16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I don't know - my 1st year growing determinates. They're *supposed* to ripen all at once over a couple of weeks and then die, but I've been harvesting Glaciers all month, it's been an awful year (hot dry July and WET August), they're still ripening - and have new blossoms (at the tops)!
We'll see what Irene did to them - just staked them back up yesterday.
Hello,
You will get some variation in all tomatoes due to weather and such. Experienced growers tend not to rule out a variety based on a single years experience. What is a fantastic tomato in an optimal year may be just so-so in a year that is wetter, drier, hotter or cooler than the previous year. Disease and insect loads certainly do affect the flavor also. Many on the forum are mentioning that tomatoes they have had great production and flavor with in the past are rather poor producers with lackluster flavor this year. Give them another chance if you have the room. If you hate it three (or more) years in a row, then strike it from your "to grow" list and give any remaining seeds away or flush them the way you would expired medicine!
Betsy
I have grown Sheboygan tomatoes for the past 5 years. I usually grow about 20 varieties each year. Sheboygan has been and will remain my favorite tomato. That said this years crop is really bad. About half of the varieties I have grown this year are in the same boat.
I urge you not to give up on this tomato, everybody who has tried it sings it praise. 2 years ago I counted 250 fruits on one plant. I plant my father in laws garden with 8 tomatoes each year, last year and this year he requested all Sheboygans.
Mostly genetic but growing conditions like weather, air temps, watering, size of containers, etc. can affect it too. Fertilizer? No documented effect of differences - unless the plants are deprived of nutrients all together of course - some just work faster/longer/better than others.
Dave
A study was done in Japan where they measured the sugar levels (Sucrose, Glucose and Fructose) in tomatoes grown with chemical fertilization, organic (bokashi) and with chicken manure and each one also with the addition of EM (Effective Microorganisms). The results were the Chicken manure and Chicken manure with EM had the highest sugar content followed by Organic and Organic plus EM and lastly the Chemical and Chemical plus EM. Each regemen with the addition of EM had a slightly higher sugar content than without. So if you inoculate your soil with Microbial's you should get a higher sugar content with whatever type of growing method you use whether it be organic or inorganic. Ami
Ref. Nature Farming and Microbial Applications
Xu, PhD
Parr, PhD
Umemura, PhD
Like Tom suggests there are all sorts of things you can buy or make up to provide some shelter. Hundreds of different tents, cloches, row covers, clear plastic buckets with vent holes cut in them, even a 3 ring tomato cage with a board laid on top of it. The list goes on and on with just a bit of imagination. You just have to think outside the box.
I personally would NOT transplant them to their permanent home at the 2nd set of true leaves stage as the root system has not yet caught up with the top growth. Assuming they are,'t leggy then 6-8" tall with 3-4 sets of leaves is a pretty standard transplant size and then planted deeply.
Dave
ketaki, I should also have added that some tomatoes are determinates, which mean that they naturally only grow to a certain point, after which they don't put out new growth. And then they die. [Indeterminates, on the other hand, keep growing until frost kills them.]
Do you know the name of the variety you grew?
Naps, if you live in Florida, Texas, or California, there's an endemic pest called the tomato pinworm, which starts off less than a millimeter long. But apparently if you live elsewhere and bought seedlings, it might have come with your plants. You can read about it here:
http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG295/html/tomato_pinworm.htm
This site describes the infant caterpiller as cream-colored with a black or brown head. Do your little guys have dark heads?
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/04-025.htm
Good news: if you don't live in California, Texas, or Florida, they'll die when the winter comes. Apparently if you start your plants from seed, you shouldn't have a problem next year.
Your best bet to identify the little guys may be to raise some and compare them with online photos when they get to a larger size, pupate, or turn into moths/butterflies. There just aren't many photos of tomato-eating caterpillars when they're so small -- and some of the caterpillars change quite a bit from instar to instar (caterpillar life stages).
Removing flowers, no. Trimming off new growth, maybe. Some advocate topping the plants at season's end to force ripen the remaining fruit. I've never tried it personally since my season is so long here.
Same goes for spade pruning roots on one side of the plant - some swear by it. Logically it has the best chance of working.
What works best for me if needed is just to pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down in the basement, barn or greenhouse where it won't freeze. The fruit ripen nicely.
Dave
If shovel pruning you do it all the way around the main stem, about one foot out from the main stem, not just halfway around the plant.
What it does is to cut the top feeder roots, the other roots are depper so you aren't killing the plant.
And yes, for many is does work.
The temps for September here where I live in NYS are supposed to be much warmer and drier than normal, so I'm not doing anything to my plants well, not much to do after the devastation due to Irene today.
Carolyn
Thanks for your comments, everyone. It stopped raining around 11am (instead of the projected 9 pm) so I was able to get them outside for the afternoon, and they even saw quite a bit of sunlight. Of course moving a 8-9' plant inside by myself was difficult and the top of the main stem got got bent back... Hopefully it won't die.
I bought the Pro potting mix, which has these ingredients:
Fafard Professional Potting Mix: This lightweight formula has been pH adjusted and combines Canadian sphagnum peat moss, processed pine bark, vermiculite, and perlite for excellent drainage and great results.
I don't know the percentage of peat. I will return the vermiculite and get more bark.
While the professional potting mixes work well for many right out of the bag, I believe what you are asking about has been covered in detail over in the container forum.
Here is a link that might be useful: Tapla's 5-1-1 Container Mix in More Detail
does that fertilizer manufacture formulate their product assuming the gardener's soil will be ideal (perfect) for their plants of choice?
Basically yes, not perfect but within the acceptable range of 'normal' soil pH.
s it safe to assume that no matter what fertilizer you choose and use it according to their directions, that it won't help much if your actual soil is unbalanced in nutrients and/or the pH is way off.
Yes, with provisions mentioned by Terry. It isn't a static environment. It is affected by the plants themselves, the weather, the pH of your water or the rain, the tilth of the soil, it's ability to drain or retain water, etc. But still basically, the answer is yes it won't help much if the soil pH is out of kilter.
Can any fertilizer help balance poor soil?
Simple answer is no, not if you mean balance the pH. Improve the nutrient availability, sure but would they be more usable by the plants just because they are there, not necessarily.
It's for these reasons that compost rather than manufactured fertilizers is so strongly recommended. It can balance the pH, improve the soil tilth and water balance, and feed the plants. How well it does all those things depends on the quality of the compost used.
Most have had aphids since day one.
Often a good indicator of excessive nitrogen use.
Dave
Thanks so much!