Trying To Get Setup For Some Tomatos (Part Two)

Time for a continued thread as the other was getting to long. I took some pictures today and did have some frost damage and had to dispose of some frost damaged tomatos as this will give the plant more strength.

My Roma's are bearing fruit even though the plant is still small. This is something else. I can only imagine what it will be when mature?

The Husky Red Cherry plants came through but the other two seedlings didn't make it. Forgot their variety. I'm going to try Parks Whopper as per Joy's advice. Back to Home Depot as in my area they take far better care of their tomato plants than Lowes.

A little frost damage here but it will be OK.

TPlant: TPlant, TPlant, those maters look so good and if they made it through the cold spell ya'll had, I'm confident they will be fabulous. That first pic looks nice, they are getting bigger. No, no, not Park's Whopper! That one failed for me; but, then again, this is you, and it probably will do fine for you. The Burpee's Porterhouse, is the one I prefer. I have a question for you, I was wanting to buy some plastic pots for planting my seedlings up into later on, and they have assorted sizes that you can buy that have 8 holes in the bottom. What do you think I should buy for planting tomatoes up into, the 4, 4.5 or 5 inch ones?
joy

Hey there! Just wanted to put in my 2cents worth, the Park's Whopper failed for me last year, as well. Not happy with that one at all. Won't be planting it again this year. I used growbags with potting soil and coco coir.

Pugzley: Yeah, I tried the seeds and the plants and was disappointed with them both times. I was thrilled with the Burpee's Porterhouse though, they got to be big as cantaloupes and not just a few per plant either, the plant was loaded down with them. I did see Burpee's has a new collection of tomato plants for the 2011 year also, the collection is called the "Kings of Color" collection and all 4 look to be nice sized beefsteak types, one red, one pink, one orange and one yellow. Of course, if I order them my loved ones will have me committed, as I already have my tomato seeds.

The National Home Gardening Club is advertising a new tomato also, Totally Tomatoes carries it, it's called Pink Wonder and is supposed to be a nice one also. Jung's also carries it, of course, all I got of my Jung's catalogue this year, was the cover, the rest of the mag didn't make it through the mail. And I ordered early to make sure I could get the tomatoes I wanted, so will have to miss the specials this year. But.... there is always next year right? LOL I was very happy this past Spring/Summer with the production I got from all my tomatoes and they were all from varying sources. A friend gave me a black krim; but I wasn't really impressed with that one, and I bought some from the local nurseries. I did grow some from seeds which came from Tomato Growers Supply and was really impressed with the fact that they all germinated really well, not a lost seed in the bunch. I ordered plants from Burpees and of course, was really impressed with them as usual.

I did receive and order a lot of seeds from HPS for the first time this year, they sell in bulk and really reasonable; but will have to wait and see how they do this Spring, no tomato seeds from them though.

joy

This season has been a very cold one as you may have heard. Difficult for pollination because of day and weirdly cold nights. One good thing though -- no horned caterpillars! I stay inside mostly because because of my rheumatoid arthritis in both shoulders. It can be very painful and xrays show severe deteriation and MD says I need surgery but he is hesitant because of my health and age 73 soon to be 74.
Meanwhile as my plants die off from frost I replace them with Bonnie plants and wouldn't you know? As soon as I plant them, a few days later they are injured or killed by another sudden frost. Seems like I just can't get ahead but four of my six Hillbillys are doing fine and have tomatos that are huge but still green.

Hi Tplant,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've got a knee that is giving me a problem that I never had before, so the age is creeping up on all of us in it's own way. ugh.

It frosted here a week or so ago and my tomato plant that was going on 3 years old and producing daily (4th of July hybrid) bit the dust. That was sad. I gave her a proper funeral, though, she certainly deserved it, kept us from buying those awful grocery toms all that time.

Hopefully your weather will level out and you can get more productive.

I'm trying the Hillbilly this year, they've just now sprouted in the seed trays. The description sounds so good, I want to eat one now.

TPlant: It's been 10 degrees here for about 3 nights running; but, my yard gets done this week and the new cold frame gets assembled and Tuesday, I get to plant my very first seeds, Pepper seeds. Have you ever used these things: Spray and Grow, Wonder Soil or Corn Weed Blocker? I want to use the beneficial nematode treatment for my lawn and gardens this April and so have to be very careful not use chemicals or any fertilizers that have chemicals in them. So; instead of Preen this year for a weed preventer I thought I'd try that Corn gluten meal which is supposed to work as it's organic and perhaps use wondersoil in place of the soil in the flower beds and use Spray and Grow on them this Spring/Summer, my cannas might like that you think?
joy

All I've ever used was Spray-N- Gro and it works well.

TPlant: I'm going to be giving the Spray and Gro a shot as they will send a sample when I order my corn glutamate for my weed preventer and another greenhouse. Now, I started my bell peppers today and my heating mats have seemed to sprouted legs and walked off, so I put the seed starter kit on the top of the fridge, must get another before tomato seed starter time, anyone know where I can find one without having to sell my children for one? LOL
joy

"Parks" is where I bought mine. There are other dealers but they are all priced the same but you can try to Google or Amazon.com. Meanwhile I will try to take pictures today as I am feeling better.

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Tplant. We are just getting over a 5" snowstorm last week, and are expecting another 3-6" of snow tomorrow. I can only dream about growing tomatoes, so enjoy following you and Joy and others that are starting or already enjoying their growing season.

Please keep sharing with us--it keeps us "northerners" going through this dreary winter.

Crazy weather! Today it is in the high 80's and very humid just like summer. My poor tomatos don't know what to do. In all my years I have never had a weather experience such as last year and this year and there isn't a thing I can do about it. It is to hot for me to go out there!!! Wow! What next?

My first real tomato "Hillbilly." Not yet fully ripe as it fell off the vine during a heavy rain storm. Makes me feel good to finally see some color.

Here I have a nice batch of Hillbillys starting to turn. I'm surprised as the only tomatos to survive the double freeze were the Hillbillys. Look close and you can see the previous frost damage.

All I have in variety are the Hillbillys. The rest are to sickly for consumption.

This giant is bigger than my fist and starting to turn color. I must say it is the largest one so far.

This is a true picture of my plants and the reason for me not taking previous pictures as the leaves were all frost bitten and now you can see them in their final death throng. It has even been to cold for insects although I still spray Ortho Insect killer three time per season. Even when I had all kinds of virus did my plants look so putrid but they are still fighting to produce more tomatos. Of the six EB's I lost my Roma's and Bradleys. I've never had luck with Hillbilly before but they sure made up for the past as they are the only variety to survive and produce.

TPlant: Beautiful tomatoes. I have a friend that wanted to know if it was too late to plant tomatoes? She lives in Ft Lauderdale???
When is ya'lls tomato season? I just put 50 tomato seeds into a seed starting kit 2 Feb, and will do the second wave when they sprout along with my eggplants. I bought the 1 steps coir plugs from Parks' but not sure if I like it as well as the coir seed starting brick I used to get from Boca Bob as it has the coir husks in it and isn't as light and easy to work with.
joy

Joy -- If your friend will be growing cherry tomatos and hybrids which have a short season he or she should be OK but that is about it. As long as the plants go in the ground ASAP.

Thanks TPlant, when exactly do you start tomatoes in southern FL?
joy

I start my seed 08/15 and set them out in early October. Oh by the way! The previous frost that we had a month ago wiped me out but I do have a lot of green tomatos. Fried Green Tomato time.....This will end my thread.

This message was edited Feb 9, 2011 1:33 PM