2nd Crop Tom's in the Mix

We Planted 80 tomato transplants Monday in the greenhouse , decided to thin the plantings down and allow for two trusses on each plant, we are hoping and praying for good weather, the summer heat desimated the spring crop and we only got half the expected harvest.



But with the thinnning of the plants, it will allow for planting of some herbs in the beds!

Hey Jay Bird! We're going to try the same thing, only not as ambitious as we have a smallish greenhouse. Have a few Better Boys and a couple of Box Car Willie's....with tiny maters on 'em...lettin' 'em get lots of sunshine...and become as sturdy as possible before we put them inside. I just wonder what you'll do for pollination. We try "bumping" them every day or so...and it "seems" to work ok...but no substitute for bees. If you have any ideas to share...they'd be most welcome and appreciated. We're in South Georgia...and all of those 100+ degree days really bummed out our summer maters. About a half crop, like you said. Thanks...cheers...elwo

We bought a vibrating wand from greenhouse megastore and hand pollinate every couple of days, you can actually see the pollen dust when you do it

A vibrating wand, JB? Inquiring minds want to know if...
you have a link to said machine?

Boffer We got it from International greenhouse Supply IGC takes 2 AA batteries and works great, I was working in GH this weekend and noticed almost all of the 5th tire blooms had fallen off (died) went to house and googled the problem and determined the blooms had not been pollinated. I asked my lovely bride when she vibrated last and she said oh last week sometime. Note to self remind lovely wife to vibrate the blooms every 3 days !!! we have picked about 4 pounds of the fall crop and the balance of 1st tire toms are coming on strong, it is so great to have fresh tomato's in November!!! We planted another 150 seeds this past weekend getting ready for early spring tomato's ..,, I need another greenhouse!

Tier not tire ,, fat fingers

I see the potential for some fun times at the JB farm when the work's all done!

I went to
http://www.igcusa.com/
that had a link to
http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/

and neither search engine displayed anything for
'vibrator' or 'pollination assistant' or 'tomato tools'

a little help please

Tomato Pollinator The pollinator uses a AA battery to drive a counterweight that, when loosely held, does an excellent job of vibrating the cluster of blossoms. Tomato flowers must be pollinated vigorously to get larger and more uniform fruit by increasing seed count. Part # Description Shipping Wght Price - 5E846 Pollinator II (Battery Not Included) 0.16 # $15.95

http://www.hydro-gardens.com/growsup1.htm

Took a little while but I found it and no I didnt buy it from IGC , my bad!

Boffer , the work is never done , ever ever ever, they will have to pry the garden tool from my cold dead hands!

First ripe better boy picked it Nov 26, 2011

Jay Bird wrote:We Planted 80 tomato transplants Monday in the greenhouse , decided to thin the plantings down and allow for two trusses on each plant, we are hoping and praying for good weather, the summer heat desimated the spring crop and we only got half the expected harvest.



But with the thinnning of the plants, it will allow for planting of some herbs in the beds!

Do you grow the toms in the glass house till they get to the flowering stage?

if so do you practice putting a white wash sunblock on the sun drenched outside of the glass , leave any non sunny glass un covered and vent on that uncovered side low down and high up on the sunny side once you get a few days of nearly 80 oF

I know the UK is usualy a decent growing area but occasionaly we can hit 100 oF outside , inside the glass house it can hit 140 oF between clouds passing by overhead when it is blue sky sunny and cook plants tender plants like tomatoes in a few minutes .

So to protect agains the heat in my glass house (12 x 10 foot by 9 foot at the ridge ) I have white washed as indicated & installed two auto roof vents , one in each roof slope on opposite sections , two manual ones on each roof vent on opposite roof slopes and one auto vent for low down cool air drawn in on the north facing side in the middle of the glass house .
Plus i also have the option of using the sliding doors if it gets really hot .. I also have an adjustable auto timed dryness control leaf device to spray mist & damp things down to give a few minutes spray at 11.00 and , 13.00 & 15.00

Using the mist spraysystem can drop the air temp by about eight oF if it has hit the mid 80's or more

Do you have a maximum and minimum glasshouse thermometer so you can keep an eye on how the weather warms up ?

It's just occured to me does green house mean a glasshouse or does it mean a polyethene membrane covered tunnel made from hoops etc. what I kno as a "poly tunnel " , my input is defo for a glass house.

elwowee wrote:Hey Jay Bird! We're going to try the same thing, only not as ambitious as we have a smallish greenhouse. Have a few Better Boys and a couple of Box Car Willie's....with tiny maters on 'em...lettin' 'em get lots of sunshine...and become as sturdy as possible before we put them inside. I just wonder what you'll do for pollination. We try "bumping" them every day or so...and it "seems" to work ok...but no substitute for bees. If you have any ideas to share...they'd be most welcome and appreciated. We're in South Georgia...and all of those 100+ degree days really bummed out our summer maters. About a half crop, like you said. Thanks...cheers...elwo

I hand pollenate in the glasshouse as not all plants are self pollenators and the more pollens in a flower the better the fruit seems to be.

I have made up my own ( wild , shot and eaten ) dried out rabbits tails taped on to small thin bamboo canes . I use these to physically disturb the pollen in any plant flower inside or outside the glasshouse that's open and showing pollen on the stamens , then I work my way round the glasshouse starting at the top of plants and working my way down .

It seems to have worked very well for so far I've had a few good crops despite being rather late in getting the glasshouse project off the ground in late July this year.

try a good shake at the stem base each day worked for my 10x12 green house tomatoes heat was really bad and early last year,no rain for months didn't help either