Marianna's Peace Tomatoes

[pupsnpullets]

Hi again,

The OCC nursery sale is tradionally on during the last weekend of April, or there abouts. I didn't know about it as I live out of town. Coincidently I was visiting a girlfriend and she dragged me along. Like I said, I arrived toward the end of it so the selection was quite picked through, but the prices had been halved Lots of hanging and container flower arrangements - hydrangeas, impatiens and other assortments. The veggies had a few members of the squash/pumpkin families, tomatos, peppers - can't remember what else. Also had a lot of cactus and spikey succulent type things. Can't you just tell I'm the gardening type?:/ Quite a few of the staff were there and they had lots of good info which they were happy to share.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Thanks! I'll be looking for it next year since I live so close. Gotta love a good plant sale!

If you ever get a chance, make a trek out to the Fullerton Arboretum sales. The have a tomato/pepper sale in March plus their Spring Scene in April. They also have the potting shed open on a regular basis for all kinds of plants - including some that you find at the bigger sales.

http://fullertonarboretum.org/home.php

They have a few more sales coming up, plus some classes. If you're in the area during one of the bigger sales, it's definitely worth a stop.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

It's my weekly reporting on my little Marianna's Peace tomato! It is still growing, making some progress, but not nearly the exciting growth of last week. This is what happened this week:

Stupice: Grew 36% in height. (lots of tomatoes!)
German Pink: Grew 30% in height.
Anna Russian: Grew 23% in height. (one little tomato)
Marianna's Peace: Grew 25% in height.
Howard German: Grew 28% in height. (A couple of new little tomatoes)

German Pink is still tomato-less. It dropped a 3 or 4 more buds this week, but looks like it has a bunch of immature clusters coming in.

and . . . .

Marianna's Peace has a cluster with 14 or 15 little buds, the largest of which is at least 3 days away from opening. With the plant being so stunted (only 15 inches), would it be best to pinch off that cluster?

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Wow, some nice results.

Honestly, at 15 inches tall, I would. The reason I say this is because at 15 inches, and it seems the plant grows 25% so within a month it will be a little over 2 feet. If that's the case then it might not be able to hold it's fruits. This variety is a late variety and you do have a long growing season so this wouldn't be that bad.

How is the overall health of the plant? Is the base strong or is the plant leggy? If it seems a like a sturdy plant then leave them and let the plant grow.

I guess this is a judgment call on your part, because the plant will continue to grow and bear fruit but if you pinch of the flowers then it would allow the plant to push more energy to the new growth instead of fruits.

Can you take a picture of the plant in question?

 

[Backyard Buddies]

I'm not entirely clear on your figures. If it's growing 25% a week, wouldn't it be nearly 2 ft within the next two weeks? Gosh, I sure hope so!

Either way, I think I agree that pinching might provide the best results, especially since I've had this little guy since March and it's still only 15 inches tall!

Please tell me what you think of this little guy's overall health. I'm sorry it's a bit shaded, but I took the picture as the sun was starting to set. Here's a picture of the plant in its surroundings:

And a close up of the buds that it gained this week, along with some of the newer leaves that are still unfurling:

And, for fun, a picture of some of the chamomile that is outside the picket fence that divides my veggie garden from the rest of garden where the girls get to play when I'm home:

I love the look of the chamomile.

Thanks again for your thoughts. I'm grateful to pick the brains of someone with far more knowledge than I on this!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

My math might be a little off. Right after 2 weeks it would be about 2 feet tall. But I just looked at the wrong percentages earlier.

It looks like there are 3 stems from the bottom and not one main stem? Do they all have new growth?

This might be the biggest root of your problem. I usually pinch off any side/bottoms and maintain one main stem. Not always though, this really only depends on the variety.

Either way. I'd pinch off the flowers and see what happens. Have you checked the nutrient levels recently?

Chamomile is so pretty, especially around that picket fence. Nice pictures.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

By jove, I think you've got it! I just went out and looked and you are correct - There is NO main stem! There are in fact, three side shoots and no main stem. What the heck might have happened to create that problem? Whatever it was, it must have come that way because I certainly didn't trim it off.

What should I expect with a plant with no main stem? Will it always be a midget plant or will it grow up despite missing the main stem?

OK, I'll trim off the buds tomorrow and give this guy a chance to grow a bit before allowing it to fruit. I have not checked nutrient levels, but the rest of the tomatoes are growing fine so my guess is that the shrimpiness is due to other issues.

How is the best way to check nutrients? I've read that home test kits can be sketchy. What is your experience?

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Well, finally I think we've solved one of the biggest reasons. It may have just grown like that from the beginning. You might consider pinching the top of one of the side shoots off to help the center stem out. Either way, if you leave it or keep it I'm sure the plant will grow and produce fruit this year. It's more of a for next year kind of thing.

We usually check nutrient levels once a year and use a send out service. I'm sure your soil is fine, I just was asking to rule other possibilities out.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Thanks again, Oakland!

I'm sending you some more pictures to let you get a better idea of what is going on with this little guy. Here's a close up shot of the stem area. There are actually 4 stems, but you can't see where they all connect in one picture, so I've taken two photos to illustrate better what we have going on.

Notice that there appears to be some scarring on two of the branches, which may mean that something was pinched off at some early point. You can also see a bit of the fourth branch back behind the middle one and the right one. The right branch is the thickest:

And, here's a closer picture of that fourth one. You cannot see the thicker right branch in this photo:

So, how do I know which one of the side shoots to pinch off?

Thanks for humoring me on this one. I really am learning a lot from you!

ETA: I pinched off the flower cluster today, too.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Doesn't it kind of hurt when you pinch off flowers?

Is the thickest stem the one that produced the flowers and has the new growth?

Assuming that these aren't the ones that have the most new growth I'd pinch these off:

And this one:

Aren't tomatoes fun?