16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I guess I'm just lucky, I have no problems ever starting seeds (tomatoes and others, like perennial flowers) They just go in a wet paper towel in a zip-lock baggie, I lay it on the top of tropical fish aquarium for heat...I used to put them on the back of the fridge, when refrigerators still had exposed coils on the back. Under a light bulb is good too, ANYTHING that's a bit warmer than the regular house temperature. The seeds plump up and sprout within a week. I use quality potting mix in styro cups with holes in the bottom, the dirt is completely saturated (don't try and plant a seed in dry potting mix). Seeds get poked down a bit with a fingernail, pencil, tooth-pick, old peeling knife, what's ever handy. The stubborn seeds that don't want to sprout, I give them more time in the
paper towel and if they still won't sprout they all get put together in a styro cup or two. Usually out of that bunch, a couple will sprout when they want to.
That's one of the problems with hybridizing tomatoes. The trick is to grow as many seedlings as is possible in the F2 and then select the best one to carry on. In this case, for taste (which means you would have to grow out a lot yourself).
In my case, I generally give the rejects away to whomever I can and so people getting these end up with plants that are very variable.
Trivis was going great right up to covering I'd go with plastic,to help heat the soil all winter
Bush Goliath VFN is a good, bush type of Tomato to start with,use a cage on them.I'd put down mulch or straw around the base under each plant and let them grow you can find these at Lowes as plants or TotallyTomato .com as seeds I know you don't like the shipping but with a $5 order you'll get a Free trail offer (Gourmet Heirloom Blend) and a Free trail offer (sweet peper) blend so with your 5.00 you'll get two free packs that will help offset the shipping cost which wasn't bad,I called on Monday and received my shipment on Sat the 24th. great CS.
SoTx, Thanks for the name of the website. I'll have a look at it. I hope that they say in the description of some that they're extra blight resistant. Otherwise, I don't know one from the other. I'm not too familiar with tomato varieties. Actinovate, huh? I haven't heard of that. I had gotten something last year (forget the name of it) to spray on for blight, but the tomato plants probably ended up with it anyway.
Travis, Thank you, I had a nice Christmas and hope that you did too. Thanks also for describing that raising method. Now if I sit down and read over it a few times, maybe I'll understand it fully. Sometimes it takes me awhile to wrap my mind around something. Ha. To be honest, this tomato thing is all becoming overwhelming and I might just ask my husband if he absolutely has to have them this coming year. I'm afraid that I'll be disappointed again with dead plants.
Bob, So don't you think that the slugs would become a problem then? You ought to see the gigantic ones that we get. They could almost run off with a small dog. :) I'll check out the link that you gave me. Thanks, and I hope that if my husband insists on having tomatoes that they'll live or this year might just be the last for them.
Cathy
I would change seed starting medium. Also, are you reusing your cups? Are you bottom watering?
Take one of the seedlings out and see if it has any root development. I suspect it doesn't. I think the seed starting medium is somehow infected or compacted, maybe too wet or something.
Yumtomatoes,
My eyes and my mouth suggest to me that all the tomatoes on one plant may not be GENETICALLY IDENTICAL!!!
Furthermore, I have saved and kept segregated seed from two
tomatoes sourced from the same plant. These were planted in rows side by side the next spring. There were observable differences in row to row performance, as well as
plant to plant performance in the same row.
Of course, there is the rare chance one or both could have been externally cross pollinated--not very likely.
On only one occasion have I gone to the trouble of bagging
a blossom cluster before they opened, then saved the seed for future use. Though I did not do side by side row comparisons from seed collected from more than one tomato
I did see plant to plant variation from single tomato sourced seed.
I have a suspicion that there are trivial genetic variations in all seed from the same fruit and major variations between some of the seeds. I can't otherwise account for what I have observed.
It is easy to have too much root mass for even an 18 gallon container. All other variables being even, the root mass of just 1 indeterminate tomato plant can easily overwhelm a container that size. For example check out the size Raybo uses for his Earthtainers - 31 gallons.
Once the plant is root bound, then regardless of the size of the container watering will be a problem unless you use an automated, timed drip irrigation system.
I'm not saying that a tomato can't be grown in an 18 gallon container. It can with work and care. But you also cannot just assume that the size is of no concern.
The point is there are many factors that control and contribute to the process. Choosing to focus on only one factor - type of soil mix - and ignoring all the others isn't going to solve the problem.
So focusing instead on getting the right variety of plant planted at the proper time for your area, into the right size container (preferably self-watering) with any quality soil-less mix and providing it with a consistent balanced amounts of sun and erecting shade when needed, water, nutrients, and care such as avoiding over-watering and/or shallow-watering that creates water-dependent plants equals success.
Growing in containers is an artificial environment for many plants so it requires extra attention of ALL the details. But it is possible to do. Many of us do it every year.
Dave
Thanks Tom. I finally picked them today and they are lining my kitchen window. If then don't turn red, I can paint them and hang them from the Christmas Tree! I think that I'll stick with summer tomatos next year. The season is longer and I have better results.
In order to get them to ripen quickly try this little trick my granny taught me:
Put the tomatoes in a cardboard box with a lid, or a paper bag if you just have a few. Place a couple of overripe bananas within the container you are using. Seal it up best you can without making it air tight. Keep checking every couple of days for ripe tomatoes.
I've always done it this way on faith, but there is science behind it. Fruit (tomatoes are technically fruits) ripen by the presence of Ethylene (it's a maturation hormone in fruit). This is the same way commercial growers ripen their fruit (they pick them green and then ripen them by flooding shipping containers with ethylene gas, causing them to ripen on the way to grocery stores). A banana is known to produce large amounts of ethylene, and by putting it in the same container it will cause the tomatoes to start ripening from its presence. Hope this helps you get those red tomatoes you are after!!!
Robert
There many many accessions that have been brought back from the Galapagos islands and made available, most of them small fruited varieties, some named, some not, some currant tomatoes, some not.
But if you're talking about the tomato called Kumato, also known here in the US as Rosso Bruno, and bred by Syngenta in Europe with so much hype that I think it's ridiculous, then no, it's not a scam. THey first introdced it in England and Australia maybe 6-7 years ago, I didn't check, and then in the US as Rosso Bruno, but it's also now available here as Kumato.Identical tomato, two different names.
Regardless of the name it's an F1 hybrid and folks have been growing it out to get an open pollinated (OP) version since they like the taste, which I don't.
Somewhere in the hype you might have read about Galapagos Tortoises, etc.
Hope that helps, from someone who does like what's known as Sara's Galapagos, for instance, which is a wee sized stable cross between a currant and ?????. The Galapagos ISlands are also the home of the species S. Cheesmanii, the salt tolerant one that has been used by hybridizers to breed tomatoes with increased tolerance to briny waters.
Carolyn
Thanks for the offer tracydr.
lol!!! thank you Travis, I have been thisisme for many years. I'm also thisisme on eBay and have been since before it was eBay back in the old Auction America days. Over 1,000 positive feedbacks with a 100 percent positive feedback rating and still counting.
Hi tracydr, I order my seeds early. At this point I have an under the counter refrigerator packed bottom to top with seeds. About half are left over from last year and the rest purchased in the last three months. At this point I'm not looking for anything. Though if I could get them I would love to have 2-3 Purple tomatillo plants in a couple months.
Yes Indigo Rose is a tomato and its dark purple and supposed to be tasty. Its also supposed to be an open pollinated variety and stable so I can save seeds and have seeds to plant next year too. Territorial Seeds charges $ 6.50 for shipping. All they have is a 1 gram pack available at $ 9.98. Which is why I purchased a 30 seed pack from Nichols Garden Nursery for $ 2.45. They charge $ 3.95 for shipping. They have a good Garden watchdog rating or I would not have purchased from them.
At Johnny's Indigo Rose is back ordered. I really like the seed quality at Johnny's. They are high volume plus they only stock current season seeds which keeps their stock fresh. However I have waited for back ordered items to come in with them before. Items they show as back ordered are often delayed again and again until our early planting season is over.
I only have one 30 seed pack of Indigo Rose which I plan on planting since I don't know what the germination rate will be. Last year I had a bunch of extra tomato plants because I put 2-3 seeds in each pot and ended up with 2-3 plants in each pot. So last year I was able to trade some and give others away. Would you be interested in a trade? I only plan of growing 2-3 Indigo Rose plants in my garden and hope to have a bunch of extras. Any chance you could grow a few extra Purple tomatillo's and trade for some Indigo Rose plants come planting season?
I'll probably make an order of purple tomatillos from somewhere. Assuming I have good luck starting them, I'd be very interested in a trade. I'm starting some tomato seeds today and won't need much but those Indigo Rose sound interesting.
I'm starting some ground cherry seeds, too so will let you know if I get extras.
Worse comes to worse on the on the tomatillos we can always get some green ones from the produce market and get the seeds from them but having the purple ones would really be nice.
Carolyn said: "Knowing WHICH specific diseases are found in your area and being able to identify them is very important."
A fact that also applies to gardening in general but it's just plain-out ignored by many folks. Having a good garden is not just luck and hard work, it's knowledge and skill too.
There is something to be said for fruit appearance and when it comes to Better Boy I give it a thumbs-down. Fruits usually have yellow shoulders which look sickly when compared to many other varieties. I would even prefer the European green-shouldered varieties to this one.
I'm hesitant to comment since your methods are a bit controversial, yet somewhat what I've been doing for many years. The biggest difference is that I transplant 10-12 week old plants in a greenhouse soil in early March.
In essense you need to really pay attention to pot size and light intensity after seedlings reach the 8-10 week stage of growth. Depending on variety you will likely only need to wait 50-70 days from fruit formation til ripening.
Those first tomatoes are worth their weight in gold and I would suggest merely thinning the first few blossom clusters to 2-3 fruits if plants are displaying good growth at that stage. Keeping temperatures optimum is important once flowers are forming but you need to arrange for more sun. We have adequate sunlight in March & April at our latitude but 6 hours of it is hardly enough. Cut that tree down now.
The search here will pull up many discussions on 'topping' and in most you will find that yes, there are adverse effects - loss of production and stress to the plant that can have health effects.
But if 6' is your limit for some reason (I assume it is your support method?) and you don't want to grow determinate varieties that are naturally shorter plants and if you don't want the plants to just drape back down the supports as they do normally and if you don't mind the loss of production then give it a try. But leave at least 1 plant growing naturally for comparison to the ones you top. The experiment is a good way to learn what works best for you.
Dave
The later method that you mentioned of tying the plants to train them laterally is an effective way of controling height but you will need a fairly strong sopport system to hold the increasing weight of new growth and production. Often you will have intertwined growth if you train upper plants within the same row but I find that in the last month of the season this is less stressful on cherry types than lowering stems to control height with a high tunnel, stringline support system. In fact, the more intertwined the growth becomes the more the plants seem to support eachother to avoid breaking stems.
Hi Heather,
I received the package yesterday :D. Just in time! I haven't open it yet. My family asked me what is it, and I told them it's a Christmas present for me. I'm opening it tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for organizing this event! Merry Christmas!
I'm so sorry that I didn't post sooner, but I received the package about a week ago. What a fabulous Christmas present that was! I was overwhelmed by all of the great stuff that I got. Thank you so much!!!