16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I know that I will probably get something started, but what they heck! My uncle used to root prune some of his tomatoes to get them to ripen early, he swore by it. He did always have earlier tomatoes than anyone else around.
I don't know if it would work in such a cold climate, we have hot summers here, but it worked for him. When the fruit was about full size he would take a shovel and sink it in the dirt about 4 inches from the plant on 2 sides, cutting the roots. Only on 2 or 3 plants. He grew about 100 every year. Those plants would have ripe fruit weeks before the others. But they didn't produce as well later on. He said that it would make them go in to survival mode to produce viable seed.
What kind of grow lights did you use? A metal halide (MH) lamp tends to keep the plant in the vegetative state while high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps tend to promote the reproductive state. If you're using MH, you could very well be keeping your plants from flowering and fruiting.
I recommend you have the library get you a copy as it is easy reading in one day
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I do know about Charles Wilber and his book. But how do I say this nicely..... I'm not interested in growing as he did, b'c I've grown Big Boy F1, I've partially dehybridized it and I can get all the fruits from it that I would ever need or want with a couple of plants. ( smile)
The name has escaped me now but who was the person who grew the tallest plant on record? I remember seeing a picture of that one with a man up on a reallllyyyyy tall ladder. LOL
Carolyn, who doesn't grow tomatoes for yield, height , fruit size, color or anything else other than TASTE. But it takes growing a lot of varieties to come up with those taste favorites. LOL
we have italian tree tomato seeds available at our site,
Here is a link that might be useful: mad river seeds
I used to wait for the first frost to wilt the leaves and make the tomatoes easy to find. Then there was the year the first frost was a hard freeze. Bring your tomatoes in and they will ripen nicely. If they are frost damaged, you will know pretty quick.
Carolyn, good to see all is well with you. Unfortunately the Delicious seeds in question were from Phil and Jane Hunt's 7 pound Delicious tomato grown in Canada and not from the Gordon Graham Delicious seeds. They got their seeds from someone who grew tomatoes from a packet they purchased in a store somewhere in Canada. You can get some of these heirloom seeds by going to the Bigpumpkin site and sending a SASE to one of the growers posting there and they will send you seeds free. It is not always about money as you know. I have sent out nearly 250 to 300 packets of free seeds so far this year. I know you give them away as well. Take care. Marv
There I go again, not knowing where all the seeds came from.LOL I thought at one time you or someone else got some seeds from Gordon's big one.
I'm glad you noted where folks could get some of those seeds, but as for me, I know you offered to send me some since we've known each other for so long, but I just haven't taken you up on your offer to date.
All is well with me you said? Well mentally I'm just fine, that's a self assessment mind you, and if you think I'm going to make a list of some medical conditions I'm dealing with, you're wrong. LOL
With increasing age, as I'm sure you know, stuff happens. ( smile) So one deals with it as best one can.
Carolyn
Well, the weather Lady solved it yesterday morning. She predicted 30's for last night, so I moved them inside. It got down to 35.
I put them in my Dads old house, in the sunniest room for now. It stays above 50 and gets morning to midday sun. I am remodeling it and sweet thing liked that idea better than putting them in our kitchen.:) I won't have much sun in my sunniest room, the kitchen, until the leaves fall off of my oak trees.
Thank you Nordfyr315. You da man. I look foward to growing the hell out of them seeds. I am going to make those seeds my itch. I am going to use them there seeds. Once I am done with those seeds, each one of them will need professional therapy.
I am going to punch those seeds in the face,with sandy loam,and good,dry manure. Maybe I am going too far?
Seriously though, thank you.
Take care,
Travis
I'm very new to this forum. I thought the issue with tomatoes and squash setting fruit in hot weather was the night time temps. I live in central Florida where the temperature remains above 80 degrees at night from late spring to early fall. I had never heard the theory about heat and humidity before but it�s an interesting thought. I garden in a vertical hydroponic growing system so the roots are cooled by recirculation of water and nutrients. My tomatoes and squash did set fruit all summer but I expect much better results now that the weather has turned a little cooler.
Posted by digdirt 6 -7 AR (My Page) on Sun, Oct 16, 11 at 12:03
Dweomer - according to your member page you are a commercial hydroponic grower. Hydroponic growing under cover isn't comparable. It is a whole different ballgame.
The originally referenced video sounds like it is just another part of the so-called "Organic Tomato Magic" rip-off that has been discussed here several times in the past. Linked one discussion below. Just Google that phrase for more info.
The authors of it have several different websites etc. all devoted to selling their book.
Dave
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Hi Dave,
I agree, it sounds like hype to me too.
I was answering the concern that removing the bottom leaves would inhibit photosynthesis. We find that, once the vegetative growth phase is well established (about when the first fruits begin to ripen) removing the bottom branches helps with the culturing of the plants and does not inhibit plant growth or photosynthesis.
Everybody has their own techniques. Some are transferable between systems and some are not. I have also grown determinate field tomatoes on a commercial scale and we removed the bottom leaves as I described in my first post.
Thanks.
Here's a picture of when we were trimming them back to about 5 feet of foliage per plant. The vines in these photos are about 15-18 feet long. We later settled on about 3-3.5 feet of foliage as the best system for our greenhouses.
Again, it's a technique.
turns out this isa variant of the night shade family, apparently used in many cultures...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiâÂÂki/Solanum_nigrum
here is a picture of the white flowers (making it not the deadly nightshade...whew!)
Looks like Garden Huckleberry/Solanum melanocerasum. A lot of tomato seed vendors are selling seed for this so you may have gotten some in your tomato seed. Then again it could a gift from a bird and you wouldn't know for sure what Solanum it is.
Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Huckleberry
Yes John, I do consider the original Rutgers released first in 1928 to be a commercial heirloom b'c it pre-dates about 1940. And since the 1933 version is just an improvment on the 1928 one, then that one as well. Dates for all the others are not easy to find but I could if I were to spend time with my SSE YEarbooks, which I'm not going to do. LOL Maybe if you click on the linksat Tania's page for some of the later versions you can find the dates.
There are various Rutgers strains out there and Tania has included almost all of them on her page of Rutgers and the history and seed sources are there as well.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Rutgers and friends
You can find a good bit of info at ncsu. For example:
Rutgers 8828 - Breeder: Corneli Seed Co., St. Louis. Parentage: selected out of Rutgers. Characteristics: earlier, larger fruit and more productive than Rutgers. Resistance: tolerant of fusarium wilt. Adaptation: full season tomato areas. Corneli Catalog no. 15. 1951.
http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/vegcult/vgclintro.html
DarJones
I have successfuly grafted and grown heirlooms in the past. I have a confirmed case of Fusarium oxysporum in my garden soil. A Marianna's Peace planted in my soil quickly dies (been there done that). A grafted Marianna's Peace (onto Maxifort rootstock) does well in the garden provided you continue to protect it against leaf disease. This year I decided to grow my ungrafted MP in an earthbox in the garden. Mistake! MP grown in the earthbox on the patio by the house grew 10 feet tall. MP in the earthbox in the garden showed unmistakable signs of fusarium and keeled over within two weeks of first yellowing.
I have no idea how fusarium got into the earthbox soil! So, back to grafting next year. BTW, when planting a grafted plant, make sure the rootstock doesn't send out a shoot. It is a monstorous plant with spit-out awful fruits (been there done that, too!). Maxifort is a hybrid so I didn't save seeds.
Beth
I've also grafted different heirloom varieties onto Maxifort stock in the past. As Beth notes you are in for a constant battle with the rootstock to try to reestablish itself through suckers. Also yo need to use care to keep graft junction above the soil line or the graft scion will root and the graft is useless. I've had a few that I thought were legitimate grafts that ended up being Maxifort plants so you need to inspect grafts closely. The yearlong care is an ordeal that I prefer not to repeat.