How's your tomatoes doing?

feed the world gym girl!!

I tell you what I have found out, people will refuse cucumbers, squash and okra but no one turns down tomatoes.

That's the truth, Jim! No one ever turns down fresh maters!

Uh, did ya'll miss my point completely? I wanna grow ENOUGH tomatoes at one time that people will even consider running away from me!

I picked all of 4 viable tomatoes from 10 plants this go round. That is NOT encouraging...

You will never raise enough tomatoes to make people run away. They will spread the word and you'll have total strangers knocking on your door asking for the tomato lady. I find that I have more friends when the tomatoes are ripe than at any other time. Cantalopes run a close second.

Out of all the 5 that I planted in buckets, the Japanese Black Trifele in the eBucket is doing the best. It has grown, flowered and set fruits. The Virginia Sweets, the other eBucket occupant, has been slow to grow. It has finally decided to flower but it's still so short. Other regular-bucket occupants, Chocolate Stripes/Prudence Purple/Dixie Golden Giant, are tall and lanky and have refused to set fruit. :-(

I never had much luck with tomatoes in anything less than 20 gallons, but I'm also not real good at watering daily. I get the big tubs with rope handles on the side at the Dollar Store, and they do fine.
Hope they start taking off for you:)

I cooked my first batch of maters today. Have them cooling down to get ready for the freezer.

Took maters into the office on Friday, and have more "ordered" for next week.

Y'all are correct, there are never enough tomatoes. My neighbor has free reign to pick whatever she wants. They are Italian, so you can guess how much they love maters. They have trees on their lot, so don't have room for a garden.

My dad put his tomatoes in 5gallon buckets this year and his are doing pretty well. Granted he's growing hybrids and is laying the Miracle Grow to them like there's no tomorrow but it's working for him. Most of our containers are in the 12-15gallon range with 3 18gal. tubs also. And they're all doing fine - well except for one pot the ants decided to build a colony in turning my soil to a fine silt and nearly choking a 3ft Mr. Stripey. we thought he was done for and on a lark put him in a completely unprepared spot in the yard and he took off again. I don't expect much fruit-wise from him though, but at least he can live out his remaining weeks in peace! :)

Tylersays - depending on how big Mr. Stripey is, you may very well get maters, especially if the first frost holds off for a couple of weeks in your area.

Honeybee - My seeds were actually just plain Romas, if you look at the wholesale catalog on the cornucopia page they are the only roma tomatoes listed!

I can't wait until they are ripe, i think they have a bit to go before they are the right size but i'm so excited.

prettymess - I checked the wholesale catalog as suggested and found the Romas. Let me know how yours finally turn out. If they don't get too much BER, I'll take you up on your offer to purchase a couple of packages for me early next year.

Thank you ^_^_

Whats BER? oohhh Blossum End rot? I haven't seen any yet, cross your fingers for me!

prettymess - my fingers are crossed for you ^_^ It's soooo disappointing when BER shows up! Let's hope yours get by without any.

It's okay to throw any maters that do get BER into the compost because this is a sympton, not a disease. I would not advise using seeds from any mater that gets BER, though.

Isn't BER more indicative of a soil deficiency than a plant problem? It's solved by adding lime to the soil. Last year nearly every Cherokee Purple(only variety we grew!) we had began producing fruit with BER. I took some pellet lime and dissolved a cup into a gallon of water, as best I could. Powdered would have dissolved easier but I had the pellets on hand already paid for. Then watered each pot with a gallon of the mix. The BER stopped and the rest of the season all was fine. This year when readying the pots I mixed some crushed eggshells in. A more organic approach, I suppose, but probably wouldn't introduce the needed minerals fast enough to stop the BER immediately. However, being in the soil from the get go allows the shells more time to break down as the plant grows.
I can't say for sure about using the seeds - might be an interesting experiment. I have read that peeps will just cut off the bottom of the fruit and eat the good part up top though. I don't know about that either since I don't eat raw tomatoes all that much!

Maybe I should get some calcium to add to my soil now, just to be safe. I don't want any of my beauties turning black!

The jury is kinda still out on BER. Some say it is inconsistent watering. Some say it is a calcium deficiency. What I think from my experience is that it is a combo of at least the two. I also only see BER in the earliest fruits if I see it at all. The plants seem to "outgrow" it and the later fruits are fine. I think that calcium is available in adequate amounts in most soils and that younger plants do not absorb calcium from the soil adequately.

I think there are many factors that can limit a plant’s ability to absorb calcium: fluctuations in soil moisture (too wet or too dry), excessive nitrogen in the soil, root damage, a too high or too low soil pH, cold soil (as evidenced by BER being more prevalent when plants are young) and soil high in salts.

Some ways to try and prevent it?

- allow soil to warm before planting
- maintain soil pH at or near 6.5
- use fertilizers that are low in nitrogen and high in phosphorous.
- maintain consistent levels of moisture in the soil throughout the growing season
- water deeply to get water down into the root zone
- use mulch to minimize evaporation and help maintain consistent soil moisture

You can buy a little bottle of Blossom End Rot spray. Mix a little and spray the plant and it will stop the BER. Sometimes takes two application. BER is a calcium deficiency or sometimes the plant can't utilize the calcium available.

Watering has a lot to do with it. Over the years I've always had problems with it. This year with the irrigation I installed the watering has been more consistent and deeper and I haven't had any problem. We have also been extremely dry so what water they got I supplied. I've never had BER early in the season. Usually when I have it it is later and usually during a rainy spell.

locakelly - this year I've done most of what you suggested (no soil test, and I skipped the mulch because of slugs and voles)

BER has been "light" so I'm pleased with that, but I would like to get through a season without it. We are planning to put-in a drip irrigation system for next year. Don't know how it will work with our sloping garden, but will try.

The area where the maters are this summer is towards the bottom of the slope where it stays "pleasantly moist". I mixed our natural clay soil with coir, added compost, organic fertilizer, seabird guano, dolomite lime, crab meal, and probably a few things I can't think of right now. Hubby waters them twice a day.

If they hadn't draped themselves over the top of their pea fence cages, they would be at least 7 - 8 feet tall right now, and are still producing fruit. I'll have to get some taller cages at some point.

I consider myself lucky I guess because I do not do much with our soil. I compost and my garden can be cultivated with hands, soil is very soft. My tomatoes is not doing much yet but has lots of small fruits. I picked 3 small cherries this morning. belle

Am I really late in getting fruit or what?
No - we've been harvesting the last few weeks. The Lemon Boys were the first to produce, followed shortly by the Bull's Heart's. The German Johnson's are HUGE, but not really that prolific. Kinda disappointing. and my woman say's they're weak on flavor also. Remember - I don't eat tomatoes.
The Mr. Stripeys have just put forth ripe fruit in the last week or so. They're an interesting specimen and we're still working out exactly when to pick them. I'm still waiting on a flavor report on them.
I have three "old-fashioned" tomato plants a co-worker gave me which are strong growers and are catching up but are a couple weeks behind where they should be at this point in the season. One plant, in particular, has a huge mass of blooms and I'm anxious to see what it will produce.
and now to the biggest disappointment of the season....of the four Cherokee Purples I grew from my own seed, two, possibly three, are not CP's. I hate to think the 'weak ones' I weeded out were actually what i was seeking and not this F2 drivel.
My girl, love her to death, has a habit of saving seeds from every tomato she thinks is tasty. I've explained to her the difference between heirlooms and hybrids but she still persists in this mongrel habit. I know she dropped some crap seed in my envelope!

Well that about sums up the last few weeks.

BTW - I don't mean to imply my girlfriend of the last 22 years is a mongrel, but I simply couldn't resist using the phrase "mongrel habit".

Happy Slicing!

I have shared this photo on another forum (Beginning Veg. , Show Us Your Harvests). This is my harvest from the week of the 19th. It does not include the give-aways. I made some WONDERFUL Roasted Tomatoes, thanks to be directed by Gymgirl directing me to Critterologist's recipe post. Today I need to go out again as I saw last night their are a ton of newly ripe and ready to pick ones out there. I will take a chair to sit on as I clip happily away. Last time I filled 3 grocery bags for this photo, so I imagine about the same, sans the too big zuke. More tomato roasting is in my future!

Wow 'quiltygirl'....what a nice harvest.

I'm going to hunt down the roasted tomato recipe you mentioned.

Here it is:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/984/

I got a late start. I planted Tiger Toms heirloom tomatoes and have had a couple ripen and plenty on the way. I get no tomato worms because I planted in Topsy Turvy containers and in other containers I have sitting secured on top of 4X4 fence posts. The ones I picked had a wonderful sweetness and I didn't use any salt. They are delicious! I'm very excited and pleased.