August 2013, New England

Those are awesome Phil! Any tomato tips you can share?

Jiminy Crickets! I am so not expecting my san marzanos to get 7 foot tall, the gilberties yes, but WOW!.

lyndeeloo wrote:Those are awesome Phil! Any tomato tips you can share?

 So even though I am a HUGE SFG proponent I did add a bit more into my soil when I planted. I did a cup of kelp meal and a cup of bone meal (basically a handful of each). I also read that a 1/2 cup of dolomite lime also helps, but I didn't use that this year. But between my soil and those 2 additions, that's it!!!

philct wrote:

 So even though I am a HUGE SFG proponent I did add a bit more into my soil when I planted. I did a cup of kelp meal and a cup of bone meal (basically a handful of each). I also read that a 1/2 cup of dolomite lime also helps, but I didn't use that this year. But between my soil and those 2 additions, that's it!!!

 A month ago I side dressed with alfalfa pellets, but I think my plants need a little something more now that they are producing. I'll be looking into kelp and bone meal. Thanks for the tip and once again, AWESOME!

Way to go Phil.   Even Mel mentions adding certain supplements for certain veggies.

Beauteous, Phil!  Your toms are awesome!  

Do you leave the suckers on?  I've been pinching mine off but end up with this:
Not many maters on these Brandywines.  I'm rethinking the suckering thang, but am constantly reminded of the hi humidity we have here so I'm not sure what to do.   Maybe half and half for an experiment next year.

CC

lyndeeloo wrote:... A month ago I side dressed with alfalfa pellets, but I think my plants need a little something more now that they are producing...

Are you seeing a problem?

CapeCoddess wrote:Beauteous, Phil!  Your toms are awesome!  

Do you leave the suckers on?  I've been pinching mine off but end up with this:
Not many maters on these Brandywines.  I'm rethinking the suckering thang, but am constantly reminded of the hi humidity we have here so I'm not sure what to do.   Maybe half and half for an experiment next year.

CC

 Last year I pulled all the suckers and saw earlier vine ripe tomatoes. This year I left them all on and just caged them I have more tomatoes but they are not ripening as fast. No idea if there is a correlation or not. Likely I'll leave the suckers and cage over trellis as it was so much work last year to try to keep up.

WOW, Phil!  Those are some 'mazing 'maters!  When did you plant them in the ground & did you start the seeds yourself or were they purchased?

I'm thinking that next year, instead of waiting till the traditional (in this area) "tomatoes on tax day" seed-starting guide, I'm going to start 2 weeks earlier.  That way if we have another season like this one, I might have a chance of eating *something* red & juicy before the leaves (on the trees that is) start turning.

mollyhespra wrote:WOW, Phil!  Those are some 'mazing 'maters!  When did you plant them in the ground & did you start the seeds yourself or were they purchased?

I'm thinking that next year, instead of waiting till the traditional (in this area) "tomatoes on tax day" seed-starting guide, I'm going to start 2 weeks earlier.  That way if we have another season like this one, I might have a chance of eating *something* red & juicy before the leaves (on the trees that is) start turning.

 I put them in the ground mother's day weekend. This year I bought them as plants from the local nursery. Every year I experiment with putting them in the ground a little earlier.

boffer wrote:

lyndeeloo wrote:... A month ago I side dressed with alfalfa pellets, but I think my plants need a little something more now that they are producing...

Are you seeing a problem?

 Not sure boffer, The hail storm really tore up the plants and they seem to have really slowed down. They have lots of small green tomatoes on them, and are still flowering on top, so I want to make sure they have what they need to make it through the Fall. Any thoughts?

According to myfolia, I have 63 days until my average first frost date!  COME ON TOMATOES!
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t5433-us-last-frost-date-and-other-related-handy-links

We got over an inch and a half of rain yesterday.  Now its sunny and lovely.  I couldn't ask for better weather these last couple of weeks.  Enuf rain to keep my veggies happy and temps that are in the 70s days with nites in the 50s and 60s.  Great sleeping weather with the windows open.  

Today I harvested both sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, green beans, cucumbers, Swiss chard, and tomatoes.  No zukes yet but blossoms are there.  The corn is small and some have browning silks.  Its a small variety.   I also cut several glads for the house since the hard rain pushed several of them over and they won't stand upright now.  They've found a home indoors.  I love them.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Congratulations, your glads are so beautiful, just love them.  I have pink ones that stand out against the front of the house with yellow siding.  Glads and sunflowers always make me smile.

QB, they are lovely! I need to get some more glads. All of mine perished a few years ago.

QB, your glads are such a beautiful color!

I have a bean.  Yes, one full grown bean.  Not much else going on with those beans yet.  Wonder if it's due to planting them where the peas were...?

I also have a big girl cabbage!  Never had a cabbage head up before:
Keeping my fingers crossed that the one next to it and the 2 babies in the fall box follow suit.

This is my not-a-spaghetti-squash , and there's 2 more (not pictured) coming right behind it hanging of the rhodi shrub.  But at least this one is edible before the PM takes it down:
I checked the seed jars and sure enough, there were spag seeds in the butternut jar and vice versa.   I'm getting old...

Sugar Baby watermelon, 1 of 2, is about the size of an agate.  No PM on them:

We had a big blow go thru here Fri nite and it knocked all my pepper flowers off.  I'm hoping they were pollinated and ready to grow.  But I have these luscious babies & we've already been eating some others!

Hey Camp, my spinach sprouted!  After getting no sprouts last fall, I'm beside myself! :cheers:If all goes well, the secret for me is to plant 2-3 wks earlier than stated in the ANSFG. 
I planted a different variety in each of the first 2 sqs in this row, and then then there's kohlrabi in the last 2 sqs:
Now I'm hoping the temp stays below 75 so they don't bolt too soon.  Did everyone elses spinach sprout?

I may or may not be having tomato issues.  Some leaves on one of the brandywines is turning yellow in random locations.  None of the others along side it are having this issue: 


Any ideas?

Also, I think these Supersonics are getting too big for the britch...er, skins:
Too much water?  I'm still watering twice a week coz we still don't get measurable rain amounts. None of the other normal sized toms are doing this...


CC

Cc, tomatoes or heavy theaters. you need to feed your plants.

camprn wrote:Cc, tomatoes or heavy theaters. you need to feed your plants.

 Camp, have you been drinking...or is that your spell check? *LOL*

Heavy theaters aside, I get it...feed them, Seymore.  OK, thanks.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:

camprn wrote:Cc, tomatoes or heavy theaters. you need to feed your plants.

 Camp, have you been drinking...or is that your spell check? *LOL*

I get it...feed them, Seymore.  OK, thanks.

CC

LOL,  no I was using my phone and I used the talk feature because I can't ever see what I'm typing. LOL. What I  meant for the post to say is that tomato plants are heavy feeders and you need to feed your plants! Audrey says so too.

Hey, I just got this in my email from Doug Greens Garden:

My green tomatoes are splitting. I have never had this problem before.  I water deep about every other day and have done so in the past without this happening.  I am fertilizing and I read that maybe it was to fast of growth????? Please share your wisdom with me...

Doug says this is about to be a common problem so here's the deal.  The tomato puts on its growth spurt at night (like other plants)  If there is period of stress so the plant stores energy but doesn't grow well at night (too cold, too hot etc) and then suddenly the conditions change and the fruit goes pedal to the metal (so to speak) on growing, it literally grows out of its skin.  The skin can't expand as fast as the fruit is filling out - and you have cracks.

This is most often seen with improper watering practices - usually either too much in this case or too little and then suddenly changing up to increased water.  Or giving the plant a dose of fertilizer during a slow growing spell so it gets the food but can't use it other than to store it until the temperature or conditions change for optimum growing.  Then wham, it goes nuts growing and the skin can't expand fast enough.
To answer the obvious question - yes, you can easily eat cracked tomatoes.  Prune away the dry spots."


We have certainly had the weird weather, and I've been watering with compost tea and adding compost all along so it could just be fast growth that the skin can't handle.  But I'll give more food to the yellow one fersure.


CC

CC you also have to remember that certain varieties are prone to splitting. That is one reason that folks moved to hybrid types. Our weather in New England has been so perfect for tomatoes for the past 3 weeks, I can hardly stand it!

I picked my very first ripe tomato today!!!   (It's about time.)



The variety is 'Uralskiy Ranniy' (50 days, Det) and if the unfavorable weather we've had this growing season has equally disadvantaged the rest of my toms, I should be getting some more varieties ripening up in a week to two. Two weeks after that, the rest should come in. That is, if we don't get a frost before then!

We've been getting nights into the high 40s and low 50s fairly often. I didn't even put the eggplants back out today because it was 58 when I went to work in the AM. They spent the day in the warm 3-season porch.

I'm glad I did what I did when I was trying to figure out what toms to plant this Spring: plant one of each and whatever Mother Nature throws at you, *something* is bound to produce.

As such, I planted a couple dozen varieties to observe them and learn what to plant or what not to plant next year. I learned alot about their habits, who doesn't mind being pruned, who ABHORS it, who shares a trellis nicely, who hogs it, etc.

I don't think I should use this season as a benchmark, though. I know for a fact that one of the toms that's still golf-ball size and green came from a packet that I've direct-sown in years past and which by now would have been ripe.

Ah, well. So am I the last one to get a ripe tomato?  

Pretty Molly! Nope,you're not the last. I am eye-balling a tomato ripening on the vine. However an unripe on fell off the other day and I put it into dinner.  

I hope you get to enjoy some vine-ripened toms before long, Camp.  It looks like it's going to be pretty chilly tonight down your way also.  DH is threatening to light the woodstove tonight, but I refuse to give in...on principle...though I also refuse to admit I'm wearing a sweater and wool socks...

mollyhespra wrote:I hope you get to enjoy some vine-ripened toms before long, Camp.  It looks like it's going to be pretty chilly tonight down your way also.  DH is threatening to light the woodstove tonight, but I refuse to give in...on principle...though I also refuse to admit I'm wearing a sweater and wool socks...

I was wearing my fleece vest and this morning my fleece winter hat........ just to keep of the chill. All the windows are getting nearly closed and I cooked tonight in the oven, the first time in two months...... Also making progress on stowing 5 tons of wood pellets into the basement.