Tomato Tuesday/Middle South

Welcome to the first installment of Tomato Tuesday 2011!!

First off you are probably wondering what Tomato Tuesday is, right? It's simply a weekly report or update on how our tomatoes are progressing. Join in and post your reports . It doesn't have to be a long drawn out report and it is not required, but it will be fun and informative to read about how other tomatoes in your region progress throughout the season. It's one of the things we hold in common as a region.

Very easy guidelines for posting your Tomato Tuesday reports...

• Have fun with this!
  
• Report only on Tuesday if at all possible.
  
• Use this same thread to post your reports through the end of the season. In other words, don't start a new thread each Tuesday. That way it will be easy to find this thread next week. It will be one looooong thread by October.
  
• Other regional forums may start a Tomato Tuesday as well, double-check that you are in the Middle South forum when you post your report.
  
• Refer to first guideline.
  

Anyone can post their tomato report. Don't wait! You can check the other regional forums that have Tomato Tuesdays going on if you want to see what others are posting about.

Got tomatoes? We want to hear about them!

Patti, Thank you for posting this thread up for me in my absence.

I'll do the first update and let's see where this takes us.

Tuesday May 24[u]

I only have two tomatoes outside right now. They are both Siberian Tomatoes:


You'll notice some white discoloration on the bottom leaves. That is sun burn. Apparently, I did not harden them off well enough before I put them outside, and they struggled for 4 or 5 days, but as you can tell from the new growth on top, they are recovering nicely.

The rest of my tomatoes are still in the house (unfortunately).




The peas that I planted in March have only just started to bloom, and they are in the squares that the tomatoes are supposed to go in. This set back is going to mean that I won't have the rest of my Indeterminate tomatoes in until the second week of June.


I'm hardening off the rest of my determinate tomatoes now, and they should be in their buckets this weekend.

Ooh, ooh, my turn!

My Brandywine has a TOMATO on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My girls got all concerned when I told them the name of this type because we don't drink. "Wine, Mom?!?" I've suckered it, and it seems to be growing well. I also cut off a couple of leaf branches because they were getting too big, and in the way of my trellissing.




My Better Boy got, um, scalped. I accidentally pruned off the growing tip, and am still waiting for another one to show up. Here's hoping. But the blossoms are turning brown, which I'm assuming means that maters are on their way. (I think the orangish cast on the leaves and stem is reflection from the box. I didn't notice it until I looked at the picture.)



After I realized that I scalped my one plant, I went to buy another one. I had one pot at home, so I was planning on getting one. Well, I couldn't decide, so I got 2 and improvised. I didn't have any MM left, so I just planted them in a mix of the 2 composts I had left over. Not ideal, but good enough for extras. I'll add on next year, with more MM. Oh, these are Early Girl (on the left) and Bonnie Original (right). The Early Girl seems to be getting a tiny but yellow, so I'm wondering if my canvas bag is not draining well. I'll keep an eye. The patio is wet underneath the bag.



It's funny how my gardening style has been evolving. At first, I was really caught up on "pretty" and never would've thought I'd stick a plant in a target canvas bag. But I'm now more interested in the plants and their beauty and not spending too much more money at this point. Interesting.

A tomato?!

I'm SO jealous! You're tomatoes are looking great!

It sure is exciting! It's actually good to hear that they're looking great, because I have no frame of reference. Yay. Thanks for the feedback.

My Heinz 2653 is doing great! Tons of flowers, 3 huge green ones at the bottom.

The Amish Paste and Speckled Roma look a little rough, but it may be because they are heirlooms, so the leaves are not as "pretty" as the ones from the other gardeners. They have fruit, but I cut the suckers as I read and well, I am not getting as many flower clusters as I'd like. Maybe next year I will cut down on that and leave 2 vines from the very bottom instead of one.

I added a San Marzano and a Black Zebra at the last minute. I had them at home for a while, and just moved them a week ago. Well, I noticed that their leaves were yellowing yesterday. I suspect a nutrient deficiency since it's just those 2 new tomatoes. I treated them today with calcium, Epson salts and a little fertilizer to see if they perk up more (I added new compost to those squares, but I'm paranoid).
The previous squares had catnip and cilantro. Would that have added/depleted something the tomatoes need?

I can't believe I am a gardener!

GreenBlueberry wrote:I can't believe I am a gardener!

Yup, most of us shock ourselves with our capabilities.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:

GreenBlueberry wrote:I can't believe I am a gardener!

Yup, most of us shock ourselves with our capabilities.

Uh-huh and amen.

Hi all,
My tomato plants seem to be doing okay. I suckered them this evening and I also began the process of leaning them toward the trellis and tying the ones that were long enough to reach. A few of them have flowers developing...hopefully I will see some tomatoes soon. I also noticed that a few of my transplants have what appears to more than one main stem? Does this mean there is more than one plant growing in this square foot and if so, what do I do? They have gotten pretty tall at this point (almost 2'). I forgot to take pics, but I will do so in the morning and post them.

Where is everyone?! It's Tuesday again, so it's time for a Tomato update. I hope you all will consider posting some photos. Our region seems to be starved for posts. It will remain that way unless you all start posting!

My Siberian tomatoes are flowering! Yay! They are also looking bushy and healthy as ever. You can hardly tell that they had a major issue with sun scald a couple weeks ago.





And the flowers! I have 3 cluster like this one.



The rest of my determinates are going to go outside as soon as I can get the MM mixed for their buckets. Hopefully I can do it tonight. I'll be setting out a Mt. Pride, 2 Roma, a Mt.Princess, and an Empire Hybrid.

My tomato plants are looking good, despite all of the issues I've faced. One thing I realized today is I am not so sure how to weave them up the trellis :scratch: . Anyways, here are some pics I took today:

Pretty baby tomatoes from a week ago, Buttaflie. How are they doing today?

The one little tomato is growing. All of my plants have lots of blooms, but no tomatoes. I don't know what's going on. Should I be concerned?

If it is not too hot, they may need a bit of help pollinating. Simple, just gently shake the plant a bit and the pollen will fly.
If you have lots of blooms, you still have the opportunity for lots of tomatoes. I would not be concerned this early in the year.

If it is too hot, they will slow down creating tomatoes until the temp drops a few degrees.

Darn, I forgot to take pictures.
My Heinz 2653 is toppling over with so much fruit. One is just orange. I hope they taste good because if they do, I am definitely getting one or 2 next year.
The Speckled Roma has 2 good bunches and looks like more flowers coming up. The Amish Paste has less bunches and flowers. Both of them I trimmed to 1 vine (they are indeterminate) but I think next year I will leave 2-3 vines because I'd like more tomatoes even if they are not huge.
I have a San Marzano and a Black Zebra but I planted those a month later so they have no fruit yet, just 1 bunch of flowers each. We'll see how those do.

For the food pantry garden I have some better boys that are doing fantastic (I trimmed those to 2 vines from the start) and a Bonnie Grape Tami G that is exploding with fruit. I am really surprised at this one. I am not really into hybrids but I may just get one of these next year.

All right, I better post this before I forget and it is Wednesday.
These are my first Heinz 2653 tomatoes. I've harvested 2 of them. The plant is so full of them, I can't wait for the rest.


My Amish paste on the left and speckled Roman on the right. These were indeterminate so I trimmed them to one vine, but I think next year I will trim to two to get more tomatoes.

My Brandywine, German Johnson and Sweet 100 are producing, but I have to admit I am more excited at the prospect of the Cherokee Purple and Mr. Stripey producing fruit because they look exotic and I have never tasted them before. I have been spending lots of time in my SFG, but I haven't taken any pics. I'll try to have some for next week. Happy Gardening.

Why does my non-SFG neighbor have crazy lots of tomatoes, and I have 2? They are not pruning from what I can see. Does that have something to do with it? I have a good amount of blooms, and a couple have teeny tiny tomato starts behind them, and have for a week or so, but not getting any bigger. Am I just being impatient?

I also killed a hornworm. Threw him in a bowl of water, turned my back for a minute, then looked back to see the poor thing in the throes of his death battle. He was squirting his stinky stuff into the water, squirming around, struggling. I don't like bugs, especially ones that eat my babies' food. But I felt horrible to know that I had just tortured one. I didn't know quite what to do, so just sat and watched. I won't be killing them that way again.

Time for a tomato update!

My two Siberians are struggling. They have curled leaves and purple veins. So, either they have the leaf curl virus or a nutrient deficiency. I'm not sure which it is, but they are in their own buckets, so I'm just going to let them live on 'til they give up the ghost.



BUT, they are bearing fruit, and they have lots more flowers. So, so long as mother nature stops drowning them in rain they should still bear fruit pretty well! Coincidentally, you can see their sickly leaves a lot better here.





Finally, here is the whole row of determinate tomatoes. All the rest are happy, healthy, and flowering. They had curled leaves for a bit, but that was just a reaction to the tremendous amount of rain we have been getting around here. Hopefully they set fruit!


l to r: 2 Siberians, 1 Empire hybrid, 1 Mt. Pride, 2 Mt. Princess, and 2 Roma.

How are yours doing?

Last night I bought 2 roma tomato plants. I know it's late but I just got some of my boxes together. I WAS going to plants them today. However the rain god has other plans lol. So i just left them out in the rain along with the rainbow of peppers that I got. Hopefully I will get a little bit of stuff this year.

So tomatoes = on hold till rain stops. Mainly because I don't like to get hit by lightening.