How’s everyone’s tomatoes doing

TorontoJoe said:
@Figgerlickinggood I see you use straw for mulch. I only ever tried once and what I got had loads of seed that gave me weeds. Did you ever have that problem? The straw worked well but the weeds later for me were a pain/
Click to expand...
I used straw as mulch for a couple of seasons, no weeds, at least no more than usual, but I had two other problems - I am in a windy location, and the wind kept blowing it all over the backyard. I also noticed an increased field mouse activity, especially in winter, in my strawberry and garlic beds that were mulched with straw. I decided to ditch it.
 
I also found that straw held a lot of moisture for me. For some that's a pro, but for me it created a perfect environment for earwigs to thrive and they like to dine on many of my plants. Now have wood chips on the paths but most of the crop plants have bare soil around them. Yes, I need to stay on top of the weeds more but I have fewer insect pest issues....
 
I went and checked on my tomatoes and ... surprise... I have a few that are near ripe.
tomatoes-8.jpg

tomatoes-9.jpg


The rest are still green...
tomatoes-10.jpg

tomatoes-11.jpg


My Brandywine tomatoes are still in the flowering-fruit formation stage. I planted them later for my second flush to ripen in late July to mid-August. Those are amazing when ripened in the heat of summer. Sweet, juicy, and amazing 😋
 
Figgin' A said:
I went and checked on my tomatoes and ... surprise... I have a few that are near ripe.
tomatoes-8.jpg

tomatoes-9.jpg


The rest are still green...
tomatoes-10.jpg

tomatoes-11.jpg


My Brandywine tomatoes are still in the flowering-fruit formation stage. I planted them later for my second flush to ripen in late July to mid-August. Those are amazing when ripened in the heat of summer. Sweet, juicy, and amazing 😋
Click to expand...

Fresh tomatoes in June! Very nice!
 
TorontoJoe said:
I also found that straw held a lot of moisture for me. For some that's a pro, but for me it created a perfect environment for earwigs to thrive and they like to dine on many of my plants. Now have wood chips on the paths but most of the crop plants have bare soil around them. Yes, I need to stay on top of the weeds more but I have fewer insect pest issues....
Click to expand...
Yep, now that you mention the moisture and earwigs, that was an issue too for me. Earwig paradise. I just kept putting up baits. Annoying.
 
Figgin' A said:
Man, they were a PITA to maintain until they could go out... but so worth it... only 6 very early plants... I love my tomatoes... nothing from the store comes even close 😄
Click to expand...

It's always a delicate balance around here. We want to start as early as we can to get the best possible harvest.... but if we start even a bit too early.... we either end up fighting to keep big plants inside or taking a chance and having some rough weather stunt them. I remember last year I lost pretty much all of my cucumber seedlings because I had to be out of town for work... and we got hit with freezing rain!

And yeah..... paying $4-$5 for a tomato, you'd think it would at least be decent... but not even close.
 
TorontoJoe said:
It's always a delicate balance around here. We want to start as early as we can to get the best possible harvest.... but if we start even a bit too early.... we either end up fighting to keep big plants inside or taking a chance and having some rough weather stunt them. I remember last year I lost pretty much all of my cucumber seedlings because I had to be out of town for work... and we got hit with freezing rain!

And yeah..... paying $4-$5 for a tomato, you'd think it would at least be decent... but not even close.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%. I usually plant tomato seeds on April 1st, which works quite well for me and doesn't create any major strain or headache for me. But the last few years, I've been planting a few seeds on March 1st to get a really big headstart and bring the beginning of my tomato harvest forward by a month or so... My thinking is if they work out, great; if not, it's not a big deal either. They do get quite big by May, and I pray that the weather is warm enough to transplant them early, like in 2024. This year, it wasn't the case, and they went out mid-May, pretty much the usual time for me. They also got hit with some disease while indoors, and the lower branches started to dry out and drop. I was afraid they were beyond saving, but after I removed all sick branches and leaves and transplanted them, they, surprisingly, rebounded and look very healthy now.

I am hoping this super El Nino lingers into next year and we get a really early star in 2027, like in 2024 or even earlier.... In 2024, my tomatoes were out on April 28... that was unbelievable. I am glad I had a bunch of very early plants ready to go.
 
TorontoJoe said:
It's always a delicate balance around here. We want to start as early as we can to get the best possible harvest.... but if we start even a bit too early.... we either end up fighting to keep big plants inside or taking a chance and having some rough weather stunt them. I remember last year I lost pretty much all of my cucumber seedlings because I had to be out of town for work... and we got hit with freezing rain!

And yeah..... paying $4-$5 for a tomato, you'd think it would at least be decent... but not even close.
Click to expand...
I started a few tomato plants early this year, but the cold spring stunt them anyway. All the early flowers failed to set fruit. I have a high hope for Quedlinburger Furhe Liebe, which is finally shipped.
 
Figgin' A said:
Agree 100%. I usually plant tomato seeds on April 1st, which works quite well for me and doesn't create any major strain or headache for me. But the last few years, I've been planting a few seeds on March 1st to get a really big headstart and bring the beginning of my tomato harvest forward by a month or so... My thinking is if they work out, great; if not, it's not a big deal either. They do get quite big by May, and I pray that the weather is warm enough to transplant them early, like in 2024. This year, it wasn't the case, and they went out mid-May, pretty much the usual time for me. They also got hit with some disease while indoors, and the lower branches started to dry out and drop. I was afraid they were beyond saving, but after I removed all sick branches and leaves and transplanted them, they, surprisingly, rebounded and look very healthy now.

I am hoping this super El Nino lingers into next year and we get a really early star in 2027, like in 2024 or even earlier.... In 2024, my tomatoes were out on April 28... that was unbelievable. I am glad I had a bunch of very early plants ready to go.
Click to expand...
I planted my tomatoes early in late April 2024 too. Unfortunately, a late frost after Mother’s Day killed most of them. I ended up with some store bought tomatoes as replacements, which were not very good. Now I always keep spares until one week after Mother’s Day and gave the spares away after that.
 
mech_pa said:
I started a few tomato plants early this year, but the cold spring stunt them anyway. All the early flowers failed to set fruit. I have a high hope for Quedlinburger Furhe Liebe, which is finally shipped.
Click to expand...
Mine stay indoors until it's safe for them to come out... I try to avoid exposing my tomatoes to temps lower than 8C/46F or 6C/43F if for no longer than 3 hours, and it has been working well for me. Temps lower than that were causing noticeable growth stall for me.

I read a study where they found that temps below 50F would negatively impact tomato growth, but I did not find that true in my experiments, so I am sticking to the temps I mentioned above.


"In plants such as tomatoes, low temperature disrupts the circadian clock. "The mistiming of the expression of certain genes upsets photosynthetic metabolism, giving rise to the characteristic chilling sensitivity of these crops," says Ort.

Low night temperatures inhibit daytime photosynthesis in these types of plants by effectively delaying until after dawn those reactions and processes that would normally take place at night.

For example, in tomatoes, if the nighttime temperature were to drop below 50°F at 10 p.m. and not warm up until 8 a.m. the next day, the plant would behave as if it were still night and continue nighttime activities during daylight hours. At the same time, the plant would initiate daytime processes that compete with such ongoing nighttime processes as the breakdown of starch into sugars.

The regulation of phosphoprotein phosphatase gene transcription gives rise to the circadian pattern in activity of sucrose phosphate synthase and nitrate reductase. It is the effect of low temperature on the transcription of this gene that causes delay in the circadian activity pattern of these two key enzymes. Ort says it is very likely that what differentiates a chilling-sensitive plant from a chilling-tolerant one has to do with the expression of phosphatase genes."
https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1996/oct/tomato/
 
mech_pa said:
I have a high hope for Quedlinburger Furhe Liebe, which is finally shipped.
Click to expand...
Good luck with that one. I hope you get a better experience than I did. I never grew it, but I grew many other cold-tolerant and fast ripening types like Moskvitch, Glacier, Early Girl, and others... I was not impressed with their taste and never grew them more than one season.

They kind of remind me of the situation with something like Florea in the fig world... yes, it sets fruit and ripens super fast... but, to me, it tastes like nothing I'd ever care to grow again. I'd rather give my tomatoes a month of headstart indoors and enjoy insanely delicous late-ripening varieties.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top