16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I can't speak for others but when working in the tomato patch I always had several outfits dedicated to just working with the tomatoes, for the very reason you noted as to staining of clothes.

Maybe someone knows some special soap, or chemical, but I just washed my increasing green tinted clothes and watched them get greener and greener as the years passed, and when they were so tatty and green I started with a new set of tomato clothes.

Same with sneakers, which I usually wore in the tomato field.So at one time I could have what I called my dress sneakers, then dress sneakers slightly soiled, then usually two pairs of tomato sneakers in case one pair got wet so I'd have a dry pair for the next day. ( smile)

Carolyn, who grew a heck of a lot more than just tomatoes, so really should be saying special dedicated gardening clothes and sneakers.

Soak in chamber lye (urine)--removes many types of stains.

Well Travis, ...no wait,you are responding to your own post. Nevermind.

Take care,
Travis

Never a good idea to leave bare soil--though it wouldn't stay that way long. Mother Nature prefers it covered--often with stuff you don't want.

bump

Tomatoes can't pollinate if the daytime highs are in the low 90s or above; the pollen is not viable. Same problem if the nighttime lows are above 75.

If temperatures are below 55, pollination can't take place either. Using Blossom Set spray enables fruit to set in those temperatures, but the fruit are frequently misshapen.

At temps above 96, lycopene (the pigment in red tomatoes) cannot form, so fruit of red-fruited varieties cannot ripen.

If the soil temps are above 90, the roots have major problems.

Cherries and small-fruited types seem to perform better in high temps.

At temps below 60, the plant is too cold for growth to occur.

Humidity and greenhouse varieties I can't help with.

Be sure to use a fan that will reach all the vines -- or manually shake them every day -- to ensure pollination; still air is a problem unless you have insects to pollinate or shake the blossoms.

I haven't hear of any plants that aren't photoperiod... but I'll assume you are correct.
I'm not sure what you mean that you have flower clusters pop up but not blossoming. do you mean that the flowers fall off before they bloom? this is called tomato blossom drop. you can google this for more information. it's basically caused by stress - heat, water, nutrient deficiency...
Are you pollenating the flowers? if your plants are indoors you have to take on the job of the bees. I use the electric toothbrush technique to pollenate my tomatoes even the outdoors ones, because if the bees don't get to them... no tomatoes.

I read somewhere that tomatoes and peppers aren't photoperiod sensitive (those are the two plants I grow indoors) and I phrased that incorrectly ear when i said flower clusters I meant the bud clusters I suppose, sorry about that. My concern is that after those three bloomed and i pollinated them I haven't had anymore flowers bloom.

Age and so maturity to set fruit are determined from the date of transplant to final growing place so yes, seedlings started later and then transplanted to the garden will produce later assuming all other factors -nutrients, weather, water, etc. - are optimal.

It is a common practice and often discussed here to use cuttings from the parent plant for later transplanting rather than starting new seeds. Saves time and effort and is just as effective. But if you prefer to grow new ones from seed that's fine too.

Dave

I have the icicle series I ordered last year. Do you have a trade list?

I think it's good to remember that all trades and wants should be posted in the Tomato Seed Exchange, not here in the General Discussion area.

The link for the Tomato Seed Exchange is at the top of this first page to the right and just above the first thread title. If I didn't post this I know Dave would have as he has before so this time I beat him to it. LOL When Spike owned the site we had him put up the Seed Exchange site b'c this General Discussion one was getting filled with trades and wants, so he did so. And he also put up the Pest and Disease Forum as well as the photog one as well, and all of those are also linked to at the top of this first page.

I just wanted to say that others have reported that the various icicle varieties have not gotten good reports as regards taste at least at some of the message sites where I read/post.

The black one was bred by a man in the Ukraine and the others came from a commercial seed source in a different part of the CIS ( Commonwealth of Independent States) formerly known to many as the USSR.

Carolyn

Tom I have 6o ft rows and I am very happy with 8ft landscape timbers for end post (4x5) and t post every 10ft between. I plant heirlooms that grow from 6 to 8 ft tall. I have to have 4ft between plants as I train them to grow side to side, better for control of plants and easier to spray. we have trouble with all the leaf disease know to man and need room to spray leaves on both sidfes. I think we live in the same area, if I can help more feel free to call. GOOD LUCK Bill

It was so hot in Oklahoma that not many tomatoes made it thru the Summer. I usually have a crop of SuperSweet 100's and Jelly Beans in the Fall, but this year the Supersweets had lots of fruit, but it got too cold for them to ripen.
I have better luck carrying over container plants rather than in-ground plants.
I prune my plants severly during the Summer, removing all non-productive stems and bigger leaves, and removing bunches where there is more than one bunch on a stem.
The only cherry tomatoes that I was able to harvest this year were a couple of SunGold, which had quite a few that ripened. I had to move the containers into the garage a couple of times when it got down to freezing, but did get the satisfaction of harvesting some sweet tasting cherries in November. I also am harvesting some Celebrity tomatoes that are larger than the Spring ones.
Here's a pic of a Sungold taken November 8th:

Yes, that looks a lot like mine. Long vines with the action up at the ends of them.

So I guess the idea, during the heat of the summer, is to start pruning them to give suckers lower down a chance to thrive? The stems lower down have become pretty woody by this time, though, so there aren't a lot of suckers that want to come out down there. Maybe there is a way to encourage such suckers to sprout?