16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Bees are becoming primary concern for me, next year we have plans to add bee theme to the plant swap and set up table for swapping on bee favorites... I have phenomenal annual which reseeds, impatiens glandulifera, great bee magnet. It is 6 feet tall and needs no care whatsoever...
Am thinking I had just about every known fungal and bacterial problem with my tomatoes but the LB.
I am not fond of Daconil, nor do I like copper. I have long standing habit of eating tomatoes off the vine...
There is no one spray that will work year from year, just as Daniel got lucky this year with copper next year could present different picture, wind direction will change, weather will be more unfavorable, really does not depend how experienced or careful gardener too... life happens...
LB is tough, so sorry you had been hit so many times.
Tania from tatianatomatobase, reports that open tunnel structure, i.e. similar to greenhouse but with 2 short sides off has been really helpful to protect from air borne problems, Tania does not use any sprays. This is the route I am considering adding to my aerated compost sprays. I do feel comfy with my microbes LOL
May I suggest that you consider getting Mountain Merit and including a few in your garden next year. Also, Iron Lady has significant tolerance. They won't totally stop Late Blight, but they will slow it down significantly and will give you more time between fungicide applications. Yes, copper is a fungicide!
This little guy popped up in the yard mid season and fruits are now turning color. I did not plant any cherry or paste types this year but have been overloaded with them.
I am still picking full size fruit and have about 30-40 ripening on kitchen counter. :-)
Today I visited my local community garden. The tom plants are not doing so great. The lower leaves (about 2' and lower) fell and the tomatos are very small. But the cherry tomatos are still going wild, but with even smaller fruits.
I do not know if this is normal, or the plants are not watered enough, or they should rotate the beds more often. I do not see any obvious diseases....
For what it is worth, my Japanese Black Truffles are putting out about 30% round fruits this year... and I have 4 plants of them and they all are doing it. I have grown this variety for about 4 years and they have always been very pear shaped. Go figure...
Thank you. I guess we will have to see. I still think it will turn out to grow beefsteaks. But I will have fun waiting to see. Interesting that it is not following the "norm" for environmentally caused changes, but I can't get past the fact that I have found a few beefsteak shaped fruit on the same plant, so to me, it really has to be environmental. As you may have guessed, I don't buy lottery tickets very often either, lol. A bit too pragmatic. But I do love the look of the fruit. I find the yellow heart shape to be very pretty.
Yeah, talk about differences. Here SM fizzled out after few years of growing, just not making it for me. Some years when it is hot and dry summer we do ok, get us back to typical rain, cool, windy June with some sunshine, oops SM is done.
Overall I am more and more sure that having varieties that do well with setting fruit in cool weather, high adaptability and do well in short seasons is way to go for me.
I like Prue a lot but this year was not good for Prue, so not good that I likely not grow it ever again. Orange strawberry was great find this year though.
I think of paste tomato more in terms èIf I cut it and juice is running down my fingers, it goes into juice making bucket, if there little to no juice, going to sauce-dehydrating pileè
ddsack - I plant my F1s from Burpee commercial seed but don't save any seeds from those. I've gotten rid of most of my older saved seed. The deer pretty much wiped out all of my BBs this year so I won't have any F11s. If you save seed from your F10s, I would very much appreciated having some.
John A
I am in SW Colorado, and my CP do just great. Being at 7,000', we have a very short summer, and can't put anything outside until after June 1st. All my tomatoes begin life in the GH, and I transfer out to the ground later in June. I have tried outside in pots, inside in pots and outside in the ground; the ground tomatoes are always better, and much more disease resistant.
CP is my favorite tomato, but like many, could not get them last year. I did Black Prince instead, and although they are smaller than the CP (about the size of a large Roma), they are prolific. Great flavor, 2nd only to the CP. I am beginning to plant more "purple" tomatoes than any other, the flavor being so superior. But I do mix in the reds (Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Big Beef) because the purples are so sweet. CPs are just heavenly aren't they?
A tasty firm tomato. Good in salads, sandwiches, or anyplace you need flavor but firmness. I agree that this should be one of the tomatoes you plant, but not the only tomato you plant. I always plant lots of "purples" (Cherokee, Prudence, or Black Prince) for soups and sauces, or just eating alone. Much sweeter taste in them.
I am growing Bush Steak and am happy with it. I have one plant in container and one in ground they both are producing.
I read a lot of good reviews on Big Beef. I am tempted to grow it next season along wit Brandy Boy for the first time.
I have already published my other favorite as well as my ZAP list.
I wish you all happy ending for 2014 season.
I have had a great season. Can't complain.
let us show some pictures;
Below is a picture depicting part of a bed (~ early August). As you can see, the lower parts are well trimmed/pruned. Even with all that, later in the season the tops got quite heavy.
I will take new pictures and post them.
I cannot judge the quality and health of your plants based on the pictures, but I think one of the possibilities for not having fruits can be high temperatures. So if you are getting consistent temps over 90F, then it is likely that your plants are aborting (aka blossom drop).
Just a brainstorming type of thing :-)
"The leaves are quite small too...are they in full sun? ...but the plants should be growing nicely if all other conditions are met..."
There's an enormous difference between your zones 2 and the OP's zone 9, and one of those is that high heat can cause a chunky stocky indeterminate to get all wonky thin. The plant can also have a hard time recovering from that state when the weather breaks cool after sustained high heat. Maybe it's just emaciation.
Maybe this can be eased by changes in watering/shading/fertilizing. Maybe not, I dunno, but it also tends to produce weeny rooted clones. Again, this happens only to some people in super hot/dry areas. Right now I have one Sweet 100 that's over-summered, a few more that were layered from it in the dirt, a couple that were rooted in water from cuttings from it, and some more that were grown from seed started in July. The mama plant is one sick puppy (that may or may not pull through fruit-wise), the outdoor clones are skinny, the seeded starts are chunky, all except mama are flowering, and there's not a hint of fruit in sight.
Hey, it's an experiment and the dirt's not being used otherwise, but the point is that sustained heat, lack of fundamental soil moisture, and very dry air can smack tomato plants silly.
Here in IL from all accounts people did really well with yields of tomatoes. Most people I know say " best year for production" so I am not sure about changing varieties... might have been something else going on for you- what was your particular problem- not growing well, not setting fruits, getting disease?
Jerry, to get real advice, It would be helpful if you described your growing conditions :
--- In ground, or container (If latter, container size, what kind of soil)
--- Soil type, and test ?
--- Temperature range (highs, lows) , say in July and August, for example
--- Amount of sun ; direct, defused, shade
--- Watering and fertilizing regiment
--- Pest and/or diseases, if any.
--- Do do, stake, cage? How do you support them ? Prune any ?
They're currently under two 2' 2 lamp T5 fixtures (not HO, 28w tubes) on the little shelf I have them on, and there are three clamp on brooder lamps with CFLs (equiv. to 100w incandescent... not sure what the actual CFL wattage is) supplementing some side lighting. I doubt the energy usage for this addition is excessive. My regular light shelf has two shop lights, two HO t5 2 bulb fixtures, and 1 4 bulb HO fixture. My main light shelf is running year round with either seedlings or nursing the orchids we almost killed in the main house back to health.
These guys have never seen natural light. I started them under T12 shop lights supplemented by a brooder lamp with a CFL (adds some heat to encourage the seedlings to grow as well as supplemental light, the shop lights run very cool). Then when they out grew that shelf they moved to a different shelf with t5 HO lights (54w tubes). They moved to their current spot off my main light shelf when they outgrew that shelf.
Started in 6 pack seed starting cells, transplanted them to the solo cups once they outgrew those. I'm feeding them every other watering with a diluted 10-10-10 mix in their water.
So far, they've been flowering like mad and setting fruit extremely well. Much better than I expected it to go. I was not expecting this many flowers this quickly.
Oh, and this is in my basement, and I believe (I need to check the timer) I have a 16h on 8h off schedule. I'm far from an expert. I've started seedlings, overwintered other plants, and grew some things like lettuce and chard. I'm learning by trail and error. entirely possible that I'm going to find this entire attempt to be one big error ;)
Depend on the variety, IMO.
Some dets produce one flush and then take a long pause. So if you have a short season, forget the second flush (e. SFT). Some dets actually act like indets, producing continuously ( eg. Bush Steak, Siletz, ..). Some indets are known not producing much . like Cherokee Purple, Brandywine (my experience).
So I think there is no way to make a generalization. You have to take each tomato separately and see its productivity in your climate/zone.
I think also it might depend whether you are counting pounds or number of tomatoes. Most of my Det plants produced more tomatoes but smaller.
Next year I will be growing mostly Det or all Det not sure yet.
I will also be planting fewer plants, I over planted this year and ended up with way too many tomatoes. I didn't think that could happen. LOL
One of my favorite Det tomatoes this year was Bush Beefsteak, it is a pretty nice variety to grow.
I did find some very interesting articles on fermenting tomatoes as well as peppers...
http://www.underwoodgardens.com/slide-recipes-and-cooking/ingredients/tomato/fermented-tomato-conserve-conserva-cruda-di-pomodoro/#.VCAXJGd0zzB
That's a German Johnson (PL?). Or maybe it isn't. Maybe it is somebody's Mortgage Lifter. Or maybe it isn't. Should have held on the the label!.
PC
It does look like a nice one. Less seed/gel, more meat, full flavored.
As for type, I have no idea. But since you didn't remember the name then maybe it was generically packaged as "Beefsteak" etc etc.
Hold onto seed and start them a couple of weeks earlier than your other seeds. If next summer's temps are higher then maybe it will coax more production out of the them.
Steve.