16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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...
Was there any variety name on the seed pack at ALL? The Shakers sold seeds of many varieties to others wherever they had their places, whether the home place where Mother Ann Lee started from, and that was near the Albany airport and I was raised in a Shaker built home/farm, that was one of their outlying farms. So have always had a strong interest in anything Shaker.
The Shakers did sell seeds for a variety called Early Large Red, maybe that's what you have, and it dates back to about 1840 so the timing is correct.
It's a large red beefsteak, quite ribbed, indet and RL,, I've grown it b'c it was resurrected and SSE listed many years ago by a husband and wife who were SSE members, and I think it's of historic interest but doesn't have the greatest taste as is true of many from that era where seeds are still available, as they are with Early Large Red.
I tried to link to the page at Tania's site, but it was loading so slowly that I gave up for now.
Hope that helps.
Carolyn
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
Hello,
I am a newbie at growing tomatoes so I couldn't tell you. Kinda looks like iron deficiency. Maybe this site can help you ID it? Good luck!
Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down for photos/description
Looks like classic herbicide damage. We get lots of this kind of pic every year at this time when folks bring out the weed killers.
Even if you haven't been using herbicides the neighbors may have been and it can drift for 1/2 mile and still do damage. Mulch contaminated with herbicides has the same effect on plants.
With no further exposure the plants may recover if the exposure wasn't too bad. You'll lose some leaves but unless it is in the mulch the new growth should be normal.
Dave
It is a snipe fly laying eggs in the leaf which will hatch into leaf miners. The white spots are areas where the eggs have already been laid.
Normally leaf miners don't pose a big threat to tomato plants unless the infestation is severe. You can Google 'leaf miners' but you'll find they are difficult to control because the larvae hatch in between the layers of the leaf so pesticides can't reach them.
Yellow sticky traps to catch the adult flies and row covers are the most effective prevention. You can squeeze the egg masses with your fingers before they hatch to gain some control.
Dave
Google searches pull up threads (discussions) that are in the GW archives - note the dates on the discussion - but no longer on the message board. Works the same on most all forums, not just GW.
Servers for this forum have a limited storage capacity and when a discussion gets to the bottom of the last page of this forum it falls off into the archives. It can only be accessed via off-site search, can be read and you can even add to it but it cannot be returned to active status on the forum.
And yes, just as with most discussion forums, getting folks to come back and report on results is a chronic problem. :)
Dave
salthart, here's a Google Advanced Search for the phrase "German Head" on the Tomato forum.
way long Google search address
The thread you're looking for is the second. And lots of others you can check!
To do an Advanced Search, first enter a basic Google search, then go to the bottom of the results page and click on "Advanced Search." Add whatever you want on the Advanced Search page.
[IIRC, GW's search is not a Boolean search. So you'll get every thread where "German" appears and every thread where "Head" appears -- but most of the threads won't have both words, let alone both words together.]
If you don't want to add tomato paste from an outside source, it takes an absurd number of tomatoes to make sauce. I find it very disheartening.
Even my elderly neighbors, who make and can all of their own sauce, and who have an entire city yard filled with tomato plants, buy their sauce tomatoes by the bushel from a market.
If you freeze the whole tomatoes for an entire season you can save enough for sauce. A good measure for most tomato plants is about 10 pounds a season. If you have 4 plants you could easily save 40 pounds for sauce. Freezing makes skin removal very easy too.
For best production, the least stressed plants, and the least amount of daily care - 1 per container that size.
If they were self-watering containers and you wanted to do extensive pruning and something like drip irrigation with auto feeding etc. you might do ok with 2 plants but production will be reduced.
Dave
Thanks everyone for all the help. Do far, no more damage but I am sure I now know what damage to look for now. The birds in the garden yesterday at noon may have solved me hunting failure as at midnight last night with a flashlight resulted in nothing and there is no more damage this morning. Will keep a close eye out. Thanks again.
I'm worried about trying to separate them in that moss mix they are planted in so maybe I'll put them in a 30 gal barrel.
Please do not. They will separate with minimal if any damage and will quickly recover. Each of those plants needs their own container and they need to be quite large containers. Both Mr. Stripey and Better Boy are huge indeterminate varieties easily reaching 6-8' in height and 4' wide. You don't mention the name of the 3rd plant?
While a 5 gallon bucket is the minimum they will tolerate they will not thrive in one. A 30 gallon barrel might be a a bit big for 1 plant but not by much and it will thrive in that size. With 3 plants in it they will all be stressed and it will be impossible to feed, water correctly, and support all of them in the same container.
Dave
Personally, I would drop the Siletz. Out of all the tomatoes I have grown (100+ varieties over the years) that one is at or near the very bottom of my list of what I like. (But right now I would almost kill for one since I am at least 3 weeks away from starting my seeds!)
Bets
I came across a picture of this tomato (German Head) while surfing seed websites. I was stunned ! This is the closest thing I have seen to the tomato I have looked for for so long. Said to be a pink, the picture I saw looked orange to me.
There wasn't much of a write up about this German Head so I did a Google and made my way here where so many are saying they are GOING to try them but no follow ups on how they turned pout. (On site search turned up nothing)
So I'm asking..LOL How did they turn out ? Details about taste IE sweet sour, strong bland etc would be very nice.
Thanks in advance !
Thank you Dr. Carolyn & Dave for the quick response!
The tag that was in the plant is one by Walmart & while I rather doubt they grow their own, there isn't a grower listed. It also says it's a determinate, but who knows?
I guess I could call the store but I think I'll just go ahead & save some seed anyway. It's rather sad that they're selling it as a dwarf as it seems that's NOT the case.
It's definitely a tumbling variety.
Price is $2.44 online (see link below) but I bought 10 of them 2 weeks ago locally for 17.90 plus tax.
Then there are these stakes for $1.98 that also come in packs of 25. They are just to anchor the cage so don't need to heavy duty steel and they don't need to be all that tall either.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Lowes fence post
We got some of those vinyl-coated steel stakes last year just to slip non-metallic conduit over for deer fence - they break too easily in our rocky soil and with the wind.
But the U post is a possibility - I was just looking at taller T-posts, for some reason I though U posts were more expensive.
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.