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Growing Tomatoes

Tomato Journal 2008 with PICS

15 years ago

Good morning all,

My update for 31 May. Plants have been in the containers now for 60 days. Had my first tomato hit the "breaker" stage yesterday but expect I'm still 10-14 days away from starting to harvest. It's been a funny spring this year. Usually April and May are just perfect for growing tomatoes...mild temps, warm sun, little wind, no rain. However, this April the weather couldn't make up it's mind. Beautiful days interspersed with cold, windy days. May has been much hotter than normal with temps in the high 80's vice high 70's.

As a result, have had a lot of problems with blossom drop and some malformed fruit (catfacing). I assume this is due to erratic weather during the blossoming/fruit setting stage. The catapillers arrived last week so working them over with Daconil and hand picking. Have had some BER again this year which is somewhat disappointing but not unusual, I guess.

Planted 17 different varieties from seed so I'm looking forward to how they produce and taste so I can pare them down next year to those that did best. Almost all my varieties are 73-80 days to harvest. Next year I should plant a few early varieties so I don't have to wait so long for my first ripe tomato.

Have tagged the tomato images so just move your cursor around in the photo and it will tell you the variety.

Have included a PIC of 1 of my 2 guard-dogs..."Little Man"!

cheers all

Bing

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Comments (21)

joytwo1839
15 years ago
Where do you live that you already have tomatoes this
huge. Mine are just beginning to blossom
yrdling
15 years ago
Your tomato vines are stunningly beautiful, and so large already. I also wonder what part of the country or zone you live in.

Congratulations on the lovely plants.
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Journal 15 June 2008
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Comments (7)
Crazy weekend. We left the house at 6:00 am on Saturday. A big chunk of the interstate we needed for our route was closed due to flooding, so we looked at the DOT's road closure map and decided to make our own detour to avoid both the multiple road closures and the detoured semi traffic. Steve picked a back route he travels frequently to get to his favorite trout streams. I had tears in my eyes as we drove. We weren't anywhere near the worst of things, yet we were seeing flooded homes, businesses, freshly planted fields of corn and soy beans, cattle fields, farm equipment, cars and trucks. We saw countless mudslides, seriously eroded road beds, fallen trees, and seriously flooded and newly created waterways. In some places sandbags worked, in others, they failed miserably, in many more instances, they were never even attempted. And this is a drop in the bucket compared to Iowa. We got to the family wedding in Minnesota in a reasonable amount of time. It was also my dad's 60th birthday. You know how some people take certain birthdays really well, and others take them really badly? My dad took this one really badly. He's not exactly an "optimist" to begin with. He kept his chin up and responded to well-wishers with "Well, I woke up this morning and I wasn't dead yet, so I guess it's a pretty good thing." Ugh. The wedding was beautiful. This is not my cousin by blood, but she's 100% my cousin. When her mom was 8.5 months along in her first and only pregnancy, her dad, the picture of early 30-something health and athleticism was playing basketball... and dropped dead of a heart attack. My uncle married her mom when my cousin was two or three. Seeing my uncle walk her down the aisle was bittersweet for everyone in the church. I was touched by the fact that relations listed in the program did not include the distancer "step-." It was a happy, poignant, beautiful occasion. The reception was going really well (this is a very fun group of relatives and we were laughing hard), and then my dad got the phone call: His brother died. Let me just say that this was not a shock. When my "drunk uncle" died a few years ago, this was the uncle around whom high drama occurred when he brought a flask of hard liquor to the funeral and got drunk at the church. He was a severely depressed (near catatonia) alcoholic, and had aged 20 years in the last five. We all saw it coming. We just didn't see it coming that day. Plus, "seeing it coming" doesn't mean you welcome it. Since this wedding was on my mom's side of the family, my dad elected not to spoil the bride's day by telling her. Instead, we hung around and alternately listened to my dad and made the best of it by laughing until the evening ended. Not even the severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings ruined the night. The next day, Steve and I awoke early to have breakfast with my parents and wish my dad a happy Father's Day before they hit the road. Our way back took us through the city where my newly-widowed aunt and their daughter live, so we met them at the funeral home while they were picking out caskets and making arrangements. We were the first of the extended family to see them, and my heart broke for them. No wife/daughter should spend Father's Day picking out her father's/husband's casket. Then we followed our detour back home, hugged each other and ordered pizza. I am emotionally exhausted.
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My 2008 Garden Story (lots of pics)
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Comments (11)
Thanks for the nice comments all. carolynp, if it would help you, I can include how much of what I planted. Next year, I'm going to keep track of yields a little better. I didn't start tracking until after I came back from my trip. I have a really old scale that seems to weigh accurately enough (I checked it against my digital postal scale, and it was pretty close). I keep the scale in my kitchen window, and keep a calendar in the "bowl" so I can track it as I pick it. sinfonian, you were one of my inspirations for the potato bin. Next year, the potatoes won't be against the retaining wall. I don't know where they'll be yet, but away from the sprinkler for certain. Water does seem to go through the curtain ok, so I don't know how much that would help. I need to get some more fence boards, I want to build another one. My garden is on the south side of my house. It gets great sun over there, and the dogs can't get to it. It does get a little shaded during the summer, but mostly where the raspberries will be. I do hope to garden longer next year by starting some indoors and using plastic over the hoops. We do get a lot of sunshine here (they say 300 days a year), so I should be able to get a jump start in the spring. Because we're at 7000 feet, we do have cold nights, and quite a bit of wind. I'm hoping I do a better planning job, so it will be easier to cover next time. I had to let it go this year because I needed to add more to the beds b/c they were about 8" down. You may be right, I could be the poster child for a cheap garden. All the lumber out there is used and was free. The beds are filled with free manure, leaves, hay, straw, UCG, etc. I have scrounged gobs of leaves this fall. Even the kiddie pool and all that chicken wire keeping the leaves from blowing away, were free. I bought the fence and the posts used, and re-painted. That one was kind of a pain, but I'm not working right now, and I couldn't justify spending $100 for 12 feet of new fence. I did it for about $50 total I think. Even the trash cans out there were from freecycle. The plastic I'll use again come spring I bought from someone on Craigslist for about 1/2 price. A good portion of it was used to wrap items and cover the load of stuff I brought back on my trip this summer, and was still good enough to use again. I did buy the yellow garden cart out there, new. I love that thing, I use it a ton. I'm quite proud of how little I spent building my garden. Come to think of it, I think that's what I started posting in this forum about...
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New PICS--Container Journal 2008
Q
Comments (18)
Hi Cowgirl, You are correct about the bottom string. It is not weight bearing...but it does need to be as tight as you can make it so that there is very little movement up and down. Reason for this is that you want your vertical (weight bearing) string tight. My trellis' are 6 foot in height. When my plants hit the top of the trellis I top them. That is, cut the central growth stem so the plant doesn't grow any taller. Actually, you wrap the plant central stem around the vertical string as it grows so you don't need additional string. I don't know of any particular site that talks about this method, but it worked for me so I'll stay with it. cheers Bing
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Bing's Last Tomato Journal Entry for 2008
Q
Comments (13)
Morning all, Raybo, First off, congrats on all your press out there. You've really taken a simple design and "Mona Lisa'd" it!! Actually, the BER really wasn't that bad...maybe twenty tomatoes out of 400 or so. Will see if I can find the C-Tex for next year. And no, no fall garden. Tried it last year with dismal results. All done for this year. Hope you have a great season. Send some PICS!! Cheers! Hi Timmy, I really liked the Big Beef. Nice big tomatoes (10-12oz), perfectly formed, very good production, and no disease problems. They'll be my staple for next year. Hope all is well up North! Cheers! Johnny, You know...after further review I guess I really shouldn't be too disappointed with my results. The production of some varities wasn't what I hoped for but it was still fun trying new ones. Trial and error is how you find the types you like best. So now I know more than I did last year!! Cheers! Sprtsguy, Farkee, and Alley Cat, Thanks so much for your comments...much appreciated!!. I sure learn a lot on this site and it's fun to compare notes with others. I used hydrated lime which I picked up at a farm CO-OP. Next year I'll use Dolomitic lime which tends not to affect PH as much. As I told Raybo above, in hindsite, I really didn't have much of a BER problem after all. I think out of a total of 400 tomatoes or so, I only had to cull about 20 which had BER. Most of these were the Parks Whopper CR, same plants I had trouble with last year. However, I'll continue to grow them next year as they produce a perfectly shaped, tasty and large (10-12 oz) tomato. Their production is really good also...15-20 fruit per plant. It it were me, I'd continue to use the lime. The Black Cherry were good but others liked them better than I did. I was really disappointed with Opalka. Had heard so many great things about it but for me, production was very poor. The Kellogg's Breakfast was really a disappointment. Very bland, almost tasteless. Of course, one year's experience doesn't really mean much as the weather was really not normal this year down here. So...I don't mean to belittle any of these varieties, maybe they just don't do all that well where I live. Or...maybe I don't know what the hell I'm doing!!!! Cheers! Cheers all and happy growing...send PICS!! Bing
...See More
sunnyk
15 years ago
I love the tomato pictures! Your fruit is absolutely gorgeous.
I am curious about the 'Rocky' tomato , have you grown it before, it looks like an interesting paste type variety.

Your guard dog is amazingly ferocious!! :)
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Joytwo and Yrdling...I'm down in the panhandle of Florida (zone 9) by Destin, Fl...60 miles East of Pensacola. Last frost date usually is in the last week or two of March. I always plan on planting the 1st of April so I start seedlings middle of Feb.

Sunnyk...this year I wanted to try some paste tomatoes so I planted 4 types: Rocky, Big Mama, Opalka and Polish Linguisa. The Rocky and Linguisa seem to be doing the best for me so far but the jury is still out. Will keep you posted. Yes...he's a tough guy...thinks he's 10 feet tall!

cheers

Bing
grb1
15 years ago
Nice work Bing. Your plants are looking excellent. I just got my tomatoes planted this last weekend.

I have a question about your trellises. Do you secure them in any way or are they OK by them selves. I'm going to make some trellises like yours but wondering when it gets windy if they will be blown by the wind.
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi Grb,

As you can see, my trellises are in a very long row. I do duct tape the vertical legs together at the top. I have never had a problem with this set-up no matter how strong the wind.

cheers

Bing
earthworm73
15 years ago
Of course Bing this goes without saying your plants are show stoppers. BTW...I think you should put a disclaimer on every post you make that you live in the panhandle and in zone9, cuz you know the question is coming.

With you progress you are making me phone the outlaws (inlaws) in Jacksonville to see if they have room for the wife, kid and I. That Florida sunshine is crazy good for maters.
sumilea2008
15 years ago
All i can say is "WOOOOOOOOOOW" Your tomato jungle is just as cool as Raybo's. I have a question for you, do you prune your plants to a single stem (multi stem) or you let them just grow freely? There is so much foliage, my gosh! Very cool bingster. My problem is sometimes my plants split in to two at the top even though i always seem to prune the side shoots. And have not been able to maintain a single stem. Thanks for showing us the great pictures bing.

Sumilea
mockapple
15 years ago
Little Man is adorable! I'll bet he scares away predators with the awesome power of cuteness.

MA
timmy1
15 years ago
Bing,

We had BLT's tonight with our first red one!

Tim
les49
15 years ago
bingster -- afavor please--could you repost the contents and approx quantities which make up your homemade insectiside?? I cant locate the original post and have misplaced my printed copy--Thanks in advance.
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Morning all...thanks for your posts,

Hi Earthworm...yes, I do seem to get asked that a lot!

Hi Sumilea...I tried hard this year to keep the tomatoes pruned to a single stem. However, I found that my plants did not set any fruit clusters until about 2 feet up the stem so I quit pruning the suckers after that and let them go. I'm not sure whether it's the varieties I'm growing (mostly large beefsteaks-73 to 80 days) or what but I'm going to do it a bit differently next year. I'm now planting two plants per 18 gallon box just as I did last year. The plants still seem to thrive and I get good production but it does cause me problems digging through all that foliage to check on the fruit, and it does get kind of "messy" after a bit. Next year I think just one plant per box along with a change to my trellis system. I think I'll build a box trellis that encloses the whole row of boxes on both sides. I'll use twine (a Florida weave) wrapped around the PCV cage to support the plants. So next year I am not planning on pruning at all, nor will I train them up the vertical string like I've done the past two years. You need to ask TIMMY1 how he does it...he's the expert and grows in a greenhouse. Search for TIMMY1 for some of his posts...beautiful PICS!!

Hi Mockapple...it's not really even a good picture of him, but yes..he is adorable, at least to me. Don't have a wife or kids so he and "Lil Puddin" are my family...and no one loves me like they do!! Will have to send you a picture of his daughter "Puddin". She's just as cute!

Hey Timmy...I'm really impressed with the Big Beef although only two of my seedlings survived. The BB has the most fruit set and the nicest shaped fruit of any of my varieties. Think I'll make it one of my staples for next year. Am jealous you already have ripe fruit. Bet the BLT was great. I have a couple just turning but still a week or so away. SEND PICS SOON!

cheers all

Bing
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Les49,

Here are the ingredients...but will have to go home tonight and get the quantities. Will pass along tomorrow. But to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think the quantities of each really matter that much. Here tis:

What did you use for pest control? Homemade spray mix of garlic, tobacco juice, onions, handsoap and mouthwash sprayed a couple times a week. Didn't have any real bug problems except for hornworn catapillers. Spray did not seem to bother them so had to watch closely for leaf damage and then pick them off.
tennandy
15 years ago
I always thought tobbacco was bad around the tomatoes
is this a myth?
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Les...couple of different recipes...I won't swear by these but they seem to have the right kind of ingredients. I got these out of Jerry Baker's book, Backyard Problem Solver. Don't know if he's a guru and these really work...or... I got taken for $37.95!!

Good luck

Bing

#1.
1 cup Murphy's Oil soap
1 cup antiseptic mouthwash
1 cup tobacco tea (1/2 handfull of tobacco and 1 gal hot water. Wrap tobacco in cheesecloth, pantyhose, sock, etc, put in the water to soak until water turns dark brown. Take out tobacco pouch and strain, if needed.

Once you have your tobacco tea made, mix the ingredients in a 20 gal hose end sprayer and soak plants.

#2.

6 cloves garlic
1 small onion--chopped fine
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon liquid dish soap

Mix ingredients in one quart of warm water and let stand overnight. Strain...pour into a sprayer bottle and spray.
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Tennandy,

Believe the tobacco problem you mention is more about actually smoking around tomatoes than using this recipe. Will tell you I used it last year with no harmful effects. Have also read on this site that tobacco mosaic virus is usually not much of a problem anymore with tomatoes. Could be wrong...you might want to do a search on GW.

cheers

Bing
les49
15 years ago
Bingster,

Thanks very much--Enjoy watching your progress and success.
Like others I am envious and hope to be eating BLTs but right now concentrating on planting..

Happy harvest!!
piantini
15 years ago
What is the name of the tomato plant 3rd and 4th picture from last (dog picture)?. They look some sort of a plum tomato plant but twice as thick and 3 times as long. They are huge!
bingster
Original Author
15 years ago
Morning Piantini,

I planted 4 paste varieties this year: Big Mama, Opalka, Polish Linguisa and Rocky. The pictures are of the Rocky and Polish Linguisa. The Big Mama (Burpee seed Co.) is a dud. And...I know everyone raves about Opalka but my plants are real average both in robustness and production. As for taste...don't know yet as I'm just getting the first couple of fruits ripening. Got the Rocky and Polish Linguisa from Tomato Growers Supply. Both are touted as producing very big fruit and they do. Some of the fruit are 3-4 inches in diameter and 5-6 inches long. Will send another PIC which will give you a little more perspctive on their size.

cheers

Bing
katib_gardener
15 years ago
Glad to hear someone else had the same experience with Burpee Big Mamma. I struggled to even get them to germinate and grow into seedlings. I'm stubborn, so I'm trying another time, hoping I could get some seedlings out in late summer to take advantage of our warm falls.
geeboss
15 years ago
Bingster,

Nice examples of container growing and great pic of tomato guard dog.

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