16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
If you're not planting them out soon - and at your zone, I assume you are not - I think you want to pot them up. They look like they have grown out of their starting cells. I think you will see improvement when they are in larger containers.
Yes, what you see is due to a mutation and isn't all that rare.
Another common mutation is when the seedling first puts out the cotyledons what appears is not true leaves on a leader stem but a nub of green in the center. Most of the time that nub of green sits there and doesn't do anything and sometimes, but rarely, a side shoot will comeout of that nub.
I call them blind plants as do some others but others call them something else that I can't remember right now.
Carolyn
When "bottom watering" you want to put plenty of water in the tray and allow the pots to soak for 30 minutes or so, and remove any remaining water. With some practice you get a feel for how much you need to add for the plants to get as much as they need without leaving them standing in water. (Which is not good as it can drown the roots.) Then don't water again until the pots get pretty light. One of the most common problems we see is over watering. Along with several of the other "overs".
Betsy
Just make sure you don't over do it. Let's be real, the nurseries do it. They don't get that dark green by magic. Just use a weak solution somewhere between 1/8 and 1/2 strength. I've killed smaller seedlings than that by eyeballing, and overdoing the amount. Those look well established though. I would also pot them up to about a 4" pot at least.
Another possibility, if the stakes you need are for tying up
tomato plants, is T-posts. The original poster didn't say
what the purpose is but T-posts can be found up to 8 feet
long. For those who are unfamiliar, they are what farmers
use to string barbed wire fence. The standard length, of
course is 6 feet, for a fence 4 feet high. A good farm
supply store will have them. Yes, I know, not everybody
has access to such a store but, again, just a suggestion.
I have seen 6 ft. T-posts at Lowe's, next to the cheapo
U-bent sheet metal posts. Come to think of it, those might
not be so bad if a little short. Anyway, the last time I
bought T-posts they were about $3 each.
Deb, a general Google search brings up many links but the one below starts out with someone asking the same question that you're asking so I decided to link to it.
As you can see you're asked to open the link from Purdue within the following link.
Hope that helps.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Juglone in soil
I was given a "recipe" for blight by someone two years ago. I have not used it, but will use it this year. It is 2 tablespoons baking soda, 1 light tablespoon chlorox, and 1 tablespoon of Murphy's oil soap. This is for one gallon of water.
I also mulch heavily to keep soil borne splatter to a minimum, I pinch off any leaves w/in a foot of the ground, I irrigate by a soaker hose system, and I remove infected leaves ASAP.
hey larryw,
wondering what you use for a spreader sticker. I called one supplier and to my surprise he said that yucca extract was a good spreader but not sticker.
I looked at coco wet but a couple of the reviews I read said that it killed their plants. So what do you use?
sounds like "digdirt" nailed it. expectaions!
If your cherry tomatoes are producing well then I think your doing fine.
I love cherry tomatoes because of the sheer volume they produce, once they start going, you can walk out to the garden every day and get rewarded. Literally hundreds of tomatoes in one season.
Meanwhile, some of the larger tomato plants may only produce a dozen + tomatoes in one season.
But it sounds like your on the right path... keep trying lots of varieties each season. Keep notes on those that dissapoint and those you love.
Lordjezo, Of all the points I saw in your response, two jumped out at me:
"Then every couple of weeks I used a Miracle Gro thing that attaches to a hose and sprays on."
What are the numbers on this fertilizer? There should be 3 hyphenated numbers (should look like 10-10-10, etc.)... Odds are, the first one is too high and your pumping your garden full of excess nitrogen.
"Do the tests cost a lot of money?"
No. Well, it's relative, but I think I paid $30 for my soil test from the Penn State extension office - I tend to think that's pretty cheap. From what I've read, you add manure and fertilizer, but there are other factors to your soil besides fertilizer; Soil PH, Organic matter, etc. If you get one, there are people here who can help you understand the results (probably better off in the soil forums than here though).
As an aside, I'd like to point out, that, in my humble opinion, tomatoes are not heavy feeders. Compared to a lot of crops (corn, melons, pumpkins, etc.) tomatoes demand fairly little. If you add fertilizer before planting, that should have you set until you see the first fruit setting (tiny tomatoes showing up) and then you can add more. After that, you should resume some sort of feeding regime to give them just enough to keep them productive for the remainder of the season.
I do organic and no-till, top dressing all of my amendments (homemade compost from kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings, etc.), and I cover all of that with 6-8" of hay from a friends farm. When I plant, I poke through the mulch and put a little organic fertilizer in the hole at planting time. I don't fertilize them again until fruit set, and I usually do that with an water soluble organic like fish emulsion. After that, I'll do some occasional foliar feedings to give a boost here and there as needed and a soil drench every 2-3 weeks until the season ends.
Basically:
1.) Make sure you're using an appropriate (numbers appropriate) fertilizer. This is very important.
2.) Fertilize at the start of season / at planting time.
3.) Fertilize again at fruit set.
4.) Fertilize every 2-3 weeks to keep the plants productive.
If your tomatoes have completed the hardening off process and the weather is warm enough, go ahead and plant them. Just be sure you tear the peat pot off the plant if the roots have not come through it yet. Sometimes they won't and that will definitly stunt their growth and production.
If you have the time and materials and might be delayed in putting them out (cold spell on the way?) then potting them up into solo cups with drainage holes.
Good luck!
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: Hardening Off and Physiological Changes
"is it worth it for me to transfer them into solo cups at this point when i'll be putting them in the ground in about 10 days?"
You'll be surprised at how much root growth can occur in 10 days at this stage of the game. I'd be inclined to go this route. Why take the chance in setting them back for a month or more with cold temps? We're so anxious to get them outside a few weeks early we forget to look at the big picture. They'll have 4-5 months outside when planted after the last frost date.
ljbrandt: How did you make out?
My pepper and tomato flats were getting too big for my lights, so I brought them upstairs to put outside in greenhouse during the warm weather. Got them out for several days, and they grew a lot. Last three days though, they've been stuck inside, no surprise, however waking up to a couple of inches of snow this morning was quite a surprise. Hope to see it warm up soon and get them back out in the green house.
I've always used plastic garbage bags down to about 25 deg. If it gets below that I'm SOL.