Tomato Questions

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:If you immediately pop the clipped one into water, or very wet soil, you may be able to get it to root. It will be behind the others, but sometimes it's nice to have a backup.

And if you have some rooting hormone, do that first!  It works!

Scorpio Rising wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:If you immediately pop the clipped one into water, or very wet soil, you may be able to get it to root. It will be behind the others, but sometimes it's nice to have a backup.

And if you have some rooting hormone, do that first!  It works!

Yeah.  I need to get some of that, but I didn’t have it on hand, so I clipped the one and put it in water.
I cut slits in the side of the peat pot and up-potted this for the second time. (These were the Cherokee Purples that were in the KKurig pod) . I am looking for a large pot to be it’s permanent home for a reasonable price now.

Once in its permanent pot, I plan to put it on a pallet with wheels so I can wheel it in an out of the garage for sun on days I know it won’t frost and wheel it back in when frost is threatening.

Here is what I usually do starting in the early, early spring.  The two tomato plants are sitting on the top of a wagon my father built a hundred years ago to haul trash cans out to the street for pickup (before garbage cans actually had wheels).  I inherited his contraption and use it for moving tomato plants in and out of the garage to keep the tomato plants within proper temperature range.  These were grown this last spring and I had tomatoes way earlier than normal.

This was in the fall one year where I was harvesting ripe tomatoes after Christmas.  Our first frost date is normally around Oct 28.

yolos wrote:Here is what I usually do starting in the early, early spring.  The two tomato plants are sitting on the top of a wagon my father built a hundred years ago to haul trash cans out to the street for pickup (before garbage cans actually had wheels).  I inherited his contraption and use it for moving tomato plants in and out of the garage to keep the tomato plants within proper temperature range.  These were grown this last spring and I had tomatoes way earlier than normal.

This was in the fall one year where I was harvesting ripe tomatoes after Christmas.  Our first frost date is normally around Oct 28.

That's Great.  My "Projected" first frost date is somewhere between now and the middle of December. (depending on the source)  I am still harvesting tomatoes that were transplanted at the end of July.  I have had about ten new baby tomatoes pop out in the last few days.  I don't think they will have nearly enough time to become "full grown vine ripened adults" but you never know.  I didn't transplant them until late July because that's when I built my boxes.  I planted "heatwave" and "celebrity" (hybrid determinates) because I had no clue there where different types at the time.  The celebrities are said to have some indeterminate qualities and will somewhat continue to fruit until the frost and that is basically what I am seeing.  I would say 8 out of 10 of the brand new fruits that popped out over the weekend were the celebrity plants.  
Right now I have two "Cherokee Purples" the ones in the pic above. (one is in the pot and one in the water that I am hoping will root)  I also have one roma, abe lincoln and beefsteak that I have just up-potted for the first time.  I am sowing about one new plant every two weeks for practice for January more than anything.  I'm trying to make all my mistakes now, so when it comes "game time" in mid January, I will at least have learned a few things not to do .  
I'm guessing that anything sowed for the next few weeks will be destined to be container plants as my understanding is that adult tomato plants do not transplant well.  Is that true?  What is your experience?  I guess what I'm asking is , at what point in development should the plants stay in containers and not be transplanted out into the ANSFG????
Next question is about permanent containers for the above mentioned varieties:  To be safe, I shouldn't really transplant anything into the outside bed until the very end of Feb. / beginning of March.  
The Cherokee Purples that are pictured above will be approx. 5 months old (from the date sowed. germinated 2 1/2 weeks later) at that time.  I'm assuming I should not transplant them at that age, so knowing that they grow from 4-8' and get a minimum of 18" wide, What size container would this variety need to be transplanted in to give it a chance to fruit??
Abe Lincoln ( 4-8' - 24") , Roma and Beefsteak (6-8' - 24" ) will be 4 months old since they were sowed at that time. (germination 1 week after sow).  What size containers would they need ?? (respectively)?
I would appreciate any and all opinions, thoughts and suggestions!  Thanks!

Just a thought, how about spreading them apart to form a Y, remove all the lower leaves and burry them deep when you repot them, then when you plant them out you can cut them apart as new roots will have formed on  the stems that you buried during repotting.

newbeone wrote:Just a thought, how about spreading them apart to form a Y, remove all the lower leaves and burry them deep when you repot them, then when you plant them out you can cut them apart as new roots will have formed on  the stems that you buried during repotting.

Best idea, yet!

newbeone wrote:Just a thought, how about spreading them apart to form a Y, remove all the lower leaves and burry them deep when you repot them, then when you plant them out you can cut them apart as new roots will have formed on  the stems that you buried during repotting.

Could someone explain this process to me?  I'm not sure what was meant by spreading them apart to form a "Y".

The roots will be planted together. As they get taller, one plant will be trained up one stake (whatever) and the other plant up another stake a foot or more away.

sanderson wrote:The roots will be planted together.  As they get taller, one plant will be trained up one stake (whatever) and the other plant up another stake a foot or more away.

 So they are referring to two plants in one pot or to somehow split the one plant into two sections????  If it is to split one, what is the best way to do that?

Sorry about the confusion. where you have two very nice tomato seedlings come up and you don't really want to cut one of them, by spreading them apart and removing the lower leaves then burry them deep when you repot them new roots will develop on the buried stems to support the new plants when you transplant them. Sometime I think I know what I want to say but it's hard to put into words.

newbeone wrote:Sorry about the confusion. where you have two very nice tomato seedlings come up and you don't really want to cut one of them, by spreading them apart and removing the lower leaves then burry them deep when you repot them new roots will develop on the buried stems to support the new plants when you transplant them. Sometime I think I know what I want to say but it's hard to put into words.

I understand now.  Thank you for clarifying.  That would have been a good idea, but I already cut one.  It’s in water now.   Been there about three days and already looks like some roots are about to come out .

brianj555 wrote:

newbeone wrote:Sorry about the confusion. where you have two very nice tomato seedlings come up and you don't really want to cut one of them, by spreading them apart and removing the lower leaves then burry them deep when you repot them new roots will develop on the buried stems to support the new plants when you transplant them. Sometime I think I know what I want to say but it's hard to put into words.

I understand now.  Thank you for clarifying.  That would have been a good idea, but I already cut one.  It’s in water now.   Been there about three days and already looks like some roots are about to come out .

I didn’t get it either, thanks for the clarification!

brianj555 wrote:

SWEET! (Wish I knew what happened to our little hand-shaking smiley.  )

Yes.  I was very pleased to see that work.  I have transplanted and will wait to see how it takes. If it works that well the majority of the time, I’ll be doing that with all of the suckers.  Who knows, maybe one plant can turn into many.  That would be great for gifts ect.
 I wonder if the rooted suckers will make just as good of plants as the host?

I’m in the process of pulling most of my tomatoes off the vine that are anywhere near grown or look like they have a chance to ripen.  Freezing temps coming this weekend . I am slowly pulling the most mature off and will continue to work my way down to the smaller ones the next couple days.  All of them ( except the really small ones that came out in the last week) are and have been covered with pantyhose for at least a month.  ( I highly recommend doing this before using insecticides.  It really seems to work.) Anyway , most of them look similair to this.

I’m sure this won’t affect the taste , but does anyone know what might have caused this?  I don’t think it’s critters since they have been covered, but maybe this occurred when they were really small?  What causes this?  Anyone have any ideas?

brianj555 wrote:I’m in the process of pulling most of my tomatoes off the vine that are anywhere near grown or look like they have a chance to ripen.  Freezing temps coming this weekend . I am slowly pulling the most mature off and will continue to work my way down to the smaller ones the next couple days.  All of them ( except the really small ones that came out in the last week) are and have been covered with pantyhose for at least a month.  ( I highly recommend doing this before using insecticides.  It really seems to work.) Anyway , most of them look similair to this.

I’m sure this won’t affect the taste , but does anyone know what might have caused this?  I don’t think it’s critters since they have been covered, but maybe this occurred when they were really small?  What causes this?  Anyone have any ideas?

The photos/info at the following link may help. From the photos at the website there seems to be several possibilities.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomFrt/TomFrtKey.html

Thanks for the link ink. Here is another photo of the most severe cases.  I guess what I really need to know is will whatever this is prevent me from planting tomatoes in that bed in 3 months????  I’ve been looking at the link TD shared, but I’m not sure. 

I was wondering about the spots on the blushers I brought in before the frost.  I thought they were from the cold.  The one on the right in the back row shows them best.  

It definitely froze last night.  A piece of ice from standing water last night.  I'm picking any larger green tomatoes on the Black Vernissage.  End of season.  Into the green waste bin they go and I can emotionally retire 2017 summer crops.

Whether it's safe to plant there in 3 months depends on what it is. I agree with TD, in that I don't feel I can make a confident diagnosis. I see radial cracks on the one tomato, but I don't know about the little spots.  If you're only noticing it now, the weather could well be responsible for causing minor damage leading to small scars or minor infections.
Radial cracks: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/tomatoes_exhibiting_cracks_this_summer

Several of the diseases hang out on plant debris. Composting the plants at the end of the year does not guarantee you will get diseases in the future - many people do it without problems - but discarding the plants reduces your risk. I pull and discard my nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplants, and ground cherries) at the end of the season.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:Whether it's safe to plant there in 3 months depends on what it is. I agree with TD, in that I don't feel I can make a confident diagnosis. I see radial cracks on the one tomato, but I don't know about the little spots.  If you're only noticing it now, the weather could well be responsible for causing minor damage leading to small scars or minor infections.
Radial cracks: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/tomatoes_exhibiting_cracks_this_summer

Several of the diseases hang out on plant debris. Composting the plants at the end of the year does not guarantee you will get diseases in the future - many people do it without problems - but discarding the plants reduces your risk. I pull and discard my nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplants, and ground cherries) at the end of the season.

Thanks beetles.  I was hoping that all of the above damage was simply from rapid growth, the weather and the fact that I watered heavily before each of the frost threats .  I sure wish I could figure out a way to know for sure.  I would really hate to put 22 tomato plants in a 40 sq box and have a bacterial issue in my mix.  I will be filling up my other box with MM ( about 1/3 of the compost will be homemade) but I wasn’t wanting to use that box until spring 2019 for tomatoes to give that mix a year to get better.

Well the insides of the bigger red one with the major cracks looks just fine on the inside. A little mealy but that’s no surprise after 3 frosts and all the exterior damage.  I hope the damage to all that have it are superficial like this one. 

I harvested my tomatoes early to prevent cracking. This work well for me and it stopped the birds from eating them. I picked them as soon as they begin to have a red flush. Here's why- WHY DO TOMATO SKINS SPLIT?

I also ate one of my counter- ripened tomatoes last night, along with some homemade kraut.

 Yum!