Paste tomatoes

[seedcorn]

Yes

 

[so lucky]

I have rooted tomato prunings in a jug of water. Then planted them. My follow up wasn't good, but if a person stayed on top of it, I think you could extend tomato season quite a bit. Those stalk bumps are even more pronounced in humid conditions. Just begging you to do something with them, lol.

 

[Crazy Gardner]

Well, I acted prematurely and lost the plant because of it. Oh well, I'll know for next year.
Tomatoes are going really strong, was hoping for some ripe ones as my brother is up from Australia. Went through the outside row and did some more tying up and trimming, first I've noticed the amount of strain on the fence from the weight of the plants. Sure hope I used enough posts. After a glance here and there, there are already lots of tomatoes, the big mama's seem to be doing really well, clusters of 3 and 4" tomatoes everywhere. I think the comment someone made earlier on about 20 to 40 lbs of fruit per plant is definitely possible. I'll try to weigh a few plants when picking time comes, just for kicks.

Cluster of big mama's.

My little helper who was a little bit less help today than usual.

 

[catjac1975]

Oh my, little embarrassed, should have googled first. Turns out they are potential roots?

Yes.

 

[flowerbug]

chalk it up to the learn something new every day category!

i weighed buckets picked and they come in anywhere from 20-25lbs, which is then translated into canned chunks of about 7-9 quarts per bucket. most of what i am seeing right now in the big beefsteaks are larger than my fist (i do have small hands ), but they're doing well. we have a box top of ones that fell off already (disturbed when picking red ones) and have been eating fresh ones for about a week. it's a bit earlier than before so perhaps this new beefsteak variety is earlier. if we grow it again next year and it repeats we'll know.

we've finally had what i consider a summer month of sunshine and not as much rain so that has surely helped things along.

the smile in the garden says everything!

 

[Crazy Gardner]

What I wouldn't give to be growing a few hours south of where I am. I imagine it'll be almost September before the majority of mine even start to turn red. Flowerbug, can you tell me when you started your seed, and roughly when they went in the ground?

 

[flowerbug]

What I wouldn't give to be growing a few hours south of where I am. I imagine it'll be almost September before the majority of mine even start to turn red. Flowerbug, can you tell me when you started your seed, and roughly when they went in the ground?

the plants were starts from the greenhouse, so i don't know when they were started from seed. they were put in the ground the last week of May. i always select the tallest plants and bury them fairly deep so that just the top four to six leaves are above the ground. in the clay here i keep them watered every 4 days or so if there haven't been enough rains.

we had a lot of clouds and rain that first month they were in the ground but they eventually caught up with the heat/sun of July and August.

during the really hot spells if there were a lot of flowers on the plants i always used a coarse spray from the hose to make sure the flowers were getting enough action to set fruits - i've done this for years and the production has been pretty good. only one season we had what is called buckeye rot (which came in with the starts). i buried a lot of fruits that season but we still did ok and got some tomatoes put up.

 

[Crazy Gardner]

I'm just wondering if or when I should start pruning some leaves back up higher to allow the sun to get through to all the fruit at the bottom.
I put my rows 3' apart, and they could easily have been 6'. So much foliage I'm not certain the tomatoes will ripen by the end of the month.

 

[flowerbug]

I'm just wondering if or when I should start pruning some leaves back up higher to allow the sun to get through to all the fruit at the bottom.
I put my rows 3' apart, and they could easily have been 6'. So much foliage I'm not certain the tomatoes will ripen by the end of the month.

the sun on the leaves is what gives you growth, don't prune them. the sun on the tomatoes just cooks them. IMO

we put fully green tomatoes inside the garage and they turn red just fine eventually.

 

[digitS']

The most recent paste tomato I grew was Heinz 2653. It was supposed to be a very early variety. Day to day, my garden is not in the most tomato friendly climate.

The tomatoes were surprisingly nice but they only began ripening during about the final 7 days before frost, which occurred in mid-September.

We don't can but those tomatoes could be cooked into a pasta sauce and frozen. That variety was tasty enough to be eaten fresh.

I plant out tomato plants mid-May with seed sown around March 1st. Good Luck with your plants, Crazy Gardener!

Steve
Edit: I don't prune anything on the plants. Sunscald often occurs in my tomatoes.