16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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

John, how big are the San Marzano tomatoes you grew? 2 or 3 inches long? How is the flavor?

It would help to see the entire plant.

Yellowing lower leaves can also result from low fertilizer and/or a water shortage. Much more common than fusarium wilt.

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

The normal color progression is green to yellow to orange to red. If you get tan patches, it's sun-scald.

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

I clean up the bad spots, cut into pieces, and shove them in freezer bags. They stay good all year and I drop the whole frozen chunk into soup or chili. I don't mess with skins.

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.

that sucks. did your crop get wiped out from diseases or do you still have the majority of plants?

Cry cry cry - the first heirloom that was breaking rotted. Big soft spot on the side, black mold on the top near the stem. And it was nowhere near ripe, though bigger than my hand, must have been 2 lb! Darn rain...

Really hot weather (highs above 90-95, overnight lows above 75) prevents tomato pollination/fruitset. Really high humidity can do the same. However, there should still have been flowers.

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.

"So what do you do exactly, just put part in the soil and part out?" Yes

"Do you use any rooting hormone?" No

They were a little bigger than a golf ball.

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?

missingtheobvious - Oh, I see! I think I see those only on Large cherry plants! :D

qaguy - Wow. Yeah! I prune my toms very heavily! That make sense. Probably certain varieties of tomato react to heavy pruning that way! :D

Thanks, guys!

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

When plants are hit during the growing season with Roundup, the newest growth becomes bright yellow.

I believe the marigolds have a serious case of leafhopper damage.

Reimer Seeds lists it as out of stock now.

Betsy

We at Harris Seeds would like to let customers know that Primetime tomato has been discontinued by the supplier, and Harris Seeds is now sold out of this seed variety. However we recommend Mountain Fresh Plus as a substitute. Mountain Fresh Plus is a great choice for main season production, has late season quality at 78 days, and has the protection of Nematode resistance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain Fresh Plus Tomato Seeds

I would suggest doing separate collection times (e.g. days apart) of a specific variety instead of just one. That way if something happens to one batch it might not happen to another.

mulio-
Thanks. Another good suggestion that I'll follow.../

Those look like crossed seed, here's Nagcarlang:

Hope this helps!

A few things about the Barry/Pandy report bug me. Why are the gf designations for "Ailse Craig" and "Philippines no 2" not included in the summary?
How do we know that the specimens used in the genotyping were from reputable sources and not just fruit that the grower alleged to be of that variety?

As far as I have ever been able to find, there is no definitive reason for a tomato plant to form a magabloom or fused blossom. But since it primarily occurs on early blooms, there is a tendency to attribute the formation to cool temperatures during the time that blossoms are developing.

Betsy

Persons interested in growing one of these big tomatoes look for varieties of tomato that grow big and have a tendancy to form fused blossoms. Most of the large blossoms are among the first blossoms on a plant though a few appear later. I have no idea why but I think it does have something at least to do with the variety of tomato.

Marv