16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I'm facing a different conundrum. One of my tomato plants died when it got cold in November, but another one has starting to grow again. It's full of blossoms (that won't set fruit because it's still cold at night). I planned to rotate crops and grow beans in its place in the spring. Should I pull it out or let it be? It's about 5 feet tall.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

I'm not too far from Riverside (zone or distance-wise). I plant out every year around St Patrick's Day (March 17), which is easier to remember than last frost date. There is no advantage to seed starting or planting sooner. If you back schedule 4-6 weeks, seed starting is done around the first week of February. There is plenty of flexibility -- so there is no need to panic if you start running a little late.

Vance, what a great looking plant! Glad you were able to rescue it. I haven't had a problem with cut worms going after my tomato plants, but had a terrible time with them last year. They ruined cucumber, bean, watermelon & cantaloupe plants. This year I've been using the straw collars shown above. No problems!

Happy gardening!
Boo

Most of the posts here address cutworms at the base of the plant.
I also have them further up the plant and they are hard as the devil to see. Anyone else have this problem?

I've had pink and a burgundy/crimson brandywine. They look different than the usual orangy toms and both taste all right. I'm still using the seeds ordered online years ago so I don't remember their names. Is it what NEveg called black bw? Maybe someone more familiar with brandywine can help.

I would recommend Gold Medal. It has a sweet flavor and a very creamy texture. The fruits are large and the productivity has always been good for me.

tomatoes on my plants from 2011 season are thriving and putting new fruit here in Riverside County. Even if we get back to Dec temperatures, I dont think I am going to lose these plants to freeze as days are now warmer and longer than in Dec. I am confused over new seeding though now knowing when to start.

Tomatoes take 6-7 weeks,if you think March is warm enough in your area you can begin to seed them now.If you can protect them and have lights you can begin since Dec,that's what I did.I have my first batch 4 inches now and started seeding more this week.

All organic amendments used.....

That's really awesome! I'm glad to know they weren't supercharged via unnatural means. Keep up the good work!

According to aggrand's liturature lime at a 300 mesh size is immediately available to plants. If you have s silk screen operation near you you may be able to get them to give or sell cheap a used screen. Metal screens are fairly cheap on eBay. Get a screen and fast acting lime screen out the big stuff and dilute you can heat to increase the amount in soulition let cool and spray. Also liquid ca like nutri-cal are not expensive. It can't hurt to set up a regular routine of calcium supplimentation. Most fast acting lime screens to 200 mesh there is still a good amount of smaller particals in there. I figure the larger the volume of lime per bag the smaller the particals. Try gypsum do some dumpster diving at your local home center or construction site soak the paper off and spread evenly

According to aggrand's liturature lime at a 300 mesh size is immediately available to plants. If you have s silk screen operation near you you may be able to get them to give or sell cheap a used screen. Metal screens are fairly cheap on eBay. Get a screen and fast acting lime screen out the big stuff and dilute you can heat to increase the amount in soulition let cool and spray. Also liquid ca like nutri-cal are not expensive. It can't hurt to set up a regular routine of calcium supplimentation. Most fast acting lime screens to 200 mesh there is still a good amount of smaller particals in there. I figure the larger the volume of lime per bag the smaller the particals. Try gypsum do some dumpster diving at your local home center or construction site soak the paper off and spread evenly

How do you tell ??

Don't worry about it. What are called suckers shouldn't be removed anyway unless you are really into pruning for some reason. All it does is cost you fruit production.

But a "bloom" is a flower, a blossom that with luck turns into a tomato. Not a leaf or a branch or a stem. A bloom truss (a cluster of blooms) develops directly off a stem, not in the apex of 2 stems.

Dave

Thanks guys appreciate the info. Evidently I was going by "old" information. Good gardening.

1.) Soil test.
2.) Add as much compost as you can reasonably get your hands on.
3.) As Mulio said, biochar is an awesome addition to soil and will pay dividends in the years to come.

Organic gardening is a whole different mindset. Instead of watering-in soluable nutrients, you need to mix-in (or top-dress for no-till - which is what I do) your organic amendments, be they fertilizers or otherwise.

Adding the compost and biochar will help increase your soils ability to retain the nutrients you put into it and it will increase your plants ability to get the nutrients out of it.

It is important to note that finished compost and biochar are not fertilizers, but rather they are soil amendments. Aged chicken manure, depending on how old (or "hot") it is, is a great fertilizer and could be mixed in with the biochar and and finished compost and would give your garden a great headstart. If you're prepping an organic garden to plant into immediately, I would mix in my fertilizer at the same time - in your case, the chicken poo.

If you go the route of having a soil test done, which is highly recommended, you may want to add other soils amendments, but I wouldn't try doing those (lime, etc.) without seeing the results.

Another vote here for a soil test. Be aware, however, there are several difference types of soil test and many ways of interpreting their results, depending on the lab, test solutions, etc. The main test types are base saturation, nutrient maintenance and sufficiency level. Base saturation is predicated on the assumption that their is an "ideal" nutrient balance to promote healthy soil biota and, hence, healthy plant growth. Nutrient maintenance is based on applying what is need to grow the "next crop" regardless of what's currently available in one's soil. Sufficiency level is based on anticipated yield levels. For example, based on what's currently available in the soil, what is the likelihood that additional potassium (or calcium, magnesium, etc.) will provide a yield response.

As a sustainable gardener (I don't strive to be 100% government-approved organic), I like the base saturation test. In my mind, it's geared towards creating the ideal growing environment-rather than focusing simply on fertilizing the plant. You can think of this as "feed the soil" vs. "feed the plant."

Regardless of your approach, be careful of "chasing pH." The relative alkalinity (or acidity) or your soil is influenced by several factors. For example, a high pH might be due to too much calcium, magnesium, potassium or sodium. Conversely, low pH might indicate insufficient levels of any of these. Without a soil test, it's hard to know.

Yup, I know them all, I mean as players but have seen Connors and McEnroe play when I was there. It was an exhibition match when I was in Denver.

That's Stefan Edberg and oh I miss him and all the other serve and volley players that used to be around. You look at the grass courts at Wimbledon and dead grass just around the baseline. Sad.

I watched a bit more tonight but when it got to 9PM Eastern when ESPN2 took over I was just too tired and needed to come back here to the computer to catch up.

So you think McEnroe was a good guy? His brother Pat, for sure, but John? Well we'll leave it here or some folks might object to tennis talk rather than tomato talk, but it is your thread. LOL

Carolyn

Well, if we pretend that the tennis ball is a tomato.....kidding,but thank you for the encouragement.

Take care,
Travis

My Amish paste and blondkopfchen did the best, and these are already prolific producers. I read that higher vigor plants are more compatible because there is less shock due to increased vigor. This seems to be true because the more prolific the variety the better the results (generally speaking), although I have not personally tried hybrids.

Last summer I tried grafted tomato plants from Territorial Seeds --- Brandywine, Big Beef, and an heirloom named Japanese Black Trifele. In the first two cases, I planted a plant I had grown from seed next to the grafted plant. I found that the grafted plants were substantially more vigorous but they too got the early blight. Since they were more vigorous they survived the blight better but were still pretty heavily damaged. The Black Trifele by the way is a delicious tomato.

Sungold is both great tasting and prolific. It likes to fruit early too. Last year I had so many that I finally found a recipe that uses the Sungold tomatoes in a pasta sauce and I made that almost every week last summer.

Try Favorita, available thru Johnny's. Seed are relatively expensive but I've found that they will outproduce just about anything else I've grown in high tunnels in a long season. Unlike other red cherry types these maintain a more uniform size throughout a long (7 month) picking season.

Keep in mind that you will rarely get the yield potential of any variety growing in a pot. I also feel that by supporting plants with a stringline from high tunnel frame and lowering the line during the season the indt. cherry varieties, which often will approach 20 ft of stem height, will be allowed to produce up to twice as much as if they were just allowed to sprawl.