How are those Tomatoes?

[desertlady]

Lots of volunteers are showing up, I think they are cherry tomatoes, I can use those to feed my chickies! (very spoiled chickies!)

 

[digitS']

Got 'em all planted today... 56 tomato plants, 26 different varieties! :bun

Journey!!

You've got more plants & varieties than I do! How are you going to relax with the children and hubby this summer!

I usually save one volunteer each summer. Last year, I moved it down to the end of the eggplants. It grew like a gangbuster! Too much, it crowded out the eggplant. Smothered the poor thing and was smothered in cherry tomatoes! I figured it was a Sweet 100 offspring since that was the only red cherry I had the year before. May have been 100 but it sure wasn't sweet - bland, really . . .

It was remarkable that it had time to mature a crop. I've allowed a plant that looked like Sungold or SunSugar to grow a couple of times. Terrible performance - like 4 or 5 cherries and they taste like nothing! It is worse when I used to have Large Red Cherry plants. I must have grown that variety for 20 years and was happy enuf with it and it is a non-hybrid. Howsomever . . . . LRC matures its crop so late that I couldn't get ripe fruit from the volunteers before frost . I guess I never had a volunteer that amounted to anything.

Steve

 

[jackb]

jackB- How do the greenhouse tomatoes taste compared to the outdoor?
I grew them several winters, using varieties recommended for greenhouse growing. Though it was fun to have a few tomatoes I think I got about 2 dozen. They were not as good as fresh grown outdoors. They were not worth all the trouble considering the time but I loved doing it anyway for the fun of it. I only stopped because I got a white fly infestation that was too hard to control and jeopardized my spring seedlings.

Sorry it took so long to reply as I missed your post. I see absolutely no difference in taste, in fact, the greenhouse tomatoes ripen better than the garden tomatoes. I have grown them indoors in the winter and they were fantastic. Growing hydroponically, I do not have a problem with white flies, or any other insects for that matter. Here is a photo of the tomatoes from last winter, they are a greenhouse variety named Trust. I started picking them at the end of November, and as I recall I got sixteen tomatoes from each plant.



Jack B

 

[Collector]

We are growing Early Girl this year just like 2011, 2012, but this will be the last year for sure. We also planted sweet 100, they did great last year, hoping for a repeat performance this year. This springs weather has been a real rollercoaster, after planting the tomatos and peppers May 11 it has been pretty stressfull gardening for sure. Next year we are not planting the bulk of the garden until memorial weekend. I am looking for suggestions for a heirloom replacement for the Early girls, indetermanet medium size that can be eaten fresh, canned, or make salsa. Ya I'm looking for a real all arounder tomato lol...

 

[digitS']

Wow! That's what this thread needed: a beautiful picture of the fruit from the plants!

Collector, I was on another topic about Early Girl replacements a couple of months ago. I will search that out and make sure that it has my ideas for 2013. Look for it bouncing to the top of the "Most Recent" in just a few minutes.

Yep. I've still got Early Girls .

Steve

 

[Collector]

Wow, ask and you shall receive . Thanks for re-upping that thread it has plenty of fodder to ponder over. Nothing against EGs just want to try my hand at saving tomato seeds and upping my growing game lol. In 2011 I grew some Rutgers tomatoes they had a really slow start, by the time they set fruit it was getting late in the season, hardly got a ripe one off the vine. Had to pick them green before the first frost, we picked 90+ pounds from 10 /12 plants took 3 weeks in the basement to ripen them up. Now I am looking for an early producer that will keep going till late season.

 

[baymule]

I have tomatoes taller than 5 feet now. Looking at the green tomatoes every day searching for that first blush of color! Can't wait! Can't wait!

I planted Riesentraube (3) and properly caged them. They are behaving nicely and growing within the confines of the cages. I planted 2 in another bed and ran out of cages, didn't stake them.......and they got an urban sprawl virus and spilled out over the walkway that just happens to be the one I have to keep clear for my 90 year old mother to have safe passage from the car to the house. I ran a length of chicken wire along the walkway to push them back to where they came from, so they undulated into the eggplant and are threatening to strangle them in the perfect tomato homicide crime. They are loaded with tiny green future cherry tomatoes, so as long as they turn red and we can eat them, they can do what they durn well please!

 

[MontyJ]

Not much going on with the tomatoes yet. There are a few blooms forming here and there. I haven't decided if I'm going to pinch them off or not.

Brandywine:

Rutgers:

The Brandywines don't seem to be bothered as much by the wild temp swings we have had. The Rutgers are showing some signs of early stress, but have greened up nicely with the warmer weather.

 

[897tgigvib]

JackB, your Tomato plants have a look of strong nitrogenous growth that is controlled and strong. They do. Are you using fertilizers that have a strong balance, and also with strong Silicon that is water soluble? Maybe it is the lighting that makes the greens have that gloss look of nitrogenous growth.

There are hydroponic nutrient manufacturers that have liquid hydroponic nutrients that create that kind of growth. Dutch Master out of Australia is one of them. My new laptop does not have the favorites link but it is googlable. Nutrifield is another one. These hydroponic nutrients makers have things like 2 part grow cycle base nutrient, 2 part bloom cycle nutrients, and then additive mixes. Things like fish protein and kelp hormone derivitives, root stimulants, enzyme additives, micro nutrient mixes, and then the things that create better growth to make up for the rapid growth, such as soluble silicon the plants take up to strengthen the plant tissues. I even saw one manufacturer hads a product called bush master to keep the plants from getting too big.

All that, but it might just be the lighting that makes it look like that. Color balances can get like that, especially when on the spectrum, with lighting has small bands of green blue and red instead of the more normal to our eyes wide multiple bands. both can balance photographically, but the small widely spaced bands still show a certain look. The eye in the situation compensates, but the camera only compensates by doing a rgb balance. The eye does a mental balance, so you may not see it as much. Notice the gloss on the greens, the shimmer of the reds? (My camera puts a gloss on the greens in the bright sun that seems to lean to yellow). I would like to see a natural sunlit photo, unedited, of your greenhouse tomatoes Jack. They really have a strong healthy look, but it is a different look that has me very curious.

 

[digitS']

MontyJ, those look like happy tomato plants!

That "bush master" makes me think of something that I don't believe is common knowledge.

If you google "plant growth regulators" - a whole warehouse of products will open to you. These hormones and chemicals are used by the commercial greenhouse to control the growth of plant starts. They are used elsewhere also. I didn't know it but they are sprayed on golf greens for that "astroturf" quality golfers are sometimes looking for. Some in this class of ag chemicals are used to control weeds, too.

So, if your plant starts seem kind of leggy and the ones at the garden center are bushy little things - remember there are "plant growth regulators" in use on most everything.

Steve