16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
Nothing like Juliet.
Below is a link to a Google search and a picture of this hybrid is shown.
I don't think any hybrid seed is sold to the public, which is true of many so called specialty tomatoes sold in grocery stores although I didn't specifically look to see if there was a public seed source.
Romanita means just a "little" roma variety.
Hope that helps
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Romanita
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
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.
Hi Bass, I'm Zone 10 Florida right off Tampa Bay so I know what you're talking about with respect to hot and humid. My garden is only 8' from the water so it's quite a challenge here to grow tomatoes. The only tomato I've been able to grow here when night temps are above 75F are the red and yellow currants, no bigger than 1.5 cm but prolific and with BIG tomato taste. If you'd like to try some seeds drop me a line.
Tom
in NC now, but was 40 yrs in South Florida (Ft Lauderdale, Keys, Ft Myers) and grew lots of tomatoes. Homestead, south of Miami is huge commercial growers-talk to people at Tomato Growers Supply in Ft Myers - tomatogrowers.com - also google is your friend-there are several blogs of gardeners down there. When I was in the Keys, container gardening, needed lots of sun, and quick draining soil-it rains a lot...
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.
According to the AG listings it is a Burpee controlled variety so not available elsewhere - a common practice with Burpee. One person was apparently trying to sell the seeds to what they claimed was it on amazon but that listing has been closed down.
It is also apparently a new variety out last year so likely few have experience with it. There is one review of it on the Burpee website you can read that gives it a mixed review.
If cherry tomatoes are what you are interested in then consider using other, better sources for seeds. There are many of them. :)
Dave
PS: you asked about Yellow Pear. Look at Cuban Yellow Grape
Here is a link that might be useful: Cuban Yellow Grape
We have a seed trade/exchange forum here. It is linked on the front page of this forum right above the first post and I also linked it for you below. They set it up so all the trade requests would pile up on this discussion board.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Exchange forum
Here is Carolyn's instructions and info from the same question a couple of months back. I think it and the link she provides will answer your questions. If not let us know.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: crossing and stabilizing new hybrids
bob414,
Thanks for posting the InnTainer link.
Fortunately, I have a South facing window, so I only run the artificial (HPS) light 3 hours per day. I would think in AZ, you have an abundance of natural light. Even so, I think you should supplement it with artificial lighting, or else the plants will get leggy.
Raybo
Same here. A mix of varieties including beefsteaks and all other types gives the best flavor sauce. My personal favorite pastes are Opalka, San Marzano, and Amish Paste but I wouldn't make sauce using just them.
But if you want to use only paste types then a search here using 'sauce' will pull up several discussions about the suggested paste types to use.
Dave
PS: check on the Harvest forum here too. There is a current discussion running there about best tomatoes for drying and for sauce.
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.