Tomatoes!

Thank you Farmerdill :-) I appreciate it.

'K then one more question if you don't mind.

Last year I grew two cherry tomato plants(I'm pretty sure they were some type of a hybrid). They grew well and gave me lots me of fruits but eventually succumbed to the drought-like conditions we had here in Ohio when I had to leave for business for a week.

Well a week or so ago, I found three seedlings from last year's cherry tomatoes that must've fell to the ground. The seedlings looked really healthy and I had room for one more veggie plant so I transfered one of the seedlings between my two tomato plants I bought and the Jalapeno plant.

It's about a 10" tall now and very green and healthy with no signs of any damage from insect nor disease.

Is it possible for the seedling to mature and fruit? I thought I read somewhere that if you plant seeds from a hybrid plant's fruit, it won't be the same as the parent(?)

Thanks :-)

True, some of them will revert to the parents. Still you should get good cherries if not exactly like the original hybrids. Many hybrids to day are built with inbred lines and show very little divergence.

Thanks again Farmerdill.

I truly appreciate it :-)

Hey..on one of those mailouts to get you to buy that guy's book where he uses all kinds of household products, there's a reference to using epsom salts on your tomatoes. But, of course, its on page 213 and you gotta buy the book.

Is epsom salts beneficial to tomatoes and if so, when and how much?

thanks in advance
^_^

Re volunteer tomatoes. I have them frequently and I concentrate on them for a fall crop. It works for me. By fall, we aren't as picky, and we are thrilled with just about anything on the vine.

I use ES on all my plants and prefer the crushed EP, it dissolves quicker, easier. All the old time, master gardners in my area recommend it, and that's about all they use, except to Sevin dust, as needed. I'm finding that I just ignore bugs, haven't used anything this year, except something for powdery mildew on my cukes, just about did them in - don't know if it was the preventative or the mildew.

Sherry, how much ES and how often would you add it?

thanks,
Phyl

Phyl, I put a handful of Epsom salts in when I planted my tomatoes (covered it with a bit of soil before I put the plant in the ground, so the roots wouldn't directly contact it), and my package of ES says to use 1 tsp. per foot of plant height every two weeks. I usually just dissolve a T. per gallon in a watering can and apply it that way.

The directions on the bag also say you can sprinkle approximately 1 c. per 100 sq ft. over your garden before planting in the spring.

Here is an article on fertilizing with Epsom salts, as well:

http://www.garden.org/subchannels/flowers/roses?q=show&id=68&page=1

Hope this helps!
Angie

nannie, when it's raining lots, like this year, I just toss a little on/around the plants, when it's dry enough to move around the garden. When it's dry, I do about the same thing, or put EP and ST and maybe some fert in a watering container, and pour it on the plants. I can always tell more when it's dry and I pour it on.

I have a question on my Roma tomato plant.

I understand from reading here that it is a determinate type and so most(all?) of the fruits will ripen at the same time.

Does this mean that after the fruits ripen, I get no more tomatoes? or will the plant start another batch of fruits?

Thanks in advance :-)

Generally, once you get all your tomatoes from a determinate plant, that's it. Time to rip the plant out.

Awww, I didn't know that.

I guess I'll just plant more indeterminate types next year than the one hybrid beefsteak and the one cherry I have.

Thank you feldon30. I appreciate it.

Oh! I have another question then.

About how many tomatoes should a healthy mature determinate Roma plant yield?

I planted mine on 5/11. I live in zone 6a. We've had a cooler then usual Spring and I have about 15 green ones at full size and another 10 or so in various stages. The plant still seem to be putting out new flower buds.

I'm know it wouldn't make sense to expect a concrete number but anything would make me better educated because I know nothing.

Thanks in advance :-)

Yeah it's hard to tell but I would think 40-50 tomatoes off a Roma plant would be a good to very good yield, but things do depend on climate, weather, soil, and plant health. And I haven't grown Roma since the first year since there are so many heirlooms that I like. :)

'K

Thanks again.

I appreciate it :-)

amyint, I feel the same way, and especially when I plant a flowering plant, in my flower garden, that blooms for 15 mins, and is then finished, like tulips or other spring quickies...

I'm lucky on the flowers part SherryLike. I live in a house my mother used to live in. When she lived here, she planted literally hundreds of parenials all around and she planted different types in the same spaces so when one type of flower goes away, another comes up. Even though I don't know what most of them are, I just mulch and weed twice a year and I get tons of beautiful flowers from spring to the end of summer(she's a very experienced gardener when it comes to flowers).

The veggies I'm growing this year are more ambitious for me. I did grow a couple of cherry tomatoes last year but they got killed when we had some near-drought weather and I had to leave for a week on business trip.

PS: I've been very tempted to claim those flowers as my own effort when I invite a girl over(you know, sensitive 90s guy and all that :-D). But of course, I would never do such a cheezy thing---but I'm tempted! LOL

I wish I had your mom's talent. I just cannot seem to get it right about the bloom times and finding the right place to plant, sun, shade, or partly shady, or sunny. I spend a great deal of my time digging up and moving plants, including my tomato crop, which I moved after they had been in the ground 2 or 3 weeks, not fun, but this is a new side yard for me, so I will know the habits of the sun when i start planting a fall crop of veggies...

I'm sure you'll get better - I guess everyone gets better at things they keep trying at.

My mom's been gardening for about 40-years in 3 different countries!!. Whenever I talk to her she always questions me about how her flowers are doing and which ones. For example: she planted 6 different types of Lillies around my yard and she knows the exact names of each, when they're supposed to show up, their size etc. and she hasn't live here in three years.

I hardly ever know what she's talking about because I don't know the names of most of the flowers so I have to ask her where in my yard she's talking about.

The first spring here, I pulled out a bunch of young flower plants because I thought they were weeds. I can tell which ones are weeds and which ones are flowers now

The fact that most perranials have bulbs attached to them helps! :-)

How are your lilies doing? This is my first year with lilies and, of course, I didn't plant them in the right location and I will move them this fall. That's okay, but what I really don't like is that they boom, then it's over. Are there lilies that bloom longer? I have Mona Lisa, Marko Polo & an unknown white.

All my Lillies are done blooming except for a few very large orange ones on the side of my garrage. I don't know any of their names but I do know that different ones bloom at different times just by observing the last couple of years.

We had a very wet and pleasent Spring so the Lillies came up earlier than they did the last two years. I have colors that were, white, peach, orange, pink & white, plain pink, red, yellow and some with a couple of colors. The sizes range from 12" tall at maturity to more than 5 feet tall.

I noticed that generally the smaller ones bloomed first but theres a 12" variety that's red & pink that blooms at the same time as the 5-6 foot tall giants.

My mom also planted a bunch of Iris' varying in size and color some of them bloomed about the same time as the some of the Lillies. The tulips did too. The Peonies were gigantic this year because on the Spring but they're gone now. All the roses are gone too but I don't think I'm taking care of them correctly.

Right now there's still a bunch of Daisies going strong. Two types of my Hostas are blooming, six or seven different types of flowers that are bushy with long stalks ending in trumpet looking flowers varying in sizes from 3" to 6" are blooming but I have no idea what they are.

I only weed, mulch and water them. Most of the flowers I have no idea what they are but they sure make me happy at the end of the day when I hang out in my patio with a laptop, some music, and a cup of coffee or a beer :D

Now if I can keep my little veggie garden to produce well, I may have a nice salad too :D

Hey SherryLike.

I was wrong LOL. Apparently I DO have new Lillies blooming and apparently two more batches coming soon.

I just spoke with my mom because you got me curious :)

I have these Lillies currently blooming that are white with dark red pistels(?). I didn't think they were Lillies because the flowers don't point up(like the ones I know) - they point to the sides or down instead and the stalks and leaves are very different. I didn't think they were Lillies but they are apparently some rare and more expensive type. I guess I better take care of them :-)

There's 2 more batches of those types with young green buds so they should bloom soon.

Do you think some of the trumpet flowers might be Angle Trumpets, Brugmansia?? What zone are you in, I'll bet Angle Trumpets won't make it over the winter in yours. Peonies are some of my fav but it's too hot here for them, and the ants love them. I've lost more plants to ants than any other pests or pet...

I live in zone 6a.

You're talking about the bushy planted flowers? I don't know what they are :-)

Two of the bushes have all yellow flowers with six pettals , three overlapping another three and the edged of the pettals are wrinkled. The other two are the same except they're pink with yellow in the middle. The fifth one by my front door is an orangy-pink color. The bushes are about four feet across and made up of long leaves like giant grass blades that come up from the middle and curve outward and down. The flower stalks shoot up from the middle of the plants and has anywhere from 2-4 flowers on each stalk.

I did take pictures of all of the flowers last year but not this year :-

Hmm, 'Angel Trumpet" sounds cool :-)T

I picked my first 4 tomatoes today!!!! I hadn't been to the garden since Friday so I was happily surprised to find ripe ones and a few just starting to blush. (thanks for that word, btw)

haha, the ripe one didn't last long. warm tomatoes with lots of salt... life is good ^_^

Amyint, sounds kind of like daylilies. Some look like a circular clump of grasslike leaves, and others look like a "fan" with all the leaves going to one side or the other. This is prime time for day lilies here in zone 5a, so wouldn't be surprised if you are seeing the same there. Great plants--they bloom all summer with no deadheading, and will keep dividing and reproducing if they are happy.

There are also lilies that have stalks with leaves right on the stalks, like Oriental lilies, that bloom once and are usually done for the year. That may be what you had bloom earlier. I am no lily expert, but have a few of both, and love both kinds! I'd love to see pictures of yours, and you could get a lot of great information over on the lily forum. Wonderful people over there. . . it is one of my favorite forums, though I rarely post. I just look at all the lovelies and sigh, and plan and dream.

What is "deadheading" Bookerc1?

My son has my camera down in TN until next Monday ( he's fixing up people's houses with a group of other teens - love that kid. Heart of gold and looks like a young Jim Morrison). I'm worried about evil girls getting their hands on him :-/

But anyway, I have tons of pictures from last year. I spent the whole summer taking pictures of various flowers around my yard.

I'll find out where I put 'em in the multitude of image files populating my desktop and and post them somewhere.

Just thought of something:

I apologize to everyone for inadvertantly highjacking this tomato discussion with flower-talk.

For the couple of people who asked to see the flowers I have, I found a file with about 15 photos I took last year. Unfortunately, I don't know if I can upload these pictures because I'm not a dues-paying member :-( sorry.

If you want to see them, I uploaded the pictures on my MySpace site and you're more than welcome to view them :-) It's in a pohto album named "flowers for Dave's Garden Members".

The URL is: www.myspace.com/ayemyint

Again, I'm very sorry for all the flower talk on this tomato vine :-D

Deadheading is what you do after the bloom is past its prime. "Off with her head!" You use shears, or just snap off the stem, to remove the spent flower. With a lot of flowers, it will stimulate the plant to keep making new flowers, instead of putting the energy into turning the dead flowers into seeds. At the end of the season, shortly before the frost, you can leave the last flush of flowers to go to seed, either so you can collect them, or so the local wildlife (and I don't mean the girls who are after your son!) can have at them.

I had a little dianthus last summer that bloomed its head off. You just couldn't even see the foliage for all the blooms, and it smelled so good! When they started drying up and trying to form seed heads, I just gave it a good shearing, and it would get covered with new buds all over again.

I don't know if there is a rule of thumb for what to dead-head and what not to deadhead. I generally lop off all the dead flower heads to keep it looking decent (only takes a couple of minutes a day). Just part of my morning routine: bare feet (avoid doggie doo doo), cup of hot coffee, clipping dead blooms. It's my favorite part of the day.

Tried to look at the pics on your my space page, but couldn't access them if they're in the "My Pics" area. How about a nice slide show? [smile]

This is for "Catmad"....sorry it took so long for me to respond to your question about the BHN444. I have been trying to get back to this forum and couldn't find it. Plus have been busy with work as well. So, any way... Click (or cut & paste) this link to your browser and it will take you the the Texas A & M web site, where they did extensive work and writing about this hybrid variety.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/cemap/tomato444/tomato444.html

Hope this answers your question. Thanks for your response and suggestions. Keep 'em coming!

Can you tomato experts help me out please. I have the SFG and tried planting tomatoes directly (end of May). Didn't get a thing. Not even a single seedling. Tried to start them indoors twice, and seedlings have popped up, but first time, I didn't get them outside and into the box fast enough.

Now, I have retried, starting them in peat pots indoors. I have seedlings on both Romas and Brandywines about two inches long. But I only have the "cotyledons". Not true leaves yet.

My question; WHEN do I starting putting them outside to "harden off", which I've read so much about. Looking at my pics, is it too early now? I don't put them in the garden at this early stage, do I? Help please?!

Catmad;

Here's more info for you and anyone else, regarding TAMU's work with the BHN444 tomato.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsletters/vpmnews/feb06/feb_06_top_10_tomato.htm

It sounds great to me. I want to try them, but can't find the seeds locally. And I don't want to do mail order at this point. So I'm sticking with my Brandywine's and Better Boys.

Hello,

I am new to DG and am wondering if anyone here grows tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest? Which varieties work best? I live on the coast and it's foggy a lot of the time. I'm currently trying out yellow pear, early girl and cherry 100's. They are growing and flowering like crazy, but I'm not sure they're gonna produce much. Any info would help me make my decision for next time! Thanks!!

sugarshirley You might post this on the Tomato forum to get the answer you are looking for

For all the tomato growers in here, what do you recommend I grow for great taste this year? I live in Columbia SC (7b, 8a). I grew Merced when I lived in San Antonio and they were great!
Thanks,