16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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Scorion1,

So far, no luck on sending or receiving email. I'll try sending, again.

Gary

@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

For beefsteaks, Neves Azorean Red and Shuntukski Velican are at the top of my very short list.

For hearts, the list would be much longer.

Any other type of tomato... I don't bother to keep a list.

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.

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/tomato.html

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

I am with antipodean....100%

Seysonn

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

Sungold sounds like a good one to try, maybe I will try that.

If you haven't tried it, you'll be in for a pleasant experience. It really is tasty, as well as prolific. Too bad it's a hybrid and we cannot save seeds!

Linda

Hi PC, Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for the reply!

I'll bring the lighting down to 16hrs. Initially the grow light was a few inches above the plant, though with the new tent I had raised it a few feet above to get the light spread covering the floor where the herbs and lettuce live. This has made the plant stretch right out trying to get to the light. I'll raise the tomato plant within a few inches of the light again.

Analysis of the Ionic is N-2.3, P-.33, K-2.9, Ca-0.95, Mg-0.42 (%w/v)

It also contains all the trace elements. Recommended EC is approx 1.4-1.6mS/cm which is a little above your recommended max. so I'll drop the concentration a bit. I thought an excess of calcium could be inhibiting nutrient uptake so I've stopped the nutrient the last 4 days, just water but have seen little difference.

I plan on mixing my own nutrient soon, I'll be testing it on a batch of lettuces to see how the ratios affect the yield. Though this Ionic is only $8.00 and at the listed dilution will make over 1000L of nutrient.

How do you know I have excess salt? Is it something you can see with the plant?

Thanks for the help, I'll make the changes as per your recommendations and post how it goes!

Hi BennVenn,

I didn't realize you are in Australia till now... who in their right mind isn't growing their tomatoes outside down under in this wonderful season? You know 80% of the North Americans are foaming at the mouth just waiting for Spring here ;-) Just joking around ... I'm sure this is a great learning experience. Let me just give a few pointers and address a couple more doubts you had.

OK, $8/1000L for an all-in-one product .... hmmmm Unless I'm wrong that's 3 cents a gallon, way to go mate! .... wait, let's just look at it to be sure ...

OK, the formula is no good for fruiting tomatoes, though it ought to be ok for greens and herbs. Potassium nitrate was not the way to adjust it, it should have been adjusted with sulfate of potash, and we don't knowthe micros so who knows except the leaves don't show any problem with them yet. Too young to say really. I looked at the way the leaves curl in your excellent pictures and that is why I thought you had some accumulated salts already. But it could be that the plant is simply weak. Both are likely. Coconut based substrate is less forgiving on roots than a mineral substrate and when repotting that is an art, not a science where you rip as few roots as you can and open it up somewhat, and put it in its new place avoiding compacting in any way so the roots have time to spread out. I think your comments about roots and water are not far off the mark, except that it is oxygen, not water that is getting excluded and this will be a risk of fungal problems now ... another reason not to dawdle on repotting.

We didn't talk about the composition of your source water. 16 CF is fine at this stage including the water ;-).

OK, if that is fine ...back to the formula, if it is one liter (100:1), you are blasting the poor plants with nitrogen, and unless your source water is passing through a calcite mine, the calcium is not a problem, but will likely become your first deficiency ... it's too low. The formula will work fine at 200:1, but as the fruit load increases, then iron must be added as long as you want to use this sub-optimal tomato product.

What kind of grow light do you have? can it deliver roughly 500 W/m2? OK, well, at least 350, but to each of the leaves? All right, you can twist the tomato plant's arms some and have 200, but that will only get by. Unfortunately it is the lower leaves that are doing most of the photosynthesis and the bulb must be near them unless it is one of these expensive new bulbs that claims a mini-solar directed output. Still the nice reflective room you made is better than I ever had.

Your choice of plant variety is a problem to light up. It is a vigorous indeterminate which needs to make lots of plant mass to complement that fruit mass you're after. Consider a manageable dwarf variety for indoors like that ... and adjust your expectation actually, back to being realistic. You can utilize light with enormous efficiency then. Google the Southern Hemisphere dwarf project and get a good one of those and you'll really have a wonderful project.

OK, I hope I helped more than I confused... but I'm thinking it might be a bit much ... let me know if it's helpful or I if need should clear up or said something dumb lol.

PC