16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes


Thanks, Carolyn for a good reply. I remember the Fused blossom on the plants but I did not know about it. Still I have some tomatoes (fused blossom) on the plants. They are Brandywine Black the stem are not tangle and they are huge. A couple of them have small cracking lines. The plant have enough water and nutrient but the container are small it is about 3 US gallon. I water at least twice a day. Soon they are going to be ripe.
Linda you are cleaver. I only knew after I cut off the stem. Next time I will do just like you did. The two tomatoes with roots I put them on a small pot, just for experiment.
Daniel you got a very nice tomato.

That's the spirit, Lionheart. I grew potatoes this year too, but harvested before the blight showed up.
I took one bed out yesterday, and will finish this week. I'm checking the maters I rescued every day. Some are hanging tough.
Next year, I'm using fungicide. Gotta study up on its proper use.


What good information. Thank you! Yes, that Pennsylvania Vegetable Research Program study was what I had found. Don't know why I was remembering a peculiar number 17.
That is disappointing if Burpee is renaming varieties. It is frustrating enough with nursery grown plants mislabeled or renamed, or of course, not named at all. I had thought that growing from seed, I might have more certainty.
At least the packet told the truth where it said "high yielding."
I think I'll be saving these seeds.

I don't know if these are ALWAYS in my rotation (I really like to experiment each year), but the varieties below have done well and I would recommend them to someone in a heartbeat:
Cherry:
Black Cherry
Sungold
Mountain Magic
Dr. Carolyn (more ping pong size than cherry)
Sweet Million
Early Varieties:
Kimberly
Pink Honey
Reds:
Rutgers
Celebrity
Marianna's Peace
Omar's Lebanese
Yellow/Orange:
Azoychka
KBX
Hugh's
Bi-color:
Pineapple
Berkely Tie-Dye
Greens:
Cherokee Green
Blacks:
Cherokee Purple
Indian Stripe
smithmal
This post was edited by smithmal on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 22:22

Growing as I am in Toronto I may be the northernmost person to chime in here but I've always had good success with Paul Robeson's. \
Reasonably loose well composted soil.
Blood meal, Bone meal and Muriate of Potash plus a small amount of epsom salts and calcium phosphate to start the season. Jobe's organic tomato spikes as soon as the plants get to about 16 inches tall.
Drip irrigation set so that the plants get at least a small amount of water every 3 days,
I find I have to trim/prune the plants to keep them under control or they grow (VERY) tall and thin then fall over.
In a normal year they leave my basement around May 15 and have ripe fruit by mid/late July.

My PR was one of my first dark tomatoes to produce... and the fruit was good. Not real productive (~12 fruit), but tastes good. The plant now looks like it is dwindling... more than any other of my tomato plants.
Cuostralee, Opalka, beefsteak and 1884 still going strong!

Had my first CP! it was great! We haven't had much rain and I've been careful not to overwater. Tried my first Azoychka and I wasn't crazy about it so I'm hoping the ones ripening will be better.
Edie, ripening inside does not affect the flavor. If you've had a lot of rain, that would do it, taste wise. I bring mine in at the first sign to avoid splitting from rain, weak flavor and the squirrels.

It is called Momotaro Gold and apparently, based on earlier discussions here about it, seeds are only available from Japanese growers as it is supposedly an unstableF2 hybrid of the regular F1 pink. Some are gold, some are red, and some are stripped.
Save your seeds from any yellow ones, grow it out next year and see if you can get it to stabilize.
Dave

People thing a mend is successful if the tomatoes ripen but if you just pick those tomatoes they will likely turn red. I'd concentrate on the remainder of the plant by supporting and training a new lateral branch to keep the production flowing. A bend (Kink) in the branch is less of an issue and tape is less needed than string to keep it from bending down again.

Three days ago, main stem broke when I neglected to properly secure it my plant, it rained and weighed down everything causing this. Unfortunately the break is on a stem that has half of the flowers and was the most vigorous.
The break was about 2/3 clean snap and 1/3 connected remaining. I panicked and just made do with what was handy, mostly because I didn't want it exposed to the spores in the air and microbes that the rain carries in the wind from the leaves of the higher trees around. Maybe I just made it a breeding ground, but so far, choked or not, it appears mending. I think one more day with the cut tube and I'll undo the wires, hoping scar tissue has the wound protected and then I'll better support it and see.
Don't know if this will help or if it was a mistake, but take a look in case it gives you and (good) ideas if it happens again.


I dont think that temps 86 to 95F are critically high temperatures for tomatoes. Even if they were, the thing to remember is that 95F high reported/forecast lasts just a few hours in 24 hours. I can estimate that within 24 hours period, when the high reaches 95F that no more than 6 hours the temps will be in 86F to 95F range. In the remaining 18 hours the temps will be lower than 86F. You can verify this by checking your hourly temperatures.

Don't agree with the ripening statement b/c I notice oodles of my tomatoes ripening in my greenhouses when temperatures are very high. However, when temperatures are very high they don't set fruit as well ( variety dependent) and the stress on the plants leads to more Blossem End Rot (variety dependent). What I have predicted very well is a lag in production 50-60 days after a period of very high temperatures.


From the looks of it, would be a miracle for that plant to come back and give you any tomatoes. I would hazard a guess that it is simply too hot in your zone right now. Plus it looks like you have too many plants growing in that small area, not enough sun judging by the legginess of the plants, and the soil seems to be quite heavy. I have also heard that gardeners in the warmer areas have to contend with soil nematodes, but not sure whether that's a factor.
There is a forum member who gardens in Florida and she plants a second crop of tomatoes in the Fall. Good luck.

Yes, nobody grows vegetables like Silvia can. But Donna is right. Most of us pull out tomatoes and many other vegetables starting in May, then either take the summer off or switch to hot weather veg like okra, sweet potatoes, gandules, malabar spinach and so on, and start up again with tomatoes in the fall.
The summers here are just too hard on plants, not only the heat, but the explosion of pests. And many of us stick with containers for tomatoes because of the nematode problem.
If you aren't familiar with it, the University of FL publishes an excellent guide to vegetable gardening in Fl, including suggested planting dates for each region.
Also, you might want to read around at justonebackyard.com. He's in West Palm, but his blog and videos will give you a good idea of what produces when.
Here is a link that might be useful: IFAS Planting Guide










Short answer- there is nothing wrong with those tomatoes. They look perfect. Some splitting is inevitable.
The spot on that part of tomatoes is normal in some large varieties.