16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
gm319, do you want to buy plants somewhere near you, have them shipped to you, or what?
First of all, ask at all the nearby garden centers.
Most of the big box stores (WM, Lowe's, Home Depot) stock tomato seedlings from Bonnie Plants. There will be a few heirlooms among them. [Our weather's been so warm that I bought a couple of Husky Cherry Red last month and planted them already.] Here's Bonnie's tomato page; I've only seen 15-20 varieties where I am, and some varieties are only shipped to certain regions.
http://bonnieplants.com/products/vegetables/tomato-varieties
Have you tried asking at your local GW forum?
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/vagard/
If you'd like to go to Raleigh, you can buy a wide selection of seedlings from Craig LeHouillier, who occasionally posts on this forum. I'm sure there's somewhere on his site that says exactly which market he sells from.
http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/from-the-vine---2012-plants.html
There used to be another NC member who sold tomatoes at a farmer's market in one of the metropolitan areas downstate, but I don't remember his user-name or where he is.
You can mail-order from Darrel Jones of Selected Plants and have them shipped to you; I've never bought from him, but he's highly spoken of (and posts here). I believe he also has a wide selection of varieties.
http://www.selectedplants.com/
Honestly it sounds over-crowded to me. Plus since it is 6' wide you'll need an access path in there somewhere. Over-crowding can lead to all sorts of disease and pest problems.
But the two big problems that jump out at me are 1) squash bugs infesting the tomatoes and 2) all the vines climbing the tomato cages/stakes, either pulling them over or smothering the tomato plants.
Consider bush varieties of squash in a container away from the tomatoes and the pumpkins off one end where the vines can run out onto the yard rather than toward the tomato plants.
Hope this helps.
Dave
I had 1 Red Robin give 10, 1/2" and am growing more in 2 8" stacked strawberry pots. Great (one crop) tomatoes. I have gotten oodels of great tasting fruits off 2 Tiny Tom, and they just keep coming. When I trim the plant I stick it in a pot and most become a new tomato plant to give friends. I think I have 10 starts. Only bad thing is one tomato ripens pea size next almost 3/4". Makes no sense.
Alvin
My red robins sat all winter with blooms that wouldn't open. But they were very healthy. I have one that is loaded with tomatoes now and some are starting to ripen. A fresh tom in April will be great!
The others are blooming and I planted them in the garden to see how they do outside of the pot.
I didn't get any toms over the winter as I had hoped, but it was nice to rub a leaf and get that fresh tomato smell on my fingers!
That's shoulder checking, aka weather checking.
It happens when, from rain or overhead watering, there's moisture on the shoulder of the fruit, and then that area is exposed to the sun.
So you prevent it by keeping the fruit dry (as much as possible), and keeping plenty of foliage to shade the fruit.
See link below to the FAQ here on how to do it.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - How to prevent cross-pollination
Tomatoes no way. I like to plant early, and usually push the envelope in late April with a W-O-W and an early variety, looking for a "June" tomato. Tomatoes no, potatoes yes. FWIW, planted potatoes in mid-March, and they're breaking ground now.
I planted 12 rows of sweet corn on March 18th in North Central Missouri...it's up with a good stand and good color. Planted 60 tomatoes on March 31st because they were getting so tall from being in this great sun on the deck...sure hope this fantastic early spring weather holds up. I have about 60 more tomato plants that are 3 inches tall, but I would sure hate to lose the first batch.
Some organic ant-killers. Most I haven't tried.
Rather than repeat it each time, for 1-5:
= You'll need to keep these ant-killers from picking up soil moisture, so put them on small squares of cardboard or plastic, or in an upside-down small lid with low sides.
= Place near the nest or near ant pathways.
= Remove when you water or when it's going to rain.
1. Dry cornmeal or grits. Theoretically the ants take it back to the nest and eat it, and it swells in contact with the moisture inside their bodies and kills them. This worked for me, though it took a few days.
2. Same as the above, but crush a bit of uncooked white rice.
3. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, and 1 tablespoon yeast. The ants take it back to the nest and they all die. [Extra can be stored in the freezer.]
4. Mix 1 part sugar with 2 parts borax detergent; add enough water to make a gel. If your soil is high in boron, you shouldn't use this.
5. Ground-up citrus peel is supposed to repel ants. Store in the freezer until needed.
6. If the ants are nesting away from the plants, you can pour hot water in their nests. Seems to me I tried that once, but so long ago I don't remember details.
7. If the ants are nesting away from plants, you can spray them with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water. This is useful when you find a winged swarm moving to a new home. I have used this and they died quickly. I used the leftover pine sawfly larvae killer that I had on hand, which was equal parts of isopropyl alcohol and water, with a small amount of dishwashing liquid.
I don't know that it was ever considered the "best" as there are many good ones to choose from - both organic and non-organic.
But I do know that some folks on the Tomato forum have commented on their dislike of the changes made 2 years back in the Tomato Tone formula. They talk about guarding with your life any of the original recipe you might have.
If you want a good organic mix then check out the products from Fox Farm, Gardens Alive, Dr. Earth, Earth Juice, and Perfectly Natural.
Dave
fulton,
When the "New 3-4-6 Tomato-tone was introduced a few years ago, I grew tomato plants in both the "New" as well as the "Old" 4-7-10 formulation. I saw better results with the Old formulation vs. their New product. Look at the difference in the ingredients list for reference:
I am now blending a 50/50% mix of the Old with the New Tomato-tone to try to get the best of the two, until my supply of Old Tomato-tone runs out in about 5 years. Hopefully, something replicating the Old formulation will come on the market by that time.
Raybo
I seem to have been getting very good germination results on
my saved and fermented seed for the past 8 to 10 years. I'd say 80% is less than average--I expect to get much better.
Originally, my process had simply been to pick seeds out of a saved tomato , spread them on wax paper, and dry them on a sunny window sill. Seeds had lots of dried gluckie on them, I had a lot of disease carryover, and my germination percentage was maybe 50 to 75%.
Now I have gone to fermentation and have kinda put together a simple repetitive process that works very well for me.
I think good seed saving starts with selection of a healthy looking regular fruit THAT TASTES GOOD! Others have commented on when and where to select the fruit from the plant but I confess I've never got the hang of this.
Every now and then I'll select a tomato for seed that I find later to be "off taste" or poorly pollinated, or diseased when I slice him up to eat and save seeds. So I just have learned to pitch any with questionable looks or taste and select another.
I just use open top small glass jars to ferment in. I wash the seed saved in a small coffee strainer while flushing with running sink water and rub with my fingers. Into the small labeled jar the seed goes with name and start date prominently displayed. I try to reprocess after 5 days. Our lake tap water is very low in chlorination-if I can smell it I'll use rain water and that does work best anyway when I can collect it fresh. I do the fermentation in the airconditioned house--not outside in the sun, and about an inch to 1 1/2" of water is all that is needed. After fermentation the seed is again run into the coffee strainer, held under running tap water and lightly rubbed,
then spread out on labeled and dated wax paper--not plastic or saran--waxed paper releases the dried seed nicely. I find my seed dry enough after a few days on the waxed paper that I can then transfer it easily to a small
clean labeled metal container like a dog or cat food can or even the screw cap that might come with a standard spaghetti sauce jar. I have a bag of containers like these
I store year to year in a plastic bag so it's no big deal.
By going to the metal containers for full long term drying I save MUCH SPACE IN THE HOUSE FOR DRYING ROOM AND CUT DOWN ON SPILLAGE (FROM CLEANING TYPE LADIES, ETC). Secondary drying goes on till late fall/early winter. Then I pack into labeled plastic coin envelopes, and the seeds go into
my freezer.
Extra dry seeds stored in the freezer will hold at up to 75% germination for 5 years minimum and up to 10 or more years at maybe 50% germination. The small coin bags are stored in larger ziplock plastic freezer bags marked appropriately as REDS, PINKS AND PURPLES, YELLOWS, ETC. I think the large ziplock freezer bags tend to stabilize
moisture content at a low and more constant level--anyway it works.
I know this message is a bit long and may not be of specific interest to many but I hope some will get a few ideas to help with setting up a good consistent practice.
Anyway I had a little time this morning.
This year I had 9 of 64 varieties that didn't germinate. I replanted the varieties I had extra seeds for using the same procedures (I know it's insanity to expect different results repeating the same procedure.). I put these on my plant stand facing a southern window. Most have come up. I think the difference is the heat from the sun warming the pots. When 55 varieties grow and 9 don't, it's tempting to blame the seed.
All tomato diseases are primarily prevention oriented. There are no real "cures" once the disease is established. But there is no blanket prevention for all diseases either and if we sprayed on all the various mixes that would be needed to try to prevent everything we'd likely kill the plants. :)
Daconil fungicide sprayed weekly from the first day of plant out has a pretty good record at preventing fungus diseases or at least stalling them. But it does little for bacterial diseases and nothing for viral diseases. Copper sprays can 'help' prevent bacterial problems but does little for fungus and nothing for viral diseases. See the problem?
And there are many preventative environmental controls that folks would argue are as effective as using fungicides. Things like planting the more resistant varieties, increased spacing between plants, off-season soil treatment, positioning to improve air circulation in among the plants, heavy mulching, drip irrigation, increasing sun exposure, etc.
So again that all depends on what disease we are talking about? What diseases are prevalent in your garden, your area, your region? What have you had problems with specifically in the past?
The link I gave you gives some recommendations for each of the many diseases but sadly there is no "one for all". If there was we'd all be using it.
Dave
Have you checked out the FAQ here on How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed as well as all the how-to FAQs over on the Growing from Seed forum here? You'll find most of your answers in those plus much more info you didn't know to ask about. :)
But briefly, 1) plants out from under cover as soon as they sprout. Cover and any applied heat is for germination only. Strip off the netting and plant deeply burying all the stem to just below the first set of true leaves. Potting mix only. Never use garden dirt in containers of any kind.
2) Yes, deeply and you can snip off the lower leaves or just leave them it makes no difference.
3) They like consistent moisture levels. They do not like dry one day and soppy wet the next. Consistently lightly moist would be the best description.
4) Yes you will still need a cage or stake.
5) Most any variety should do fine. There are thousands of varieties so the choice is basically yours.
Dave
Growing from Seed FAQs
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Growing FAQs
Yes, they like consistent moisture levels for sure. If the moisture varies, you get blossom end rot and splitting tomatoes.
Best way to maintain them in a hot dry climate is to amend the soil first with lots of compost and then top it off with several inches of mulch in a ring around the plant. This will help retain moisture and keep the roots cool when it gets real hot.