Roma tomatoes???

I am new to sfg this year! So far all that I have planted is doing amazingly well. I cannot believe how quickly carrots come up in this MM!!!

My question is though, I love Romas and don't believe you can grow those on a trellis. Can you grow them in a sfg or do they just take up too much space? What would be the best way to grow them in the least amount of space possible? I need lots of them for salsa!

Thanks to all for any help/info you can give me!

I was told to put them in a box of their own with extra space, or barring that put them in planters.

UGH!!! You mean build more boxes and mix more cow poop? I am up to my ears in that! LOL

I guess that may be the only solution. How big of containers or boxes do you think they will need?

I was fortunate enough to have soil left over, so I threw it in some planters we've had around forever and moved my tomatoes in.

Use a cage....
Some people like me just can not stand trellising tomatoes. For a short tomato like a Roma use a 3 ring support. Or something a little taller. You can make them easily from bamboo stakes and string, or rings of fence mesh that you can reach through or just buy them.
Mine are square and tall work for my indeterminate tomatoes and I also use them for cucumbers and they could do beans as well. They define a square foot.

Thanks for confirming that my Roma's will work well with a cage. I'm 55 years old and didn't know til I started reading SFG that there are determinate and indeterminate and then I had to read what 'that' mean and I now I know! DUH! Ahhhh life is grande!

Turan wrote:Use a cage....
Some people like me just can not stand trellising tomatoes. For a short tomato like a Roma use a 3 ring support. Or something a little taller. You can make them easily from bamboo stakes and string, or rings of fence mesh that you can reach through or just buy them.
Mine are square and tall work for my indeterminate tomatoes and I also use them for cucumbers and they could do beans as well. They define a square foot.

Romas are a determinate type tomato, meaning they have a bush type growth and generally they produce all the fruit at one time. The other type of tomato is indeterminate and are a vining type growth and will continue to put out bloom and fruit throughout the growing season. Because Romas are a bush variety a cage is a good bet. I have had very good success with the Florida weave to contain the bush varieties of tomatoes in the SFG.

camprn wrote:
Romas are a determinate type tomato, meaning they have a bush type growth and generally they produce all the fruit at one time. The other type of tomato is indeterminate and are a vining type growth and will continue to put out bloom and fruit throughout the growing season. Because Romas are a bush variety a cage is a good bet. I have had very good success with the Florida weave to contain the bush varieties of tomatoes in the SFG.

Oh man, now I have to figure out what type my other plants are... You just explained what to do with Roma, but I also have Heatmasters and some sort of cherry that I can never remember the name of.

Feeling the information overload as my fever makes like it wants to come back after being fever-free for 9 days...

Michelle ~ I hit that point. I went from being so exciting and having just enough knowledge to be dangerous, then the more I read, the more I spazzed out!

I made myself remember that I DO NOT have to learn everything the first season. I look at 'mistakes' as learning adventures.

Hang in there and keep learning!

It'd be easier to keep up mentally if I didn't keep getting sick over & over.

Ok, I have cages but Romas are determinate so you can't trellis them? Will the cage define them into one sf? Has anyone actually had luck with this? I REALLY don't want to have to make another bed, this has been very expensive as it is now!

what is a Florida weave?

Yes, I have grown many tomatoes in cages, both determinate and indeterminate. If it out grows the first cage, add on to it. You might need to prune to keep it to 1sq foot. Sooooo.... plant your tomatoes in checkerboard with other plants between that will be willing to make room. Lettuces, carrots, herbs(basil is a tradition), flowers (marigolds are a tradition).
I suspect you can trellis a Roma, but if you do not have available trellis or do not want to use a cage instead.
You know gardening is an effort to try to herd the explosive strong energy that is plant will to live. It will work out in some fashion or other.

Heatmaster sounds tall, cherrys usually are tall. If cages sound more doable to you, do them. Work out how to add on when/if they out grow the first cage. If a trellis sounds more doable, go for it.
In college I had a cherry tomato that eventually grew to the eaves of the house. I kept adding bamboo pieces to hold it up and eventually tied it to the eaves. That was in SanDeigo where tomatoes can live year round with luck.
At work here once we grew tomatoes in a bed in a greenhouse/barn. We tied string to the rafters and kept those tomatoes pruned and tied to the string. They grew 14 feet high and made a huge boat load of fruit.
Both ways work and you can adapt between them as needed.



I really got to pay more attention to doing these taxes.........

I string my indeterminates (vining type) but for determinates (bush type) I put them in pots now and cage them. I had 3 Oregon Spring toms one year (determinate and very early) and put them side by side in 4 ft length of space one row wide. They did very well. They grew wider than expected but I had chard and some other plants in front of them that didn't interfere with their side growth too much. They did well and amazingly enough, even tho they should give only one burst of harvest, in October they were putting out another set of blossoms and new green toms. I never pulled them out after the summer harvest and they stayed healthy in the garden. Alas, my season wasn't long enough to get a 2nd harvest, but I'm sure it could be done in warmer climes.



Above: Oregon Spring toms in Oct.



Above: Determinates in pots last June 28th. Their height ranged from 2.5 ft to about 5 feet. The orange netting are isolation bags to save seeds for another year.

Most cherry toms are indeterminates, but Early Cherry is a determinate you can pot. Great flavor and lots of production.

If you make any mistakes, you've learned something to help with the next spring garden so don't worry about things too much.

hopeless151 wrote:what is a Florida weave?

Supporting tomato plants including Florida Weave. <~~CLICK

Wow! Thanks, I think this will work!!!

Thanks so much! I already have trellis in place and another poster suggested the Florida weave so I think between these two great ideas I won't have to move all my plants and my 15 yr old daughter who helps me won't have to kill me after all for making her do more work! LOL!

Turan wrote:Yes, I have grown many tomatoes in cages, both determinate and indeterminate. If it out grows the first cage, add on to it. You might need to prune to keep it to 1sq foot. Sooooo.... plant your tomatoes in checkerboard with other plants between that will be willing to make room. Lettuces, carrots, herbs(basil is a tradition), flowers (marigolds are a tradition).
I suspect you can trellis a Roma, but if you do not have available trellis or do not want to use a cage instead.
You know gardening is an effort to try to herd the explosive strong energy that is plant will to live. It will work out in some fashion or other.

Thanks for the link...I think this will work!

camprn wrote:

hopeless151 wrote:what is a Florida weave?

Supporting tomato plants including Florida Weave. <~~CLICK

I'm new to the forum and sfg. Two years ago I grew tomatoes in planters and they did great. I didn't know about the determinate/indeterminate thing but I did put a cage around my cherry tomato plant and it did well. For the roma, I just let it trail around on the ground. I had so many tomatoes! I am not the best gardener so I am starting small with one 4 x 4 sfg box and a few planters for the tomatoes.

I have a question about the planters. The soil is old and has some bugs so should I dump it and start over to just turn it and mix in the compost/manure mixes I have? Help!

micie66 wrote:The soil is old and has some bugs so should I dump it and start over to just turn it and mix in the compost/manure mixes I have? Help!

So long as the old soil is healthy (no early blight fungus), I'd dump it in to my compost pile and then refill the pot with fresh growing material.