16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

You don't need rooting hormone. Tomato cuttings root like gangbusters in just plain old moist potting mix. Do them all the time. I assume you know which parts of the plant to use, right?

Good luck.

Dave

Great news on the taste of Italian Heirloom. Cant wait! Thanks.

Agree with Betsy - it can't hurt but may not help much either and additional nutrient sources will be needed.

The quality of compost tea all depends on the quality (diversity of components) in the compost used. Mushroom compost is not normally considered a really great source.

And what many forget when using organic fertilizers and such in containers is that their effectiveness is totally dependent on an active soil micro-herd - bacteria to convert the organic nutrients to a usable form by the plants. Active soil micro herds of bacteria just don't exist in the soil-less mixes used in containers unless you put them there.

You can go strictly organic in containers but you have to give it a regular boost of soil bacteria as well as nutrients for it to work well.

Dave

Thanks Betsy and Dave for your input. I have no intention of trying organic in my earth buckets. It is easy to make the compost tea and thought the plants might get some quicker benefit from it. I don't know enough about what products are best to use but have gained trememdous knowledge in the short time I have been viewing this forum and asking question. Oh, this forum is habit forming too. lol Thanks again!

I'm a pepper nut myself. Peppers can grow roots, but not the way tomatoes do. They usually only grow roots high when the soil is too wet and they aren't getting enough oxygen, and often above the soil line. Peppers usually don't stretch like tomatoes either. They usually stay relatively short and are usually self supporting. If you have particularly dry soil such as sand, you can plant them deeper to put roots further from the dry surface. In most cases, it's not really necessary, but it does no harm either if you want to keep your plants short and your water table isn't too high. The only thing to watch for is that some varieties of peppers grow long and touch the soil if you go too deep. You don't want that. In containers, which often works best for peppers, you won't be able to plant them much deeper in most cases.

Check the FAQ as well.

I think you can do that but I have never done so with my peppers. I just plant them at the same level they were in the seedling container.

I don't know if this would be illegal, but perhaps your daughter could remove the seeds from one of these tomatoes, put them in a napkin or some such and bring them back home. Then at least you'd know you're getting precisely the tomato she likes so much.

I thought I'd posted this last night, but it was still in Preview.

farmerdill's link spells it Piccolini, and miesenbacher's says Picolino. This is one confused tomato!

There was nothing under Piccolini in any of the other databases I searched before.

barb, if your daughter can't find seeds in Britain, what she can do is to save seeds from a tomato and mail them to herself in America. Apparently people trade seeds that way all the time. Since the seeds are dry, it's not considered likely to spread pests or diseases. [I'm not sure what would happen if she tried to bring them through US customs.... We have a family story about how my grandmother, living in Taiwan, put a "surprise" for me in my mother's luggage: it turned out to be seeds she'd saved from a 2' Asian cucumber. I've no idea what would have happened to my parents if the Customs people had checked their luggage.]

I suggest your daughter buy some tomatoes as soon as she arrives in Britain, remove the seeds from one or two fruit, and rub off the gel. Then put the seeds on a paper towel to dry.

After a few days, wrap the seeds in a square of paper to keep them all together (if they were completely dry, I'd put them in a tiny ziplock, but they wouldn't be completely dry for a couple of weeks, and you don't want them to mold). Then place the seeds inside a letter envelope with a flat piece of bubble-wrap cut to the size of the envelope (this reduces the chance that heavy postal machines will crack the seeds). Mail the envelope to the US.

You might get something similar to the hybrid in taste ... no guarantees. Good luck.

Wait until they get their second set of leaves and transplant them into a pot with about 1/2 of their stems in the soil. They need some kind of supplemental light though.

Repot them atleast half way deeper in a container .Putting a fan on them may fatten up a bit ,truth is, in the window they get leggy ,under lights plants are kept within an inch or two of the lights for this very reason. Just keep trasplanting deeper each time .and dont water too much and no fertilizer

I have Red Robins that I started last fall, could that be what they are? They are only about 12" high. I was hoping for winter tomatoes, didn't happen. However, I have been getting fresh tomatoes from them for a few weeks now, 2 months earlier. They taste great.

Well ,if you have a 5 gallon container you can choose many different varieties of smaller ,bush ,compact,dwarf,plants .With a large enough (15-25 gal) container you are unlimited in your choices .
Different technics are needed for container growing.

Hello again,
You guys were right about the ferts. The tip burn slowed down a week or two after transplant, I probably overfertilized them before that. The yellow spindly ones are still the same even after cut down on watering. I don't know if replanting them in a different soil could do them better?

replanting will help

I'm pretty new to gardening, esp. in Florida, but I "think" if you run into a problem with blossom drop it'll probably be due to nightly lows remaining in the 70F's. Hopefully your Better Boys do better than my Brandywines did last Summer. If they mature and set blooms by June I "think" they should do okay. Sorry, I'm just learning myself. :)

Somebody at the store awhile back said they had Cherokee Purple all last Summer so, among other varieties, I'm trying one of those.

I live on the edge of California's central valley. We have several weeks of 100+ degree heat and up to 110. I havegrown Better Boys for the last three years and they do well if they get plenty of water. My problem is that they tend to split toward the end of the growing season. I suspect that this is due to uneven watering. I now have installed a drip system. I do think though that in this extreme heat they would need a sell established root system to survive. Also I think they would require gradual increasing exposure to the sun. The heat can be relentless. The heat here is
very dry. I was only in Fl. once, but nearly croaked on the humidity. :-)

Thanks.

Hard to believe the variety of tomatoes available!!!

Why not grow the original classic ~ Beefsteak! It's the only tomato my Mom ever grew and I have very fond summer memories of making tomato sandwiches everyday for lunch with them.

I will have to research permaculture. It sounds like it could be the answer. I was thinking today when I had to go pay big bucks for water souluable nitrogen that this is getting expensive now that fertilizer prices have gone up so much.

One thing about permaculture, is that you can take it as far or as little as you want. I haven't really gotten into the low maintenance edible landscape (yet), and all the layers it entails, but the practices used to restore soil, recycle nutrients, conserve water and reduce inputs are very valid for all gardeners. If you saw my property before and after, you wouldn't believe the difference in the lushness.

I should mention mulching in addition to OM also helps evens out root moisture, especially in sandy soils.

BER FAQ

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ: BER

We had late blight for the first time ever a couple of years ago. Last year I made sure to turn off the overhead sprinklers on the tomatoes and was really careful about watering only the soil. I also bought some bordeaux mixture (a copper-based fungicide), but never had to resort to using it.

I just want to go back to bmoser's comment about growing in whiskey barrels. I have one that I grew tomatoes in twice. The first time I grew some kind of brandywine and the next year I grew super marzano. Both developed BER. The brandywine actually died due to root rot early in the season without ever producing a healthy tomato. When I discovered the root rot I added six more half- inch holes in the bottom and another six on the sides around the bottom before trying the San marzanos. But we had a lot of rain that year and the wood of the barrel swelled so much, I had to regularly clear out the drainage holes. Even so, I almost never watered the pot all summer. I got a huge yeild but almost every tomato had BER to season's end. I never had a similar problem in other kinds of pots and have to water them all at least every three days. Now I grow watermelon in the whiskey barrel and still have to limit watering. All of this is to say, if your whiskey barrel is like mine, I would not install a drip system. I think the problem could be too much moisture, not too little.

Yes, overwatering can cause edema and leaf curl. It's not unusual to see edema and leaf curling on the same plant. Are your plants sitting on a warm dryer or something? Great for seed germination, not so great for tomatoes that have leaves. Too much of a temperature difference between roots and leaves plus too much water are prime conditions for edema/curling.

We have an electric dryer and small electric space heater in the area. The plants are on a shelf 1 1/2 foot above the laundry appliances. Also, since it's just my husband and I, we don't run the dryer very often. I just noticed too that the only the Italian tomatoes have edema while the leaf curl is only on the Romas. I thought tomatoes are supposed to be easy! LOL. My other seedlings (peppers and watermelons) are thriving so I hope the decreased temperatures won't negatively affect them. ::

I picked up 18 plants at Tomatomania on March 23. I kept them outside during the day and they spent the first 2 nights in the garage. The rest of the time they spent outside till I planted them on 4/2...2 weeks ago today.
They are all doing fine here in Chatsworth \ San Fernando Valley.. Hope this helps and Good Growing to you !

Rob

Mine are already outside. Tomatoes dont like cold and will pretty much sit there, but not die. As nightime tips go below 40 you may get some damage without cover.