How are those Tomatoes?

[digitS']

Some of you have been telling us about your maturing garden plants but it has been a couple months since we had postings on the "Tomato List" topic (link). Hoodat hasn't updated us on his potato-leaf volunteer. So, how are things in your tomato patch?

Did some of the varieties have some problems before they were set out that surprised you? Some do well? Are they struggling outdoors or thriving?

My tomatoes are all out in the garden and they've gone thru 2 frosts that I was able to help them with. Going out, I was pleased with my new (accidental) hardening-off procedure of reducing their indoor overnight temperatures into the low-40's. It really seemed to make a difference in how ready those babies were to facing the outdoor hardening-off.

I say "accidental" because I moved them into a hoop house with a small electric heater and fan. That set-up only kept the overnight temperatures a little above the outdoors. I do NOT recommend dropping them to the mid-30's. I also did that one year and killed several tomato plants but the mid-40's seems to have benefited the plants in their transition.

Goliath starts have some spots on their older leaves. That is a little worrisome. I am fairly sure that septoria is not an uncommon problem in the tomato patch some years. The actual killing of a plant hasn't occurred but the damaged foliage to this problem does it no good. It may be that the problem has shown up early to that variety and I am making a bigger commitment to Goliath this year for my beefsteaks.

Of course, I've got other larger slicers from purchased and saved seed. I'd just kind of expect them to have kind of yellow foliage because they produce yellow fruit but Dagma's Perfections sure are a healthy green! This is my 3rd year with that variety. I've brought back Legend and won't mix it up with my other red tomatoes this time (I say hopefully). Legend plants are semi-determinant and shouldn't be mixed up but the fruit is so similar to the others that they get mixed together at harvest. Anyway, I sure like the looks of the Legend plants right now.

Outdoors weather hasn't been very benign since they went out. Besides the 2 nights of frost, the temperatures have been below normal and the winds haven't been kind. I had 1 SunSugar cherry tomato break but just piled soil up over the break and will hope for the best. How is everything in your tomato patch???

Steve

 

[Jared77]

My tomato patch is still in the garage. They are all but bursting out of 3" pots. My plants have been moved in and out as the weather and my schedule permits. I just got my new mower so I haven't had time to cut the grass down super low then prep and plant. All in all they look good though. I had some frost damage from earlier but they've since bounced back. The goal is to have them all planted on tomorrow (Friday)....but we'll see how that goes. I kept them inside since I was afraid they'd dry out since it would be over 36hrs since I could water them and with temps going into the 80s today I figured I better not bake them in their little pots and then be replacing them.

Weathers been uncooperative, and I didn't plant due to the threat of tornadoes earlier this week as the storms moved across the midwest. Its killing me not having them in there but I keep reminding myself I could be replacing them so I'd still be where I was at if I had gotten them planted.

Going to be a good year I hope. Nothing crazy but I'm excited.

 

[thistlebloom]

Good question! I'll race out and take a peek under the FRC ( really? nobody else uses it? ) and report back this afternoon. Gotta get to work!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

This year I did write down each plant on paper, so now I can go see how they did and what they taste like. They have been covered twice for the frost and made it. I have one Sweet Baby Girl cherry with the top off and I am not sure what happened, but the plant is still alive. I am kind of impressed with my tomatoes with this cold weather.

I looked at them and graded as either excellent, good, okay. I think all they need is sun and they will take off, and some bees. Only other problem may be I planted too close and should have less tomato plants and spaced better. Also, I bought tomatoes because my first tomatoes died. I showed a picture and after that they just got worse and so I started these March 3 and when I planted them outside they did not look that good, so I bought tomatoes to make sure I had some and replace what I had lost. I had a bunch of Brandywine and Sweet 100 and all died. I still do not know what happened.

Sweet Baby Girl cherry, okay. Started from seed 6. Some bottom leaves lighter and with the one with the top off.
Lunchbox cherry, good. Started from seed 7. 70 to 80 days.
Sungold cherry, excellent. Started from seed 1. 65 days
Sungold cherry, excellent, bought it 1 and has flowers.
Gold nugget cherry, 2 of them I bought, 1 excellent and 1 good. 55 days Smallish plants, loads of sweet yellow cherries
Sweet 100 cherry, 3, bought. 2 just planted good, 1 planted earlier excellent and flowers. 65 days Extra sweet cherries, large vines
Yellow pear, 1 bought, excellent 70 days Pear shaped yellow cherry with very mild flavor
Siberian Red, exellent and good. Started from seed 5. 55 days Red Siberian withstands cool temperatures and still sets fruit when other tomatoes have stopped producing.
Legend, excellent, started from seed 7. 65 days
Early Wonder, 2 excellent, 3 good, started from seed 5. 55 days
4th of July, exellent, bought 1 has flowers. 49 days Rich flavor, medium plants
Brandywine, excellent, bought 1. 90 days Late, large beefsteaks. Best in greenhouses
Lemon Boy, good, bought 1. 72 days Large plant with large, mild yellow fruit
Jet Star, good, bought 1. 72 days
Siletz, good, bought 1. - 60 days 4-5 fruit on smaller plants. Productive & early
Bobcat, excellent, bought 1 68 days Similar to Big Beef-large fruit, large plant

 

[joz]

Got all my transplants in on March 8.

Had issues with the wilty potatoes, and ONE tomato. One of the Marianna's Peace plants is getting yellow leaves and lesions. I've been pulling them off, but they keep coming back.

Everyone else with yellowing leaves has mostly recovered.

Dagma's Perfection (1 plant) - 3.5' tall, green, fluffy, happy. No fruit.
Isis Candy (1 plant) - 4.5' tall, leggy but green, minimal fruit.
Paul Robeson (2 plants) - 4' tall, 2 fruits one plant
Green Zebra (2 plants) - 3.5' tall, 4 fruits one plant
Marianna's Peace (2 plants) - 4' tall, one plant yellowing with lesions, 1 fruit on the other plant.

Lots of blossoms, but they keep dropping off. I shake the plants regularly (well, I bounce the cage, which seems to produce a vibration and a blossom shake much closer to bumblebee frequency than shaking the plant itself seems to do.).

I sprayed with fish emulsion, and top dressed (under the mulch) with Espoma Tomato Tone just this weekend, hoping to arrest the blossom-drop and beef up the plants against the bugs.

Ugh. Big ugly leafy footed sucky bugs. They drained my first two Isis Candy tomatoes, which would have been ripe by now, and are frequently found on the other few tomatoes I've got.

And hornworms eating everything! I've never had hornworms in this garden, but I've found some small to middling sized beasts, and a couple big fat ones that I missed the first time around, and I still seem to have one invisible one that ate 1/3 of a 4' tall Paul Robeson plant.


It's supposed to be 90* today, which means 95* isn't far behind and there goes my tomato season. Sigh.

 

[digitS']

Uh, oh . . .

I was just going to say that the Perfection doesn't seem to want to set fruit in cool weather. Now, I'm wondering if it is just that it doesn't want to set fruit early. Maybe it is a heat-lover like I thought and it will come thru for you, Joz.

Cool weather? It is afternoon and still hasn't gotten to 60. With wind gusts above 20mph & a splattering of rain, I'm not too encouraged to get out to the patch to see what is happening today. Maybe . . .

GwR, you've got Lunchbox! I used to grow that aaalll the time. If we had a real hot summer, it was delicious! Actually, your Sweet Baby Girl has wonderful fruit and I don't know that it needs any special weather. I think it is "Siletz" but I remember asking my uncle how that is pronounced. He lived near there when he had a home on the Oregon coast. We might need a variety like that this summer.

Oops! I see some blue sky!

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I received free Lunchbox seeds last year from Baker Creek after I had already planted tomatoes, but the picture of them looked so good that I decided to start some and they did set fruit and almost ripened before it got cold. I hope it tastes that good. I edited my list and had forgot to put the last one in the row on the list, Bobcat. The Sweet Baby Girl sound wonderful. The Siletz, I planted a couple of years ago, but because I did not keep track of my plants, I have no idea what it looked like or tasted like, but this year I will.

 

[journey11]

Mine are supposed to go in the ground tonight. I am so far behind this year (starting to think I may have taken on too much too soon), but I know they'll catch up quickly with the ground being as warm as it is now. It's gotten really hot here really fast, and it has been dry lately too. I went out today to find one flat of my 'maters looking all sad and wilty and hurried to give them a drink (have had to water them daily in the flats now). So hopefully they'll perk up in time to plant them tonight.

 

[Smart Red]

Please don't hold it against me nor bring it up in frequent conversations, but I just planted my main crop tomatoes on Sunday. No good reason for not getting them an earlier start, but past results indicate that these late starters will quickly catch up with none of the risks of late frost damaging them.

Now that I am officially re-retired I should get a few of my many other varieties tucked in here and there about the yard.

 

[journey11]

I keep seeing mention of "late crop" tomatoes. There is even a reference to it on my ag extension calendar. I can see doing that maybe with determinates, but don't see that it would be necessary for indeterminates. At any rate though...if you can put in late crop tomatoes around June 26th like my calendar says....I think I'll just look at it as if I'm early! Actually, I'm only 20 days behind schedule from the earliest date I could have put them out, May 10th here. They also mention late peppers..... My peppers are always going strong right up until frost. Not sure what kind of tomatoes and peppers they're talking about.