Ted,

I hate you! You have tomatoes and I don't! Worse yet, you have some that are getting ripe. Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!

Bets

Thanks Ted, Looking great.
Gotta love the deep green of the Black and Red Boar. My Large Barred Boar has the same coloring.
Thanks for the update.
I'll have to get one of my babies soon

Brian

Lookin awesome, as always, Ted! =) I'm jealous of your peppers! lol...mine are just now starting to drop flowers & form. How are Tomatillos to grow? Easy? Any special care needed or just like most other tomatoes? I think I want to do them next year.

Peace - Steve

I'm impressed with all the wonderful, healthy tomatoes. I see that people in GA get a head start down there wouldn't mind that at all! :)

Steve, this is my first year to grow tomatillos. So far I'm treating them like tomatoes.

Bets, here's a look at what I harvested yesterday afternoon and this morning. I also saw some of the 4-6 ounce sized varieties beginning to show some blush.

Mini Gold, Tumbling Tom Yellow, Red Robin, Kimberly, Tiny Tim, and mystery cherry.
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Ted

And, here's some more current glamour shots.

Azoychka
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Another Black and Red Boar level
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Top level of Black and Red Boar
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Burbank Slicing
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Huge Black
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Italian Market Wonder
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Liz Burt
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Maiden's Kiss
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The Miracle BPF
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New Big Dwarf
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Ted

*drool*...Eat one of them Cherry's for me, k? =)

Hi Ted,

Seriously, I do envy you your tomatoes and peppers. They do look gorgeous.

I'm still waiting for it to dry out enough to get a tractor in the garden. {{gwi:1294246}}

Bets

Those are lovely, Ted! What kind of potting mix are you using, and do you fertilize?

I was looking at your tomatillos. It's my first time with them too. Mine are really weird looking- the main stalks are hugely thick-- probably an inch or two in diameter, and the branches are sparse. Blooms are coming out all over-- it seems like they appear right on the stem rather than in a leaf cluster on a branch like a regular tomato. It seems like there's too little foliage for the thickness of the stems and the quantity of blooms. I'll be curious to see if they produce any fruit.

hi ted,
you really have container growing down pat very lovely
lovely plants !!.
hope you will answer a few questions for me maybe i
achieve a small part of your success ? .
what are your temps where you are living, what kind
of mix do you grow in, how offten do you water, what
kind of fert. do you use ?.

thanks les matzek

Yep those look awesome, Ted. I still haven't gotten my first ripe tomato but that should happen any day now.

I also planted Tomatillos this year. I had a heck of a time getting them to germinate, though. I'm not sure if I got bad seeds or what. I only got about 4 viable plants out of the 20 or 30 seeds I attempted to sprout. What I've got are looking pretty good, though. Kinda spindly but covered with husks.

I had much more luck with the ground cherries. They started out tiny but they've grown very quickly into very sturdy, stocky plants with tons of little husks on them. I can't wait to try one...

3 weeks of rain! Everyday cloudy! Temps not over 70! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! We lost 1 month of our growing season this year.

hi ted,
you really have container growing down pat very lovely
lovely plants !!.
hope you will answer a few questions for me maybe i
achieve a small part of your success ? .
what are your temps where you are living, what kind
of mix do you grow in, how offten do you water, what
kind of fert. do you use ?.
thanks les matzek
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The temps here (just northeast of Atlanta, GA) are hot right now - 68-72F lows and 85-95F highs. The humidity usually is very high because I'm only 3 miles from Lake Sidney Lanier which is a huge lake. I shake a lot of my tomato blooms at midday.

My mix is mostly Miracle Grow Professional Mix amended with Black Kow composted manure, dolomite lime, some generic, slow release 10-10-10 fertilizer and as the season goes along, I add some Tomato-Tone. I also use some Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer from time to time.

Watering is usually daily and is adjusted to the needs of the individual plants and their container. Plants with a lot of foliage need more than others with less foliage.

Hope this helps you

Ted

Jason, I'm trying tomatillos this year. I got pretty good germination by setting the germination tray on top of my florescent light fixtures. The additional heat seemed to make a difference. I've got Ciseneros, Grande Maje, and Purple tomatillos (at least two plants per) in 20 gallon nursery pots in the side yard.

Ted

I tried a warm spot for my Tomatillos as well and it didn't seem to help much with germination. What I originally bought were green Tomatillos from Sand Hill Preservation center.

Just as an experiment, a few weeks ago I took a tomatillo that I'd purchased at the local food depot and saved out some of the seeds and tried germinating them in the same spot as I did the seeds I'd purchased. I got nearly 100% germination and the plants are nearly big enough to put in the ground now...

I still haven't had any luck with email from you. If you could try my gmail account I'd appreciate it. It's jason.mclain@gmail.com.

Here's a picture of a couple of the ground cherries in a container:

Eloquinn, I have noticed the same difference between ground cherries and tomatillos. Ground cherries started slow but exploded once in their containers. Tomatillos are spindly but lots of blooms!

Ted....your tomatoes look fantastic ! Here,container gardens for veggies is just now becoming popular...and the varieties of tomatoes that you grow are, for the most part,
not grown here....favs around here include Jet Star,Better Boy,Early Girl,Big Beef,LaRoma,Juliet,Heartland,just to name a few..........
your photos are so clear.....what kind of camera do you use?

carol

The ground cherries started out so small its hard to believe they've grown so big. The plants are nice and stocky and so far I've had one branch on one plant fall over and most of my plants aren't staked at all.

The tomatillos I have are very spindly looking and I've already had to stake up the 4 I have in the ground. I've seen pictures on this forum of other peoples tomatillos and they looked much more robust than the variety I'm growing. I'll probably try a different variety next year.

I got to taste my first ground cherry today. I noticed one of the pods had fallen off and decided to sample it. They're really, really tasty. I was tempted to grab a few more but I've read that you should wait until they drop to eat them. I have a feeling my family will be snatching them out of the air as they fall once they try them. :)

Eloquinn, I have noticed the same difference between ground cherries and tomatillos. Ground cherries started slow but exploded once in their containers. Tomatillos are spindly but lots of blooms!

Thanks, bouguet. Those Toms you listed are heavy with hybrid names. I grow open pollinated with an occasional Hybrid. This year the only hybrid I am growing is Brandy Boy.

Carol, I have an older Sony that stores the pictures on 3.5" floppy disks. I have it set to "fine" mode and get about 18-20 pictures on one disk. It has autofocus and I can override that and do a manual focus. Lighting is the key to clear pixs. I usually take them in the early morning when there is an abundance of shade.

Jason, have you tried the one "Tubmaters@aol.com". I'll try sending you an email and then maybe you can reply to me.

Ted

Ted, I got your email and sent you one back. Thanks for helping me out. Was wondering if all my email was messed up. :)

Here's a pic of some of the tomatillos I started late with seeds from a supermarket tomatillo. There are also some peppers in there. The Toms are the tall, spindly things on the right. I'll probably stick them in the ground in the next few days if I can find some room for them.

This is our first year of container gardening or any gardening for that matter. We are hooked. Your plants look incredible and you must be very proud. This is so gratifying too:) Thank you for sharing your bounty with all of us. Here is a peak at ours. My husband made 2 Earth Tainers with Raybos help.. we are waiting for 4 heirlooms from California and we hope it is not too late as it is getting very hot here.

Dusty

Here is a link that might be useful: my pool container garden

Ted....yep...the tomatoes sold around here are mostly hybrids.........
thanx for the camera info....

carol

Dusty, If I recall correctly, you're in Florida. You may want to read up and start using the "two season" approach to veggies. A spring crop and a late fall crop for the serious side and you can always experiment with the rest of the year.

Carol, you could take over the market with some good tasting Heirlooms and Open Pollinates. LOL

Ted

Containerted,

Thank you for the feed back we have alot to learn but so far so good.
Again your garden looks fabulous and I am very jealous.

Dusty

Thanks again, Dusty. I hope there is something in my methods that can bring a better harvest to someone else out there. My methods work well in my garden. Others with similar gardens and environments may be able to use some of what I do. At a minimum, I hope I can inspire them to work with their garden and find their key to successful container gardening.

You compliment my garden, Dusty, and I envy your screened in pool.

Doesn't that balance out????

Ted

Ted.....for now i will let hubby do the veggie growing....he is having fun this summer trying to see how big of a tomato he can grow.....
As for me....i will continue with my passion for growing flowers....
but.....who knows..will keep that option of growing your varieties of tomatoes in mind.....thanx....have a great summer!