16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Of course I chose for myself. If I go back I wouldn't buy from that vendor. It must be that he waters way too much. And picked way too early. I don't expect them to pick during the night before market but this was ridiculous. I did get a huge and beautiful lemon verbena for only $4 from an herb stall.
My opinion is that, if you really like it, the name does not matter. Save seeds and continue growing it. Chances are that one day you will identify it.
CASE IN POINT:
Last Fall I bought a heirloom tomato from store. I put a picture of it on this forum. But nobody could ID it, (mostly because my picture was not of good quality). But I saved seeds from it. A week ago I finally positively identified it (Ananas Noire). It is now one of my favorite black/brow tomatoes. Even if had I not identified it, I was going to keep growing it next season no matter what.
On Aug 17th the orginal poster said it was a plant bought at the supermarket.
I had thought fruits at first, but indeed I would go back to the Supermarket since plants that are bought have a label and a source.such as Bonnie plants or Chef Jeff's,to name two common ones around. Also the possibility of local suppliers
Someone there should have an invoice listing what specific varieties were delivered as plants.
I'm not anti-orphan but there are many who list varieties s in the SSE Yearbooks, trade seeds, make seed offers, etc, who must know the names of the varieties they work with.
If just for home use it really doesn't matter, unless, as the original poster asked what could the variety be? ( Smile)
Carolyn
How does GZ Cherry taste to me? Sweet with no tang, no fuity taste at all. Very different from Tom's Green Zebra.
AS to Maglia ROse and Blush, I found that they both needed to be fully ripe to get the best taste.
Tom, If it were me, and it is, I wouldn't automatically assume that anything you might have sent to Kees Sahin was reused, renamed, etc. I once had a list of what you sent the first time, but you never sent the followup varieties.
There are many seed companies in the NEtherlands as you know and there are also many associated places where they raise fruits that are sent all over Europe for commercial sale, such as the small box of mixed cherries that Manfred found in a local store in Germany.
The only exception I can think of would be the origin of Green Sausage, which I first saw being offered by a Swedish Company, which could possibly have been from your Chile Verde or similar.
Kees died quite a few years ago now, as you know, Elisabeth still runs the company, but the only ones I know of that they bred were Snowberry, Bloody Butcher and now I've forgotten the few others which I could find if I went to their website.
Green Doctors was a spontaeous mutation from the variety Dr. Carolyn, and I like it and its clear skinned mutation called Green Doctors Frosted. NEither one tastes like your Verde Claro or Green Grape.
And now I'm thinking of the time we spent together at the Hortus Nursery in Pasadena for their Tomatomania when you drove down from Bakersfield where you were living at the time and brought with you two plants of Green Grape b'c at the time, for some reason that still escapes me, Green Grape had morphed into a det from the original indet, and you'd seen that yourself when you were in the Netherlands.
We all know that taste is both personal and perceptual and that other factors play a huge role such as how plants are grown, what amendments are used and how much, what the soil is like and what the weather is like in any one season, which is why I encourage folks to grow what appeals to them and find out for themselves how any variety does for them as they grow tomatoes.
Carolyn, who also remembers offering you seeds of several varieties at a different message site a few years ago, but you never replied, and I tried twice, but if you want some Green Zebra Cherry seeds you can send me an e-mail at cmale@aol.com and include your address and I'd be glad to send them to you. Right now I don't think I have any fresh seeds of either Green Doctors or Green Doctors Frosted,I may, I'd have to check, but they can be easily found where you normally post or go to Tania's superb tomato data base and look at the several sources and I know Adam Gleckler has both at his site as does Jeff Casey at his site, Casey's Heirloom Tomatoes of Ardrie ( sp?) in Canada. The frosted version was found by three folks at about the same time, Jeff Casey, Neil Lockhart and I believe it was Lee Goodwin, but I may be wrong on...
I can only comment on the Green Zebra Cherry that I having growing now. It is very prolific and the fruit are sweet and juicy. The one thing I have noticed with mine is that if left on the vine a bit too long they start to split, it is either because I have overwatered or that they have a fairly thin skin. This plant is growing in Southern California.
Ruben, I think it would work, but I don't think it is optimal since in my limited experience tomatoes prefer a good root watering and then allowing the soil to get somewhat dry.
Tomatoes are especially vulnerable to Fusarium and Verticillium fungi and I think this style of watering would promote a uniform dampness.
Also, what worries me is that they seem to work based on water tension in what is some sort of calcium mineral block or perhaps a porous ceramic. This means when your plant has peak demand in the day, the probes will need to keep up, and at night when there is no demand, the soil will be as humid as they make it. I think it would work for a plant that is less a water hog than a mature tomato plant. They will also be subject to clogging and impairment with fertilizers and you will probably need several of them for a tomato in a container, which will look like the plant is on a hospital bed with spaghetti tubes scattered about. I can't imagine one of those can deliver more than a half liter in a day - half of which is from 6pm to 6am and unnecessary. You'd probably need about 5 of them for a tomato plant and be dealing with those issues. Great if you need to take off for a few days and don't want to bother the neighbor, I'd think, but not long term...
But the advice is free and I have never used those. I have used an irrometer and it is a wonderful device, 100% US made and with a colorful history. It works on a similar principal but is simply an indicator of soil water âÂÂtensionâÂÂ.
Good luck.
Ok Dave will do. Thanks...Question for you...if this is a soil borne pathogen how is it that the plant which has been in the soil since May 12 is just now being affected. Are all pathogens present in the soil and only affect the plant when stress lowers its ability to battle the pathogen and thus it succumbs to the disease?
This does look like a moth to me....but sure can't tell you which one. If you can get more images, that would help. Sometimes, it helps to get just the right angle.
Leafhoppers are very happy to feed on tomato plants, real estate guy. You're right that they don't usually overwhelm a crop.
NC and Rhizo, thanks both for your friendly advice.
The dang thing is so diminutive and noteworthy in its acute triangular "up" posture. I'm pretty sure I was wrong to say "Orthoptera" because they seem to have long hind legs in the classification scheme. Leafhopper fits and feels right, but I can't find this posture in any leafhopper images online. I was calling them "delta winged micro-moths" LOL, and his eyes do look like they are on top/side of his head, another leafhopper diagnostic.
It could be a moth, but here's what made me rethink it. First it is so tiny and has a hard body, ruling out most moths for size alone, and I couldn't make out any moth antennae. I attempted to crush it in my forefingers after the pic and I can say the body is much harder than I would ever imagine from a moth (Lepidoptera). To confuse me more, I thought some slippery scales on its wings (making it a moth), but to say that is a stretch and might be my filling in what I expect with my mind only; it was just too small to say anything further and I am not even sure what happened to it when I tried to crush it as it seemed to slip right from between my thumb and index finger and either drop into the grass or perhaps it is built like a tank and escaped. That's too bad since I'd like to get someone to take a look at it and they are hard to grab, I need the fingers of a 6-year old for it.
I might try a bottle with a lid. If there are just a few, is this something I should be worried about? I just read that the beet leafhopper is a major cause of Curly Top Virus in tomato, at least in California, but this one isnâÂÂt that species.
One more thing, - does it look like it is feeding on one of the veins of the leaf in the image, because moths don't/can't sap-suck, and maybe the posture is because he is inclining to putting his mouthparts against the leaf, but this is always the posture they have here and I don't see any leafhopper pics like that online.
*confused* I wonder if it is worth bothering the University's entomology department, if it has the potential for a virus, since I'm planning to propagate the plant for more than half of my fall plants' fun.
Any other thoughts please let me know!
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Time is of essence to me. That is why i plant as soon as possible (using hoops and WOA) and plant a lot of eary ones and some mid mids. Though our first frost is normally around mid November but October is usually cold and rainy, not tomatoes kind of weather.
So far most of my plants have produced ripe fruits. I just picked my first Cherokee purple, JBT. But Siberian and Green Zebra are taking their sweet time. Bloody butcher, Sun Gold, Matina, SFT and Early treat have been top producers since mid July.
I am going to drop ML (RC) and pineapple next year. Instead I will try Estler's ML, KBX and Brandy Boy.
I'm in northern MN, and this is the coolest summer that I can remember. We haven't turned on our central air yet this year, and looking at the extended forecast, probably won't. Highs have been mostly in the high 70 /low 80s range and the lows in the high 50s to mid 60s.
Most of my long season varieties aren't going to be able to ripen most of the heavy fruit sets that they have. Beautiful plants, loads of green fruit, but we need some heat. Running out of time. These were planted as very robust 12" high plants at the end of May.
Black Krim has been especially tough to get ripe fruit from. Of the big varieties, Cherokee Purple, and Giant Belgium have been my best. 3 of my big hybrid varieties are also very slow.
The seedling will be ok. Most likely it will be the most beautiful plant you have. It happened to me.
Regarding tall plants with 1 tomato, same thing happened to me last year with a Brandywine - huge but only one.
This year, I have 2-3 plants with few stems, that are 8 ft. tall, and just started to have flowers - mid August. Most likely there will be no ripped tomatoes on those plants.
I also have plants - NOT bush - that had flowers when they were 1 ft. high.
This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 14:15
I accidentally broke the growing tip off a determinate seedling (Latah) and had room so I planted it (June 30) to see what it would do. A lateral (sucker) did take over and when I transplanted it I pointed that straight up, the plant has grown but is much shorter than the others, 2ft tall rather than 3-4ft (I planted 2 other Latahs at the same time, right next to it, for comparison).
It got flowers and now fruit on the tip of that lateral so I thought it was all over, that I would only get fruit from that cluster, there weren't any other flower trusses, but other laterals have grown taller and I have flowers on those. I will report back on fruit set. It will be much less productive than the other Latahs but may not be as bad as I originally thought.
I would not add water. sounds dangerous to me. I might add vinegar as it is most important to keep the Ph low. adding water could cause a dangerous Ph in the final product. Even with canning tomatoes without anything added some tomatoes require some vinegar to make them safe.
well some people might use lime juice or lemon juice in place of vinegar. but all are acidic. some water can be highly basic in certain parts of the country. I think out West. things are more acid in the East. But everyone must be careful. I like to add a touch of vinegar to all my tomato canning in jars. just to be safe. but then I like low acid tomatoes to grow.
many recipes are dangerous and I would get a new up to date Ball Canning jar book. they sell them in most Wal Mart stores at a discount of some kind.
for safety I prefer to can my tomatoes plain with nothing added to the jar but some vinegar. then I use that to make my recipe when I cook. that way I do not have added ingredients that might cause the entire jar to go bad. not worth the risk to me.
No one said anything about water. The liquid called for in the recipe is 1C wine, 1C vinegar, and 1/2C water which is safe. The recipe is from the 2006 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving which is still considered up to date (I forget when the last Blue Book was published but maybe 2010? They don't actually update it every year).
mary - I didn't see a post over on Harvest - did you get your answer?
Here is a link that might be useful: Ball Bruschetta recipe
I bought a small heater and put the temperature around 80â F.
Some varieties took 3 days for seeds to sprout, while other varieties took 7 days. Even in the same variety, some took 3 days while others 4-5 days.
I was very happy to discover this method, because it allowed me - after choosing the nicest seeds - to select the best sprouted seeds. Than, selecting the best seedlings, I came up with some really nice plants.
This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 17:20
Thanks Lindalana for sharing the specifics of your techniques; I had started some exotic ones last night and when I read what you said, I actually put a heat lamp/heating pad on them as they were well insulated under a humidity dome and tucked in with a thermometer, and I took it up to 92 degrees F before removing the heat (room temp is close to 79 F here all the time). The temperature settled back within a few minutes; so maybe that will do for the lukewarm water, it was only one variety and probably my slowest one and the seeds had just (finally!) arrived.
Daniel thanks too and for the great pictures. I was going to try something similar and it is reassuring it is working nicely for you and probably solves a uniformity problem if you need that. There are three reasons why I held off doing that, disease, expensive or having few seeds, and bumblefingers me stressing small sprouts upon a transfer.
Here's the thing with me. Molds are a great problem here. Not necessarily initially, but later as the seedling develops. I used to add a small amount of fertilizer to my seedlings but now I do everything germination related in pure (distilled) water under sterile conditions including no paper, filters, etc. Holding off on the small nutrient content doesn't allow anything undesirable to get much of a start and the fertilizer can always be added diluted later. But I think I'll try next a few minutes soak in a very weak soluble fertilizer like Lindalana mentioned and then sowing the seeds into distilled water as normal (for me), though it will be inorganic.
If that doesn't cut down on the scattered germination times, I'll think about pre-germination but once I get a plant going the problem is usually slowing its growth, not selecting for vigor, at this latitude, though for fall it might make more sense. I'm just frugal with the seeds as I usually only get about 20 and preselect only the well-formed ones. I started by double sowing, and that has the same problem, too much seed waste and leaves decaying material.
This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 10:49