16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Another thing that produces leggy tomatoes is too warm of temperatures at night. Tomatoes need temps below about 63 F at night to grow properly. but of course they should also be above say 55 at night. Your problem might be light conditions AND temperature.
For your not ripe tomato problem as summer draws to a close, you need to stress your plants a little about 2-3 weeks before your frost date. I do that by shutting the water off on them. Tomatoes are really pretty drought tolerant plants and over watered tomatoes will tend to grow vines well but the fruit will not ripen as quickly. Alternatively you could also cut the meristems (the growing tip of the tomato branches). That tells the tomato to hurry up and put their energy into the fruit and not into plant growth.
You may have too much fertilizer/nutrients in your soil. You will have a similar problem with too much N, that is green tomatoes that don't ripen or vigorous vines that produce little fruit. Finally you might try some earlier varieties.
Thanks for the replies. I did try that method of picking and bringing inside, but it didn't get the best result. Also, around the middle of September when I picked them, I think they were getting blossom end rot as well as they were splitting. I believe the splitting was caused by the fact that our hottest days of the year were in September.
If you want a lot of uniform tomatoes this is it. Well worth growing, especially to can for stewed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, juice or salsa. I would prefer a dryer paste tomato for my thick Italian sauce, though.
Last year, I must have had at least fifty pounds of of one plant, then, the plant actually made a start by leaning over and rooting a branch, I had a whole another plant and another batch!
It's a very nice determinant. I messed up my seeds this fall and lost them or I'd be growing a couple this year.
Hi Angela,
I always try to grow Sun Gold, and this year my favorite local place is ordering seeds just because I asked, so I almost feel obligated to buy more than 1 package (well, I'll see how many seeds are in a pack). Anyway, I would be happy to send you a few Sun Gold seeds for an equal amount of seeds, your choice, whatever you have extra of. How many were you thinking you wanted?
Check into the new releases (within the past 2 years) from the Dwarf Tomato Project (see link below). So far, there are a total of 13 new releases from this project, and all are dwarf indeterminates. I'll be growing them for the first time this year, so I can't give first-hand experience with ptoduction, etc. However, from what I've read, taste is outstanding. Descriptions, availability, etc. can be found at Tatiana's tomato database. If you go to: http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w/index.php?search=Dwarf+Tomato+Project&ns0=1&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=Search&fulltext=Search
the last 13 entries on page 1 of that search are the 13 new releases.
Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf Tomato Project
For anyone who's looking for dwarf plants, at Tatiana's
main page, halfway down the page, under "Tomato Database -- Most Popular Links," you can select the third choice "view tomatoes by categories," then under "Tomatoes by Growth Habit," choose "Dwarf Tomatoes," which will take you to this list of 93 dwarf varieties.
It doesn't look that bad to me either, nor does it look like pests or disease. I always grow at least twice as many seedlings as I intend to plant because some will be less vigorous or show signs of genetic problems. From what you say, it sounds as if your other plants are not showing any problems. This one might straighten up and be fine, or it might continue to twist and lag behind the others. If it does, I would not choose it for my garden.
I think i know what your talking about. a few of mine got really twisted and the leaf branches curled up. I think its a form of stress, either too much water, too much light(i had mine under t5 18 hours) not enough air flow. or leaving them crowded in small pots for too long. hope that helps, mine didnt recover and stunted their growth so i yanked them and started over
macmater, I'm not an expert but I can't resist chiming in here.
The KBX entry at Tatiana's TOMATObase discusses this issue. Apparently something less than 2-3% of KBXs revert to RL (proving that the issue of leaf type is much more complex than we usually think).
At this stage, you don't know if you have a stray seed (mixed in at the grower or packager's -- could be any RL), a KBX cross (with who-knows-what!) which occurred at the grower's, or an actual RL KBX.
You'd need to grow out your plant and compare everything to a normal KBX to see if you have an actual RL KBX or something else.
In any case, the chance that your RL plant is a Kellogg's Breakfast is almost nil (only if a stray Kellogg's Breakfast seed somehow made its way into your packet). Leaf type is not the only difference between the two varieties.
Yeah it depends on the location of the market and how adventuresome the buyers may or may not be. Some will only buy round, red, and medium sized. Some will buy a few yellows and only a few will go for any of the other colors or shapes or sizes.
You can get a wide range of what works where over on the Market Gardeners forum here.
Dave
Incorporating it with ground soil is a great way to improve the ground soil and poses no problems in my opinion.
Reusing it gets mixed opinions. Some swear never! So do it all the time. So all I can tell you is that I do. I dump all the containers out onto a big tarp, spread it out in the sun with a rake to dry well, then I mix in about 1/3 new mix and some fresh pelleted fertilizers with it. After cleaning all the containers well I refill the containers and go from there. After the 3rd year the old goes into the garden and I start with new in the containers. Never had any problems with this method.
Dave
Here is a link to several previous discussions on the question if you want to get more opinions.
Here is a link that might be useful: Reuse potting soil discussions
Nothing wrong with mixing alfalfa and compost together, I think its a good mix. I use a little alfalfa meal in my aerated compost tea on my maters once every week or two. The tea I use is alfalfa+compost+molasses brewed for two or three days.
Damon
IT DEPENDS ON YOUR SOIL. If you test your soil..send a sample into a lab for $7 at your local ag extension, then it will tell you what you need. Then you can make your own fertilizing regimen.
Alfalfa meal seems iffy to me cuz maybe it may attract rabbits...even rabbit manure???
Corn meal MAY attract a crap load of ants or other insects. You can back off the corn meal for a season to get rid of them...or make a corn meal mix with coffee grounds...with a little lime if it is to acidic for you.
Just buy welded wire galvanized fencing, make your cages, and then scatter cut some of the wire to a 4x4 opening. Easy and no rust, which isn't an issue anyway IMO. I have several I made years ago from some left over fencing. Posted pics of them here many times.
It comes in all sorts of heights and wire weights.
Dave
I do something similar to Dave, although I don't make them into cages. I just have the 1" X 4" mesh galvanized in a straight fence. I plant the tomatoes right next to the fence. As they grow, I weave the plants through the mesh. Although the 1X4 mesh is smaller than I would like, it works and is inexpensive.
John A
julia42, I don't think you have a stem borer, but in case anyone would like to know about them, here are a couple of links:
Photos and info on page 3: http://www.btny.purdue.edu/Pubs/vegcrop/VCH2009/VCH508.pdf
More info on the bug here, but not tomato-centric: http://ipm.ncsu.edu/ag295/html/stalk_borer.htm
I had a stem borer once, about a foot above the soil. There was a small entrance hole, and the stem above that point stayed narrow and never got much longer. After a few weeks I just cut it off.
Actually, I think I may have found the culprit. Let me know if you think I'm way off.
I found a few flea beetles in the vicinity of the hacked plants. I have a pretty heavy straw and leaf mulch around them, and my guess is that larvae in the mulch hatched and chewed at the stems for a while. I've found pretty minimal leaf damage, but I've read they can damage stems too... I may go pick up some DE.