16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I did a search and the only place that I could find it listed is The Sample Seed Shop. It isn't currently for sale but you can email her and request that she grows it out. Just go to her website and look under master seed list. You can find the email address there.
You could also try putting in a request on the seed swap forum.
green go,
I did and the taste was very bland. I even had a friend of mine (who I got the seeds from) also growing it at the same time (he does container growing) and he also agreed that the taste was average at best.
That being said, tomatoes are a funny breed... one season fabulous, the next, ehhh....
Interesting, smithmal . Mine HJB were rather sour, but definitely not bland. ThatâÂÂs why I used them in salads with pale yellow tomato Wapsipinicon Peach (shown above) which is the same size, but sweet and completely lacks any sourness. They balanced each other perfectly.
This post was edited by green_go on Wed, Jan 28, 15 at 9:26
I would speculate that it isn't a variety name per se but just seeds from some unknown variety grown in that manner - hydroponically, under lights, in large automated factories that are often underground and in huge urban greenhouses - which is a common practice in Japan.
Google Pasona O2 company photos as an example of this high-tech approach.
Dave
Sure. If it is just a flat, bring it in just before bedtime and out as soon as you wake up during this sensitive time of development. There is only arguable benefit to more than 16 hours of light, which I wouldn't do. I would not expose them to night garage forecasts under 55 F, which gives you room to play in case it gets a few degrees colder than you thought.
PC
Yes, definitely move the sprouts away from heat mat and put them under light, at about 2" distance. You can also make an enclosure around the lite to keep them warmer . Also as an option, a 60w incandescent light can provide enough heat inside an enclosure.
Seysonn
I used to bend over backwards "amending" my heavy clay soils, using cover crops, double-digging - the whole 9 yards.
Until one year I dug into the ground and found the cover crop I had planted last year perfectly preserved between the layers of cold, gray clay where I had dug it in the year before.
So I went with mulching - because a few years before that, I had a plot in a community garden where we had access to a gigantic pile of hay. I mulched to a depth of over 12" - AFTER the hay had settled - it was the middle of a drought that year and I had the best garden I had ever had, despite having to haul water to the site in milk jugs. Which, btw, were a fairly new innovation at the time, and cost more than buying the milk in cardboard cartons.
Since then I have found that unless you live in slug central, a double layer of broken down brown corrugated cardboard boxes covered by the cheap or free mulch of your choice - even including bagged wood mulches, as long as you avoid the ones that are dyed - and a drip irrigation system leave you with as near to a carefree garden as one could possibly hope for and still be living in the real world. Oh yeah, and not having other people do all the work for you, LOL!
Mulching and measured drip irrigation also, it turns out, encourages earthworms, and that IS just like having other people do all the work for you as far as soil amendments. They aerate, they pull down the lower layers of mulch into the soil as it decomposes, they do all that soil "mixing" that double digging was supposed to do at the expense of back breaking labor. Except worms don't HAVE a backbone and this is what they do naturally.
Don't pull the cardboard up to the base of the plants, instead leave an area clear all the way around the stem for where you will put your emitters (or aim your watering wand if you hand water).
I also habitually plant everything but row crops (like peas) in a bowl-shaped depression to funnel water to the plant roots. I leave more area free around tomatoes because I plant them trench-style - I pluck off all but the top one or two sets of leaves, dig a trench that slopes upwards to where I want the stem to emerge. This encourages root development along the entire stem. I leave that entire area free of the cardboard mulch so the entire stem can easily be watered.
I do pull the top mulch, which is usually wood mulch now that I'm stuck in suburbia, across the trench, but not all the way up to the stem. Leaving that clear eliminates slug damage, though that's not usually been a problem for me.
If you have access to something easily compostable like straw or hay, you can just keep layering it with new mulch every year. Yes, hay has the reputation for being weedy, but you won't much notice that if you keep the mulch deep. Also the cardboard layers help to keep any weeds from rooting well, and the thick mulch makes anything that manages to poke its head above the top very spindly and easy to pull.
Still, you might want to avoid hay when possible because sometimes it can infest your garden with bindweed, the seeds of which can lie dormant in the soil for virtually ever. This is only a problem when you STOP mulching, but there it is. The year I had access to unlimited amounts of hay, there were already much worse things than bindweed in that field, which had been farmed for decades and was thoroughly infested with giant hogweed already.
However in an urban setting I've found that bagged wood mulches work just fine and with the cardboard underlayment, you don't need more than 2" or 3" depth. It will eventually rot, but not in less than several years. You can also often get mulch from yard waste the city has gathered and processed for little or no cash outlay. This is often at least partially composted.
The cardboard lasts 2 years and sometimes more. If you're using a longer term top layer like wood mulch, you can easily pull it back (especially in raised beds) and lay down new cardboard. If you're using something like straw, you can just lay new cardboard on top of last year's mulch when the underlying cardboard has broken down. I'd plan on doing that every 3 years or so. Then cover over with your compostable short term mulch.
Do not use grass clippings as a mulch. They mat easily and will tend to shed water.
You might be tempted to use shredded paper as a mulch. In most parts of the country I advise you not to try that, at least not as a top layer. It, too, tends to compress, mat, and shed water - but worse than that it is usually mostly white paper, reflects too much sun, and keeps the soil not just cool, but unacceptably cold too far into the growing season. Instead I compost it with grass clippings to balance out the high nitrogen from grass clippings.
Mulching with a cardboard underlayment works well with hand watering or drip irrigation. Don't even try it if you are top watering with something like an oscillation lawn sprinkler.
Zen,
Am going to try your cardboard and straw mulch this year in my new garden. I hope the strong Kansas winds in summer don't cause a major problem. I will try to keep the mulch wet to weight it down.
I wholeheartedly agree with your advice NOT to put grass clippings in your garden. We had two early summers with tremendous rains and grass growth about seven years ago, which prompted us to buy a grass catcher for our John Deere mower so I could use the grass clippings from our three mowed acres for mulch. I put it on about 6 inches deep and had the most beautiful gardens that never needed weeding for those two years. I found out in the next few years that my tomatoes were plagued with alternaria blight. Then it got worse. Over the next three years I found that I could no longer grow many other crops....peppers, potatoes, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, and even zucchini (!!!) would start out fine and then die after a month or so. My 8000 square foot garden beds were done. I am starting over in a new place this year. Won't ever make that mistake again!
On the subject of "Hybrid Slicer", I will be growing one called:
>>>> Brandy Boy It is well reviewed by members here for a couple of years. The fruit size is described as 14 to 16 oz, pink color. Those who have grown it say that it is fairly productive and early (DTM ~76). Plus the good old taste of Brandywine ( same taste but more yield).
Seysonn
I'm growing Tomande VFFNT for the 3rd year in a row - they're that good - got mine from Tomato Growers Supply Co. - doesn't seem to be in their print catalog, but you can find it on their website, using the search box...
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomande info
Agree. Domes should always be removed as soon as seed sprouting begins. Otherwise you quickly risk damping off - one reason why experienced growers never use the dome things or similar covers.
Root rot (brown dying seedlings) is also indicative of root rot from over-watering. If these seedlings are in peat pellets or peat pots (over-watering is a common problem with them) then transplanting them to potting mix will sometimes allow them to be saved.
Dave
Do you know what the days to maturity (DTM) were for your plants? That is the average amount of time it takes from putting a 6-8 week old plant in the ground until the first fruit ripens. It occurs to me that even though you are in a beautiful climate, 60-70 degrees is a little low for tomatoes, and probably slows down ripening. Also, your day length is about 12 hours year round, right? Are your plants getting enough sun?
The coldclimategardening link above is a good one. You can get frost (as in, white crystals on a windshield or a rooftop) when the air temperature is above 32F, and the air is humid. That's because the particular surface cools especially efficiently. But that's not going to hurt most plants. A freeze is when the temp drops to 32F or below. As noted above, a "hard freeze" is something much lower. 28F or so.
"Only a thin layer" is a subjective judgement and likely means different things to different people. And of course not all grounds are the same. :)
But in general, using coffee grounds is one of those things that can't hurt and might help down the road".
From your description of the new growth your plants are likely NOT responding to the coffee grounds but to something else like insufficient N, Coffee grounds just don't work that quickly. When you do see a change in the plants from coffee grounds it is usually a brief response unless they are used in excess. Keeping in mind that legumes (beans) do not require extra N like other plants do, some sort of more readily availble N source may be needed.
Dave
I'm not sure that coffee grounds are really acidic. Certainly not after they've been brewed. The roasted beans are acidic, but the acid is water soluble, so most of the acid ends up in the coffee. If you want to acidify a bed, you're probably better off pouring coffee on the bed rather than using grounds.
My understanding is that the grounds are actually abut 2% N. Not bad. So in a compost pile they work like "greens" even though they are brown. I have heard (I can't remember where) that uncomposted coffee grounds actually stunt growth, if used in large quantities (as in, 25% of mix). So although they have nitrogen, uncomposted coffree grounds don't release it in a very usable form. So if you use uncomposted coffee grounds as a soil amendment, don't use too much.
If you have a source for a lot of coffee grounds, get yourself a compost pile! I routinely use coffee grounds in my compost pile.
I'm in Southern California and I grow tomatoes year round even through winter. In winter I grow tomatoes and zucchini in earth boxes along a south facing wall. They get a bit frost damaged and look like heck at times, but they do produce. I plant out for winter in September and for summer around st patty's day.
Here is a link that might be useful: organic winter tomatoes
I can't comment generally on the results like antonaki who has grown it a long time, but I can share what happened to me. The plant is a very metered production plant in cool weather for me. By that I mean it started out relatively slowly and stout like a sailor, then like clockwork, flowered in cycles like it really wanted to take off.
My problem is it got too cold, since I started it in mid-late August for reasonable growing conditions that ended this year in mid-November. For a variety famed for perfectly shaped tomatoes, you can see in my pic one of them was a double tomato, and on the plant there is one with lips, which supposedly is very rare to have deviations from globe. I would not consider this a large tomato, just a medium globe (5 - 6 oz tomatoes).
Overall my yield won't be as productive as I expected, but I only have one poor plant to judge. Had it been warmer the plant really showed potential and that is evident now as it is the healthiest of all my plants after they endured two or three season ending freezes in the last couple of months. I love the flavor and texture though. Just a note that it is probably more juicy for some people's tastes and does have many seeds. The skin in humid conditions was not tough as I expected it to be a little leathered (result: not).
It just has a great balance and most of all I like the aftertaste which is a clearly a bit sweet, maybe because I could leave it on the plant much longer than maybe I should. I think it is just a classically well-balanced tomato. I'm sorry you had bad luck. If you can slip in another plant to try again, I hope it works out well. This plant and fruit is very disease resistant for me and the tomatoes have a long hang time in part because of that.
PC
This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 15:11
