Tomato Tuesday 2012

@laurain........Since I start mine off with shade the first 2 days and then a little sun the 3rd day and more the next, and increasing daily, when mine can stay outdoors in the sunshine a whole day without wilting, I consider them ready. I still will cover them against winds and full sunlight for the first day or two until they are settled in their new home. They are weakened a bit when transplanted so a little help for a day or two works.



Above: A couple of Supermarmondes under lightweight row cover on 5/15

@laurain I will give you an alternate technique to harden plants.

Start in a shady spot for a day. Watch the shade's shadow, and move your plants so they get either some morning sun or afternoon sun. Each day, move them a little farther out into the open. The intensity of the sun will vary from day to day, but let them gradually get used to it. I eventually move them to full sun. I usually do this over about 5 days.

Since I just planted mine on Friday the fact of planting is my only report. I have a Better Boy, Yellow Plum, Husky Red Cherry and Lemon Boy.

Hmmmm, tomatoes have been in the ground for a few weeks now, but tonight's forecast is 39. May need to hunt up some bottles to make some cloches!

GG

I've got all my strings up for my tomatoes as seen below for 4 of them.



Not only that, but I had to bag one of my Pasquebot Romas which got their first blossoms 2 days ago. I want to save seeds. I'm a happy camper.

I guess I wasn't as diligent as I thought. Found black blotches on one tomato today and the start of some on a few others.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12292-tomato-tuesday-lower-south-2012#124221

Kay

Thanks, Quiltbea and Squat.....



Mine have been outside for about 4 days, now, in rain and 90-degree weather, but in the shade in a sheltered spot. They look OK still. It's only in the 60s today and looking like more rain. But next sunny day I will put them in the sun for an hour or so and see how they do.

I am trying to remember to post for Tomato Tuesday this year! Blooms on all 4 varieties with a little bit of growth; it has been cooler here the last week so not moving as fast.

Its been a week since I took a pic of these particular tomatoes. After nearly 6" of steady drizzle and showers the last 4 days, I was amazed at how well my tomatoes grew.



I tried to get the same view as my post above which shows lots of growth in my Velvet Red and Nyagous tomatoes in one week. Goes to show that raised beds are a wonderful advantage for water drain off. Red Velvet on left shallow transplanting and on the right planted deeper.



Above is taken from further back with the bed including the Red and Green zebra tomatoes. Again, lovely growth, nice and green and very healthy this morning.

Left Green Zebra was planted shallowly and right deeper. They are about equal in height right now.

And from the experiment tansplanting deeper or shallow, here's the pair of Pasquebot Romas today:



Left was shallow and right deeper. The one on the right is a little taller at this point. I'll keep watching and photographing.

Between this thread and the Heirloom tomatoes vs. other varieties thread, I sure am kicking myself for not trying more varieties this year. I have two types. Big Beef hybrids and Rutgers (heirlooom - anyone here grow those?) - I found the rutgers seeds at the dollar store for 33 cents /pack and couldn't pass that up. I have about 7 of each in the ground about two weeks now. I started some in late Feb and the rest in March - the Feb plants are larger and have flowers so I guess that was okay. And they all survived a bad sunburn episode (or two:oops: ).

I'm curious to know if you all plant one seed per cell or multiple seeds and thin? I had very good germination rates (90 - 100%) and couldn't bear to pull out perfectly fine seedlings so I split several cells and at this point I can't tell which ones were split and which ones were not (in fact there were some early on that almost seemed to do better after splitting them, which goes against all logic given the degree of root damage etc). Same for marigolds, ground cherry, petunias, zinnea, batchelor buttons, ...well, pretty much everything I started from seed this year.

I only put one seed per soil block (3/4" size) and if any don't germinate, the soil goes back into the tray for the next blocks I make up. I don't like cutting out one seedling to thin them to one so this method solves that problem for me.



Mizuna seeds sprouting.

GWN wrote:

I'm on day 8 and seeing nothin My basement is a bit chilly @ 60°

Try putting them on top of the hot water tank, thats what i do

Just found this thread. Only got this far and had to say what a GREAT idea! I sometimes use the water heater to make yogurt, but now I'll start my tom seeds there, too.

My 3 toms are still little. Actually the Brandywine is growing like crazy, about 12 inches now, but the 2 little Sweet 100's are about the same size as when I planted them 2 wks ago, about 4 inches.

I saw a youtube vid showing this guy who buys his tom plants real early and uses the suckers to make more plants. I thought that was way cool! (guess I'd probably see that if I keep reading the thread, right?)

CC

J_in_HamiltonON wrote:I started some in late Feb and the rest in March - the Feb plants are larger and have flowers so I guess that was okay. .

'mater plant on the left (~32" tall) was started March 13th (well, I thought is was back in Feb), the ones on the right (~16" tall) were started April 5th. All were transplanted May 21st, making the early plant about 10 weeks at transplant time and the others about 7 weeks. Seems to me like it was worth the extra effort



Here's a picture of my "encroaching garden" (I use to have the garden in the backyard but then we bought a huge springfree trampoline and I was forced outside the fence - technically it's over my property line).




(sorry for all the smilies, my 5-year-old asked for them )

My tomatoes are not doing well. They had started looking sad, so I went ahead and planted them in the garden, hoping they would perk up after awhile. I shaded them with burlap, then left on a week-long trip (had friends water the garden while I was gone). They haven't perked up, in fact, I doubt they will make it. The stems look fine, though most have a narrow part at the soil line, but the leaves are all wilted. I started with 6 plants, two each of Amish Paste, Beefsteak, and Cherokee Purple. One Beefsteak and both Amish Pastes made it into the garden. We'll see if they come back, or if they die, too. I just seem to have bad luck with starting tomatoes from seed. Last year my toms all died and I bought a plant from a nursery.

laurainwinona wrote:My tomatoes are not doing well. They had started looking sad, so I went ahead and planted them in the garden, hoping they would perk up after awhile. I shaded them with burlap, then left on a week-long trip (had friends water the garden while I was gone). They haven't perked up, in fact, I doubt they will make it. The stems look fine, though most have a narrow part at the soil line, but the leaves are all wilted. I started with 6 plants, two each of Amish Paste, Beefsteak, and Cherokee Purple. One Beefsteak and both Amish Pastes made it into the garden. We'll see if they come back, or if they die, too. I just seem to have bad luck with starting tomatoes from seed. Last year my toms all died and I bought a plant from a nursery.

Does not sound good. Verticulum wilt and fusarium wilt are two tomato killers. Sounds like you have one of them possible. It stinks. If it hits later in the growth you can usually still get tomatoes but since they are so young, you may be out of luck. Just do not plant tomatoes in the same squares for awhile. So sorry.

I bought 6 new toms on Monday - 3 Supersonic & 3 Big Boy - coz they were on sale. I know nothing about them. I didn't have any space for them so I had to make my 2 new boxes in a hurry. THEN I didn't have enuff MM even for one box so I had to use half a box. This is my first time growing toms in MM and it feels ....strange. Like how can it possibly work. The MM wouldn't get wet even tho I wet it in layers while adding it. It kind of puddled up. So I had to make mud pies to line the tom holes with before putting them in.

Anyway, I planted all 6 in the half box yesterday. Do you think they will grow like this?



It was overcast when I planted them and will be until tomorrow late
probably. Is that enuff time for them to get used to their new spot
before the sun comes out or should I cover them part of the time once it
shines? Then then there's the strings...what kind to you use?

Those are jalapenos across the diagnol.

CC

My only concern would be whether they are spaced too close together. Tomatoes, when well grown, can get pretty big. With such tight grouping, you may need to supplement their Mel's Mix with some organic fertilizer when their tomatoes start to color up; and definitely watch to assure they get all the moisture they need. Please keep us updated on your 'maters. BTW, I really like the triangle bed.

Thanks, Nonna...I'll watch them closely.

Believe it or not, they each have a square foot to themselves. I think the angle in the photo makes them look crowded. The whole box looks like this:


Crazy, right?
CC

@CapeCoddess.....I like your thinking. When you don't have enough, improvise and you surely did that by making a triangular patch for your toms. As for string, I'm using nylon tomato string I got from johnnyseeds.com this year. The green twine I had last year rotted before the end of season with the rains. This should make it thru the whole season and then some. Its very strong. When stringing, a foot square is enough space for tomatoes as long as you remove those suckers as the plant grows.



I used the tomato string for marking my squares as well as for stringing my tomatoes as can be seen above with my Velvet Red toms in this photo.

Oh, thanks Bea. What is comparable to the tomato string in feel and strength? Would regular kite flying string work? I don't want it to cut the plants but I was hoping to not have to buy anything else for a while.

CC

Not crazy at all. Ingenious, that's what. Looks like the bed is more than six inches deep, too. Or is that an optical illusion as well?

I'm not too familiar with kite string, but that might be so thin it would cut into the stems. Thin cording used in crafts or macrame and piping for pillows would work and rug yarn would work, I think. Regular yarn would break too easily in the weather. Sisal I think is too rough for the stems. If you had some of the green garden twine, you could use that but double it. I tried it that way and it just made it thru the season last year.

You could always experiment and try what you have handy and see how it works out.

quiltbea
I pruned my tomatoes last year up a plastic string, but this may seem like a silly question but what do you tie the string to on the bottom?
I tried tying it to the plant, then I drilled holes in the wall of the raised beds, but that was not straight up.

BTW, my tomato plants were looking very feeble and last week I gave everything a good helping of compost and they have totally turned around and are totally thriving this week. They are growing strong stems and stalk plus they are making baby tomatoes as well.

CapeCoddess, keep an eye out at Goodwill, garage sales, dollar stores and pick up some very cheap acrylic yarn. Makes a great "string" for tomatoes, peas, beans, etc., etc. Being "plastic" (acrylic) it will last the entire season without trouble. BTW, panty hose strips will also last and last. Some of last year's squash ties that I cut out of the fence this spring was in good enough condition to tie up some peas!