16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Yeah, they can put out some bad ones. You have to let them get completely ripe. They are hard and take forever to ripen.

I believe 2014 was the first time I grew Tiny Tims. Started the seed in late January.. Got a few toms off them while still indoors in early spring. Planted them with other toms in raised beds. They kept making more tomatoes as the season went on. I believe they peaked late August, loaded with many handfuls of little red tomatoes. The taste was ok compared to the many late season heirlooms I had growing. But I am a little confused about the determinate classification. Those little guys made toms early and just more and more as the season wore on. They were still making fruit at the end of October. I have a photo or two of them. Think I will push a seed or two in the starting soil soon.

Besides being a nice looking tomato in the picture, what is the news about Brandywine?

It's gorgeous, it's tasty, and it weighed a pound and a half!

Too bad it fruits in January, as it would be frozen in the north (LOL).

Linda

Tommy Toe is my favorite red Cherry. They are on the larger side for being a Cherry tomato. They taste more like an old fashioned red beefsteak tomato than a cherry. They are sweet but also have a good amount of "bite" or acidic taste.That is the best way I can describe the flavor. If you are looking for sweet taste without the acidic flavor then these aren't the tomatoes for you. They are very prolific. I have been eating Tommy Toe tomatoes since I was a little girl, my grandma always grew them and now I grow them.

Thanks everyone! It looks like Sweet Million and Sweet Baby Girl are the favorites so one of those for sure.

Read about it, never grew it.

I grew it last year and I liked the taste but production wasn't great for me. I wouldn't let my opinion of production be a deciding factor for you though! Production can vary year to year for me. Most of my plants had diseases last year due to excessive amounts of rain, so that may have had something to do with it.

Here's a picture of my RubyGold T-shirt on Xmas (what better tomato for that?).

RubyGold is the variety, and has several knock-off names floating around due to people who pinned other names on it, including sweet Mr. Q.

He did what?! Everyone *blushes*.

I would like to know if anyone has an independent RubyGold line not from Q's. I have a similar, but not exactly same heirloom, that is as old as RubyGold or perhaps predates it by around 20 years which I am researching with great enthusiasm. That's why I have the shirt. ;-)

PC

PC

Seeds for Ruby Gold are sold separately and there are quite a few who still list it in the SSE Yearbooks and one of them is a long time friend of mine. See thelink below andnote that Tania also gives a link to Gold Medal.

I didn't know Ben Quisenberry personally but I knew many who did know him, his nephew posted at a site where I hang out and what a surprrise that was and it gave several of us a chance to ask questions about him.

The only way I could imagine that Papa Q. as his nephew called him, was that when he donated his seed collection to SSE he wrote in the margin next to Ruby Gold that he had changed the name. He was not one to do things like that so I'm not so sure about a name change.

The first SSE Yearbook came out in 1975 and there were quite a few gold/red bicolors listed and not surprising since most of them originated in Germany and came to the US from the late 1800's to about 1920 with German immigrants.

The same friend I mentioned above is a collector, if you will, of gold/re bicolors .

And most of the ones that became known via the early Yearbooks of SSE are still with us today..

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Ruby Gold

If you start with a commercial mix like Pro-Mix BX that is pre-fertilized, then no additional fertilizer is needed for at least 4 weeks. The reasons include that the pre-fertilized soil mix is also PH balanced and if you fertilize, you will most likely acidify the mix which reduces plant growth. Once the seedlings reach 4 weeks from seed planting, I encourage a very week fertilizer application to boost final growth. As stated earlier, I use 1/4 teaspoon of fertilizer to feed a full tray of 48 plants. This is more than enough but not so much that it triggers nitrogen imbalance.

If you start with an unfertilized mix such as Seysonn mentions, then it is imperative to add some fertilizer right from the start. Most fertilizers also acidify the soil so a bit of lime should be added too. The way I do this is to mix 1 cup of dolomite lime with 10 cubic feet of loose soil mix.

The fertilizer is best applied as a liquid to the soil mix to wet it for plants. I prefer to do this by mixing 1 level teaspoon of fertilizer per gallon of water, then apply 1.33 quarts to each tray of seed start mix. I am using standard 11" X 22" cell trays (1020NH from Morton Products). Coir and pine bark fines are two very common starting materials for seed that do not contain any appreciable amount of fertilizer.

It is important to me to apply the fertilizer in the bottom of the tray and let it wick up into the soil mix. This does 3 things that are important for the plant. First, it encourages the plants roots to grow downward into the denser nutrients at the bottom of the tray. Second, it avoids exposing the seed to excessive quantities of nitrogen which can sometimes cause problems with germination. Third, it keeps nitrogen off the surface of the soil mix where it can cause algae and fungi to grow. The algae and fungi are not necessarily a problem, but I've found that pepper seedlings really don't like to grow in soil mix that has a lot of other things in it.

I'm going to go back and read up on all the great tips. But I wanted to put in my two pennies too.

I usually get rather healthy seedlings.

I start out with a 2x2 pot. Then when the first true leaves really show, plant deep into a 4x4 pot. Then when they start chunking in that, transplant deep again into homemade pots that are half gallon juice jugs with the tops cut off. I try to encourage a lot of root formation.

While all this is going on, I have them in my solarium, which during the spring growing, hits those nice chill temps, but not too chilly. If it promises to get too chilly, I put them into a mini greenhouse with the bottom lined with milk jugs full of hottest tap water. I have a fan on a timer so they get a few hours on and off breeze during the day- but not all day or no breeze at all.
When I go to harden them off, I put them on the porch where they get a little screening from the deep eves from the full sun to prevent scorch, and some protection from the wind which might be more powerful than my fan. I bring them back in at night for the first few days... and of course if really bad weather is supposed to hit. Then I put them out for a few more days off the porch to get regular elements. Then I finally plant em deep in the garden.

The fertilizer I use is the couple gallons I drain off my aquarium when I do it's weekly cleanings. And my regular tap water, since I live in the boonies and have untreated hard water. And sometimes water from my indoor pond in my solarium- which is just run with a pump, no chemicals or other treatments in it.

rweakley, As fcivish said, they will grow!

As far as I know the only veggies that get treated to prevent sprouting are potatoes!

Sorry about the pic that I promised, I forgot about this post.

I didn't notice the thing below that say's: Check here if you would like post replies emailed to you. I checked it this time!

I grew some from the saved seeds last year and they are a keeper. I saved seeds again.

I've been experimenting with supermarket tomato seeds for a while now. See Supermarket tomato I, II, and III threads. These are from batch 2.

Thanks PC.

I will keep your advice in mind.

There is big place for foliar sprays in the organic garden, but on top of properly prepared soil.
I love my foliar sprays and will never be without.
In the following link also read link to mineralized soil as well

Here is a link that might be useful: foliar sprays

Thanks Yardenman
I have already thought about various options.

Actually when 5' is used as base, (with a 6" overlap) you can make a cage with over 17" diameter. Then if I make them 7ft tall , each cage will cost me about $9 plus all the struggling with bending, tying. Another MINUS of cage is winter storage.
For the above reasoning, I can use a lighter gauge galvanized material and make trellis with 1/2" EMT. So that is what I am going to try on one of my raised beds this year.

Seysonn.

Well, if you go with the 5' high, you can make them as large around as you have CRM. I made mine 2' diameter.

But the CRM cages I made 25 years ago are still fine, so consider it a one-time cost and forget about it.

I simply store my cages behind the shed each winter. But what's wrong with just leaving them in place if you don't have a place to hide them?

The lighter cages don't stand the test of time or the demand of each season, in my opinion.

Elight, I'll try to attach a better picture of my light stand first. And I used to use chains to adjust the height of the lights over the plants, but that got tedious and awkward. Instead, I built little wooden stands to place UNDER the seedling trays to raise them closer to the lights.

It wasn't very hard to build them. I simply cut some cheap plywood to tray size and glued on sides of various heights from scrap wood.

Below the picture of my light stand is a url to my blog post about the tray stands I build to adjust their height.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tray Stands

To add more about light stands, I use daylight or grow bulbs in the lightstand. Some say it isn't worth the cost, but I can usually find them on sale sometime in late Winter at nearly the cost of regular shop bulbs. I think the extra light spectrum is beneficial. Plants grow best in natural sunlight, why not try to duplicate it? I could get into the planty physics if needed.

If I were to construct the light stand new, I would use two 2-bulb fixtures separated by several inches. The single 4-bulb fixtures are narrow and don't illuminate a whole 2'x4' shelf as well as I would like.

The productivity is good too. I think those 4 lighted shelves produced (with some shifting out as early-to-plant plants matured and were replaced with later seedings) 14 flats of healthy sturdy seedlings last year. And I could have processed more if I had reason to.

The shelf unit is only $80 at a Big Box DIY store. And well worth it. The rest of the year, I can store a LOT of gardening tools and supplies there and the floorspace is minimal.

Hope this all helps and that you (many people) will try the idea.

Because the farmer from whom I get my potting mix already includes agricultural lime in his "landscape mix," I don't add any calcium other than what may be in the various fertilizers, including Fertilome iron and micronutrient supplement, that I use periodically during the season.

Yes, a friend who grows tomatoes in 5-gallon bags of coir in hoophouses has a fertigation system that injects a high phosphorus liquid fertilizer four times per 24 hours and liquid calcium once per 24 hours through his drip lines.

I think adding calcium to the potting mix during the growing season would depend on 1) whether the original mix was deficient in calcium to begin with, 2) whether your potting mix is comprised of enough organic material and clay to create a high enough cation equation coefficient to bind the nutrients to the potting mix particles for the plants to take up, and 3) how much water you pass thru the mix leaching out the calcium and other nutrients.

Just to resurrect an old thread and mention that Burpee is selling the Bush Big Boys again. This fine bush tomato disappeared for a couple of years. I have not done it in a container but it does very well for me, produces more than my heirlooms, and is a pleasant a little sweet 10 -12 ounce tomato. Works well in the cages.

I grew this season dwarf Green Jade, the taste is good but difficult to tell when is ripe, I had to go by touch. In my garden considering the amount of foliage was not that productive, maybe in the spring season will do better....

Here it is with a Kosovo

And right now the variety that is so productive in my garden is Green Zebra cherry, and is not difficult to tell when is ripe because it gets a yellow tint. it is coming back the next season for sure!

Silvia

I grew Indigo Blue Berries, they did seem to take a long time to get ripe. Mine were prolific and out of three varieties, they produced the most. I was still eating them, long after the others were done. They turn deep red where the sun doesn't hit.