16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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.
Ohfem, I too am i SWOhio, and have always had luck with the Cherokee Purple here. Last year, a new winner emerged for me - Arkansas Traveler. Even with the crazy, wet spring it was a prolific producer and all fruits were picture perfect. The taste wasn't as good as the Cherokee Purple, but it was pretty good! I will definitely be giving the AT another try this year, to see if it was a fluke. Now if I could just find a paste tomato like that.....
If toy like Black tomato, try Chocolate Stripes from Tomato Fest. It ranked No. 1 at Tomato Fest and most popular black tomato in 2010 and had great demand in 2011. I grew them and they have very distinctive sweet/acid taste with wonderful color. Most of my tomatoes were robbed by Squirrels last season, this season I got a poison pill plan for them.
I assume you live somewhere where tomatoes can be growing this time of year? Indication of your growing zone or location is a big help when answering questions.
These plants are in containers, correct? How big are the containers? Why did you not use soil-less potting mix as is recommended for containers? Potting soil and top soil, when used in containers, compacts and causes drainage problems and root rot so that is likely the cause of your problem. Over-watering is another cause especially when a poorly draining mix is used.
But "I water twice a week" tells me you are on a fixed schedule of watering - whether the plants need it or not? Container plants don't tolerate fixed schedules since their water needs vary greatly from day to day depending on the weather, container size, and type of mix used. Some days they require multiple waterings and other days you will need to skip it all together. So you will want to re-evaluate that approach to watering only when the plants need it, when the soil is dry 4-6" down in the pot.
Also feeding is vitally important to container plants. Since the nutrients leach out every time you water they must be replaced regularly to keep the plants healthy. So what and how often are you feeding your plants.
Lastly, what variety are we talking about? Indeterminate varieties will require different care from determinate plants.
As you can see there are a number of variables that can contribute to your problems so can you provide us with more details please.=?
Dave
SimonJ, you didn't indicate what part of the country you live in. I have been growing tomatoes in an open garden, in containers on my porch, and in a greenhouse environment for years in Upstate NY. For the last two years both my open garden and porch container tomatoes have experienced the 'late blight' symptoms very similar to what you describe, while my greenhouse tomatoes have been unaffected.
After two consecutive years, local universities etc. have determined that this is a variation of the famous 'potato blight' of 150 years ago ... which has now becoming a more or less regional problem in the Northeast. And it doesn't appear to be confined to tomatoes either, having wreaked havoc on my squash, pumpkins etc. at right around the time that the fruit are really starting to develop nicely.
As Digdirt indicated, one of the best things you can do to minimize the effects is to invest in a soil moisture meter and water based on actual need not a time schedule. The 'late blight' is apparently encouraged by excess watering. Next, you can try using an organic fungicide like Serenade ... but you have to use it before the 'late blight' symptoms start appearing. Mulching the soil at the base of your tomato plants, both the containers and in the open garden, appeared to slow down the 'late blight' for me last year to the point of getting a good initial tomato harvest ... but beyond the middle of august only my greenhouse tomatoes were still healthy and still producing.
Also, with two years of experience, a new variety of tomato has been developed and tested that is supposedly very resistant to 'late blight'. It's called 'Legend' ... and I'll be trying it for the first time this year in my open garden and porch containers.
Linda,
Even if the dunks are organic & guaranteed safe, I have a problem with putting them in the water my tomatoes would be sucking up from an EB. Those I'll have on my patio will probably be in single 20g containers & I'll just have to water a lot. :)
KC - I grow in EBs and containers, largely because I dont have enough EBs to grow all the toms I want! Many EB growers in mosquito country on a forum for EB so they must find a way. Some use mesh screen or weed fabric at openings unstead of the BT dunks. Hate to see a good Earth Box go to waste! Linda
Tomatoes are heavy potassium (K) feeders and by giving excess Magnesium (Mg) you also upset the Calcium (Ca) + Mg to K ratio in the soil which will likely haunt you in the fruiting experience.
Because of the salt buildup as well as that you have plants in pots the best thing you could do is to repot if at all convenient.
I grew Aunt Ruby's German Green this year. It is an absolutely delicious tomato, but was not a particularly productive plant. The ones I picked were probably 8 oz or more. I am going to try Green Zebra next year. My friend grew it and said they were very productive. It's delicious, very green, and what I would call a medium to small size.
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.