tomatoes

[katey]

It is often an exercise in frustration trying to grow tomatoes in Western Washington. I planted my requisite 6 plants (short season, mix of heirloom and new varieties) and didn't even bother staking them, having failed so many times before. Wouldn't you know this was the year they'd take off?

I set them out quite early and covered them with spun row cover. They really seemed to appreciate it. (Note: the eggplants and peppers didn't die with this treatment, but they certainly didn't thrive the way the tomatoes did.)

So now it is mid-August, and I have sprawling vines with lots of small, green tomatoes on them. This morning I pruned the heck out of them, removing probably half the foliage. I took off anything that was still trying to bloom, then anything that didn't have a tomato on it. I'm trying to encourage ripening.

I figure that if
1) The deer don't eat what I left
2) I didn't manage to spread late blight everywhere with my pruning shears, and
3) First frost holds off until October 1
then I will have a pretty decent harvest.

[Lew Barrett]

Me too. It took forever for them to set fruit, but now it's looking hopeful, and with a few days of hot, powerful sun, maybe I'll make some progress. Every year I try, every year the results are disappointing. Maybe this year!

[Tom Montgomery]

The small independent grocer around the corner carries locally grown tomatoes (both modern hybrids and heirloom varieties). I purchased a nice heirloom on may way home from work, sliced it up, added a bit of salt and pepper, and had it for lunch. Sublime flavor.

[Lew Barrett]

Yuk, yuk, yuk. Full report in September.

But on a serious note, it's not the yield that disappoints around here; for me it's been the quality. Maybe it's not enough early sun, or something in the quality of my soil, but I do everything they tell me to. This year, like Katey, I'm pulling out all the stops. Thinning the suckers, planted in full sun and good soil, plus I've been around to tend them. I am very hopeful.

[katey]

I've been using Steve Solomon's all-purpose fertilizer (recipe in "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades") for a couple of years now and I am very happy with it. This fall I am going to make up a batch without lime for the blueberries, rhododendrons, and azaleas.

[Lew Barrett]

Thanks for the tip, Katie.

[JBreeze]

If you think cool soil in the spring is having an impact on growth, perhaps try growing your tomatoes in "earth box" type containers....this would get the "soil" above the ground and in the sun which might help. You could even wrap the buckets with black tar paper or paint them black for more heat absorption. I've linked a youtube instructional on making the system with two 5 gal buckets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE8Or...yer_detailpage

I use this system because of poor soil - it allows me to make my own compost/fertlizer/lime/soil mixture. I don't go through as much trouble as the gent in the youtube .... I just cover the top with mulch, and water/feed from the top, rather than the watering tube. The whole thing can be moved around with a two wheeler if sun is better at different locations during the growing season.

My 5 gal buckets came from a small regional ice cream manufacturer ....the flavorings he uses come in food grade white buckets, and empty buckets were available for $1 ea with lids. I'm happy with the results (3 years now), as I'm growing various peppers, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. with much more success than I had in the garden.

[elf]

Every year is different but this year looks interesting. I plant about 18 plants of various kinds usually around Mem Day after doing whatever I can to help the dirt - eel grass, lime, more eel grass and some household rotted garbage etc. Last year I was able to put up about 5 quarts of somewhat thin sauce kinda more like stewed tomatoes with my own garlic and basil in them. I had to use eating tomatoes because I had more of them than of sauce tomatoes.

This year I put in 18 romas and 4 eating tomatoes. Everything grew like wild and the romas are producing many tomatoes about the size of Italian prune plums. I've put up 3 6C bottles thus far and have enough to start the next batch and it's not hardly the middle of August yet. I'd really like to get about 10 more bottles of quart or more before October when it's pretty much over for tomatoes.

I'm still not figuring out how to grow onions, however, and I have such a backlog of dried basil from earlier years that I doubt I'll ever get thru it

Next week I start canning peaches.

[Stiletto]

I dont stake my tomatoes, they grow against a wall and I suspend ropes from the top of the wall and just give the plant a twist around every week or so.

I was reading a garden magazine the other day that made the point that tomatoes are actually perennials, so after pruning back, I left a couple in over our (relatively mild) winter and they have continued to flower and fruit, albeit slowly.

I think that growing new plants every year is probably the way to go for good production though.

Green tomato relish is a good use for those fruit that fail to ripen before you rip the plants out.

There is nothing quite like the taste of a good home grown tomato with the warmth of the sun still on it!

[pipefitter]

If you think cool soil in the spring is having an impact on growth, perhaps try growing your tomatoes in "earth box" type containers....

That's what I use here in FL. Not because of lack of warmth, but for the root knot nematodes in the soil, and to keep the plants well off the ground. This year I passed for lack of any cold during the winter, which would typically mean an advance with the insect population here.

The old timers here in FL. scoffed at my attempts to grow cool climate (brandywine) heirlooms in zone 9 out in the open. . .organically. . .



Along with the gnarly '1884' variety that get to 2lbs!


The biggest advantage for me with the containers was being able to move them in the event that it may take two locations to get all day sun in a yard that has monster oak trees shading a good portion of it.

[Lew Barrett]

My crop is progressing and starting to ripen slowly due to a nice spell of hot weather we had here. The proof will be in the tasting as they say. I'd imagine FLA is a good venue for "tamaters."

[pipefitter]

It is for those that were developed at the university. . .the Florida pink, and some other tropical hybrids.

Here they have to gas the soil to kill all the nasties. The humidity here is what makes it difficult. To beat the heat, I start early under (some tips from Erster) lights and have my crop completed by the end of May before the heat and rains arrive.

[pipefitter]

The big Amana Orange were popular with friends. Not bad for some chicken poop and crab/shrimp meal and grown in a box. We have a customer who owns tomato and strawberry farms. He was rather amazed I had no cat facing, cracking or blossom end rot being I am a novice grower and a weldor at that. I know one thing. . .one can have way too many tomatoes. My nephew is a tomato sandwich eating fool!

[Lew Barrett]

[QUOTE=pipefitter;3505162] I know one thing. . .one can have way too many tomatoes. My nephew is a tomato sandwich eating fool!
QUOTE]

I'll guess growing tomatoes is easier to learn than TIG welding. I am a "budding" gardener too; just recently took an interest. A sign of maturity (finally!) perhaps?

[pipefitter]

[QUOTE=Lew Barrett;3505179]

I know one thing. . .one can have way too many tomatoes. My nephew is a tomato sandwich eating fool!
QUOTE]

I'll guess growing tomatoes is easier to learn than TIG welding. I am a "budding" gardener too; just recently took an interest. A sign of maturity (finally!) perhaps?

Here it was more of a desire to get more value from the real estate and eat a little better and a thumbing of the nose at Monsanto and other standard agri practices. The cost of produce alone is a deal breaker at times at the store, along with the fact that it would be right outside the back door, would assure that I would eat things that are better for me more often than not. The kids will eat young pole beans right from the garden.

Add to that a lettuce table with a few varieties growing, and it would not be uncommon for me to come home from work and find the remains of creative salad builds that had taken place, and the absence of potato chip bags in the waste can.

We have grapes, and by now a substantial stand of pineapples taking up otherwise useless ground and less grass to mow.

[Lew Barrett]

My plants are starting to yield in earnest and I must say, it was worth the effort. Sweet and tangy and plenty of 'em. Despite my pessimism this is probably the best crop I've gotten in years up here.

[David G]

We've been getting tomatoes here in Portland for about a month. No special measures taken. Black Prince is delicious. They reseeded and volunteered. The plain-jane red tomatoes (forget the variety) are good, and prolific. Smallish, though, and not as flavorful as the Black Prince. Where we have trouble is growing sweet peppers and hot peppers. Tonight I fixed crab cakes for dinner (a gift from our friends on Marrowstone Island - a side benefit of the trip to Port Townsend), pasta & cheese, and a salad made of our own tomatoes, our own lemon cucumbers, some olives and a bit of crumbled blue cheese. Delicious!

ETA -- My hosts in Port Townsend last weekend served fried green tomatoes for one meal. I'd forgotten how much I like them!

[katey]

Yup, they're ripening for me, too. I don't know why I succeeded this year and not others. It certainly wasn't the hottest summer we've had. I trimmed back the foliage some more yesterday.

[Chip-skiff]

Can't grow tomatoes outside here: we're Zone 1.5 or so, with a 45-60 day frostfree season. Did some pruning in the greenhouse and ended up with a bunch of green tomatoes. I don't like them fried, so I made chutney, which turned out delicious.

I've got tomato plants that are well into their second year— the stems are over an inch thick and gnarly. With regular pruning they're still producing some nice fruit.

[katey]

I did better when I was in Zone 4 (Syracuse)! We just don't get enough heat in the summer. Next year I'll have the greenhouse. (Cue Charlie Brown: "Just wait 'til next year!")