16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Hi TeXasbaby,

As a general rule, tomatoes need an inch of water every week. An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 5.6 US (4.7 Imperial) gallons of water per square yard. Cool weather or soil with lots of clay needs will be less, hot weather or sandy soil will need more.

Dig down with your finger about 4", is the growing medium wet, dry, or just right? If it is wet, don't water, if dry then water. If it is just right, check again the next day. Water deeply once or twice a week. Watering daily encourages shallow roots which means the plant is affected more by variations in soil moisture. In my garden during the heat of the summer (90 degrees F and higher), I water deeply every 4-5 days, early spring I may only water every 8-9 days and when the weather is moderatly warm (70-80 degrees F), about once a week.

Mulching heavily (to a depth of 6 - 8 inches) with compost, straw, hay, rotted leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper or sheets of paper or cardboard helps maintain a consistent moisture level.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

You must learn to watch your plants and recognize signs
of water need. If they're wilting, definitely water them,
no matter what the general rule states. Keep an eye on
your soil too. Like you said, it's a learning experience.

How much you water depends entirely on your climate and
conditions. What works great for a person in one part
of the country could be entirely wrong for a different part
of the country. In SoCal, I have to water a lot due to the
dry, hot conditions of summer. When I lived in Chicago, I
watered less since there was humidity and rain.

Blossom drop can have many reasons. Of course, you're
familiar with the overwatering, but too cool temps or too
high temps or high humidity can also be culprits. My
plants generally don't set fruit until the nightime temps
reach 55 deg and above.

Good luck and good learning.

Even though it ate half the plant overnight??? I've seen a couple on the heirloom tomatoes and they do quite a bit of damage if I don't pull them off.

My point was learn to tell which caterpillar is which - who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, which do actual damage and which don't.

The hornworms that damage tomato plants are one thing, the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on mint are something else entirely and they are VERY different in appearance. Mint easily recovers. Tomato plants don't.

Dave

It was not a hornworm. I know what those look like. And it was the same kind on both plants.

Thanks, Betsy. I have to do some garden shopping today so I'll look for the spray. I agree about trying to get the powder under the leaves--pretty much impossible.

I use a Dustin-Mizer. Flip the deflector to get the underside of the leaves.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dustin-Mizer

Let a few grow, nothing like freebie fruits, and you'll see how well volunteers do. I think you'll be happy with your results, and quite likely the plants will produce fruits similar to their parent plant. You're in zone six with several more months of growing season ahead of you. Small seedlings catch up quickly, you'll have lots of fruit from these plants during summer and into early autumn with production tapering off as the weather cools in the fall.

If you have limited space, I would not risk a volunteer. Better Boy is a hybrid so for sure you won't get Better Boys from your volunteers. Mr. Stripey is not a hybrid, but I wouldn't let unknown volunteers take up valuable space if it were me.

I concur. Planting it deeper is easier, quicker IMO. With existing roots lower down, you don't have to worry about it drying out as it gets established.

If the plant never got enough light and is very long and skinny, I guess I could see trenching (so you don't have to dig through bedrock). Roots do need some air... so I'd suggest you keep it less than a foot deep.

I read an article by a gardener who lives in the mountains where the mornings are cool. The article pointed out a couple things about trenching - the surface soil warms up faster each day than the deeper soil. Since tomatoes need warm roots to grow, you get more effective growing time per day, esp. early in the season. Also, by orienting the roots to the south of the plant, you get more direct sun hitting the soil where the roots are, since the plant's shadow is out of the way.

I tried an experiment planting tomatoes with the trenching method and with a vertical deep planting method. I can't say that I got any earlier tomatoes with the trenching method, because there are too many variables involved, but I did see an interesting difference in the roots. At the end of the season when I pulled up the roots, the vertically planted tomato looked like a dogbone - a ball of roots 10" down where the original root ball was, and another ball of roots close to the surface. The trench planted tomato had dense root growth all along the section between the original root ball and the surface. This is reason enough for me to use the trenching method. Of course, your mileage may vary.

I'm growing black cherry this year for the first time along with golden nugget and red jelly bean. I've never really grown cherry tomatoes before, I'm not a fan of them, but I've come to the conclusion that if I don't grow them, that means I will have to wait until August/September for tomatoes and that simply will not do! :)

Last year I planted four Black Cherry plants. They where alternated between other cherry plants 34" apart. They Did not want to fruit here in hot weather or any weather for that matter. When they did fruit they did not fruit much and took forever to ripen. On top of that the flavor was not so hot. All the other cherries did well. I see no reason to make the same mistake more than once so I will not grow it again.

I used 3/4" for my cucumber trellis and would have to say that I think it would be a little overkill to do that for my tomato cages. Besides I've seen 1/2" used in many photos and people seem to have no issues with it. I think as long as the sections are not too long, you won't see too much flex. The more tee connectors I use, the more stability it will have as well.

My plan is to make two PVC cages for each 2x4 raised bed. The cages will sit on top of the soil and will be mounted on the inside of the bed frame secured with conduit clamps screwed into the frame (eliminating the need to drive it into the ground). For added stability The two cages will be joined together with the use of snap-inn tee connectors (that I will have to order online).

I gave up on remesh because of the availability of it in my area. You can't paint over rust and all of the sturdy remesh I have seen is either rusted already or bent to crap. The coated fence material is just too thin of a gage and the openings are too close together.

Bottom line is the PVC approach is easier, faster, and more cost effective approach (provided I used the cheapy HP/Lowes connectors, not the expensive ones online).

I'd pound that PVC 12 inches into the ground myself. Wind
will cause the PVC to flex (especially if you don't go
with the 3/4 inch stuff) and I'm afraid the conduit clamps
won't be up to the task.

Pounding the PVC into the ground is easy. Get a piece of
steel pipe about 18 inches long and a cap for it. Slide
the pipe over the top of the PVC (I use 30 inch sections)
and pound away. That gives you 18 inches above ground and
12 inches in the ground. Works like a charm.

Thinking about it, I'd bet I could pound in a section much
quicker than you could attach the conduit clap to the boards.

Take a look at the cages in the link below. The lady in
that video uses a different configuration than I use. I
think you'll find the crossover ( X ) connectors easier
to find than the ones she used.

I've grown both cucumbers and tomatoes and I think the
cukes have lighter leaves and fruit than tomatoes. I don't
think you'll find the 3/4 inch PVC overkill for tomatoes.

If you do decide to go with 1/2 inch, I'd be very curious
how that works. I've always recommended 3/4 inch because
the 1/2 inch is so bendy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom's PVC Tomato cage page

I totally agree with Dave about growing conditions being the problem. Mortgage Lifter is capable of producing quite large tomatoes, and Better Boy is certainly larger than a kiwi. But if you want some monsters you might try Omar's Lebanese, a great pink when ripe that has produced huge tomatoes for me. Zogola and Coustralee are two others that can grow very large under the right conditions.
Hope that helps.

Lew

Big Rainbow is my recommendation.

thanks for your comments, they are all indeterminate. i have 5 different kinds; this one in particular is a 'mortgage lifter'. i read up on heirlooms, they all seem to be indeterminate and everything i read indicates that pinching the suckers is better for the fruit formation and results in better sized tomatoes. i went ahead and pulled them off, i don't want the plant getting out of hand and becoming unwieldy. i am sure i will have more and post a picture then. thanks again for your comments.

Hey just saw this post and wondered how your pruning turned out? My Heirloom Brandywine Pink tomatoes are doing all kinds of strange stuff... First it had a "megabloom" seeming to grow right out of the top of the plant, no lie looked like a small sunflower plant. Now the main stem split into two main stems and those two into two more and so on... the suckers grow out of the leaf branches its the weirdest thing... I can post pictures if anyone wants to see them...

alina_1, if the stems are pliable enough, you can plant the bottom of the plant horizontally in the hole, with the top of the plant sticking up vertically. BTDT.

I own several Earthboxes as well as several Garden Patch containers. While I think they are great, I quit trying to cram 2 indetermant varieties in them, although thats what both companies say to do. I now plant 1 per box, or grow something like Patio 2 per box.

I don't want to discourage you, but you might want to rethink the 2 per box idea.

Lew