Tomato Tuesday 2015

Enjoy every bite

When I was watering my tomato starts in the window yesterday I saw that there was some purpling on the lower leaves starting, and some yellowing too.  The roots were peaking out the bottoms of their 4" pots too.  So time to up pot.  So I planted them all in the greenhouse and put wall o waters around them.  I just looked at my notes, I have been planting them a week earlier each year.  Planting date for them has crept up a full month now.  This is largely due to trusting the new greenhouse with its double walls, also this is just a very early spring.

How goes every ones plants?  Any of you Southerners got ripe ones to report?

None for me yet.  But I was late planting to begin with...

None for me yet but I do have some setting on the vine now.  Some grape tomatoes (Juliet - shouldn't be too long before they are ripe) and some big slicers (those will take some time to ripen).

Sorry, I couldn't wait til Tuesday.  From my Gardening 123 Newsletter:

Other tips for getting tomato plants off to a fast start include:
1.     Use small, stocky, dark green plants rather than tall, spindly ones. Smaller plants form roots rapidly and become established more quickly than those that are overgrown.
2.   Though tomatoes can be planted slightly deeper than the cell-pack, do not bury the plant deeply or lay the stem sideways unless the plant is very leggy. Though roots will form on the stems of tomatoes, this requires energy that would be better used for establishment and growth. 
3.    Do not mulch until the plant is growing well. Mulching too early prevents soil from warming up

I forgot to update this week!

Our tomatoes went into the ground, bed and containers this week so far so good!

happy gardening
rose

The last of the tomatoes got planted today.  I have 16 in the bucket brigade.  Next up the peppers.

Kay

Mine were ready last weekend, but I'm still working to get my containers ready.  Should have them in tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Diagnosis please,

I have declared my tomato seedlings a failure. They are better than they were, but not much better. After transplanting they are still spindly with a stem now about 1/16 inch in diameter and 2 inches long, and two true leaves. I can't see them being ready to go in the ground in two weeks or so.

This has taken the excitement out of gardening (I planned to plant all heirloom tomatoes and save the seeds. I have never seen Brandywine, San Marzano or Long Keepers at a garden center)

Any thoughts?

Fred, I'm sorry for your gardening woes.  I know what you mean.
Last year I could barely get anything to grow for me under the lights.  Of the dozens of tomatoes I started I was lucky to barely nurse about 4 or 5 of them to transplant size.  They seemed to be stunted.  They never did well in the garden either.  I attributed it to a bad lot of seed starting mix I bought.  Just an unlucky happening. 
I had to buy some transplants last year in order to get any tomatoes at all.
This year its a complete turnaround.  Everything is coming up great even using the leftover bags of starter from last year.  Its a mystery.
So consider this an unlucky event that may never happen again.
Buy some transplants if you can and do it again next year.

This is the largest tomato plant in my arsenal.  A Brandyboy.  Already setting fruit.  The plant itself is 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide.  The tomato fruit below is about the size of a golf ball (a bit blurry).



Here is a photo of my non SFG row of tomatoes.  I put my 6 best tomatoes of each variety in my SFG and then put my 6 next best of each variety in a row by themselves.  Hoping if one set gets early blight, maybe the second set will be ok.


Actually, the variety that looks like it will mature first is the Gilbertie (thanks Quiltbea).  Except, the first one or two Gilberiies always have blossom end rot.  I am monitoring the watering very carefully so maybe this year it won't be a problem.

In between the rain , storm and wind as well as trying to recover from the back surgery .
 I'm having to strictly follow the surgeons orders .. no lifting anything heavier than 1 & 1/2 pounds and keep it close into your chest or you'll undo the surgery PDQ .
 Alison is super strict on this  so I'm being pandered like a two week old and very nice it is as well.


I sneaked out to the man cupboard whilst she took munchkin horse riding and managed sit on a plastic garden chair to break up two x 10 pound blocks of compressed coir .  Swept the bits off the bench in manageable amounts .
Putting the powdered mess in the big double wheeled barrow and sprinkling in some artificial chemical fertilizer stuff amongst it all as it was put in place. I then sat with the hose pipe and a 1 litre jug and measured out 50 jugs of water each of which was poured over the barrow contents.

 Come 16.00 hrs all the water had been evenly absorbed. Under Al's beady eye I used my child's sand spade on a fishing rod butt to fill five 5 gallon plant pots that I've made special drainage  holes in over the last few days ( Thank you TURAN for the idea ) .
 Each pot was set on a light sack barrow and when full it was wheeled into the glasshouse  and slid off it into the proposed tomato plant's glasshouse position. 

I had a laid flat on my back bed time break of an hour or so ,  then I sowed eight Ferline tomato seeds in a half pint pot and three capsicums in one of my special grow tubes .
 Both pots were given an eight of an inch covering of horticultural fine vermiculite and were given a drink of water.
The seeds are now stood in the warm airing cupboard and will stay there till Monday to get the germination going .
 

 Well that's the first set of capsicums & toms sown and the pots prepped for them to be grown on in .   I must confess that didn't think I'd be able to do it ..had to do a lot of thinking & planning beforehand .

 Tomorrow the world ???

FRED58 wrote:Diagnosis please,

I have declared my tomato seedlings a failure. They are better than they were, but not much better. After transplanting they are still spindly with a stem now about 1/16 inch in diameter and 2 inches long, and two true leaves. I can't see them being ready to go in the ground in two weeks or so.

This has taken the excitement out of gardening (I planned to plant all heirloom tomatoes and save the seeds. I have never seen Brandywine, San Marzano or Long Keepers at a garden center)

Any thoughts?

 Fred, the toms germinate fairly quickly so you need to look at them every day .
Once you se that they have germinated and are poking their heads about 1/8 th of an inch above the growth medoum take them out of the heat and strong day loght , put them on a north facing window cill  and that will help keep them short green & string.
 When they have four leaves transplant the seedlings carefully only holding the seed leaf to pick them up & plant them in the new plant pot , water them in with room temperature water.

 That growth medium . For starting seeds it can be a pot of 12 deep of plain fine damp horticultural vermiculite .
This has the advantage of not having to many nutrients that would make the seedlings bolt /go lanky . Plain tap water usually has enough nutrients for rth seeds to germinate and grow to about an inch tall ...after that they will need food / a potting mix .

 It also makes it very easy to lift the micro seedlings out the vermiculite on the back of a teaspoon handle so you don't need to touch the seedlings when putting them in the new growing on compost mix .

FRED58 wrote:Diagnosis please,

I have declared my tomato seedlings a failure. They are better than they were, but not much better. After transplanting they are still spindly with a stem now about 1/16 inch in diameter and 2 inches long, and two true leaves. I can't see them being ready to go in the ground in two weeks or so.

This has taken the excitement out of gardening (I planned to plant all heirloom tomatoes and save the seeds. I have never seen Brandywine, San Marzano or Long Keepers at a garden center)

Any thoughts?

aww sorry to hear this Fred.....(((hugs)))...don't let it get you to down about gardening....things happen....to ALL of us gardeners....its just the way it goes.....last year We lost all of our 20 tomato seedlings because I drowned them by not making sure the holes in the bottom of the cups were draining properly and by the time I check on them they were goners.....yes I was frustrated, but it didn't stop me from buying some transplants from our local farm and garden store and it turned out to be the best tomato year so far to date for our family plus we were able to try out some new varieties.....

hugs
rose

Thank you for your thoughts. I'm going to print your post Plantoid and tuck it in with my seeds for next year. It sounds like your method hardens them off long before they see the outdoors. Intriguing.

One of my friends says a local garden center has Purple Cherokee, so I guess I'll try those. (Any experience with these?). Determinates seem way more popular than indeterminates around here. (Bush beefsteaks instead of heirloom beefsteaks for example). I'll b planting Roma VF and Early Girl in place of San Marzano and Siberia. I have grown them before, and they are tasty and hearty.

I'll try to get some pics today.


PS: Plantoid, take it slow! I winced when I read your other post about hoisting all that stuff.

Fred,
I am growing tomatoes and peppers from seed for the first time this year and it has been a wonderful challenge. I planted the six types of tomato seeds on Feb 18th which I thought was the correct date. Apparently most of the tomato seeds could have waited a few weeks but one was right on target but who knew? My peppers I seeded the same day but they are tiny, so I guess I should have planted a month earlier, again who knew? One of my other issues is that I felt some of my tomato plants were a little leggy. One of my mistakes was leaving them in the starting stage with a cover dome too long? Maybe my florescent lights are not bright enough? There are so many ifs, but I am looking at it as a first time indoor seed grower.
I am excited to try again next year but on a smaller scale and with different variables. Remember, things happen. Don't give up. You can try again next year.

Red,

I love Cherokee Purple!  The flavor is excellent.

With my short growing season, though, I plan to raise this seedling in my new greenhouse this year.

Dear readers please the typo's in my last post or three , I swear someone has sneaked in and changed things for I edited them at least four times before posting them .

PS
Dislexia Rulze KO !

I raise Cherokee Purples every year.  My family loves them.  I grow them in a greenhouse though and do not know how they do outside.  My best performers for outside had been Stupice, which is a very early/late consistent performer of plum size fruits.

I took this photograph yesterday, so I guess it still counts as Tomato Tuesday material:



All 16 of my tomatoes are coming along nicely. 

It's been my eccentric habit to keep my tomatoes in pots for inordinate amount of time.  I have a few reasons: 

1.  I like to trench my tomatoes for ultimate stability and maximum root development.  I need a long stem to do this.

2.  Having them in pots gives me some wiggle room on getting my beds completely prepared.  Also, it gives my garlic boxes a chance to mature before I replace the garlic with tomatoes (all rotated of course).

3.  I bring the plants in at night.  That means I can closely examine them for bugs from their daytime outside and I also avoid the pests that tend to come out at night.

4.  If the weather turns nasty,  I can shield all my plants by bringing them inside.

I can't wait till these babies get to the point where they set fruit!

Sorry, I forgot to takes pix on Tues since my DDIL took me out for Mother's Day dinner yesterday.  We knew MDay would be packed at the restaurants, so she chose Tuesday.  I had a wonderful time.  Hence, forgot the snaps.
So I took a couple today:

Here are my trays that I keep outside since they have been hardening the last week or more. Edited to add:  They are all tomatoes and peppers.

These are the last that I potted up the other day.  I have them under the lights.
We are expecting 30s tonite, so my plans to transplant out some tomatoes is put off til tomorrow.  I'll even bring in the trays for the night to be sure they don't get frosted.
The peppers go out a week or two later anyway because they need more warmth before they get transplanted outdoors.

Windmere, your toms are looking good.  I don't lay them on their sides.  Mine never seemed to produce as well as normal plantings. 
I've since read that they don't get as good a start that way so I just transplant mine about 4" deeper than their last pot.  Gets them started faster for my short season garden.