Vegetables and Fruits forum: Tomatoes
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I put mine in the ground last weekend. They're still tiny, but I know they'll take off soon. Anyone else have tomatoes going yet? |
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Wow, you are brave BitBit.  I keep mine wrapped in clear plastic or wall of waters this time of year. Yours are beauties. |
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| Yeah, I know I'm lucky on the climate front. We're generally frost free from mid-March to mid-November at least. I've had peppers at Christmas some years, though the tomatoes peter out by then even without a frost... I think I need to start planting a second round in mid-summer. |
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| I do a fair amount of second and staggered plantings of my 'maters and herbs every year. |
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| I do with herbs, especially things like cilantro that seem to go to seed as soon as they're big enough to eat. Just haven't done it with tomatoes yet. When do you start the second round? I was thinking when the first round are flowering or starting to set fruit, but that's a total guess. Do you start them inside, or can they be sown directly during the hot weather? |
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| Bitbit I winter sow or direct sow everything. I stagger tomato plantings almost bi-weekly all season long. If I start with the 4th of July tomato, I can have ripe fruit by the first week of June. |
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Oh, OK. I start most of my plants in yogurt cups in a sunny room indoors. I might try direct sowing with a late crop, though. If I started plants biweekly, I think I'd have way more plants than space to grow them  |
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| Well, you could do it monthly. I chop and freeze tomatoes to use in cooking all the time they are producing so that I don't get stuck doing it all at the end of the season. I also freeze blanched whole ones. Same goes for the sauce making. I like to do it while I have lots of fresh garlic and herbs too. I eat tomatoes two or three times a day all summer. |
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| I'm the same way with eating them fresh. I think I had salsa almost every night last summer, but never managed to leave enough tomatoes to put up. This summer I really want to be able to can some. I started these plants in late January, so I'm already overdue for starting some once a month. Maybe I'll start the next batch soon and get three rounds in the season. |
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| It is so nice to always have new ones coming along & not just one big shot. |
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My first-round tomatoes are all 1-2 feet tall, and several plants have flowers! (look carefully in the middle of the picture for flowers) This is my first time growing a lot of heirloom varieties... these are all indeterminate, so that means they'll keep growing while they're putting on flowers and fruit, right? I'm not used to seeing flowers on such small plants, but they seem healthy. I decided not to start more seed for a second round. I had two plants that I started for the first round but were too small to plant out when I put the others in, and have since found five volunteers around the garden, all two to three inches tall. I know the volunteers are a crapshoot genetically, but I'm willing to give them a chance. They all went into gallon-size pots this weekend so they can grow up for a while. When my peas stop producing, I'll put the new tomatoes in their half-a-bed (the other half is beans). |
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| They are looking good Bit!! Last year I got really lazy and except for the 4th of July tomato, just let all of the seeds that were in the pots from the prior year's blemished tomatoes germinate. I had hundreds of plants and gave them away to everyone that I know. I kept the seeds in the right pots and ended up with plants and tomatoes that were pretty close to their parents. They were all incredible producers. Only one variety kept putting out deformed fruit that still tasted pretty good. I also think that there was some cross pollination going on. |
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| OK, I've figured out the root cause of my tomato woes. See, I was pruning them to clear up some early blight, putting every ladybug I could find on them to get rid of the aphids... and not seeing the obvious that something must be wrong systemically to make them so susceptible to these usually minor problems. Well, today I was taking out yet another dead plant (my last yellow pear  ), when I noticed the brown ring of vascular tissue. Looks like Fusarium wilt  I already rooted cuttings from these plants and started them in another bed, so I've probably inoculated the soil there as well. I'll have to look for a spot in the front yard to plant my late tomatoes, and hope they aren't infected as well. My plants have beautiful fruit on them, though it's all still green. I'll just hope they hang on long enough to ripen. For next year... does anyone have favorite Fusarium-resistant varieties? Or know someplace I can look up varieties that will grow for me? |
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| Here are some, Bit. Early cascade Early girl Quick pick Champion Mountain spring Celebrity Mountain Delight Burpee big girl supersteak beefmaster Mountain gold lemon boy jubilee roma veeroma Viva italia Super sweet 100 Sweet million Mountain belle |
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| Thanks, Stormy. I just put all the tomatoes I had in 1 gallon tubs (the late round) into 18 gallon containers. I hadn't planned on growing them that way, but hopefully it means they won't get sick. I'm really bummed about having to plant resistant varieties. I bought a whole bunch of heirloom seeds this year, planning to use them over the next few years. |
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| Their are heirloom rseistant varieties Bit. I just gave you the first list I came across. |
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| Here are some more Park's Whopper improved Better boy Enchantment Miracle sweet Abraham Lincoln improved Daybreak Floramerica Sunmaster Mountain delight Mountain Pride mountain Spring Sunny Big beef Burpee Supersteak Sweet Chelsea Small fry Cherry Grand maya Golden Cherry Sun Cherry Patio Be sure to look for VF, VFN VFNT or FT on the tag label or seed pack. |
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| Oh I know there are, but now I have all this seed that I can't use. I'll see how the tomatoes-in-containers experiment goes and maybe grow some of my favorites that way next year. I always hear that about looking for the letters on seed packs and plant tags... but I swear I've never seen those letters anywhere on the labels. Maybe I need to stick to buying seeds online... |
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| Bit You might find this helpful http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/VAtomato.html http://tomatodiseasehelp.com/fusarium-crown-rot-treatments http://tomatodiseasehelp.com/fungicide-sprays#more-182 http://tomatodiseasehelp.com/fungicides-for-tomato-plants Actinovate,Rootshield and Mycostop are all organic fungicides that treat fucarium. |
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| I read a lot about this subject before and recalling what I have read, there is no conclusive proof that heirloom tomatoes are any less resistant to fusarium than hybrids. Now some heirlooms may resist it more than others, but that information is not as widely available because the big seed companies aren't paying for those types of tests on seeds they are not going to market. You have the added problem of sandy soil which alters the performance of all seed types. |
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