16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
"Disproving what? Science doesn't DISprove, it either proves or fails to prove."
I disagree. What the data from properly designed randomized, controlled studies can tell you is whether to reject the null hypothesis. Rejecting the null hypothesis is synonymous with disproving the null hypothesis.
As far as what I was asking above, I will rephrase it for clarity's sake. I was asking whether or not there is any scientific evidence supporting the belief that pruning does not lead to larger fruit. There sure are a lot of people who believe it does lead to larger fruit.
Of course, just because lots of people believe something doesn't mean it is true. That is why I was asking if there is any scientific evidence.
My garden buddy prunes. I don't. He always gets better tomatoes, but his place is in a better location and my greenhouse is too shady. I keep telling him to try leaving one alone some season and I'll try pruning. But old habits die hard and we both can't stop following our old methods.
It's a simple enough experiment to try yourself and answer the question in your particular garden.
-Ed
My leggy tomatoes seem to be slower to bear fruit and not be as filled out as my short ones. Any tomatoes plants I have that wind up leggy get special treatment. I plant them as deep as I can and set a raised container (usually a tire) over the top of them. As they grow, I fill in the tire with soil and mulch. This gives me really good root systems and a chance to plant about three weeks early. A plexiglas frame makes it a nice hotbox. One day I will pick a ripe tomato in May, I've gotten close a couple of times.
Dave...you were dead on about pepper feet liking shade.
zackey - growing outside in south florida. They get direct sunlight from 7am to whenever it starts raining, which is usually between 2pm and 4pm, although some days it starts earlier and some days we have had rain all day due to a tropical system.
In the early 70's this is what my mom and then later I raised with FANTASTIC results. Relatives started planting them also. They would get about 5' tall and fruit(big + firm + few seeds) til the cows came home. We took extras to the town's rest home. + no canker sores from the acid Loved these tomatoes!
I think suckers are easy to root in soil. I don't use root tone. I use a 4" pot or a bigger one for several cutting. I wet the foliage of the plant daily with a gentle squirt from the hose. This has always worked great for me. Water roots are weaker than soil roots. They don't have to work to get to the the water.
I recieved San Marzano seed in a trade last winter and expected them to be similar in size and texture to Opalkas. Now that they're ripening I'm very disappointed to see that they are more like Dave's 1st 2 photos and about the size of Romas. I'll definitely drop those next year and stay with Opalkas and Big Mamas.
John A
The tops of the plants look healthy. Lots of new growth. All the lower stems/leaves are in some stage of yellowing as seen above. The fruits do not appear to be affected. I've had some catfacing and some early BER which has since cleared up.
Your plant is obviously highly stressed so there may several things going on with it. Sun scald, tomato leaf roll, etc.
If you Google 'green shoulders' you'll find much more info. But basically green/yellow shoulders is primarily caused by high temperatures. The chlorophyll in the shoulders is slow to break down and results in a patch that remains green or turns yellow but not red.
Providing some shade for the plants and especially the the fruit helps and can reduce the sun scald too. You can also pick the fruit at color break instead of leaving it on the plant and let it finish ripening indoors to eliminate the problem.
Dave
Thank you for all your replies!
I will cut way back on watering. Is it better to give them 60 minutes once per week, or spread it out to 10 minutes per day? Either one is easy because it's on a timer.
I will also start picking them sooner.
Thank you!!
"Is it better to give them 60 minutes once per week, or spread it out to 10 minutes per day?"
It is better to water deeply once a week than water shallowly multiple times. (Unless one's plants are in containers, but that is a whole 'nother kettle of worms.) When you water shallowly, you train the plants to seek water near the surface of the soil. This makes them more reactive to variations in moisture, temperatures, and other environmental factors. Deep watering encourages them to send their roots deep so that the moisture is more consistent and temperatures are buffered by the soil depth.
Betsy
If you are using the defrosted tomato for sauce, it will work really well. But as Dave said, the texture will be very mushy so it won't be good in things like a chunky salsa. I generally peel and half the tomatoes, take the seeds out and drain them well before I freeze them in gallon size freezer bags.
I've also frozen them whole with skin on before. The skin comes right off but taking seeds out is much harder at that point. Plus my hands get very cold.
the more i watch the spot, the more i think it is a simple lack of sun. i live in a sort of complicated urban sun environment, with part sun/ shade and full sun/shade all mixed together. i think two of my shrubs are starting to shade out the tomatoes after noon, plus the sycamore above seems to have filled out substantially this year, blocking almost all sun before noon. it is kind of hard to tell because i'm at work all day so today (saturday) i'm going to see when they start getting sun.
I see it quite often on my plants. Perhaps because I
prune heavily. I believe the plant thinks it needs more
leaves and so converts a truss to a stem. Not uncommon
in the plant world.
If you bury a tomato vine, or cover it with mulch, it
will develop roots. It adapts to meet the situation.
Ain't Nature wonderful?
I still would appreciate knowing from the original poster where in the US the tomato plants are being grown so perhaps it might make it easier to make a possible ID, knowing that tomato diseases are quite regionalized throughout the country.
Carolyn
Black plum?
You don't say how big they are.
Here's a link to a photo of Black Plum
Carla in Sac
Here is a link that might be useful: http://tomatogrowers.com/black.htm
It is black plum.
I did buy 4 tomato plants this year and kept the tags.
This was one of those 4.
So sorry about that.
But you guys guessed pretty good. Thanks.