Its begun!
- Thread starter snarfing
- Start date
betdempster
Well-known member
snarfing
Well-known member
Nice. Im sowing my tomatoes etc in early March.Awesome! My tomato babies got sown on two consecutive weeks and the ones from new years have the first set of true leavesI had thinned them to 2 in each pod and tomorrow I'll go back and thin the older ones down to one per pod and the newer ones down to two
EtchedFicus
Well-known member
Very cool. I'm going to start peppers in a few weeks and tomatoes in early March.
betdempster
Well-known member
I'm lucky we have such an early spring. I only have to make it one more month then I get to plant outside. I've had so many gardening failures due to the heat down here so I'm only doing tomatoes this year with advice from Toronto Joe and others to try shade cloth. So we'll see what happens 
Lived in Houston and College Station for four years. Forget heirlooms. Disease and heat resistant determinates are the way. If you plan carefully and have the space you can do 2 crops. One harvest in early summer and one in late fall. I would seed start indoors in June for second crop. Virtually no fruit set mid summer because heat and humidity. Disease, RKN, and insect pressure was atrocious. Don’t miss gardening down there one bit.I'm lucky we have such an early spring. I only have to make it one more month then I get to plant outside. I've had so many gardening failures due to the heat down here so I'm only doing tomatoes this year with advice from Toronto Joe and others to try shade cloth. So we'll see what happens
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MyFigStix
Active member
Truth! My tomatoes have stalled in late July early August but like you said I start another round late June. The dang leaf footed bugs and stink bugs are crazy here in summer!! Chop all my slicers down once the are done and put in summer starts mid to late August. Fall tomatoes by end of September thru October. Now…..cherry tomatoes is completely different. Thy will still stall out in summer but they continue to grow like nuts, then beginning in September they literally explode with tomatoes. Last two seasons I get more cherry tomatoes in fall than spring. I just have deal with non productive cherry tomato plants for a couple of months but it is worth it!!
Do you have a specific seed provider or variety you like? Knowing Hoss is in south Georgia, I tend to try the varities of tomatoes Greg has in stock. Curious if you've honed in on a particular variety that does well in east Texas?
Figgerlickinggood
Well-known member
Beautiful. I will be starting my pepper seeds in a couple of weeks.
Kompakfigs
Well-known member
Im looking for varieties that are truly disease resistant and a large slicing version of sungold tomatoes.
I tried trialed 9 different varieties of hybrid determinates. Overall, Camaro and Red Snapper did the best for me (production, disease resistance, fruit set, cracking).
You will sacrifice disease resistance for flavor. Carolina Gold was pretty good(not Sun Gold taste good), but fairly disease resistant. Referring back to my notes, it stopped setting fruits for me sooner than some other hybrids as it got really hot and humid.
MyFigStix
Active member
I use seeds from all over. I am not a seed snob! Lol!! But….MIGardener has a great selection at great prices and I feel like he puts more seeds per pack. Baker Creek of course for heirlooms like the Cherokees. Johnny’s Seeds has a great selection but they are kind of high. Botanical Interests has good selection and avg on price. Ok so that seed suppliers, now let’s talk varieties. Last season the Cherokee Carbon rocked!! As did the Dr Wyche. Those are both large and delicious tomatoes. I do like Dwarf Tomato Project as well. The Loxton Lass and Metallica are my favorites from them but they have like 70 varieties. The dwarf tomato project plants get to be about 4 feet tall but are mostly indeterminate so it is kind of a special case with pruning. Cherry tomatoes I have narrowed it down to sun gold and sun sugar. Sun gold splits bad in the rain but sun sugar does not. Sun gold has that thin skin I like thus the splitting. I also fell in love with Super Sweet 100 last year. I grow lots more but these are a few of my best producing and favorite tasting. Hope this helps.
I considered it, but RKN was only one issue. Some varieties set fruit better in the heat and humidity. Some had better resistance to foliar diseases. Some actually attracted more bugs to it than others. BHN 968 attracted so many leaf bugs, I thought about growing it as a pest trap.
TorontoJoe
Administrator
Onions! I need to do that soon!
Kompakfigs
Well-known member
I will try sun sugar this year and look for the noted varieities on fb marketplace.
snarfing
Well-known member
just watched this with echo'd the sun sugar rec for the same reasons.
Recommended
1) Bobcat (early red slicer), hybrid early determinant with a huge disease resistant
2) Rosella Purple (purple dwarf), indeterminate, open pollinated. Similar to much loved Cherokee purple but without some of its issues
3) Sun Sugar (orange cherry): combines vigor of Super Sweet 100/ cracking resistance with flavor of Sun Gold.
4) Celebrity Plus (Red Beefsteak): improved Celebrity Hybrid with tobacco mosaic virus resistance. Semi-determinate (not sure what this meaaaans)
5) Carmelo (Red slicer): hybrid indeterminate, very productive with reduced cracking.
6) Brandy Boy (Pink Beefsteak), hybrid of Brandywine with better disease resistance.
Runners up: Super Sweet 100 (Red cherry), Big Beef Plus (red slicer), Chef's Choice Yellow (Yellow Beefsteak, hybrid of Brandywine Yellow, fixes its disease resistance and bad production), and Dwarf Emerald Giant (green dwarf with a lot of disease resistance).
Personally my all star is Copia! It does great from me, never had any disease issues and its my fave, but of course my climate is less wet and less hot than Millennial Gardener