Tomato Tuesday/Upper South region

Tomatoes in the making!

I might be crazy...

Under the trellis supports, I have 96 tomatoes. This photo is just before I pruned them back, and put up string for them to climb.



On the outside squares, I have 40 determinate tomato Heinz, and on the inside are various indeterminate tomatoes including:


Indigo Purple (thanks to Nonna.PapaVino)
Dixie's Sweet (thanks to Dixie)
WV 663 (thanks to PattiPan)
Brandywine
Cherokee Purple
Husky Cherry
Hillbilly
Jet Star

That look AWESOME! but, I have to ask...what is the deal with the red plastic? I've seen red trays too. How does it help the tomatoes? I'm very curious. Thanks

The main reason is to have a barrier between the leaves and the soil. There are many fungal diseases that live in the soil, keeps them from being splashed up on the plants.

There are a couple of other benefits...
Supposed to heat up soil and keep water from evaporating (there are soaker hoses under there btw).

Also, when I get a hornworm, you can see the droppings fall on the plastic.

Roma tomato in a pot. The red stick is a 2 foot long level.



Sugary Hybrid Grape tomato. It's already outgrowing the cage



Brandywine tomato plant.



My cattle panel trellis. I think I will wish I had not placed the plants so close...



Brandywine blossom

My tomatos grew half a foot this past week. Most have started blooming.







Kay

Braim and Kay, your tomato plants look fantastic!

It's tomato tuesday, and I have a couple photos of my toms. They have been pruned back, and now have strings to climb.

I have been spraying with neem oil as a bug/fungal preventative. I have a few flea beatles, but not as bad as last year.

OOOOOOH Looking good.

Kay

Your tomatoes are looking good Squat. Here are a few of my tomatoes this morning.

Here is a Super Sweet 100:



And a Brandywine:



And Sugary Hybrids:

AMATEUR NEEDS SOME HELP--BIG PLANTS, NO TOMATOES!

Last year I started my amateur SFG with the soil mix from the book. I had 7-foot tall plants and very few tomatoes. This year I have "Mortgage Lifters" and "Cherokee Purple" already two feet tall, and the blooms come out, turn brown and wither away.

A friend says that with the chicken and cow manure in the soil mix, I probably have too much nitrogen, but I don't know. I did add some Tomato Tone, but this does not appear to help.

Any suggestions on how to help my tomato plants? You guys are growing some great gardens, and I just want to be able to pluck a fresh tomato off the vine and eat it right there in my garden (if I can get them to grow).

I found this article on "blossom drop" Maybe it will help. Some bone meal may help increase the available potassium.

http://www.tomatodirt.com/blossom-drop.html

Anybody else out there have any ideas.

Kay

the only caution I have re the use of bone meal is the fact it attracts dogs.
Keep your garden cordoned off if dogs are a problem in your area.
I used it for my Tulips one year and the neighborhood dogs kept digging and licking my soil.
poor tulips never grew from being dug and maimed.
:scratch:

Super Sweet 100



Marglobe



Brandywine



Sugary Hybrid

My very first Tomato Tuesday post and it is storming outside (which I am very thankful for after record breaking heat the past week!) However I DID take some pictures yesterday so hey it's close enough right?

Two weeks in the ground, Big Beef & Brandywine (which I forgot to tie since she's fruited and had to run out this morning in the thunderstorm to pick her up and tie her down. Thankfully she didn't break!)
Brandy's
Early Girl and Better Boy
Juliet's
And while I don't know if if he will actually catch up enough to produce any fruit this season, I just couldn't let him go. This is a Big Beef Tom that got badly damaged in a hail storm one day after transplant.
I decided to pull him and had just set him in an empty pot next to the bed but got distracted and forgot about him. The next day I remembered to go look at him and see one leaf that had popped out, like a little hand waving at me saying I'm still here! lol So I popped him into a pot with some MM and here he is today, four weeks after the storm, just chugging along.
Once this rain dies down I think I'll move him to a bigger pot and see how he does.
I know, they're nothing super unique or interesting, but I figured with it being my first SFG season I'd just play it safe with the tried and true Tom's, then expand my horizons once I had some experience under my square foot belt

That little broken tomato may be the only one that will give you late tomatos.

Kay

walshevak wrote:That little broken tomato may be the only one that will give you late tomatos.

Kay

You think so? I was really hoping that would be the case! So do you think it might be worth my while to go ahead and give him a permanent spot in a bed?

yep, or at least a big pot or bucket of his own.

Ka

I have come to enjoy Tomato Tuesday. Here's my update:

Indigo Rose has lots of fruit. Haven't ripened as of yet.


A few are now taller than the trellis.


A couple of plants are getting heavy with fruit. Cherokee Purple is blushing, and will be on a sandwich next week.

Tomatoes are keeping me busy... My girl and I made tomato sauce over the weekend. Looks like it will be Salsa up next.

wow squat!! now that's a harvest!! congrats!!

How sweet is that!

Now that's a haul!

GG

*chin on floor*

congrats squat !!!

hugs

rose......

Squat_Johnson wrote:I have come to enjoy Tomato Tuesday. Here's my update:

Indigo Rose has lots of fruit. Haven't ripened as of yet.

Beautiful garden.....love the Indigo Rose!