Tomato Tuesday - 2018 & 2019

I have several thumbnails!

These are my 3 precious Snow Fairies with some :thumbnails". These are the ones I have to save the seeds or it's the end of the line for them. Well, unless some grower makes the seeds available again in 2020.

Finally we have had rain.  I have been watering daily for 3 weeks and the tomatoes were looking ok is spite of the heat and lack of rain.  Now I see a few leaves have rolled up tight. What causes this? It seems like every year it is a different battle. On the other had the Fourth of July tomatoes will soon be ripe. I have a great looking German Johnson.  The blooms had been falling off, but finally I have a tomato started.

Tomato leaves roll up like that when hot and stressed to conserve water. They are ok and will bear just fine.  
Lucky you with almost ripe fruit!
I am pleased that my SunGold cherry has its first blossom.

The Sungold tomatoes are loaded with small tomatoes. Fortunately, the wind storm last night did not affect them very much - a few leaves torn off the plants, but nothing significant.

Thank you, SFG forum, for teaching me about tomato cuttings. A couple of weeks ago, when I decided to go forward with my indoor garden project, I took a nice long cutting from a sucker on an outdoor tomato plant, and brought it inside. Here it is today, with roots and blossoms, ready for its new home. This saved me at least a month -- maybe 6 weeks -- over starting from seed.  

Brandywine just harvested and sliced up for dinner.  It will  go nicely with the cucumbers I just sliced.

yolos wrote:Brandywine just harvested and sliced up for dinner.  It will  go nicely with the cucumbers I just sliced.

Makes me so jealous!  My Brandywine tomatoes are only about 1" in diameter right now, and have a lot of growing to do.

OhioGardener wrote:

yolos wrote:Brandywine just harvested and sliced up for dinner.  It will  go nicely with the cucumbers I just sliced.

Makes me so jealous!  My Brandywine tomatoes are only about 1" in diameter right now, and have a lot of growing to do.

I am even jealouser! I can't grow brandywines outside here. Our summers are just toooo hot. If my indoor garden experiment works, I may try again next year, bringing the plant inside when triple-digits hit.

A red tomato!!

sanderson wrote:  A red tomato!!

Way to go, S. I have one thinking about it, but not there, yet.

countrynaturals wrote:

OhioGardener wrote:

yolos wrote:Brandywine just harvested and sliced up for dinner.  It will  go nicely with the cucumbers I just sliced.

Makes me so jealous!  My Brandywine tomatoes are only about 1" in diameter right now, and have a lot of growing to do.

I am even jealouser! I can't grow brandywines outside here. Our summers are just toooo hot. If my indoor garden experiment works, I may try again next year, bringing the plant inside when triple-digits hit.

Isn't it possible to grow them at a different time of year when it is not sooooo hot.  In Florida, they grow tomatoes at different times of the years than we do.

yolos wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:

OhioGardener wrote:

yolos wrote:Brandywine just harvested and sliced up for dinner.  It will  go nicely with the cucumbers I just sliced.

Makes me so jealous!  My Brandywine tomatoes are only about 1" in diameter right now, and have a lot of growing to do.

I am even jealouser! I can't grow brandywines outside here. Our summers are just toooo hot. If my indoor garden experiment works, I may try again next year, bringing the plant inside when triple-digits hit.

Isn't it possible to grow them at a different time of year when it is not sooooo hot.  In Florida, they grow tomatoes at different times of the years than we do.

Hmmm,   If I started them on New Year's Day . . . just maybe I could get them in before the real heat kicks in. Sanderson? Can you grow Brandywines? If so, how?

I don't think I could grow them in the fall cuz they want long days and warm nights, don't they?

Curious, CN, can you use 50% shade cloth to provide afternoon shade on the tomatoes, in order to greatly prolong the growing season?  Since the 50% shade cloth reduces temperatures by about 25ºF, it seems that it would greatly improve the growing conditions. Just curious....

I had to check my plot plan to see if I planted any Brandywine this year.  (Too lazy to check out side)  No, no BW this year.  I have 3 Snow Fairies loaded with fruit, 1 Cherokee purple, 2 Rutgers, 3 Mortgage Lifters, 2 Arkansas Travelers, 2 large pastes (San Marzano??), some Beefsteak type and a mystery tomato that is definitely NOT a Snow Fairy.  It has huge ox-heart shaped tomatoes.  I may save some seed to see if it grows true next year.
Snow Fairies.

BTE tomato section.

Sun shade against the afternoon and evening sun is so important from here on!!

OhioGardener wrote:Curious, CN, can you use 50% shade cloth to provide afternoon shade on the tomatoes, in order to greatly prolong the growing season?  Since the 50% shade cloth reduces temperatures by about 25ºF, it seems that it would greatly improve the growing conditions. Just curious....

Already doing that. I get such a kick out of seed packets that say "6 hours of direct sunlight". I guess maybe pumpkins or other gourd types could tolerate 6 hours of our direct sun, but all of my gardens are in the shade of the oaks or the redwoods, with filtered sunlight only, and that's all they need. Sadly, there's nothing I can do about the heat. When triple-digits become a daily treat, it's all over for most of the garden. Nothing actually dies, but nothing produces, either until we get back down to the 90s.

Brandywine tomatoes in the making....

WOW! OG! Gorgeous! Now I remember why I didn't try starting brandywines early in the house -- they're HUGE! This just makes me more determined. My official first New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to find a way to grow a brandywine tomato.

OG - Yum Yum

Finally eating cherry toms. YIPPEE!

I'm in SE Michigan and I barely have flowers on my tomato plants.  Should I be worried?  I'm new to SFG.

Thanks!

Time to add the extension on the tomato cages. This tomato is already 6' tall!  Now, if only the tomatoes would start ripening.... 

Beautiful tomato plants OG.  Do you use anything to keep diseases at bay.  I have already removed two tomatoes due to some disease.  This particular disease is new to me so I don't know exactly what to do.  I will have to take pictures and samples and take to county extension agency.  I do spray occasionally with Daconil or Copper Fungicide but we have been having rain every day so it is almost useless to try to keep this from spreading.  I am cutting infected leaves and removing whole tomato plants that are too badly infected.  It could be just too much water from all the rain.

yolos wrote:Beautiful tomato plants OG.  Do you use anything to keep diseases at bay.  I have already removed two tomatoes due to some disease.  This particular disease is new to me so I don't know exactly what to do.  I will have to take pictures and samples and take to county extension agency.  I do spray occasionally with Daconil or Copper Fungicide but we have been having rain every day so it is almost useless to try to keep this from spreading.  I am cutting infected leaves and removing whole tomato plants that are too badly infected.  It could be just too much water from all the rain.

Other than frequently pruning the plants to ensure adequate air flow through the plant, the only thing I do is keep the soil as healthy and as full of microbes as possible, and do monthly sprays of compost tea and Effective Microorganisms (EM). My philosophy is that disease and insects tend not to affect healthy plants, so I keep them as healthy as possible.

What you are describing, though, sounds like Tomato Blight. It is most common during periods of high humidity, and heavy rain.  If it is blight, ensure that after removing leaves or branches that are blighted that they are kept off the soil and disposed of, and then sterilize the tools and wash your hands before touching any non-infected leaves or stems. Once blight is present and progresses, it becomes more resistant to biofungicide and fungicide. Treat it as soon as possible and on a schedule, which is hard to do when it rains every day.

If anyone is looking for tomato cages, Text Tomato Cages has a sale on them through 7/3/19 - $10 off a 6-pack of cages, and $15 off a 6-pack of cages with extensions (these are what I have).

Code FREEDOM10 for the $10 discount on cages.
Code FREEDOM15 for the $15 discount on cages w/extensions.

Texas Tomato Cages

OhioGardener wrote:If anyone is looking for tomato cages, Text Tomato Cages has a sale on them through 7/3/19 - $10 off a 6-pack of cages, and $15 off a 6-pack of cages with extensions (these are what I have).

Code FREEDOM10 for the $10 discount on cages.
Code FREEDOM15 for the $15 discount on cages w/extensions.

Texas Tomato Cages

I have 6 of the texas tomato cages.  I love them and I should really get more but I probably will not.  6 good supported tomato plants plus another 8 in buckets plus another 6 along a trellis should be enough to satisfy my tomato taste.