16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I have to cut and paste so I have a reference point and don't have to go back up to your original post.
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(This volunteer tomato grew in my garden close to an area where I had previously grown Sungold, Gold Medal, Chocolate Cherry, Black from Tula, Japanese Black Trifele and Riesentraube tomatoes. I'm guessing it is either a rare cross between two of those or, perhaps, a reversion of the Sungolds? I guess it could have been planted by a bird from some distant neighbor. I would like any input you might have. The skin is almost translucent, pineapple-y yellow. They are shaped like miniature Gold Medals.)
If it were a natural cross between any of the dark colored ones or Riesentraube, the F1 could not have been light coloroed since the dark ones and Riesentraube ( red ) have colors genetically dominant to light colors.
Anyone I know who has had volunteers from Sungold F1 or from saved F2 seeds of the hybrid have gotten orange or red cherries. Red b/c the gene(s) for the flat truss trait are red. So I don't think a reversion of Sungold, which has many parental inputs, not just two parents.
Other than a low flying bird, that leaves Gold Medal and Sungold as a possible cross.
Small fruit size is dominant to large fruit size.
I'm judging the fruit size of what you have by looking at your finger, and fruit size is much smaller than what one would suspect for Gold Medal, yet larger than anything Sungold sized.
The fruits you show have no coloration consistent with the gold/red bicolor of Gold Medal/
And since small fruit is dominant to large fruiit, it could have been a natural cross between Sungold F1 and Gold Medal. I don't know the genetics of such bicolors like Gold Medal, so I'll suggest that it might be possible that the genes for the coloration of Gold Medal were not brought forward.
One way to tell is to save seeds of what you show, put out as many plants as you can next season and see what you get.
Other than that there's always the low flying bird theory, as you know. LOL
Carolyn
I don't think we can make generalizations about pruning and training without considering the plant's genetics and the infinite variation of tweaks employed by each grower. I'll never find out though because I'm pretty sure a 30 foot high cage would earn me a visit from the county lawn code inspector!
Anyway, if you want to look at World records, look at the overhead sprawl "technique". Wilber's record on pounds is long broken. 32,000 "golf ball sized tomatoes" were harvested by just one vine at Disneyworld. I would estimate a golf ball tomato to be an ounce, so that is 2,000 pounds from one plant. A ton of Cherry tomatoes on your plant. Different growing method and delicious enough to serve to guests of the theme park.
This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 0:54
If I understood correctly, Mr. Wilber's technique is NOT about having a 29 ft. high cherry tomato. Is about the "18 branches method."
I don't see how you came to that conclusion from the link you posted. The "18 branches" is only mentioned once in the article and even then it is a minor mention, last on his list of pointers. There is far more info on how to build a cage, feed and water, and control pests than about any pruning.
The article focus is about growing world record tomatoes in a barrel and offers very little of value to the average gardener. That probably explains why the methods in the book, published many years ago, never really caught on.
Dave
As I said above, I also like dairy in my tomato soup, but I do not add the dairy until I am preparing it to eat. What's canned is all vegetables and herbs! Everything I put in it can be canned, so long as a pressure cooker is used. And this really is a Harvest forum topic!
My apologies for not posting this in the Harvest section. I actually looked under "cooking" and "recipes." Still finding my way around here.
The soup turned out great. Made a test batch with two cups puree, 1 cup chicken stock, and 1/4 cup cream, among other ingredients. Then canned the puree (added lemon juice). Mmm...fresh tomato soup this winter.
At the top of this first page you'll find a link to some excellent FAQ's, well, some are outdated but one of THE best is the one on How to prevent Cross pollination which I've linked to below.
I've been an SSE member since 1989 and the article I linked to here is far better than anything SSE has written, at least IMO.
I've also posted here several links on NCP, (natural cross pollination), all to say that there are many variables and different folks growing in different areas and different seasons cannot assume that self pollenization is always low.
Hope the link helps,
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Cross Pollination
For actual seed starting I like old egg cartons (washed and rinsed, of course!). I get seed-starting soilless mix and get it soaking wet with warm water then scoop it out of the water and squeeze it to the consistancy of a wet sponge, then put it into the egg carton and kind of smooth it into each egg cup. I put one seed in each cup and cover it with a bit of the mix and close the lid. Then I put the carton on top of the refrigerator if it's just one, or on top of the water heater if I'm doing several at one time. I let it go for about 3 days and start checking. When I have 2 or 3 seedlings pop through is when I move it under lights and let the rest of them come up as they will. After the first set of true leaves, using a plastic spoon as my "shovel", I transplant to 16 oz cups with holes poked into the bottoms using a soilless potting mix. That's what works for me, others may have suggestions that work better for you.
Edie
I would love to hear his answer and believe with a bit sincere flattery to his produce/work you can gain some insights which hopefully you will share!
I start early with WOW and soil warming and for my zone while most people just started their large tomato ripening for couple of weeks now, I am at the end tail of mine, canned all I could, did my share of giving, juiced etc. Would not know how to do it on large farm scale but with my 80 plus plants it was not a big deal although it is work.
I don't know if they'll tell me - they had an employee there last night. If I stop by maybe his wife will tell me but we're competitors (though I'm way smaller, usually grow about 150 tomatoes, this year 200 and it's too much for 1 person to keep up with along with everything else).
I've been expanding the garden for 5 years now, my 4th year selling, trying to learn all I can reading books, from GW (digdirt is the best mentor!) but other than growing under cover (GH or HT), spraying (and this farm says they don't spray, imagine they use copper but that didn't help mine this year, maybe he knows of something else and/or has enough help to keep pruning, rotates crops) I don't know what they could be doing.
I guess I have to ask what kind(s) of tomatoes they're growing besides Juliet. I know he's grown heirlooms in the past, didn't see any last night, either he's given up or they're not ready yet. But he always grows Juliet b/c it's prolific - I just don't think it tastes that good, tough skin, so I don't grow it. I may not have earliest tomatoes at market (maybe next year with a high tunnel I can be close), but I want people to come back for the taste. I taste everything I sell, so I can tell people what it's like (if I can find the right words, sometimes that's hard, taste is subjective).
Maybe he's growing something in the Mountain line - though I didn't think they got that big - maybe Mountain Merit? Another (certified) organic grower, who is not at market this year, gave me a Mountain Magic to try last year and I didn't care for the taste of that either. Is that line resistant to septoria? I read that Cornell was working on it, but all I found in a Google search was Iron Lady - maybe he got some seeds for that? Of course, who knows what his plants look like, the tomatoes looked good (but like grocery store hybrids).
Because you will be out of town :
-- put the very ripe ones in the refrigerator.
-- pick any and all the tomatoes with a hint of color and place them in a cardboard box inside lots of crumble newspaper, put the box in a relatively cool place (like basement). By the time you return ( in 7 days) they should be ripening. Anything else on the plant wont have a chance to over ripen in that time(7 days)
Is the tomato growing in the ground, or in a pot? Container tomatoes need fertilizer every week or so (diluted to 25% strength or so), because most of the fertilizer you use will be washed out of the pot when you water.
It would also help to know what fertilizer you are using.
In mid January this year we had 5' F. Is that cold enough to kill those little gizmos ?
In mid January this year we had 5' F. Is that cold enough to kill those little gizmos ?
They tend to just go dormant, not die, when exposed to cold. Live fungus spores have been found in the arctic. :)
Dave