How are Things in the Tomato Patch?

[GrowsLotsaPeppers]

And I thought that the 30 we have growing was over doing it.

We picked about 1 1/2 qts of cherry tomatoes Sunday afternoon, which went directly (except for those the granddaughters skimmed off) into a pasta salad for the family dinner. They were excellent. Yellow pears, Sweet 100s, some red grape cherries, some others...

There are about a dozen of the small, baseball sized tomatoes picked and waiting for salad tonight, to go with the three colors of basil and some mozzarella cheese and olive oils. The bigger tomatoes are not there yet.

We've been picking less than three days now.

 

[jackb]

I started my plants on March 1, 2010 and grew them in the greenhouse until May 12, 2010 when they were planted in the soil garden. I have been picking ripe tomatoes for over a week, and they are fantastic this year! A long stretch of hot hot weather really moved them along. I did not know MoneyMakers were a small variety, however, they have LOTS of fruit. Also in the garden I have Better Boy, Bush Beefsteak and Rutgers. The Rutgers have huge tomatoes this year for some reason. They are the same seeds I planted last year when they ran small.

 

[PotterWatch]

I checked in on my community garden plot this morning and found that my tomatoes there are doing great. They all look very healthy and have some fruit on them. The ones I have there are mortgage lifter, pineapple, green zebra, and black krim.

 

[curly_kate]

Looking good so far!! I have managed to stave off blight with some religious leaf trimming. I have harvested some azoychka, Kelloggs breakfast, sweet cluster, and Milanos. So far, so good!

 

[ninnymary]

My tomatoes don't look that great. :/ I am trying some heirlooms again this year. Last year they did terrible and so far this year they are not doing so great. I still think I will try them next year for the last time to see how they do. I would just love to have some fresh home grown heirlooms.

My black krim is in a large (21") clay pot. It looks good although the leaves are always curled. I deep water it and so far do not have any yellow leaves on it like I usually do. I mulched my pots this year and this seems to help keep the watering more constant. It has one medium size green tomatoe and a few smaller ones.

My San Francisco Fog (which is for our area) seems to be doing well. I've never grown this so we'll see how it tastes.

My early girl is also doing well but not as well as years past. I picked one the other day. The taste was not as good and it was smaller than usual.

My Hillbilly and Roma (that I started from seed) have only a few tomatoes and they are still very small.

My Stupice (wish I'm calling Stupid!) has only about 5 tomatoes. I picked one that was cherry size and did not taste that great. Probably won't try growing this one again.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should just go back to growing early girls since these aways did great. I blame ALL of you for inspiring me to venture out and it's not working! :/

Why oh Why can't I grow heirlooms?

Mary

 

[jamespm_98]

I am having mixed results due to blight. I have noticed that Romas and cherry tomatoes never seem to suffer as much, not sure if it is luck, placement or the variety.

Arkansas Travelers: Doing well, picking daily from 6 plants
Brandywine: Lost two plant out of 6. Got a lot of large tomatoes about 2 weeks ago, but plants are stressed due to blight and probably won't make it much longer
Mortgage Lifter: same as the brandywines
Siberian: Lots of smaller tomatoes, don't seem affected by blight
Romas: No issues lots of tomatoes, these always seem to perform well
Sweet 100s Cherry tomatos: Too many to eat
Better Boys: Doing OK, but not as good as the Arkansas travlers.

I always seem to have sun scald on my better boys, I tried Arkansas travelers this year and they seem to hold up better to the heat. We have had it very hot, very early this year and my tomato plants have taken an early beating from blight.

I have 4 volunteer plants that have sprung up, I mulched, trimmed and all around pampered these plants to see if I can hold off the blight and have some later tomatoes. Don't know what they are, but I like suprises.

 

[wsmoak]

There are still Celebrity tomatoes ripening, and I have one heirloom (would have to go look at the tag) that was planted later and has several green tomatoes on it.

Correction. It *had* several green tomatoes. And leaves. It used to have leaves, too.

I've been distracted all week because we're having some clearing done... and what I guess is a tomato horn worm took the opportunity to EAT most of the leaves and make holes in every single one of the tomatoes. :/

I captured it (carefully) and fed it to the chickens, and then looked around and found another on one of the Celebrity plants.

Do they sting? I wasn't taking chances, it was huge and very unhappy to be detached from its dinner!

 

[curly_kate]

My black krim is in a large (21") clay pot. It looks good although the leaves are always curled. I deep water it and so far do not have any yellow leaves on it like I usually do. I mulched my pots this year and this seems to help keep the watering more constant. It has one medium size green tomatoe and a few smaller ones.

I've found that plastic pots are much better than clay. Whenever I have something in a clay pot, I can never keep it watered because so much evaporates thru the pot. Maybe switching to the biggest plastic pot you can find will help?

 

[chris09]

My black krim is in a large (21") clay pot. It looks good although the leaves are always curled. I deep water it and so far do not have any yellow leaves on it like I usually do. I mulched my pots this year and this seems to help keep the watering more constant. It has one medium size green tomatoe and a few smaller ones.

What are you using as a soil in your clay pot?
I never had very good luck with "potting Soil" in clay pots.
This is a mix that I found in the book Ball RedBook Greenhouse Growing as seem to work real well.

50% - Peat
30% - Vermiculite
10% - Perlite
10% - Soil

It is real close to the mix that I use in the greenhouse for starting seed.

50% - Peat
30% - Vermiculite
10% - Perlite
10% - All Purpose Sand

Chris

 

[ninnymary]

Hi Chris...I had some old potting soil in the pot. When I planted the black krim I did add some organic compost and organic fertilizer.

The plants looks healthy except for the leaves being curled. It has about 7 2" tomatoes, fair amount of flowers and is about 3' tall.

I'm sure your formula/recipe is much better but I tend to take the lazy way out. It's much simpler for me to buy potting soil than to mix my own. I will keep your recipe and maybe I'll try it next year.

Thanks
Mary