Hi Harry , and welcome !

Where in PNW are you gardening ? I am in Sammamish, WA.

I sowed my seeds on Feb 21 st.

Started hardening off on March 28.

Started planting out April 5th . Did it gradually until I finished around April 18th.

At this point some of my plants are close to 2ft tall with buds and flowers.

I must admit that I have pushed the envelop by about one month, with certain preparation. I did that, as you know our tomato growing season is short. In a good year it end around mid October. Plus with cool weather tomato plants grow slower. Also ripening take longer . On top of that my garden gets no more than 5 hours of direct sun.

Sey

Sey, I live up here in the GWN.....(Great White North). I live in Delta B.C about 20 min. N of the U.S border.

Re your tomato efforts, you put me to shame!! We've certainly had a good spring to cheat on the start-up dates, the weather has been fantastic!

Your in the same boat as me regarding your hrs. of direct sun. We have some very large fir trees along the SW side of the property so only get good direct sun for a few hrs. in the middle of the day.

When you say you "planted out" on April5 do you mean in a garden or raised bed , or have you got your toms in lrg pots? What kind are you growing determinants or indet. ?

Last year I had mine in lrg. plastic pots along the sunny sides of the back deck. Got about 20-30 from each plant. Don't really know if that's good or not?

Hope to keep in touch with people like yourself in the PNW 'cause trying to compare notes with others in very different climate zones is difficult.

I'm over in the Soil,Compost and Mulch or Vermicomposting more than here but since I'm getting into the tomato thing I'll be checking back more often.

Harry

I'm in zone 8, and my cherry tomatoes are eight feet tall. My slicers are five feet tall. Loads of fruit. Not quite ripe. Sorry, I just had to tweak those who garden by USDA hardiness zones.

I actually used to garden in the PNW, and I would have thought you'd have planted out by now.

Dan, not all USDA zones are the same when it comes to spring /summer gardening. USDA zone numbers indicate 2 things ;

1) How sever or mild winters are, and which plants/shrubs/ trees can survive it.

2) There is also a co relation between USDA zone number and frost free period.

I have lived and gardened in Atl, GA area (zone 7b, 8a). it has the same LFD and FFD dates (almost) but the summer weather in Atl, Ga, Dallas, Tx is much different from the same zone number in PNW. Here we have much much cooler weather after the LFD and temperature go up by about 6 degrees, in average, in the course of one month.For example ( from weather data ) :

April high - average 58 F

May high - average64 F

June high - average 70 F

July high - average 76F

These are the number from Weather Channel site.

Sey

Oh, I know that completely. We've had a number of friendly but semi-argumentative threads about the value of USDA zones to summer vegetable gardening. I gardened in Oregon, and now I garden in Texas. Same zone. Wildly different gardening strategies needed. That's the point I was making. USDA zones tell you PRECISELY one thing. How cold it gets in the winter. Again, I just wanted to gently tweak those who are asking what "other people in zone 8 are doing". The right question would have been what other people in the PNW are doing. Having gardened in two zone 8s that are universes apart in conditions, I'm just a little sensitive to that. My apologies for the interruption. Carry on.

I lurk the tomato forums from time to time, and I've noticed a lack of PNW growers. I'm always curious about how other's methods compare to mine. I'm in Victoria, BC. This is my 3rd year of growing tomatoes as well. My biggest mistake has been planting them out too early, which seems to stunt their growth. This year I started them on March 15th in 2" soil blocks, and later moved them into cylindrical newspaper pots around 4" wide and 6" tall. Now my plants are between 1 -2 ft tall and developing their first blossoms. For the past couple weeks I have been putting them out on a sunny porch during the day and taking them inside at night. I think they're too large for their pots and a bit leggy, but I'm trying to resist planting them until Victoria Day.

Dan, we Harry and I were talking about PNW zones.

Welcom, Krystal and good luck !

So you are partly growing them inside. Not planted out any yet ?

"4" wide and 6" tall" pot is to small for plants 1 to 2 ft tall, that are flowering.

Root bound plants tend to flower early, as they hit the dead end as far as the roots are concerned.

If not prepared to plant out, I would recommend re potting into much bigger pots.

Sey

Krystal, glad you could chime in hear. I started mine last year at about the same time as you started this year. Wished I'd started earlier but just couldn't seem to find the time.

I think you'd be safe to leave them out all night now as the lows are about 9C or higher. I don't bring mine in at night at all and they've been doing just fine. Are you going to be planting into pots, a raised bed or in the ground? I wish I had a good spot like Sey to plant out. I have very little space to garden that receives enough direct light because of all the tall fir trees on the S. side of our property. All of mine will be going into wide 5gal. pots but if the weather is anything like last year it was hard to keep them moist. Might try to wrap the S side of the black plastic pots with something to reflect some of that strong mid-day sun. Maybe the pots (and the roots) were just getting too hot?

Good to hear from both of you. Lets hope some of the other tomato growers in our neck-of-the-woods will join in. We are just a little more likely to have similar growing conditions, pests etc. than someone thousands of miles away. Having said that, I still like to hear what other people have to say.

Oh, and one more thing Sey.....do you always use black plastic on your raised beds? I've heard you actually get more ground heating using clear poly, or are you worried about too much heating later in the summer? Or do you take the poly off completely later on?

Harry

Oh, and one more thing Sey.....do you always use black plastic on your raised beds?

-----------------------

It is true that clear plastic work similar to glass, by letting the sun rays to get in and create some sort of greenhouse effect when the sun is shining. But also it reflect the heat back in wave form to the space at night.

Black plastic , OTOH, gets warm, by absorbing all the incident energy and warms the soil in contact and , as a black body, it WON"T reflect any heat by radiation. So the effect is slow and gradual.

My other reason/intention for covering the beds from early Feb on, is to keep the rain out . Before doing that I amend and add some fertilizers as needed , lightly moisten and let is work.

These are little bitty things that when combined can help a bit. The best thing could be to have an unheated small greenhouse.

Sey

Thanks guys. I use a local weather app to check the nighttime lows. Last week we had a few nights that got down to 6C, but you're right, the soil is probably warm enough since we've also had many days of highs above 25 (I know, I should have a soil thermometer). I will wait another week just to be sure. They are not "root bound" per se since the roots grow easily through the thin paper and stop when they reach the air, similar to a soil block. They're still growing quickly.

They will be planted into a raised bed. I'm a renter and have a small gardening space, a 10x10 raised bed and two 8x4 beds, but the conditions are ideal. I'm growing one 10' row of six tomato plants - tight spacing, but I seem to get away with it. I'm absolutely terrible with containers, I am way too lazy to keep them watered well enough in our dry summers. In the beds I can get away with one deep watering per week using a soaker hose and leaf mulch once the plants are established. I'll take a photo of my garden set up when I plant them out :)

Krystal and Sey, what varieties of tomatoes are you growing and how do you support them. Also what kind of fertilizers do you use? I'm planning on using my homemade comfrey "soup".

Harry

Harry, I am growing close to 30 varieties of various size , color and shape.

I only try to avoid those with high DTM numbers or aka "Late Season."

If I grew late season , then I will have a very small window of harvest. So I try to grow those that start ripening from late June to late July and continue til about mid October.

Sey

PS: here are some of the varieties that I am growing in 2016

1-AZOYCHKA
2-BETTER BOY (F1)
3-BIG BEEF (F1)
4- BLACK FROM TULA
5 (P)- BLACK SEA MAN
6- GREEN COPIA
7- BROWN HEART
8 (P)- HAHMS GELBE T.
9-INDIAN STRIPE
7 (P)- INDIGO APPLE
10 (P)- KUMATO (F3)
11- (P) NEW BIG DWARF
12-OLD GERMAN
13- (P) PURPLE HEART, dwrf
14-REISENTRAUBE
15- SAKHARNYI ZHELTYI
16 (P)- SILETZ
17- WILLAMETTE
============
MORE: added
18- Cherokee Purple
19 Silvery Fir Tree (P)
20-Legend
21-Costoluto
22-Daniel Burson
23-Purple Grape (P)
24 -Ananas Noire
24- Big Boy
26 - Oregon Spring

27 - Indigo Rose (P)

28 - Long Keeper

29 - Tidy Treats (P)
---------------------------------
(P) - Grown in pot

I am growing Sweet Million, Black Cherry, Sungold, Indigo Rose, Black Pineapple, and Early Cascade. What are you growing, Harry?

I've been using these tomato cages which are unfortunately no longer carried by Amazon.ca. For fertilizer I just add lots of aged goat & chicken manure, used coffee grounds, compost, and some dolomite lime to the garden bed each year. I also put a scoop of Gaia Green all purpose 4-4-4 in the planting holes. Last year I used comfrey tea throughout the growing season as well, but my landlords got rid of the plants. I might try a kelp emulsion this year instead.

Once again I've been put to shame................are you two opening your own farmers market for tomatoes only or what?? I've only got Early Girl and Brandywine so far - I can almost hear you laughing from here.

I was just going to grow them in lrg. pots with mix of potting soil and compost. Maybe a tbsp. or so of epsom salt in each pot. Oh, and a few cups of my worm castings.

Krystal, why did your landlord get rid of the comfrey? It is known for being really difficult to get rid because any pieces of root left in the ground will usually send up a new shoot. Have a good look around where it was growing before 'cause it might come back for you.

Harry

Harry, You can get plants from nurseries, if you like. That is what I used to do for years.

Out of the 29 varieties about 12 of them are repeat. The rest are just to find out how they will do. This year I have pushed to the limit by growing so many varieties. The next year I will pick just a handful that do well here. Another reason is that I like varieties, not just red tomatoes.

BTW: I am growing only 45 plants all together. !0 of them are in pots and 35 in raised beds.

sey

Sey......"only 45 plants"........what do you do with soooo many tomatoes? And I agree with your opinion - I should go pick up some extras from a good nursery. Funny thing is, most of my family don't really like tomatoes and I can only eat so many. Think I just enjoy the whole process - starting from saved seeds, to harvesting. Growing for growing sake I guess! Also find that all the experimentation along the way keeps me constantly trying something different and watching closely to see what happens.

Harry

Harry, two varieties isn't laughable. My first year I grew two Sweet Millions and one Oregon Spring, and it was enough to provide me and my roommate with fresh tomatoes from July through to November. That said, growing new varieties is addictive, and it's a great feeling to have enough to give away tomatoes (and seedlings!) to friends, family and neighbours.

As as for the comfrey plants, they were growing in a weedy patch of the yard the previous owner let go wild. My awesome new landlords were eager to turn the huge yard into a garden and orchard, didn't know I was using the comfrey plants and rototilled everything except my veggie beds to get a fresh start. But, they're going to build me new raised beds, so I can't complain!

Harry, in our climate tomatoes don't produce a whole lot. It takes them for ever to grow and ripen. Plus we share some with relatives and friends and I manage to can some tomato sauce.

Here is a view of my garden 5/16/16

Sey

Love the idea of sharing with family, friends and neighbours - I just don't have the space to grow that many. Would be fun to try some new varieties though, especially some cherry types suitable for PNW climate. Picking a juicy cherry tomato and just popping it in your mouth is better than chocolate......although I'm sure the women out there would disagree. :- )

Harry

P.S Great looking tom. garden you have there Sey, wish I had your space to garden.

Doing good, Krystal.

Where in PNW are you that you are getting heavy winds ?

Our weather here is pretty calm. We usually get heavy winds in November.

Anyway, the weather improving as of memorial day.

How does your forecast looks like ?

Sey

I am in Victoria, BC. Being very close to the ocean means periodic gusts are normal anytime.

After a heat wave in April, we've had mild, cloudy weather that is now beginning to clear up. Highs in the low 20s and lows around 10 (sorry, metric). We got 8 mm of rain here yesterday. Other than a few stray drops, that's the only rain we've had since early March!

I've been hearing that the La Niña pattern means that this summer should be closer to normal, but I'm skeptical. So far the weather has been identical to last year, which was the driest summer, and hottest year overall, on record.

Sey and Krystal, hate to admit it, but I still haven't planted-up any of my tomatoes into anything bigger than a 1 gal. pot! (I know, my bad!) - just having trouble finding the time-slot for it. Maybe this coming weekend. Most of my tomatoes are now about 12-15" tall and have started to show signs of blossoms. If I transplant those tomatoes (into their final 10 gal. pots) now am I likely going to cause those blossoms to drop before they even get a chance to open?

One other thing - since I had minimal disease problems last year, do you think I would be safe to use a mix of last years potting soil amended with my homemade compost and worm castings. Hate to buy all new stuff if I can rejuvenate the old. Plus not sure I have enough locations to use up last years potting soil. Any tips/advice?

Harry

I thought for sure my tomatoes would drop their flowers when I transplanted them outside, but they didn't. Today I noticed that I have my very first baby fruit forming! If I were you, I would reuse some of the potting soil, but I'm cheap.

I almost forgot to mention, the comfrey plant has been resurrected! It reappeared just like you said Harry, and I moved it to a safe spot.

Good news Krystal, on the baby tomatoes.

Harry, your plants at 12" to 15" , should take off fast once planted out. Plant them deeper than what /how they are in pots.

Good luck and keep posting.

Sey

Krystal.....see, I told you they would come back to life. Try to give them a decent amount of light and manure and they'll be very happy. To get a good crop of leaves for mulching/fertilizer don't harvest too many leaves this year (unless it does really well), then next year you'll get really fast growth and larger leaves. Good to here it survived!

Sey.....re my tomatoes - I hope to get at least some of them up to larger pots this weekend. Will I loose the blossoms that have stated to form? And is it detrimental to transplant from those 16 oz. cups up to a 10gal. pot without going through an intermediate pot size first? I thought that it might be o.k. since they might be quite root-bound in their present homes.

Talk soon,

Harry

Hi Harry.

Tomatoes are transplant friendly.

Try to do it with the least disturbance of the root and water them real good after transplant. you should not lose any flowers.

Also use some sort of soil less medium for potting.

Good luck !

Sey

Would my composted leaves (2yrs old) be considered soil-less for using as the medium for my tomatoes. I was going to make a 50:50 mix of last years potting soil with the compost mentioned above.

Will hold off on any transplanting 'til later this afternoon 'cause it's hot today.

On a side note, will some plants wilt in the hot sun because the black plastic pot they are in heat the roots up too much? I know the soil is moist enough as I gave them a good watering this morning.( eg. comfrey and echinacea plants)? It's supposed to be similar weather tomorrow so I'm going to try wrapping just one of the two pots (with echinacea plants) with something to keep the pot itself cooler and see what happens.

Harry

Ok, on potting mix, probably you can mix 50/50 as you have said. The reason for not using compost and garden soil is that they tend to get compacted.

On wilting, because of black plastic pots, I would not worry about it. As long as the soil remains moist.The bigger the pots, the less to worry. How big are your pots ?

Yesterday and the day before all my plants were wilty under hot sunshine. (85F to 90F) even though the soil was moist enough. They perked right up after getting shaded. They should get used to it eventually.All I have to do is to keep the well watered , keeping the soil moist , not soggy.

Sey

Sey, the pots my echinacea are in are about 1 gal size. And just a follow-up to my last post......I put just one of my potted echinacea inside a larger white pot, gave the plants a good drink in the morning and by mid afternoon both of them still wilted in the midday sun. so keeping the direct sun off the pot didn't seem to make any differenc

Harry

Harry, if you are having the kind of heat wave that we are getting then a lot of plants will wilt, not because of the water but because of the heat that they have not been used to. My tomatoes in the raised beds also do will despite the fact that they are well watered. In two more days the temperatures should be back to normal. That is according to the forecast for my area.

Sey

Harry, I remember you said it was hard to keep your soil moist last year. This year I'm determined to at least not let my one planter of perennial herbs die! I tried making a wine bottle waterer, and it actually seems to be working really well. I used a screw top wine bottle, poked a small hole in the cap, and put a little twig in the hole to act as a wick. Then I buried the neck of the bottle in the soil. The water has slowly drained out over about a week. You can buy terra cotta spikes that screw in to the bottle (called a "Plant Nanny") but my DIY version seems to be working.

You would still have to give your tomatoes a deep watering every once in a while but maybe it could help keep the soil moist between waterings.

I live in Sammamish, WA. I started my plants in a greenhouse in Feb. I hardend them off in April and put them out in mid April- mid May. I was worried about shocking them so I transplanted them in 3 different stages a couple weeks apart. It looks like I could have gone quite a bit earlier by looking at what Sey has done.

I planted 7 varieties; Sun Gold, Matina, Black Cherry, Black Prince, Carbon, Cuor di Bue Albenga and Snow White. Out of these I have only ever grown Sungold. This is my first year starting from seed.

I am growing most of them up strings, some in cages, and a some extras I just planted around because I felt bad killing the extras.

Welcome dchurch !

Your plants are looking good. What kind of support are you using ? (cage , stake ??) I can't see any in the picture.Can you post a close up picture ?

NO, I see now you are stringing them

Sey .

Sey, most of them are on strings and some are in cages. I also put some out in different spots around the yard where I am not planning to do much maintenance, I just didn't know what to do with the extras. I'm kind of thinking that might just be asking for some diseases, and I'm have considered ripping them up. What do you think?

Extas

Now that you have the space and already planted, why not keep them ?

Use some stakes ( ~ 5 -6ft) and tie them up AND prune all the lower leaves, suckers so they will get air circulation. In our PNW letting them sprawl will be a mistake, IMO.

And fungicide regularly, just like the rest of your plants.

Sey

Do you have a fungicide recommendation? I have never used them before but I usually only have a couple hybrid plants, i think I might be more susceptible this year since growing so much more.

dchurch, your plants look really good so why remove any unless they become a problem? You may find that by planting in all those different areas you figure out what conditions work best in terms soil, moisture, light etc.

Good to hear you started from seed this year. I find it way more interesting and you don't have to purchase something with an unknown history. I think you're more emotionally invested when you start them from seed too (especially ones you've saved from favourite varieties).

Harry

Oh, and Sey, since I'm sure you will be reading this..........do you always use fungicide on your tomatoes? I've never used it before. Have you run into problems before when you weren't using it? I'd rather not use any chemicals unless I have to.

H

On the Fungicide:

It is just a preventive measure for foliage diseases that can affect both hybrids and OP/Heirlooms.

I use it regularly , one every week to 1o days, depending on the weather.

I use mostly Daconil. It comes under different brand names.Plus some kind of copper fungicide.

I also use Neem Oil spray. This one can be effective on some pests like aphids and it is organic. So i rotate between those three.

Later in the season that it gets wet and rains more, I also spray with chlorine ( 7oz Clorox per gallon of water) to fight gray Mold.

With all these fungicides I try to prevent the disease as much as possible. Fighting them when infested is often is a lost cause.

Do a search on "Fungicide" here in Growing Tomatoes " forum. You should find many interesting discussions.

Sey