16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

well you did read it

There is a theory that pops up every so often that says you should remove all leaves on the vine except the top two (or something along that line). As the plant grows higher, you keep removing the older leaves. The plant is mostly bare stems.

I hope this is not what you read, ron2230.

There are two problems with this method. First, the leaves produce energy for growth and fruit. Fewer leaves ... less growth ... fewer fruit. The second problem is that without enough leaves to shade the fruit, there are likely to be sunscalded patches on the tomatoes:
photos of sunscalded tomatoes

I did a search on Anthrocyanins and found the following on wikipedia (yes I know that this may not be the best source): "Anthocyanins....are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that may appear red, purple, or blue according to the pH. They belong to a parent class of molecules called flavonoids synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway; they are odorless and nearly flavorless, contributing to taste as a moderately astringent sensation.....In addition to their role as light-attenuators, anthocyanins also act as powerful antioxidants. ......Anthocyanins can be used as pH indicators because their color changes with pH. Anthocyanins are pink in acidic solutions (pH 7), and colourless in very alkaline solutions where the pigment is completely reduced."

SO, you may be able to determine the acidity of this tomato based on the color. This also may give clues to the developement of tomato acid/sugar balance in different climates. The J and L website states that: "The color is darkest in cooler weather and in full sunlight..." This statement suggests that tomatoes may produce less acidic fruit in cooler climates. Likewise anthrocyanins are used by plants as sunscreen, therefore darker in full sun. I happen to like the more acidic tomatoes myself, but the novelty is appealing.

Bosque Blue is a cross I made of OSU Blue/P20 and one of my favorite salad tomatoes. We have a farm so I try to breed new varieties for market which produce and sell well. I know several other people working on similar crosses and we trade seed and work to stabilize certain traits. That can take a while, but it is interesting and entertaining.

Can you also grow some winter cover crop, perhaps rye or favas? That will give you lots of organic matter that you don't have to buy or carry in.

Yeah, I can get rye. Favas is broad beans, right?

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention I had started them in the 50-cell Jiffy strips too, ripped those off (even though they took some roots with them) b/c I had planted densely (esp. the cherry toms - those seeds are tiny!) when I planted in bigger plastic cells (36 to a tray) and pots (what 4" pots I had). I also put them under 6500K CFL grow lights which I hadn't had them on before. I don't have enough grow lights to cover all my plants, so tomatoes get them for about 12-14 hours during the day and peppers get them all night (I try to move them about 6AM and then whatever time I think about it at night). All plants get some natural sunlight through a thermopane bay window (E-S-W facing) as well.

I was thinking about planting out mid-May, still may start moving them outside for a little during the day next week when it's in the 70's, but we've got a freeze warning tonight and who knows when the nights are going to get over 50 again so may have to wait til end of May.

HTH

We'll plant out probably around may 24 weekend. Yeah the tomato ones are the only ones worrying me right now... the peppers just started getting true leaves and look good, and the cukes I did too early I guess because they're just starting to look like the yellow flowers are coming out... They are pretty small still though so I think i'll be OK with those... The tomato's are starting to look a bit purple though now to....

and yeah in 4b (Ottawa, Canada) It's still way too cold to even consider planting out for at least 3-4 more weeks.

Thank you Dave! I was told your one of the best tomato disease specialists on here so I trust your opinion!! You actually diagnosed my original tomato plants with alternaria that also had some early blight (according to my county ext. agency) about a month ago. I ended up having to pull those plants up due to I couldn't get them trenched without breaking the stems and more of the growing tips were broke than I realized, so I just decided to start over. These are now the new plants and the only thing they have been spared of is a hailstorm and this time I was prepared with buckets! :) Lesson learned the hard way... don't plant when storms are forecasted on that day lol. We're supposed to have nice warm weather (80's day/60's night) with slight chance of rain the next few days, so hopefully that will help them recover.

Also, my transplants into the garden got some transplant shock and wilted/curled under somewhat but remained green so I'm not too concerned about that, but I was wondering if I was transplanting my plants correctly. since they were a little rootbound I have always been told to "rough up the rootball" by loosening the roots all over to prevent them from continuing to be rootbound. Is this the proper way to do it or should I just barely touch the roots just enough to untangle the roots on the bottom?

Thank You!!

ut I was wondering if I was transplanting my plants correctly. since they were a little rootbound I have always been told to "rough up the rootball" by loosening the roots all over to prevent them from continuing to be rootbound.

It's easy to get TOO aggressive with root balls. Only a small amount of disturbance is needed right where the worst of the root mass is. I can't come up with a really good analogy. What I do is use my 2 thumbs to tear the middle of the base of the root mass open just a bit. IMO good hole or trench prep is more important than tearing up the root mass.

Give them a good hole and the roots will do what root do.

Dave

Hi Betsy or whoever might still be reading this!

So my tomato plants are all between 40 - 50 cm tall now and ive started to sometimes put them outside when the weather is good and taking them back inside at night. A few of them have started to produce flower buds! (the buds are quite small still)

Is this too early?? I read elsewhere that I should pinch them off so they can concentrate on growing but that sounds a waste if these buds could flower and become fruit.

Currently, I fertilise every alternate watering. So one watering with a tomato specific feed followed by one normal watering, and then a feed again. Is this ok?

Thanks for any help! I hope I am doing ok so far with my first try!

Just leave the buds. They won't hurt anything and probably won't set fruit anyway. Fertilizing once a week is the usual recommendation. More often than that is normally not needed unless they are in very small pots that require daily watering.

Also keep in mind that moving plants in and out and in and out isn't hardening them off. They have to readjust each time. I don't know where you live but if the night time temps are in the 50s consistently then they can stay out. If not then it may be too early to harden them off.

Dave

I need to leave them alone and let them grow without overthinking it.

Good advice for all of us.

Spraying off aphids with a water hose gets them off the plants temporarily, but it does not kill them. They usually just climb back up. I have controlled aphids finger squashing, but when there is a lot like you are saying, that is tough to get them all. If it were me I would probably consider an insecticide. If you wanted to go organic, I knew a guy who would buy chewing tobacco, soak it in water, add a little Ivory soap and then spray the water on the plants/insects.

Right...they have been outside and hardened off for two weeks but it was in the forties when I got up and 60 was the forecasted temp so I finally put them out when the front porch got up to 50.

Thanks, Betsy, for that link.

I'm curious, Else, to get an update on how your tomatoes & basil are growing. Anything interesting to report?

Agree with Capo - MG starting mix is too water retentive - hence the black flies. The mix is heavy and is not letting your plants' roots breathe.

Look into Al's 5:1:1 mix. I have had the best results of my long growing career with his lighter mix. (Basically it's 5 parts aged pine bark mulch, 1 part sphagnum peat moss and 1 part perlite. Depending on the plant, I will exchange compost for the peat.)

No, I didn't move them directly from the lights to the greenhouse. They've been moved in and out of the greenhouse for about 3 weeks now - the greenhouse is in mostly shade - so I move them out to get a bit of sun when the conditions are right.

Not all plants have these marks, thank goodness! Out of 30 plants, I'd say 7 of them do.

Thanks for your input, though.

Looks enviornmental to me also, sun, wind burn.

thisisme:

I have never had a significant "Catfacing" problem with a round tomato. But some beefsteak or severely oblate tomatoes seem to "catface" no matter the weather, or how they are grown.

I have quit growing some varieties because they always do, and are not exceptionally outstanding, but have grown a few for years that are always lumpy, but taste so good I am willing to chop them up rather than slicing them, just because they taste so good.

Thank you for the replies.
I suspect cool night time temps during blossoming
And inconsistent soil moisture
were the culprits in this instance.

I will try to be more careful with watering this year,
Not much I can do about temps, though.
And no pesticides were used.
I doubt that there was too much nitrogen,
But I guess there could have been.
We'll see how it goes this year.

Again, thank you.

Rusty

I get lots of volunteers. The few that I miss pulling out and end up growing tend to grow small tomatoes that are a little bigger than cherry tomatoes. Note that hybrids will not grow the same thing from the seeds that are produced in the fruit.

Capoman, birds are well known to disseminate tomato seed so that's something else to consider.

I'm surprised so many of you say that your volunteers give only small cherry sized fruits.

I always got big ones and little ones of different colors and shapes from different volunteer plants and as I said above I loved transplanting those volunteers to see if I could ID them.

All I can think of is that cherry tomatoes are closest to the original wild type and perhaps are more able to overwinter. But then over wintering means different things to folks in different geographic areas, so who knows.

For instance Matt's Wild, introduced by Johnny's quite a few years ago is IDed as a cerasiforme next the name and that's important to know b'c if it were a currant variety there's a 50% chance the stigma would be above the pollen bearing anthers and thus require insect pollination.

A cerasiforme is a half domesticated cherry where the stigma is below the anthers.

If it were a true currant variety it would be IDed as Solanum pimpinellifolium.

Carolyn

Since they have already been planted, what difference does it make which variety they are? Would you dig them up and move them if you knew?

No, it does not make any difference which plant is which.

It was just a case of curiosity and some impatience on my part. Hopefully, even I will be able to tell the difference between a fully ripe mr. stripey and a black prince.