16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I wouldn't worry about it. You will probably have zillions of tomato volunteers springing up there next year, but since you don't plan to grow tommies there again, all you'd have to do is hoe the area or pull up the seedlings if you don't want them.
Linda
^^^^agree; if you can handle the smell, there shouldn;t be anything to make people sick in it. I'd save the cat litter for the kitty box and not use it on the tomatoes. If you want and the ground isn't hard, just hoe the mushy parts under now, or bring a wheelbarrow full of sand/soil from elsewhere and cover the especially offensive parts, or speed them on their way by dispersing them with the hose.
If you can't remove them though and the plants were diseased and something like gray mold sets in, that's too bad, maybe best just to chalk it up as an organic experiment and leave them to solarize, ferment/rot, the natural way.
PC
If you just want to plant a "SINGLE" row of tomatoes, I would say : Make is about 2ft wide. But for all-purpose planting 3ft to 4ft wide is common . With 3ft wide you can two staggered rows of tomatoes. (WWW...zig zag pattern)
With clay soil , I would recommend lots and lots of organic matter (compost, all kinds of manure, fine pine bark mulch). That should make a nice soil. I did exactly that with GA red clay soil, when I was in Atlanta.
Seysonn
@seysonn - thanks for that. I did a neem spray over the weekend - hoping for the best. will probably give it another round this weekend. I'm using 10ml of Neem oil in 1000 ML of water. Sound right?
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Are you using pure Neem Oil ?. Does it come with instruction ?
I have a concentrate, that has about 75% Neem + 25% other stuff. I mix about one Table Spoon in a Gallon : That is roughly 7 ml in 1000 ml.
Can you tell us where you are ? In USA? In Australia ? What are your temperatures? How many hours of sun your plant gets ? What is the variety ? AND can you post a picture of the whole plant ?What kind of soil you are using ? Does the container have good drain holes ?
Seysonn
jhamoud, this summer I had one plant who's leaves looked identical to yours in the first picture. However, the branches didn't fall off when green, but rather just turned dark and dried up like the leaves. I posted pictures and requested help diagnosing it. I was told it was Grey Mold. It did not have the fuzzy mold spores like in the pictures, so I wasn't sure that was the right diagnosis. But whatever it was, it spread to the plant next to it and both lost tons of leaves and branches despite spraying with a fungicide and religiously picking off the affected branches and leaves. It hit mid summer, so I still got a really good harvest before I pulled them in the fall. Wish I could help you further. Jennie
I'm not in your zone, but I believe you only have a 120 growing period. Theoretically we have a 6 month growing period here in the high desert, but I have better luck putting in a double crop of spring and fall tomatoes, so I'll be interested to see if you get any 'short season' recommendations.
Jan
Just got done removing the plants out of my no-till raised bed at work. The roots didn't venture far from the main stem, maybe 8" and root depth was down to 6". Studies have shown most of your microbes/spores in untilled soil are in the 3" to 6" depth range. So basically the roots won't wander far if the nutrients and microbes are close to home and they get adequate moisture.
So basically the roots won't wander far if the nutrients and microbes are close to home and they get adequate moisture.
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The purpose of the roots venturing is to find moisture and nutrients. If they can find it nearby, there be be no need/reason for them to run around. Also there won't be an urgency to grow more roots. So if the plants are watered and fed in a shallow fashion, that is how the root system would be, SHALLOW. But if you let them get thirsty between watering and water real deep, then they will have to go deeper, searching for moisture and food.
But I think also plants have some roots growth habit like top growth habit. But according to my analysis, a tomato plant can do fine in a 18 inch by 18 inch square surface area with a depth if about 18". That will constitute over 3 cubic feet of soil (about 20 gallons). The of course , managing the top growth is another issue.
Seysonn
Linda, I hope you saved some Pipo seeds! If you did, treat them like gold! Tatiana announced last year that she was nearing the end of her supply, and I haven't found them anywhere else. I don't know why that variety never seemed to catch on....at one time I saw it being called the '42 day tomato' and thought surely that would do it, but the name didn't stick.
My seeds are old, and so far only one has sprouted, but I'm going to treat that plant like garden royalty, just so I can harvest a fresh batch of seeds.
I've only grown two of the cross hemisphere project's dwarf toms, (Iditarod Red and Perths Pride), but you've reminded me that I need to look at this year's offerings and see if I want to repeat those or grow something new. Have you made your selection yet?
jan
Hi Jan,
I saved seeds from Pipo. It's a winner! If you need some, please contact me privately and we can swap.
I also have seeds for 42 Days, so you are saying that these are the same as Pipo! I gave my seedlings away last summer and am growing it again this winter!
I have seeds for the following, so it looks as if I'll be growing:
Dwarf Mr Snow
Dwarf Rosella Purple
Dwarf Arctic Rose
Dwarf Tasmanian Chocolate
Dwarf Wild Fred
Dwarf Rosella Crimson
also
New Big Dwarf (not part of the dwarf project)
These are all rated really well for taste by Patrina, the Australian lady who is in charge of the dwarf project out there.
Linda
Some tomatoes Seysonn are very dry and certainly much drier than Roma VF for example. Why San Marzano Redorta is much drier than regular San Marzano but I think San Marzano is drier than Roma. Some of those other ones Linda and Ted mentioned are just all little hunks of meat. Redortas are huge though so that's something to consider. I sometimes just split em, and toast them with cheese. Toasting burns off a good amount of their juice.
Sandhill has Piennolo del Vesuvio. Look it up on google and watch the videos.
What affects a tomato plants fruiting schedule is weather. If you are growing during cold weather, and low light conditions typical of Winter, the plants are slower to produce fruit. If however you are growing when nights are in the sixties and days no more that eighties with strong sunny conditions they will set and ripen fruit like crazy.
Different varieties take differing amounts of time to produce fruits "early tomatos" like Early Girl or Bloody Butcher may list DOM (days to maturity) as 58 or 62. But that is from setting the plants out, not from seedling, which would typically add another 45 to 60 days. Big beefsteak tomatoes like Brandywine may be 85 DOM.
Theoretically indeterminates in the right climate can live and produce for a long time, but blight and pests often take them down before the end of the summer season. But, if you like the taste of either variety, you can root a pruned sucker or two, from a healthy plant, and have another crop later in the year.
Jan
Seems like a consensus is forming! Thanks so much for your help. We have had too much rain for tomatoes this spring and with our sandy soil I guess that's a recipe for nutrient run-off.
I have given them some Powerfeed Flowers and Fruit and will post the result.
Any opinions on foliar feeding?
Thank-you PC.....I agree that it was not stabalized before release.And since todays tomatoes of this variety are seedy,its been crossed many times since then,But not surprizing after 100 years.But im still going to grow them all out and see what I come up with.Some of the original genes has still got to be in the tomato.Especially the seeds im getting from the original company,and the seeds from the seed bank which are from the original company in 1992.
This post was edited by pappabell on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 7:27
pappabell, good luck with your great project and thanks again for posting all this! Above is my attempt at the complete translation of the long original release description from your page of the old Ingegnoli catalog you posted ;-)
Ciao but I hope to learn how it goes!
PC
Black Krim. I've grown both Cherokee Purple and Black Krim and prefer the Krim.
I also always grow Anna Russian. Huge, heart-shaped fruit, dense flesh and good for canning. Last year, however, I think I got one fruit from two plants because the rabbits love them too. Every time one got close to ripe there'd be a huge bite out of it the next day.
Caryl
For my climate, Black From Tula and others.