16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Having a 1 in. Brandywine tomato fruit at the end of the season, for me, is a kind of offence to the variety.

Pickle them!

No, Daniel. I was responding to the OP's post.

finally those tomatoes have small fruits... at 7 ft. high, nothing lower... now they are 9 ft high.

But, is it better to alternate products ? Or it's better to stick with one product ?

Anybody...?

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

there was a recent thread on seed starting here. I know some people do but fridge can be way too humid. There is no need for it in my experience specially if you will be using it for next year. Closet with stable room temp works just as fine.

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).

That is just what I meant. Naming, suffixing, prefixing a tomato with "Mortgage Lifter" does not creates a genetic relationship. It is similar to "Beef Steak". It is just the layman's naming.

Carolyn, thank you very much for the offer. We are going to visit our son next month and will see how his seed-saving goes. If he is not successful, you betcha you will be hearing from me LOL! I really do appreciate it.
Edie

I thought i might be looking to much but when some of my tomatoes went red the black spots remained also the pant has seemed yo be stuned for awile now

What is the name of the variety? Many varieties normally have darker shoulders just like that even when fully ripe. Do some research into what is normal for your variety so you know what to except.

Dave

Thx Linda! That's what I'll do!

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)

You have only shown a few leaves, not your plant !

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.

Many factors affect taste and the number one is personal preference.. The weather , sun and soil are are important REAL factors.
Fruits, in general, grown in sunny, less humid, less rainy, ideal temperatures taste better. Just an example : the grapes produce best wine in places like France, Italy, Spain and some parts of California. The same grape won't produce the same wine when grown in NY state.
Genetics is yet another determining factor.

The other thing is (in my opinion) that being early , mid or late has nothing to do with tomato's taste.

I'm growing the Stupice this year for the 1st time. I chose it because it was an early one. LOL with the weather we've been having this season it was about 2 weeks late. It is still producing for me even though temps here have now dropped into the low 50's each night. Mine is in a large container and is now 5'+ in height. It is still producing and as to the taste I do enjoy it. Taste is subjective as we know!

Could it be deer? That's my problem. Sometimes they will pick them off the vine without leaving any teeth marks. Check if you have some that are partially eaten.
John A

No deer. I am in a city. I have a lot of rugrats running around, though.

These are a roma-sized tomato, called Juliet. They really want to fall of the vine. If I so much as brush past a cluster off tomatoes while reaching for a ripe one, they will fall off the vine.

Bill - lots of previous discussions here about ground cherries and tomatillos both. Many grow them. Personally I never cared for ground cherries so don't grow them but tomatillos are easy, or at least as easy as growing tomatoes.

But I sure wouldn't write off growing tomatoes either as many Floridians do it successfully and many of the rest of us really envy your two seasons for growing. Nematodes can be treated or you can just use containers. Same goes for diseases. And given all the thousands of tomato varieties available perhaps you need to investigate using different varieties with very different maturity dates than what you have been using.

Have you checked with all the tomato growers over on the Florida Gardening forum here for tips?

Dave

Thanks for the reply, Dave. I do grow regular tomatoes--usually successfully. I probably always will grow tomatoes. I've gotten tons of advice from the people over on the Florida forum. I've been hanging out over there more than a decade now. I ask about tomatillos and Physalis Peruviana not to find a substitute for tomatoes (there is none), but to get a better idea of how they will do here and how much work will be involved.

loved the Speckled Romans last year but Fedco doesn't have them any more

so plant the seeds you saved from last year from the tomatoes that you loved.

I am already fermenting 3 varieties to save seeds for the next season.

Early varieties, as Bmoser has mentioned, tend to be smaller., about 1.5 oz avrge.

In the top 10 earlies are:
--- BLOODY BUTCHER, STUPICE, MATINA, KIMBERLY, MOROWSKI (?) DIV.
I am growing the first 3 of them. They are indet, PL and prolific. Matina is nice round red, very juicy (salad type). Stupice and BB are lobed and meaty (sauce type). Siletz has almost no seeds (good slicer on sandwich) .

I have found another one which has fairly bigger fruits, in 4 to 6 oz range. It is called SILETZ. I was neck to neck with Bloody Butcher in my garden