16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

What varieties are you growing ?
What kind of temperature, direct sun you are getting.

I agree, you cannot blame winter in the middle of summer.

Finally if you can post a picture might help you to get better help.

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.

You ought to head over to the Harvest Forum where they can best advise you on the safest method for canning the green ones.
Edie

I bather that OP wants to use them fresh.

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

Makes a lot of sense, thank you so much I really appreciate it! I'll definitely focus on those things.

Looks like EB (earlyblight) too me, Had the same problem but mine our in the ground, I would spray with a fungicide.

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

Go for it. Google is your friend!

I first read about it on a tomato forum. It sounded logical to me.

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 should do ok then as even a several day cold spell won't freeze the ground deep enough to threaten them. Once you get on GA mailing list those good coupons come pretty regularly. :)

Dave

Finally got our first ripe Black Sea man tomato :)

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!

Yes, most but not all determinates do have just one blossom cycle.

And yes, your indeterminates should continue to blossom and set fruits until frost kills them in the Fall.

Just b'c I'm curious, which determinate varieties are you growing, just checking since as I said above there are some det that do continue, and if I know your varieties I can comment, if not, my fingers will be taped shut. LOL

Carolyn

You could try picking any fruit that is blushing. That might spur your plants to produce more fruit!

Linda

Please tell me what you thought of Russian Queen? I offered it in my annual seed offer elsewhere and also had a plant here at home.

And I thought it was one of THE worst tasting varieties ever, I don;t know if it took first place, but nevertheless.

In the link below I see a picture from Steve at Heritage seeds and also Mike at Ohio Heirloom seeds offers it.

Right now I can't remember who sent it to me without plowing through a couple of data books.

Google search'

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Russian+Queen+tomato

Maybe it was from Clara in Germany as I read some of the links, since Mike at Ohio Seeds gets varieties sent to him by Clara, and I think it was Steve at double Helix who said he got it from me.

All to say, what did you thinnk of the taste, and I ask taste b'c I remember it was insanely prolific. LOL

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Russian Queen

Carolyn, I thought it was offered by you somewhere.
I have to look at the package Ihave ordered seeds from Heritage and from DoubleHelixfarms. It is very prolific and it taste great. Nice juicy middle ground, not too sweet not too sharp. Am very pleased. Mine looks a bit more elongated that pics for Heritage. It is also handling well in my community fungal bacterial ridden area.

Hi rt,

I am close by in Broomfield. I have grown tomatoes previously, but that was before I moved to CO 20 years ago. In addition, I grew them in the ground. I'm growing them this year for the first year in CO and for the first time in containers, so I may not know what I am talking about!

I am growing one each of Park's Whopper, Early girl and Big Beef. They are pictured below - the light is not good as the sun is just starting to hit them at 8:30AM. I probably won't grow Early girl again as it not any earlier than the other two.

I think that your containers are pretty small - as you can see I am using the big containers from Costco - I think I put about 20 gallons of material in each. A bigger container not only gives the plant more room, but makes watering easier (holds water longer) and reduces the heat problem. I'm using Neptune's Harvest Fish/seaweed fertilizer about every 10 days. Got a late start about June 10, but the plants are near the top of my 4' high cage setup. I water about 1.5 gallons every 2 days by drip irrigation.

I don't know how my crop will go. The 3 plants have about 40 tomatoes of various sizes right now.

Hi, I'm happy to say that my tomato plants in containers are recovering nicely. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I mulched with grass clippings, increased the watering to 1-2x/day, and started feeding the plants Miracle Gro 1-2x/week. The new growth coming in looks great, which hasn't been the case for several weeks.

To JerryM down the road in Broomfield (I'm in Boulder), my containers are 14" and 17", and I think you're right, the 14" container is pretty small. The 17" container seems to be doing better.

To edweather, the water was soaking in nicely. I'm starting to think that my biggest problem was a lack of nutrients, since I hadn't ever fed them (other than what they got from the composted manure or the MG fert that came in the bag of potting mix.)

New growth on Bloody Butcher:

Grape tomatoes ripening plus some new growth:

-Mark

This post was edited by rt_peasant on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 1:09

It isn't being dumb. It's just the old "can't see the forest for the trees" syndrome we all get. I don't multitask nearly as well at my age and get tunnel vision on the one thing I'm working on. Lots of head-slapping Duh! moments. :)

Dave

Q: How many pollens are needed to do the job ?

Thanks Linda, I'm going to look for Early Annie to try for next year too. :-)

You have quite a few tomatoes coming in already! :-)

yes, Big vote on Matina and Jaune Flamee. Great ones.
Also Moravsky Div is excellent, compact, easy in the container, early and great taste.