Posted by Puckdropper on September 29, 2007, 1:29 pm
*snip*
> How did your tomatoes do? Were there varieties that you really liked?
> Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?
>
> Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!
>
> EV
>
"did" is past tense... Mine are still growing. I'm in Central Illinois,
but the tomatoes got an extremely late start due to being planted in
July. They were plants the store was selling off because they didn't want
to transplant them in to bigger pots. We're just now starting to get red
ones. I didn't think we were going to have any plants this year, moving
in the middle of the summer.
We're working on putting fence posts in the ground to make a mini
greenhouse for the really cold nights. It works, but it's a lot of work.
Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.
To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm
Posted by Billy on September 30, 2007, 1:04 am
wrote:
> I ended up with 2 dozen tomato plants by happenstance. I normally have
> half as many or less. Too many tomatoes, but more varieties than usual.
> We had a very hot, very dry season in southern Ontario, Zone 6. I had to
> water a lot.
>
> The Brandywines did well and produced a good crop, maybe about ten on
> each of the 3 in the tomato bed, mostly in August. Last year and the
> year before they each produced about 30 in all. So their numbers are
> down, but the fruit is bigger this year. They're working on ripenening
> their last half dozen big green tomatoes now, if the squirrels don't get
> them. The tomatoes are sweet, juicy, and tasty and make fantastic tomato
> potage, a recipe I found in this group years ago. Very easy, very tasty,
> freezes really well in individual portions. It's like defrosting
> sunshine in the winter months, or even on chilly fall nights.
>
> Got one of Stokes' Health Kick tomatoes. Supposed to have extra
> lycopene. Looks a lot like a Roma, but much more firm. Is good in soup,
> but not all that tasty fresh. It's a short bushy plant that would do
> well in a container. I won't plant this next year.
>
> Tried Stokes' Ultrasweet. Terrible tomato. I've never seen tomatoes
> crack that badly. They were rotten before they were ripe. OK flavour,
> but not the best. I will not plant this next year.
>
> Before I knew that I'd have a handful of cherry tomato volunteers in the
> compost, I bought a Stokes Sweet Million. Interestingly, the seeds that
> the cherries in the compost grew from were Stokes Sweet Million seeds
> I'd started myself last year. But the tomatoes from the Stokes plant I
> bought and the ones in the compost are completely different. The ones
> from the storebought plant suck. They're smaller, less sweet, and, like
> the Ultrasweet, really prone to cracking. I will start these from seed.
>
> I have two kinds of San Marzanos, and both are solid, sweet and tasty. I
> wash them and pack them into ziploc bags, and pop them in the freezer.
> You can run the frozen tomato under hot water, or dip it in hot water,
> and the whole skin slips off intact. Great for winter sauces, stews,
> roasts, and pan fries with meat. A bit bulky to store in the freezer, so
> when we have time, we cook them down 4 bags at time (about 120 tomatoes)
> during fall and winter, into less bulky tomato sauce and chili and the
> like and freeze it again in individual size portions. Very convenient
> when work runs late and you come home starving.
>
> How did your tomatoes do? Were there varieties that you really liked?
> Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?
>
> Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!
>
> EV
Tomatoes just north of San Francisco, had a very bad year. Cool temps
during the summer. They and the cucumbers are just starting to produce.
I've seen nothing of the early ripener "Jaune de Pech", the "green
Zebra" has produced a few tomates. The "Stupice" was the first to ripen.
Then came the "Striped German" and a couple from the "Mortgage Lifter".
Zip from the Brandywine and the Rose. It has been an odd year north of
San Francisco.
--
FB - FFF
Billy
Get up, stand up, stand up for yor rights.
Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.
- Bob Marley
Posted by Don H3 on October 1, 2007, 3:49 am
> wrote:
> > I ended up with 2 dozen tomato plants by happenstance. I normally have
> > half as many or less. Too many tomatoes, but more varieties than usual.
> > We had a very hot, very dry season in southern Ontario, Zone 6. I had to
> > water a lot.
> > The Brandywines did well and produced a good crop, maybe about ten on
> > each of the 3 in the tomato bed, mostly in August. Last year and the
> > year before they each produced about 30 in all. So their numbers are
> > down, but the fruit is bigger this year. They're working on ripenening
> > their last half dozen big green tomatoes now, if the squirrels don't get
> > them. The tomatoes are sweet, juicy, and tasty and make fantastic tomato
> > potage, a recipe I found in this group years ago. Very easy, very tasty,
> > freezes really well in individual portions. It's like defrosting
> > sunshine in the winter months, or even on chilly fall nights.
> > Got one of Stokes' Health Kick tomatoes. Supposed to have extra
> > lycopene. Looks a lot like a Roma, but much more firm. Is good in soup,
> > but not all that tasty fresh. It's a short bushy plant that would do
> > well in a container. I won't plant this next year.
> > Tried Stokes' Ultrasweet. Terrible tomato. I've never seen tomatoes
> > crack that badly. They were rotten before they were ripe. OK flavour,
> > but not the best. I will not plant this next year.
> > Before I knew that I'd have a handful of cherry tomato volunteers in the
> > compost, I bought a Stokes Sweet Million. Interestingly, the seeds that
> > the cherries in the compost grew from were Stokes Sweet Million seeds
> > I'd started myself last year. But the tomatoes from the Stokes plant I
> > bought and the ones in the compost are completely different. The ones
> > from the storebought plant suck. They're smaller, less sweet, and, like
> > the Ultrasweet, really prone to cracking. I will start these from seed.
> > I have two kinds of San Marzanos, and both are solid, sweet and tasty. I
> > wash them and pack them into ziploc bags, and pop them in the freezer.
> > You can run the frozen tomato under hot water, or dip it in hot water,
> > and the whole skin slips off intact. Great for winter sauces, stews,
> > roasts, and pan fries with meat. A bit bulky to store in the freezer, so
> > when we have time, we cook them down 4 bags at time (about 120 tomatoes)
> > during fall and winter, into less bulky tomato sauce and chili and the
> > like and freeze it again in individual size portions. Very convenient
> > when work runs late and you come home starving.
> > How did your tomatoes do? Were there varieties that you really liked?
> > Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?
> > Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!
> > EV
> Tomatoes just north of San Francisco, had a very bad year. Cool temps
> during the summer. They and the cucumbers are just starting to produce.
> I've seen nothing of the early ripener "Jaune de Pech", the "green
> Zebra" has produced a few tomates. The "Stupice" was the first to ripen.
> Then came the "Striped German" and a couple from the "Mortgage Lifter".
> Zip from the Brandywine and the Rose. It has been an odd year north of
> San Francisco.
> --
> FB - FFF
> Billy
> Get up, stand up, stand up for yor rights.
> Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.
> - Bob Marley
Tomato problem:
I'm entirely new to gardening, and am doing it indoors under
fluorescents beside a North-facing window - the only direction
available to me.
Two store-bought tomato plants, Better Boy, Window-Box-Roma,
produced 1 and 3 small fruits respectively, when they were only
about 12 inches high. Better-Boy even produced with a bent/broken
main stem, and it's tomatoes tasted absolutely super!
Since then, no flowers or fruit despite all kinds of fertilizer,
misting, flooding, withholding water. (They did go nuts after I
added Miracle Gro, and moreso with Fish fertilizer, but no
flowers; They began growing (3+ feet) right into the fluorescents,
But no flowers.
Peppers (California Wonder) treated identically, having
produced nothing previously, now have dozens of new buds
and flowers each.
Should I just chop/toss the tomato plants? They (and
the peppers) are blocking-out a LOT of light to my herbs.
Please advise
Don H.
Posted by Jim Kingdon on October 1, 2007, 12:00 pm
> Since then, no flowers or fruit despite all kinds of fertilizer,
> misting, flooding, withholding water. (They did go nuts after I
> added Miracle Gro, and moreso with Fish fertilizer, but no
> flowers; They began growing (3+ feet) right into the fluorescents,
> But no flowers.
Sounds like too much nitrogen (fish emulsion is something like 5-2-2);
try a 0-10-10 or some other low-nitrogen fertilizer (or don't
fertilize at all, if they seem to be growing OK - at the moment the
last thing you need is bigger plants).
> Should I just chop/toss the tomato plants? They (and
> the peppers) are blocking-out a LOT of light to my herbs.
Tomatoes and peppers are perennial in tropical climates (where they
came from), and so you should be able to grow them all year if you
want to (they are probably getting more light from the fluorescents
than the window, so your location doesn't matter a whole lot). So if
you can get them to flower you shouldn't need to toss them.
It does sound like you'll need to grow them some place other than
where your herbs are, though. Too many plants, too little space.
That's usually the situation. Heh.
Posted by Don H3 on October 1, 2007, 8:34 pm
> > Since then, no flowers or fruit despite all kinds of fertilizer,
> > misting, flooding, withholding water. (They did go nuts after I
> > added Miracle Gro, and moreso with Fish fertilizer, but no
> > flowers; They began growing (3+ feet) right into the fluorescents,
> > But no flowers.
> Sounds like too much nitrogen (fish emulsion is something like 5-2-2);
> try a 0-10-10 or some other low-nitrogen fertilizer (or don't
> fertilize at all, if they seem to be growing OK - at the moment the
> last thing you need is bigger plants).
> > Should I just chop/toss the tomato plants? They (and
> > the peppers) are blocking-out a LOT of light to my herbs.
> Tomatoes and peppers are perennial in tropical climates (where they
> came from), and so you should be able to grow them all year if you
> want to (they are probably getting more light from the fluorescents
> than the window, so your location doesn't matter a whole lot). So if
> you can get them to flower you shouldn't need to toss them.
> It does sound like you'll need to grow them some place other than
> where your herbs are, though. Too many plants, too little space.
> That's usually the situation. Heh.
Thanks Jim. Triple Phosphate (0-45-0) sounds like the ticket, but
some
said to just use epsom salt (formula non-standard, but which has the
benefit
of being something I already have.) Someone else said "Coffee
Grounds"
but a quick Google => that coffee grounds are very high in Nitrogen,
so
I'm glad you mentioned that I have too much of that already!
Don
XML site map
> Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?
>
> Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!
>
> EV
>