do it later as the plants get established.

Helen, .. that is like planting tomato's cousin, Potato. That is good if you are planting in a row.

Talking about Spring Training: Today (Mon, Feb 16) we are going to have an incredible weather, SUNNY and high reaching 60F. So I am going to do a little more work. I have to empty the rest of the pots, clean up, and refresh the old soil by adding some more fresh ingredients and cover the soil , to prevent from getting wet again. So when I am ready for my container planting (Mostly peppers) stuff is ready.
I might also start making some cover cages or make another mini hoop.
So far February has been more like April. But I am sure we are going to get a lot of cold snaps til mid April.

Seysonn

Geez !! I got the impression that you already have the grown seedlings/plants from seeds, where you said "TO SET THE POTS....",.
Starting seeds is another process and normally is not done in pots.
My misunderstanding !

Seysonn

They have all germinated now doing good. Planted in solo cups about half full will add more soil as they grow taller to encourage stronger plants and roots. Got about 60 under the lights now. Cherokee chocolate, cherokee purple, indian stripe, black krim, black from tula, black cherry, and purple bumble bee.

Thanks Sue and asm. Ohiofem, you've made some interesting comments over time. I think Sue meant you could search for anything, including a user, because this formum doesn't yet have a "see all posts by user" function. It happened to me that I posted once some time after I started a certain plant, later lost the start date, unimportant at the moment, but then the plant became important and I was able to search and find the date here and confirm I had gotten a fresh tomato to eat from seed in under 100 days ;-)

Seysonn, I agree but sometimes searching the whole site brings up stuff that is unrelated. I've never liked the search function and use Google's instead for here. Maybe it can be improved though which would be nice to be able to include/exclude terms for a more specific search.

Example: Hillbilly pH

Before you got everything with either, so tons of soil and hydroponics stuff showed up, but I only wanted to see if anyone said anything about the pH of the Hillbilly tomato pulp.

PC

Thanks to all for the tips. I'd like to be able to search all garden forums -- like tomatoes, container gardening and vegetables, for example -- excluding the home improvement forums, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Actually, I had the same search problem on the old GW site that PC mentioned. You couldn't search for "tomato cages," for example, because it would bring up any post with either word in it. Also, older posts couldn't be found by searching GW. The best way to search then, and I hope now, was to use Google. I could find something specific by entering site:gardenweb.com and then a specific phrase in quotes on Google.

What's wrong with me that to me the little seed starter is a more beautiful sight than the flowers? Or should I say what's right with me...

Haha - Deborah - yes, pleasant sight for me too - have you planted any tomato seeds - as of yet - for this season? We decided to try the supposedly "fail proof" seed starter trays - not that we have had problems sprouting seeds in the past - it just looked like a great idea. Fill the bottom try with water - then put in the support shelf - then the capillary mat that extends into the water - then the seed cell tray - and finally the humidity dome. Everything is dishwasher safe (except the capillary mat) so the trays can be used over and over again - I am excited to see how it works!

You Floridans are killing me !
Just kidding. Enjoy !

Seysonn

Thank you all. It is nice to be in the company of all tomato lovers!
Silvia

Rutgers is one of the enduring heirlooms. I have heard it is one of the parents of Burpee's latest hybrid called "Jersey Boy". So this make Rutgers Jersey papa or mama. :-)
I have grown Rutgers before (Store bought plants). But it was long time ago. The same year I also planted Black Krim, Brandywine, Juliet , Golden Jubilee, Better Boy for the first time. That was 6 or 7 years ago. Now Rutgers is coming back this year.

Seysonn
Here is a picture borrowed from internet.

In my personal opinion Marglobe tastes better but both are tasty old time tomatoes and are great workhorses if I don't want many hybrids to round out the choices, it is really nice to have one of these for the production. Mine are semideterminate from saved seed I originally got from the local feed store. They buy them in bulk from one of the commercial seed companies. I don't remember which, since they don't write the source on the seed and could have changed for this season. I always thought the feed store would get the strain best suited for local conditions (hot and humid) but maybe I'm hoping for too much ;-) Homestead is really an improved Rutgers for heat and humidity, and seems to have a similar flavor, but not quite as good.

I have Rutgers in my starting line-up this year. I'm growing it in memory of a childhood friend who got into Rutgers despite having a handicap that made studying difficult and was able to graduate. The handicap took his life and the best idea I could come up with was to grow a Rutgers plant and name it for him.

PC

Gary, thanks for correcting me .... I was just trying a humor here.

Seysonn

I am growing Brandy Boy this year also. I love Brandywine but they are just not very productive for me.