BS: tomato plant question

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,dianvan
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 04:35 PM

Roses, too? I'll try it.

Fish under the corn rows works well. A whole fish for tomatoes might be too much. A starfish works well (save our clams). Fish (I use dogfish) under squash works really well!

After reading this, I went out and staked and pinched my tomatoes. Haven't done this is years. Its alot of trouble and my hands turn black and green. I also wonder about spreading disease this way. We'll see. When I let the tomatoes sprawl on beds of hay or grass, they seem to be more resistant to disease.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Genie
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 01:32 AM

Dianvan, I've read gardening columnists advise against handling your plants when they're wet, because that does incur the risk of spreading disease.   But I don't think it's usually a problem if the plants and the weather are dry.

If you have one plant that has any mildew, smut or other diseases, it's probably best to wash and dry your hands thoroughly after handing them, before moving to a different plant.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rowan
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 02:18 AM

And, if using secateurs, scrub the blades under the tap (OK, "faucet") and then (if you're super 'serious') dip them into good ol' bleach for a couple of minutes and then rinse under the tap again. Dry them quickly (in the sun, over the back of the fridge etc) and give them a coat of a light oil to prevent rust.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,The Droop
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 04:12 AM

The incessant rain and lack of sun in the UK has left me with a lot of leaves and few fruit, I have grown tomatoes for years but without any doubt this summer is the worst in living memory.
Climate change in the British Isles has gone into reverse, and my poor old Toms are feeling the effect. Global warming my ass.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 07:30 AM

Checked my plants this morning.

The bees've been busy!

Already have 7/8 pea size fruit, hopefully some more soon.

BTW, 'though I've never tried the banana tip for actually growing, they're very good end of season for helping to ripen any green ones left over

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rowan
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 08:01 AM

Acetylene emitted by very ripe fruits is widely understood to accelarate ripening in many others but this is the first hint I've seen that bananas emit it (although they have lots of amyl acetate - the essential ester of banana flavour) or that tomatoes are sipened in this way.

You learn something every day!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: greg stephens
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 08:44 AM

I am growing my tomatoes in pure compost from my composter, which just gets all the vegetable waste from the kitchen, basically. Will this be a reasonably balanced source of nutrients? Or might this be the cause of a tendency towards leaves rather than fruit?
   The sun, I am glad to say, has now come out after what seems luck weeks of rain and dullness, so I am hoping for an improvement. There are a few tiny little tomatoes starting, so I'm optimistic.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 09:49 AM

If you have tiny tomatoes starting now, it sounds like everything is fine. It's a funny thing that I have always noticed with tomatoes fruiting - the leaves get more and more lush, and just as you are getting impatient and wondering why there are no flowers or fruit yet, it all starts to happen, like someone threw a switch.

I made my no-dig gardens out of a base of newspaper, several layers of straw, manure, lime, and a top thick layer of my compost, which was made from a mixture of vege peelings and lawn clippings. All my vegetables love it! The only other thing I might add is extra layers of compost as it settles, and a seaweed-based fertilizer for the potassium which will help with flowering and fruiting.

It's a good idea as the plants get bigger to build up the soil around the stems so they are buried deeper - they will send out extra roots on the stem which makes them stronger and more vigorous. Just take off the bottom row of leaves. Keep the plants well mulched too.

The funniest sight I have these days (in the middle of winter, I might add) is to see little tomato plants that have self-seeded in the compost heap. I had butternut pumpkin plants spring up that way last year in spring. I planted them out and had a wonderful crop of butternut pumpkins as a result. It's interesting to see what sometimes comes out of the vege peelings!

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 10:07 AM

JennyO,

'It's interesting to see what sometimes comes out.........'


Heard someone one remark that the best tomato plants he'd seen were near the inlet pipe at a sewage works!?!

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 10:30 AM

From Wikipedia:


'The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, chili peppers, potato, and eggplant.'

As its related to these other food plants [except tobacco], the genetic engineers'd be doing a useful job to produce a tomato/potato hybrid - then we could eat the fruits & the roots!

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,dianvan
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 02:33 PM

greg - I think that growing tomatoes in pure compost might produce an abundance of leaves. You might need to heavily pinch the suckers. Wait another month or so and pinch back anything and everything without fruit. Leave a few leaves at the top to shelter the fruit from rain and scorching sun.

Everyone has a different way but that's my advice. If you try a different method with each plant, you will soon find what works best for you.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,The Droop
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 03:02 PM

Dear friends growing Tomatoes in the US or Oz, is a hell of a lot different from growing in the British Isles, I have used the old rotten Banana trick for years, but this year, without doubt the worst summer for us from records were began is a disaster for my Toms.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rowan
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 06:46 PM

In the days of the nightcart it was usual gossip to remark on the excellent quality of the driver's vegie patch.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,ibo
Date: 11 Jul 07 - 05:58 PM

what is the capital of venezuala?

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: bobad
Date: 11 Jul 07 - 07:17 PM

The bolivar?

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Jul 07 - 08:27 PM

Tomatoes and potatoes can be crossed. The resulting plants grow small, useless spuds and tiny, insipid tomatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 07 - 06:12 PM

I have a single tomato plant growing inside at my office window. The bush is tall and leggy - started out that way - but it has lots of blossoms. (For pollinating, I take a blossom from an overcrowded cluster and touch it to the other blossoms. I used to use a soft brush but someone told me of this method and it works fine.)

The biggest tomato at this point is about half as big as a golf ball. At this rate I'd guess the first tomato will be ready by the middle of August.

I love tomatoes but this far north you can't plant them outdoors. This is the fourth year (not consectutive) that I have planted them indoors. Ripened on the vine, they taste great, and they don't get spots on them or any other damage.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Janie
Date: 12 Jul 07 - 09:06 PM

Waughhh! I want a fresh tomato sammich!

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 07 - 11:51 PM

Me too! sob sob sob

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Genie
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 01:57 AM

I had my first home-grown tomato tonight.   
It wasn't from my own garden, but it was great anyway.

And I have two big Santiam tomatoes that will be ready to pick tomorrow (or Saturday).

I could leave them for 2 or 3 more days at least, but they have a way of vanishing into thin air when I try to do that, and, damn it! I want the first ripe tomato from my own vines for ME!   (After that, I share eagerly.) :)

I'm wondering, if you crossed a tomato with a watermelon, would you get a giant sweet tomato or a teensy little melon that wasn't very sweet?

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 06:18 AM

You'd get an awful lot of utterly amazed scientists and possibly even a Nobel Prize.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rowan
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 09:24 PM

Good try Steve, but the Nobel for genes leaping between plants was given quite a few years ago now (and many years after she had demonstrated it but had her efforts poo-poohed by various males) to Barbara McClintock.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,Rick
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 10:19 PM

Ive had great success in generating a large amount of fruit on my plants this year but all my tomatos are spliting. I normaly water around 6:00 PM every other day. What am I doing wrong???

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Janie
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 11:28 PM

Maybe you are watering a bit too much? But more likely, you are harvesting just a tad too late. A fully ripe, well watered tomato will split very easily (the fruit isn't growing anymorebut keeps taking up water, and the fully ripe skin is very, very tender.) Try harvesting a little sooner, or harvest early in the day, before the heat of the day causes expansion of the water molecules within the tomato.

Let us know what happens.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 08:08 PM

Rowan, old bean, a successful cross between a watermelon (Cucurbitaceae) and a tomato (Solanaceae) would require a bit more than just genes leaping between plants. You'd have as much success as you would crossing a poodle with a kangaroo.   A good biology textbook would sort this out for you. Good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 08:13 PM

Rick, only water when necessary. Outdoors, water if there's been no rain for a day or two and the soil is looking dry, then give a really good soak. Under glass, you may need to water every day in hot sunny weather but far less often in dull, damp conditions. You need to be guided by the weather and not a rigid watering routine. The state of the soil/compost is your best indicator.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,Norval
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 10:24 PM

Rick: Watering every second day is not often enough. Tomatoes like even moisture. To dry out then drown the plants will cause the splitting that you fruit exhibits. This is from my own experience and various sources I have read, including the RHS linked below.

Royal Horticutural Society - Tomatoes

The RHS says:
If you allow the soil or compost to dry out and then flood it the change in water content will cause the fruit to crack; always aim to keep plants evenly moist.

Irregular watering, together with a lack of calcium in the soil leads to blossom end rot - the bottom of the fruit turns black and becomes sunken.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Greg B
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 10:30 PM

We're suffering a shortage of fruit on both tomato and bell
pepper plants this year, where formerly we've had bumper
crops.

Simultaneously, we've noted a marked absence of honey bees
about the property.

Uh oh.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rowan
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 01:27 AM

And there was I, an old fruit, thinking that Rowan had nothing to do with Fabaceae or any of the other legumes. I just about split my sides.

You might be able to correct me Steve (and I'm not nailing any colours to any mast, here and it's not important enough for me to go Googling) but, from the dimness of my memory, it was just such an 'absurd' leap (as from Cucurbitaceae to Solanaceae) that Barbara McClintock had observed, hypothesised about, tested and confirmed some decades before the blokes did it all again and that got her the Nobel.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 10:44 AM

I've found that the yummy little cherry toms such as Gardener's Delight and Sungold are prone to some splitting whatever care you take over watering. This probably explains why these varieties are rarely sold in shops. The cherry toms that are usually sold are thicker-skinned and usually flavourless little nasties. One exception is a variety called Piccolo which is sold at premium price in some UK supermarkets. They are quite thick-skinned, rarely split and are pretty tasty, especially the Italian ones. Maybe I'll try growing 'em next year, but this year it's Sungold in me greenhouse. There are always enough unsplit ones to satisfy, and the split ones are very nice done in the oven or grilled for five minutes sprinkled with olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Garlic too if you're feeling sociable.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,The Droop
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 04:04 PM

Follow Norval`s advice on watering, he is right, keep the soil moist without overwatering, years of growing Toms have convinced me of this.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:54 PM

If your cherry toms split, you may or may not be watering accurately. If you get blossom end rot, it's definitely your fault. If you grow your toms in those horrible grow-bags you'll almost certainly come a cropper with watering. You can grow Sungold year after year in the same greenhouse soil without risk of soil-borne disease. If your soil is liberally laced with loads of home-made compost before you plant, and you water sensibly, you'll minimise splitting, but whether you avoid it altogether will be a question of what varieties you're growing.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,Sooz(hard at work)
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 10:27 AM

Once the fruit has started to ripen, you should reduce the amount of water you give the plants. You need to keep them alive, but not make them so comfortable that thay don't need to ripen fruit to survive.

BTW who started calling the plants "vines" which they are not, technically speaking?

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Genie
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:22 PM

OK, if irregular watering is so bad for tomatoes, how come Kansas farms produce such great tomatoes with their erratic summer moisture sequences (e.g., 2 rainless weeks with temperatures in the 80s and 90s, then a summer downpour, then more "drought" days)?

Seriously, that's the kind of moisture "schedule" my grandma's huge, luscious beefsteak-type tomatoes thrived on.   The only fertilizer they got, generally, was provided by the chickens running around the barnyard, and I don't think Grandma ever watered the tomatoes by hand (from hose or pump) unless it was a very long time between summer rain showers.   But it seldom rained more than once a week or once every two weeks there in July and August, and when it did, everything really got soaked.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Jul 07 - 02:25 PM

Commercial growers only grow varieties that are resistant to splitting. Home growers prefer to grow tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jul 07 - 11:23 AM

I prefer the old homegrown (non-patented) tomatoes too.   Not only do I kind of like being able to harvest my seeds for future plantings -- legally -- but the older, tastier versions of tomatoes also had more acid in them, making them much better (safer) for canning without having to add lemon, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: maire-aine
Date: 02 Sep 07 - 06:15 PM

First of all, thanks for all the advice. It was very helpful. The experiment was a great success. I had especially good results with a heart-shaped heirloom called "Old German". They all cracked around the top, but that's okay. They were delicious. I've got a lot of green ones, but they'll ripen (indoors if necessary).

I went to the garden center today, and bought several left-over herbs. I planted them in a flower-box, so I can bring them inside when we start to get frost overnight. Which I hope will be a long way off!

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Sep 07 - 06:28 PM

Well, what a bad tomato summer. Blight devastated mine by late July and I sprayed them in desperation with dithane, making it the first time in 25 years my toms have been rendered non-organic. At least I have a crop, and now that there's been some leaf regrowth they're cropping quite well and taste good.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 03 Sep 07 - 04:06 AM

This was an odd year for my tomatoes. They set fruit quite late and I just started to get a few ripe ones last weeks. I planted several varieties but the yellow tomatoes ripened first. None of the plants had very many tomatoes. In fact, I've never had such a poor crop. I think it makes each tomato taste a little sweeter. I usually have so many I have to give them away. Not this year.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Rumncoke
Date: 03 Sep 07 - 06:59 AM

I have not grown veges for some time - but I remember the ones I used to grow in Portsmouth - the topsoil there was four feet deep, and really fertile, plus I composted all the organic stuff from the kitchen. The heat of the process killed of diseases, I think - I certainly did not have anything spoilt by mould or canker.

I used a plastic tube to drip water all round the South facing garden, and the tomato plant stems were so thick I could not close my hand around them. The organic matter in the soil meant that it held a lot of water, but was never saturated, and the constant addition of tiny drops of water meant that the plants never stopped growing all day.   

The tube was simply stabbed with a sewing needle wherever I wanted moisture, and it was fed from the overflow of the downstairs toilet so there was a constant head of water.

I used to sit out and watch the plants grow and the bees fly between the lemon balm and their hole in the wall, and the wasps would come and harvest the caterpillars. I used to find it strange that somewhere so buzy could also be so utterly peaceful.

Subject: RE: BS: tomato plant question
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 07 - 12:35 PM

I have a few plants along the front of the house next to the soaker hose I use to keep my foundation moist. We've had so much rain this year the hose doesn't get used often. I planted in late July for a fall crop, but none were pollinated for a while (too warm) so I got the blossom set spray out and have been assisting Mother Nature. I don't have the luxury of waiting to see if they get pollinated later on. I have a couple of dozen fruits in sight now on three different varieties. Also some peppers (bell and jalapeno) out front. The growing season here can go into late November and some things like chard overwinter pretty well. My chard this year has been clobbered by something long and crawly and I finally got out the BT (Bacillis thuringensis) and sprayed closely on my few crops (I hand picked a half-dozen caterpillars off of the cherry tomato yesterday). We've had a great butterfly year and I don't want to nuke them if I can avoid it.

SRS