16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
Ok, here is what my rule book says
I prefer fish fertilizer that is done by cold press- this way there is more amino acids, enzymes etc saved. I like Neptune for this very reason.
Unless you live at the ocean side and have plenty of fish carcasses washed on the beach, it is not a good idea to get fish heads into your garden under the plants.
Foliar feeding is far more effective that traditional soil drench, it works wonders. Few things- it does not substitute great soil. It should be only used if the product specifically designated for foliar feed at much more diluted rate.
Plants, including tomatoes, do need nitrogen, even more so after they are starting to produce fruits. Yes, it is fine to apply throughout the season. Catch is what else you are doing and adding.
I follow and enjoy using system that Smiling gardener does, you can look up on the right side info on the ferts, including liquid fish
Here is a link that might be useful: Organic gardening
Hi your peppers will probably be fine in the containers, just give them more room. I'm growing peppers in containers and most of my tomatoes are in containers with a special growing mix, like Linda said, not soil. You could try growing mint in a large container as it spreads like crazy and will choke out everything.
Sharon
Sorry. I forgot to update. The peppers were put in the oil in a shady area. I also moved a couple of the tomatoes to the soil. The mint would need to stay, I don't have a say in that matter.
I was referencing the tomato plant in the soil, from the original post, that is not growing.
Thank you
I got my first ripe one. These are early girlts. I took the other 2 off because they were almost touching the ground and the green one did have color break on the bottom.
The first ripe one took almost exactly 59 days as stated. Give or take a day, they were planted around May 17th.
I get the 6-12-12 in 40 or 50 lb bags at Southern States but Wal-Mart has it in small boxes in the garden center. I pullsuckers bigger than some say....maybe 12" and push it all the way down to the bottom of the big size Styrofoam cup which leaves about 4-5 inches protruding. Keep it wet and there will be lots of roots in a week to ten days.
It is much faster and easier to do it from cutting/suckers than from seed, if you have a plant to begin with. I have done a Husky cherry. It has a full size fruit and more smaller ones.
I like to root in water and then plant. Though you can do it in soil too. The advantage of rooting in water is that you can actually see if it is working. In the soil you cannot.
Tends to happen when the temps are cool at the time of pollination. Not a disease, and nothing you did.
I remove most of my "ugly" catfaced/fused toms when young so the plant can put its energy into producing new fruit or focus its energy on the fruits that aren't jacked up looking.
I have been giving it a kelp fertilizer (diluted, every few waterings), and while planting have amended the soil-less potting mix with rock dust, mycorrhizae, and an organic pelleted fertilizer.
&&&&&
Hard to say it's N deficiency when the plants are getting Kelp at every watering and pelleted fertilizer as well, I don't know what that's composed of, but I agree that the picture of Sara shows very wet mix and nor do I know how often they are being watered, so perhaps too much water for only a 5 gal container and if no drainage that's a problems as well. Which may explain all the yellow leaves,
Sara forms a very large rampant plant in my experience and would not be happy happy if kept in only a 5 gal pail but it looks too big to transfer at this point IMO.
Carolyn
It might be an N deficiency, but it has been getting regular fertilizer, which all of the other tomatoes are happy with.
I had just watered the plant before taking the photo - I only water when the soil mix is dry as far as my finger will go into the soil. My other container tomatoes are much larger and a dark saturated green colour, with lots of tomatoes.
It must be some sort disease of these seeds - i'll try to get sara's galapagos from another seller for next season.
Thank you everyone for your help!
I've grown tomatoes in containers and found that they are much smaller than if grown in the ground. I suspect there is a limited root system in the pots. With that being said, the tomatoes still tasted very good, they were just small. If you didn't break the rootball when transplanting them into the larger pot, you might want to take a yard stick (or something of similar size) and poke into the soil to help the roots expand.
Thanks everyone! Patience was key and I really didn't have to be patient for long. Some of them are starting to turn red. I appreciate all of the help!
I didn't break the root ball when transplanting, thanks for the advice. I would have been afraid to do something like that without help :)
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