Not my tomatoes

[Gardening with Rabbits]

My friend in Kansas send pictures today of her tomato plants. She started seeds http://www.henryfields.com/product/delicious_standard_tomato/tomato_seed and her husband planted the seedlings. They have a fence that is 6 ft high and for 5 years have planted the tomato plants in the same place. Her DH puts down chicken manure and then tills. They use straw around the plants. So, today he pulls up one of the plants and brings in the green tomatoes. They have been covering the plants with plastic for awhile, not sure how long. They have been harvesting red ripe tomatoes during the year, but no idea how many, but a lot. In the picture you can see the tomato plants went to the top of the fence and then went over on the other side and onto the ground and crawled and there are green tomatoes on the ground in that picture. The ones in the picture came from ONE PLANT that he pulled up today. Do any of you leave your tomatoes in the same spot each year?

 

[bj taylor]

I've had mine in the same place for two years. they've done great, but I want to move them next year for other reasons.

 

[catjac1975]

I always move the location of all my plants. I would worry more about blight and pests than soil nutrients. Especially with all the manure that they use.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I don't know what to think. One thing is she is in Kansas and she planted heirloom 77 day tomatoes. Their temperature was not as hot as they normally get. I think they had a lot more rain this year. Her house and garage are full of green tomatoes. Her freezer is full of tomatoes. She gave tomatoes away, ate tomatoes. She was not going to plant as many this year because she usually cans and has a lot canned from previous years. I remember all summer she was saying, DH brought in more tomatoes. I have more tomatoes to work up. I gave the kids tomatoes to take home. I barely had anything off of mine this year other than cherry tomatoes.

 

[Smart Red]

In their native habitat, tomatoes are a perennial and thus grow in the same area for years at a time. I would have no problem growing them in the same spot for several years if it weren't for the fact I am trying to rotate other veggies. Tomatoes, therefore, get rotated even though I haven't any problems with insects or virus.

 

[ninnymary]

I've been growing 7 tomatoe plants in the same place for 4 years. I don't have any other place for them. So far so good. But I don't seem to get as many pests as some of you. In fact I get very few of them.

Mary

 

[digitS']

And see, that's very surprising to me, Mary.

Not because I don't think you are a good gardener but because of that native environment that Linn Bee is talking about - it is one of the most arid places on Earth! As best as I understand, the wild tomatoes live in canyons on mountainsides where they get some water, once in awhile. Now, contrast that with the Bay Area . . ! You must be doing something right.

There is a guy who wrote a book about the tomato industry in Florida. New book, I saw an interview with him. He said something like Florida is absolutely the wrong place to grow tomatoes and we should not be surprised if the fruits are loaded with insecticides and fungicides! Yeah, I guess so . . .

I rotate things but, you know, if you compost and use that in the garden . . . seems like you are just carrying around the garden what you were trying to avoid by rotating. We just do the best we can . . . I think the chicken manure probably leads to a very "active" soil life under those Kansas tomatoes. Maybe by the time they could have been attacked by some pathogen - something else has eaten it!

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Seems like every garden "expert" I have read or heard says to rotate, rotate, rotate. GWR;s friend is growing heirloom tomatoes, ostensibly not resistant to diseases like the newer hybrids are. None of this makes sense to me. How disconcerting! But at least I'm not as afraid to plant my tomatoes in the same place next year. That looks like a great tomato to try.

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, I hear that it's hard growing heirloom tomatoes here in the bay area. But I don't seem to have that problem. My plants face south and are against a fence. I think this helps them with heat. My soil is also amended with my compost that has chicken poop. I also add some organic fertilizer, crushed egg shells, bone meal, and a fish head to each planting hole. They do very well.

Mary

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

None of this makes sense to me. How disconcerting! But at least I'm not as afraid to plant my tomatoes in the same place next year. That looks like a great tomato to try.

You and me both. This is the same guy that grew the beets that I talked about on another thread. My friend handed him a package of beet seeds and he planted them. A couple of months later she asked him how the beets were doing and he said something like ok, but he was not sure if they were ready, so he brought one in and it was huge. She told him they were ready and he brought in beets, after beets, after beets. I think I said 150 pounds of beets. I got all the inside growing information on that too from him. Seems like you just put the seed in the ground, forget them, never weed them, never thin them and harvest when you see one sticking out of the ground.