16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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

Grow twice as many as you need, and put those suckers in the ground as soon as possible. Watch some die, and watch some grow as soon as they form baby second leaf structure.

All with a smile.

They are in different mixes.

I fertilized today with magnesium.

Will see what happens.

Might cut them back and let them regrow - I'm in zone 9 so they have time.

Thanks all.

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).

Missingtheobvious... You're so rad! Thanks :)

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

Sorry! I'm thinking of my experiences with houseplants.

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.

Not sure how you and your family eat tomatos...but those two piles are just about enough tomato for me alone...for a day and half.

I agree, you can never eat too many tomatoes ;-) And they do freeze well!

I have 51 plants, all bearing well. Between eating tomatoe sammy's, salsa, brushetta and sauce I can never have enough toms! Of course I do share my bounty with friends.

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

Carolyn,
I actually got the seeds for my Mexico Midget and German Queen at Tomatopalooza 2008, I believe from Craig himself. I made several attempts at crossing MM and GQ and saved seed from the fruits I crossed. The plant is lanky like MM and the stigma is quite exerted, it is also RL and WAY more productive than the GQ the seeds came from. I suppose it could be crossed with something else but given that I emasculated the flowers and placed MM pollen on the stigma over the course of a few days, I can't think of anything more likely.
The fruits so far are good. Skin is a little on the thick side but I wonder if the rainy hot summer could be a factor. Taste is about halfway between the parents. That nice "pink" taste of GQ with a touch of the bolder MM. I haven't really thought about what I want to select for in F2. I have a small garden and a whole lot of exotic varieties from GRIN to grow out next year so I will probably plant at most 3 of the F2 and see what variations come up. If you like, I would be happy to send a few F1 seeds your way or some "LeHoullier" MM seeds.

Thanks for the seed offer but Craig L and I have been best friends for over 20 years and are in constant communication and what seeds I have he can have and vice versa.

Actually I'm growing Wild Sweetie this year which is akin to Mexico Midget in being an S. pimp as well.

I think German Queen is one of the most beautiful plants I've grown with those perfect pink beefsteaks, but to tell the truth, I never thought much of the taste.

Ah well, if we all liked the same varieties it wouldn't be that much fun. LOL

Carolyn

I did that for quite a few years. I would bring the coffee
grounds home from work on a daily basis.

Can't do that any more since I'm retired. My wife won't
let me do our home coffee grounds. She firmly believes
that putting them down the sink will keep the drain from
clogging.

I sure do have a lot of earthworms now. They love coffee
grounds.

Hmmm, there is quite a bit of Nitrogen. I would go easy with it, especially after the plants start to flower. I have finally learned to resist feeding my tomatoes excess nitrogen just because I have access to it for free.

Oh! Missingtheovious Thanks! :) Zippering. Hum it seems to be perfect name for that formation! haha

terrybull,thanks for making me laugh :D

Actually, that(plumbers crack) is what exactly my husband said when my HB saw that fruit! ;-)

Actually a moon (of the plumbers crack variety) was my first reaction too.. I was going to say what ungrateful tomatoes. All that love and care and they moon you!

Do a search of your name, anything that you have posted to will show up!

I put in your name and this came up:

Here is a link that might be useful: Gumby

That was the link... Thanks