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I know this is the food section but there seems to be a shared passion for gardening here also so a few questions...

how many trim their tomato plants? The suckers? Do you trim the low small branches that tend to just turn yellow and die anyways?

Do you support the continual vining style growth of your tomato plants or try to have them be bushier?

I have several varieties in my garden and all are doing well. The cherry tomato plant was the largest when I put them in and really took off but now is tending to grow slower and is fruiting heavily (red tomatoes should be ready for harvesting in a few days already!!! That is way early here!!) this plant is shorter and stouter with fatter leaves then my others. so I am worried about the other growing to large and blocking out the light. My grape tomato plant is really wanting to grow long and thin.

Any thoughts in general are appreciated including watering, fertilizing, etc... in general things are going great and growing like crazy.

Kinda depends on whether it is a determinate or indeterminate variety.

I do sucker mine until they get about knee high, and I always pull off the lowest leaves just prior to planting them.

They type of nitrogen in the fertilizer you use can also make them grow fast and spindly.

i have some now that are 2ft high and starting to bloom. i plant mine i barrels instead of in the ground. tomatoes and cucumbers are all i ever plant.

I went out on a huge risk and planted mine in early March, where common practice in this area says not before April 15th do to frost concerns... well I got away with it due to our super warm spring and I have tomato plants that are likely a solid 5 feet tall.

I will be harvesting the first batch of cherry tomatoes and jalape�os this weekend most likely.

You need to chat with flyboyflem (Woody). He is a tomato expert whether he'll admit it or not.

Mike

Here a 7650 ft, it's darn hard to even grow them.I do pull the suckers ,but plants seldom get more than 3 ft high. We have a lot more green tomatoes inS ept than we do red ones.

I have two front end loader tires filled with dirt, with a small green house type of enclosure around each.I cover every night anduncove revery morning. Right now plants are a little less than 1 ft tall. I just set them out last week,I have had them in 6" pots for 4 weeks, taking them outside every day and back in at night.

I cage all of mine in 6-7 foot cages 24" diameter. No need to trim unless you do like I did this year and plant mine to close to each other.

Tomatoes like it on the dry side. I water mine about every 10 days but that might change if the wind is blowing hot.

I use an organic fertilizer every 6 weeks.

WOW!!!! that is forest of tomato plants!! I may need to cut back on my watering a little... I water about every two days b/c I thought it was pretty dry here and the soil they are in should drain pretty easily but I am sure its hotter in TX! My chard and brussel sprouts wilt if I go more than 2 days or so.

I used cages for most of mime but just the 3' x 24" or so size and they have all grown right out of the top. I planted some Roma plants without cages and created a bit of a mess of trellis system that I am training them to grow on.

I'll see if I can snap some pictures later today. Going to be over 100 with the heat index this afternoon!

You warm weather guys are killin me. I haven't even planted mine yet. It might freeze here tonight! The Bighorns are expecting 12 to 18 inches of snow.

Not to rub it in but I picked 7 cherry tomatoes yesterday... first of the year!

The season is about 3 weeks early in KS this year. One of my gardening buds picked some Early Girl tomatoes in May. He is 76, and said it was the first time in his lifetime. He has been digging potatoes all week.

I'll probably pick my first actual tomato this weekend. Been picking grape tomatoes for a couple weeks now. Haven't pulled any potoatoes in a couple weekends, but the new ones were sure good a few weekends ago, gotta dig the rest soon. Have more squash than I know what to do with. Stop by sometime and help yourself-

I once read a funny story about a traveler in Maine. He watched a local lock his car, and asked him about thieves. The reply, "No, neighbors with zucchini".

Drew,
Are you using the EG style tomato stakes????
Jim

I always take off the Suckers.
Steve

Picked our first ripe (real) tomato today...have had cherry tomatos for a couple of weeks. We'll have lots in 2 more weeks.

Elwood

I tried to go early this year and lost to frost twice. Replanted about 2 weeks ago and they're not really taking off yet.

Bb

Godfrey Daniel!!! what a bunch of monsters!!

Picked 28 lbs. a few days ago and I'm still getting around that much every 3-4 days.



BP...


BP...

damn, I really thought I was early... you are bit south of me but not that much... I have large green beef stake tomatoes on the vine but have been out of town a week... maybe they are getting red now... I also may have some romas at this point... squirrels chewed two of my romas to nubs in the first week but they came back.... in another month, I know that I will have tomatoes a plenty daily... before I left a week ago, I had probably picked 3 dozen cherry and grape tomatoes.

I'm in Seattle now looking for a house and seen a few tomato plants that basically looked like what I planted a few months ago... nothing over a foot for sure...

I plant four plants in potting soil, in old recycle plastic bins. Move in and out of sun/heat as needed. Fertilize with miricle grow. Pull suckers and all branches below buds. Have harvested about 20 to date. Had to put them up un picnic tables to keep deer off of them.

i pinch off the very tops of the plants after the buds ...so it stop growing up...sounds like some of u take most all the leafes off..or i'm i missing something.

always wondered if deer would eat them, will they browse the fruit, the foliage , or both?

I've plowed mine under already. I've canned 40+ quarts of tomatoes, my daughter has put up 10+ quarts and I've given away 3 five gallon buckets of Romas to friends. I just got sick of dealing with tomatoes.

I've probably picked 200 lbs so far, canned whole tomatoes, sauces, and juices. Have the burn/blister on my arm to prove it from when the blender exploded sauce on my arm. Looked last night and estimate I've got another 50 lbs to pick tonight, not good since we're leaving for vacation in the morning.

Okra is just now really starting to go, have had about 3 or 4 pickings, it'll go good until frost now.

Watermelons are just starting to turn ripe. Opened one up a few days ago that was just a bit early, let the varmints eat it up.

20 hills of squash have about run the route, squash bugs and heat have done them in.

Couple waves of peppers a few weeks ago, now they're setting on the main wave of fruit, wife won't know what to do with them when they really get to going.

I have one cherry tomato that's almost ready to pick.

Lots more on the way though. I've only found one variety of tomatoes that grow really well and produce a sweet tomato here on the Colorado front range.

Super Sweet 100's. They're the bomb!

Up here in the north country. Had the garden in second week in May. Picked half a bushel today and Sunday of tomatoes.

Wife has canned 29 qts. of green and wax beans, 20 qts. of pickels,16 pints of mild and hot peppers, 20 qts. of potatoes, 20 qts. of carrots.

She said that her canning is 3 weeks ahead of last year.

I'am glad I hooked up rain barrels this year to the down spouts. Down to my last 200 gallons, but rain is forecast for tomorrow.

My tomatoes are about the size of ping pong balls at the largest right now. We have been picking a few cucumbers and they are so very much better then the ones in the store. Jalapenos are almost ready.

elk's gonna need mittens when picking his tomatoes...

I honestly hesitate to post this but it's true. Yesterday I gathered 10 gallons of tomatoes from one plant. I know that doesn't sound possible but I filled up two 5 gallon buckets from only one plant. I made a bed last fall by using dirt from the feed lot where I have fed cows for years. Very good stuff and it has paid off. I planted 6 plants in this bed and we have canned tomatoes, made tomatoe juice, froze tomatoes and given away gallons. They were hanging like clusters of grapes..not as big as some I've seen but just about right. From the size of baseballs to a bit bigger. Lord I'm tired of dealing with tomatoes....

Elwood

that is closer to the truth than you know!

Tomato growing in gardens is almost impossible here in Florida without massive use of pesticides, so I gave up after two years effort. Bugs just ate them up. Now that I have a back field full of free ranging hens, however, I'm thinking of giving it another shot. Theoretically, if I put the garden right in the middle of their pasture, they will keep the bug population way down in and around it. Naturally, I'd have to put up a wire fence to keep the chickens out of the garden itself. Bugs can't set up shop in the garden without safe access to the pasture around it, or so the theory goes.

That said, Florida humidity and summer heat isn't ideal for tomatoes either, so probably best to attempt it in the spring and fall only.

I used to grow very nice tomatoes up on Long Island, where it's amazingly easy to do without pesticide. The only major threat there are those big fat green tomato worms, but they don't eat the tomatoes themselves, and plucking them off by hand is easy.

I have always plucked some suckers so as to encourage larger size in fewer tomatoes.

I'd say congratulations are in order...

Cool.

Like Fishhead, I'm stillwaitng to pick the 1st one.Probably two weeks out at least

I've had a couple so far this year. I just hope the heat and humidity we've been having doesn't kill them before I get sick of them.

Update. I had some more cherry tomatoes start to turn red and four were actually ripe. So, I picked 'em and ate 'em. Just now. Right off the vine while standing in garden.

They was veddy good. Very sweet and juicy.

Wooo hooo !!!

I have not been back to my home in STL in over 3 weeks... actually... its officially not even my house anymore, I just still need to vacate it... I can only imagine the bounty of tomatoes and peppers that exist there if my neighbor has done the watering they said they would... The tomato plants that I have seen around here in SEA look to be about to start producing ripe fruit.

My roma plants were loaded until I saw most of the maters developed blossom end rot so I picked them and tossed them. Too much watering due to hot weather created a calcium deficiency. Gave them all a shot of pelletized gypsum mixed in water this morning to give them a boost. flyboyflem recommended this.

Interesting. I have one roma plant and it has green tomatoes but it isn't looking good. It's stunted and not growing well.

The super sweet 100 is 4' tall, spilling way out of the cage and loaded with blossoms and green tomatoes.

The other variety I planted was an heirloom Cherokee. It's doing very well also and already has a few small tomatoes and lots of blossoms.

Last week I yanked all of my determinate tomatos out and am now preparing for a fall garden. This is one of the few advantages of only having two seasons here in South Texas. Those 2 seasons are summer to be interupted by an occasional cool spell.


BP...

Cherokee Purple is a good tomato. We usually put out a couple of those because they are good and pretty. You'll enjoy them. Seem to come in pretty early also.

Same with North-Central Florida.

Ours are really starting to produce. This is about what I have been picking every other day.



Mike

Nice! Do I see a few Romas in there?

They're actually San Marzano's. We started planting them instead of Roma's a couple of years ago. Size and texture are the same but we like the flavor better and think they make a better sauce.

Mike

My neighbor has quite a garden. Same one from which, just a year ago, was pilfering cukes from.

Anyway found this outside on the lawn chair as I exited this morning. At lunch, went home and sliced and salted one of 'em as fast as I could. Very nice, but a bit tart, wondering if they will mellow in a few days...?

One could go liberal (apologies to sam...LOL) with the EVOO, and light on the vinegar.

Put the maters in a paper bag to ripen them up.

Heard of that, never tried it. Does it take a day or so? Longer?

A few days (2, 3 or 4) ... depending. Just check em and you won't overdo it. Leave them on the kitchen counter and not in the fridge.

It really does ripen tomatoes far better than doing nothing and there's a sound scientific principle behind it.

It's not magic but it helps.

Unless I'm mistaken, San Marzano is merely a place where they are known for the quality of their Roma tomatoes. Their Roma tomatoes are the best because of the volcanic soil in which they're grown. If you didn't import the soil you grow them in, therefore, they're not really San Marzano tomatoes. I have no doubt they're delicious, though.

San Marzano IS a listed variety and you are correct it's named after the region but Romas come in all different sizes,shapes,colors and flavors.Planting it here changes nothing as we have a diverse range of soils and some probably better than from its origin country..it's genetically the same, an open pollinated Heirloom true to seed no matter where it's planted.As a Big Boy is still a Big Boy no matter where it puts down roots.

yeah, I think you missed on this one... if I was going to do any grouping, I would say they are both a variety of "plum tomatoes"

as trh usually is.................

Sorry about the crappy cell phone shot.



Mike

Mike TRH seems to be the authority on many things but tomaters he's not!

fixed that for ya.....

Stumbled across [b][color:#3333FF]Tatiana's Tomatoes[/color][/b] by accident, but there's info on LOTS of different varieties...

That makes sense, but is the San Marzano a variety of tomato, or an indicator of where they were grown? I was under the impression it was the latter.

OK, a quick Google search turned this up. Looks like you folks are right. Link

I guess I was thrown by the many times I've read or heard Italian chefs warn against buying San Marzano tomatoes that aren't certified as being actually imported from San Marzano, since, according to them, it's the volcanic soil they're grown in that makes them distinct.

Mike San Marzano is a tasty one and we've grown it for many moons but I recently discovered this new Hyb Roma "Capaya" and it's a big hit at the Farmers market probably due to the extremely large size and very excellent flavor.These come in at 5-7 ozs [not a paste variety] and have no green center core like so many other plums and romas which the gals really like especially for canning.

Capaya is the ONLY Determinate I've found so far in over ten years that will go full season as most give a couple of heavy sets and then they're done.Think it should be reclassified as semi-Det for full season production and the plants are quite large at about six feet.Country of origin is Mexico from what I can gather..I'll hook you up next year if you want to try a few.

Ok, been eating those tomatoes and they are nice and ripe and delicious. Not sure if the bag had anything to do with it, but what the heck.

BTW, I have never eaten such delicious tomatoes as these. When you slice into them, a great quantity juices gush out and the flesh is deep, rich red in color. I think this is how tomatoes were meant to be...

P.S. Thought I might make some eggplant parmigiana with the eggplants. If anyone has any other scrumptious eggplant ideas, please lemme know...thanks.

I made eggplant parm last night. Love the stuff.

Did the tomatoes turn red after putting them in the bag?

Well, yeah, but was it faster than if they just sat on the sill for a few days? If you say the 'science' is behind it, works for me...