Okay, I have a beefsteak and cherokee purple in an EB, that I planted from seedlings on 4/8/09. I used 2 cups of the original Tomato-Tone (A new Ace hardware opened up in the area with the old stuff on the shelf. I grabbed a couple of bags. HeHe) Anyway, I had a little trouble with the leveling of the boxes and worked through that. My tomato plants are growing now. The beefsteak has about 10 little maters growing with lots of blooms popping up everyday. The creokee purple has about 5 maters with several blooms. But...they are no where near yours in height or production. Have yours been out longer or are my plants just destined to be smaller, etc? I am in NC, zone 7. Any suggestions?

I'm only now getting small tomatoes on everything. Last year, I planted mostly hybrids because I wasn't sure I'd like the taste of heirlooms, since all the ones I'd tasted prior had been watery and not very good. I'm slapping my forehead about that now, of course. This year, I thought I'd try one of most everything that I heard good things about last year or paid a premium for at the market and enjoyed eating. One of those was Stupice, which I picked up only for its earliness and high production, since as I understand it, it's not all that tasty. I only have a few small tomatoes on it so far, but the amount of blossoms is staggering. One of my determinate hybrids (Shady Lady - also not supposed to be very good, but my uncle bought me 3 hybrids, and I couldn't turn down his very kind gesture) has a good sized tomato on it, and I keep thinking it's going to blush any day now. I have a feeling I'll probably never be as early as I want to be, but at least I can live vicariously through you while I'm waiting for my maters to hurry the heck up.

Ray, I used mineral oil right where the silks meet the corn to try and avoid earworm problems that folks mention. I tried to do this once I felt pollination had occured. I have no idea at this point how well pollination went or if the mineral oil helped at all. The 25th will be 20 days from the point the first silks appeared so I am keeping a close eye on them. I did notice that the cob is peeking out on most and I am not sure if that is good or bad. Just have to wait and see, but I am hopefull that things are ok because I cant wait to bite into a buttered ear of sweet corn for the first time in my garden. Some success would definitely make me want to do it again. Duane

Hi fmullegun , Welcome to the GW tomato boards. Your tomato plant looks beautiful now. However, most people who grow in containers recommend at least 5 gallons. Generally your plant will stay smaller in a smaller pot and will produce smaller fruit. If that is what you would like, that's fine, but if you want your plant to produce to its potential, it needs a bigger container. Also a pot that small in your heat will require a lot of waterings. (Even a 5 gallon pot may require more than one watering per day!) Do a search (at the bottom of the page) for bingster, rnewste, or raybo for more info on growing in containers, I consider them to be some of the best experts on the subject. Raybo's Tomato EarthTainer 'Farm' - May 15 (pics) has some great pictures, and IIRC, his containers are 18 gallon. Bingster PICS--6 Jun 09 has a great pic of chefmark's containers and you can see them because the plants are not that big yet (he's in zone 6, so more recently planted.) For this situation, Bing's pics don't show much of the container. (Grin) Just beautiful plants. As for how soon you get ripe tomatoes, Early Girl is listed as about 52 DTM (days to maturity) which on tomatoes is counted from when they are transplanted into their final home and is just a guideline. There are too many variables to say for sure. Good luck! Bets