16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
gin-gin,
you are right. I got it from the internet, As seen, there are 4 different shape and size of fruit in just one cluster.
I just wanted to show that fruits shape, size, color can be different. Normal BK has roundish fruits, not lobbed, not boat shape. So really, short of a DNA test one cannot say if this is CP, BK, Black from Tula, so forth.
I just take it as a guessing fun game here. It is not a matter of life and death.
I have to say they are a very stunning color this morning, I've never seen anything quite like it. I just wish they were a tiny bit larger though. They are now deep purple throughout except for a touch of green on the bottom. All of them still feel a bit firm though. The problem is that I can't determine whether or not to pick them and allow them to ripen indoors. For red tomatoes I usually pick them when they start to blush to avoid splitting, pests, etc.
From what I understand the flavor of these are better if you let them fully ripen on the vine... so the bottom of the tomato (which doesn't get direct sunlight) should be red like a ripe tomato.
Any areas which get direct sunlight will turn indigo.
I am guessing since they are smaller in size you are lest likely to have splitting etc.
My CSA farmer is growing Indigo rose and his is not cracking (but they are on the smaller side as well). He let me try one (usually I'd have to wait till they came in my share), they were good... nice flavor. I am thinking about growing an indigo variety next year. Can post an update on how the indigo apple was?
OMG, digdirt, LOL. Right. I am off to go throw away all my maters then. Then I will never have BER ever.
My plants are okay, but the bucket that my 6 foot yellow pear is in is definitely a solid block of roots. However, I just counted 100 tomatoes on Heather (that's the plant's name lol) so I guess it ain't dying anytime soon. I thought that 5 gallon buckets would be overkill but now I realize why people say it's a bare minimum.
BER susceptibility is a known fact. Amongst those some are more prone to it than others. What causes it an how different varieties are affected, are different issues. we are not concern with them in this thread. It is the same/similar case about certain disease resistance that can affect our choices.
As gardeners, we try to maximize our returns and nobody likes to pitch rotted tomatoes. Just going by the laws of probability and statistics we can minimize our losses, by simply avoiding the varieties that have a higher probability of developing BER. Luckily there are many many choices out there and one is not limited in choice to a known limited varieties . AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.
Ultimately at the end of the day one can decide for him/her self.
Peace, brothers and sisters !
The variety you're growing can make a huge difference. Determinate tomatoes only grow for a certain amount of time and then stop.
You might want to stick to indeterminate hybrid tomatoes. Early girl tomatoes are good options for those who live in areas with short growing seasons. You might want to check with staff at nurseries next season about what they recommend for your area.
For example, I've made the mistake of growing heirlooms in the past because the pictures are "different" and "cool looking." What I didn't realize is that they're much more fussy than your traditional hybrids.
Brett,
Interesting comment about counter-ripened Sungolds!
Last year I bought a Sungold that turned out to be an imposter, so a friend gave me a container of them to try. I let them ripen for several days and was disappointed in the taste.
This year I have my own Sungold plant and the tomatoes taste pretty good!
Linda
I had the same experience that Brett had with sungolds. Since reading on this site about picking at color break vs ripening on the vine, I've started picking large beefsteak varieties when they're 1/3 to 1/2 ripe, and I would agree that I can't see much difference in flavor between ripening on the counter vs ripening on the vine. But I tried doing the same with sungolds to avoid having them split, and there was a big difference in taste. Even sungolds that were close to fully ripe never achieved the same sweetness as fully vine-ripened sungolds. I haven't experimented with other cherry varieties, so I don't know if this behavior is unique to sungolds.
Thanks for all the interesting comments. Yes, I have been using a liquid fert (which includes micros) at a low "maintenance" concentration with every watering, for my small containers with very short determinates. And yes after the very first blossoms did not go anywhere, got a cheap battery-toothbrush, and since then almost all have set.
Still learning, but at least the first couple of tomatoes are now starting to blush red...
IMO, not that there isn't any difference between det and indet tomatoes There is not much difference between tomatoes and pepper either. Any fertilizer that is suitable for tomatoes is also good for peppers, eggplants cucurbita, etc.
There is a new theory that almost all garden plants use NPK at 3-1-2 ratio. When all those elements are present in the medium, the plants will choose and pick what they need, provided the soil chemistry is right and balanced. In other words if we give the plant a fertilizer, in 1-1-1 ratio ( like 12-12-12) the plants are not going to use them in that order. That is why in most established gardens there is a surplus of P and K.
This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 16:45
no walnut tress nearby. The plants start dying as soon as the fruit is about the size of a golfball! sometimes a tad bigger. I think I have tried every kind of hybrid there is. Is there any way to determine what type of wilt it could be, it that is what it is?
Check out verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt online. I've just been reading about them myself as my eggplants have been wilting. They are really horrid diseases and the fungus that causes them can persist in the soil for many years.
It is possible to solarize the soil using clear plastic, although I'm not sure how long the effects of this will last.
Another solution would be to grow tomatoes in large containers using potting mix and not soil.
Linda
Growth inhibitors are commonly used for greenhouse plants. No one wants to buy something that is"leggy ". My mother used it when she taught horticulture and sold poinsettias for fundraisers.
I cannot speak directly about tomatoes, but I would not be surprised.
In central Alabama,winter unpredictable in recent years.This past winter we had some really crazy spells,had 3 nights in a row below 15 degrees,a couple of nights around 9 degrees.Last winter not near as bad,but nowadays the weather is crazy everywhere.Thanks for the tip on Gardens Alive,got a $25 off deal on purchase over $50.
They have a cyclic lifecycle. How many cycles your have depends on where you are located but you can plot them for future reference with good note keeping.
Here I have 2 cycles - moths and eggs show up mid to late-May (20th +/- a day or 2). First hatch is a week later (early June). Those you don't kill will grow and pupate for 6 weeks total so the second round begins six weeks later early August.
Dave
Jdoran, nice looking plant!
How do you like the taste?
I grew BSM one time and I didn't like the taste. Some of my co-workers liked them, the organic/vegetarians. ;)
Then later, after growing black cherry, Cherokee purple, ETC. I found that I don't like any of the dark colored toms.
I only like pink, red, and green! But taste buds are different!
Could be bacterial canker. DId you buy the plants or start from seed? Nothing much to do about that except pull the plant if it's bad but I'd say if fruit isn't affected just follow recommendations in my earlier post.
If it's late blight you'd be seeing it on the stems and the plants would be dead within days.
Heavy mulch is good - from the little I can see in the last pix, the clippings look pretty thin.
Give us an update next week.
In my Toronto, Ontario garden, I've definitely got a blight situation. My leaf edges started going dark a few weeks ago. I picked off affected stems, but the spread rate is accelerating and entire stems are going black/brown overnight. I wondered if it was a bacterial issue, but it's looking exactly like blight in its advanced stages now. Heartbreaking since I had so many green tomatoes on the the vine! I hope your garden is faring better, Kpn.Kardif.