16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I devote 1.5 of my stationary tunnels to early tomatoes. 200 big tomatoes and 60 cherries. Then I use the other 4.5 for other crops. This year one is for peppers, the other one is early greens and onions. Then the movable tunnels are for carrots, greens, cucumbers, onions, zucchini and tomatoes. I am trying something different this year. I am planting 4 succession plantings of tomatoes. The first one is the largest and the remaining will be about 80 to 100 plants. I am doing all of these in high tunnels to keep the size of my tomatoes up this year.

Jay

My season in Miami is almost over. Nothing much can help me here.

I'm surprised nobody has sucessfully stabilized the sungold variety yet. I mean it should be possible right? other hybrids have eventually turned into stable OP strains.

CH,

There are several stabilized varieties out there (Sungold Select, Big Sungold, etc). I've grown SG Select & while it was good, I wasn't as impressed with it. But that's just me.

Agreed. Pepper seeding leaves are more rigid and perfectly eliptical and completely without the fuzzy hairs. Although you might have different stem colors I suspect the reddish colored one is the tomato.

I am doing both right now and only the tomatoes are covered in tiny hairs, the peppers are smooth.

I just bought some new plants today at the San Gabriel Nursery. $1.95 each so I got four, two for my mom and two for myself. Planting one in a big pot and one in the ground where the old one was.

Here is the San Gabriel Nursery web site if you are curious -

http://sgnurserynews.com/site/

I have before tried to cut suckers off the plant and replant and hope it rooted but no luck. I gotta try again.

Another option is bending down a long stem so it contacts the soil (perhaps 12-18" from the tip), weighting it with something (the proverbial brick, landscape staples, whatever), and keeping that soil damp. You'll get roots.

Suckers are supposed to root better in soil than in water.

Pinch off any buds so the new plant can concentrate on making roots.

I get mine out as much as I can during the day. Seems like real sun and a little fresh air makes them stronger and healthier.
Just be sure to start slowly and gently. No direct sun and use a wind break first of all.
I bring them in at night unless temps are above 45 degrees.
I'm lucky enough to have two seedling racks with three shelves leftover from my medical clinic, used for my supply closet. I use one indoors with lights and outdoors which I can roll under the porch r out into direct sun.

As most posters above say. A simple guideline is to start hardening them off on the last frost date, then plant them 1-2 weeks later depending on the 14 day forecast. Start in shade. You can start sooner if you wish as other posters have mentioned, but the benefit is minimal over the long term, and you may have to start from scratch if you get a daytime cold snap. A fan on the seedlings while still indoors helps strengthen them up for transplant though.

Since you have cardboard between the leaves and the ground, I would leave it. Especially since they are already so big.

I really appreciate you all responding with such good information. The amount of shade my whole yard is an issue here. This area does get about 4-5 hours of direct sun in the mornings and indirect all afternoon.
Thanks again,

Keith

MG Garden Soil compacts and drains poorly. Even with ideal conditions if used in containers it results in root rot and a very stressed plant. Stressed plants are much more prone to stunted growth, nutrient deficiency, reduced production, pests, and diseases.

It's Ok to add to an in-ground garden but definitely NOT for containers. Hopefully you will not leave the plants in it in pots, especially such small pots. That size will work for one of the dwarf varieties but not for an indeterminate like Early Girl.

Dave

Yes, you goofed. But I've read posts from people that did the same and their tomatoes grew fine. If it is a problem, your tomatoes are going to grow extremely slowly and will ultimately probably only produce a tomato or two.

You can take your chances with what you bought or get a bag of potting mix instead of the garden soil.

To grow an Early Girl, you are probably going to want a 5-gallon bucket. Not much chance at success with a 12-17" pot except to get them started.

You don't need to till to grow a tomato. Just dig a little hole and stick it in there and water it.

You want the plants to be gradually acclimated to the conditions where they will be growing. The cold frame does not accomplish this. You may want to pop the in there if there is a short, unexpected dip in conditions, but otherwise you want to harden them off, gradually, outside.

Susan, you took the words right off my post that never went thru. I totally agree with both posts you offered.

The only consolation I might add is that once plants have been in the cold frame for a few weeks the transition to the garden is smooth one with little added care needed.

See if this works, pictures of what I am talking about.

I can see the pictures fine. The funny thing about cotyledons is that they act different from other leaves due to the fact they are not true leaves but storehouses that feed the growth of the rest of the plant, so they will always decline. That being said, I am concerned about the lack of true leaves. Other then that, the stems look ok. I would suggest you just cut back on the watering and see what happens. Don't give any fertilization until they are much larger.

Anyone else? I could really use some advice. This is my first experience with early blight and I want to make sure I'm treating it sufficiently. I'm using Serenade because it seems to treat many different plant diseases. But if it's not the right stuff to use I'd like to get on the correct regimen.
Thanks,
Don

Sorry but that isn't Early Blight. It is most likely Bacterial Spot given the black stem sections. Copper-based fungicides will 'help' (a little) but the best approach since it is so early in the season is to dispose of the plants and replace them.

Do some research into the disease for many pics to compare to your plants.

Dave

hehehe my husband was able to get free tickets for the tennis matches from where he works... Though he didn't since we don't watch tennis...I was obsessed about tennis years ago but for some reason lost interest in it...

Well, I pinched off all flowers over the next two weeks and then as the plant grew I decided to leave the flowers because the weather was getting hotter.

And now that the nights have consistently been in the upper 70s/lower 80s (it sometimes reaches under 75F but probably just for a couple of hours before sunrise) all the blossoms are dropping. I tried keeping a fan on the plant at night to make it cooler but that didn't work. :(

I can't bring it indoors because first, it is in a 45 gallon pot so it is heavy, and second, it is up on my roof and would be too heavy to bring it down and take back up every night.

I should have thought about the upcoming weather and left those early flowers even if it only meant I get a few tomatoes.... as opposed to none at all.

Well, I learned some lessons from this growing season and hopefully I can get successful plants early on so that I actually have tomato-making plants right in the middle of the winter here.

Dogs really go for organic ferts. They are convinced there's a bone in there somewhere!

I hate it when dogs get BER. ;)

Dogs love organic fertilizers for sure, but they don't even have to have bone or fish or blood in them. My dog loves to snarfle up anything poop based. Especially chicken poo, though horse is also favorite. Thus one of many reasons we have a strict "no dogs in the garden" policy. Also no dogs in the compost heap.