Planting tomatoes

[jim 44-40]

Trick to huge Beefsteak tomatoes.Dig a deep hole with a posthole digger and fill hole up about 3/4 with any kind of hot munure then fill rest of hole with soil.The munure will warm the ground up down deep. You will get huge tomatoes.

[waksupi]

Some Epson salt will also help.

[Alasgun]

300261300260

This is an Alaskan greenhouse tomato, Celebrity hybrid and we grow them every year. Go to a “tomato site” for good information. Renaissance farms, Tomato fest etc. Our’s are grown organically and it would take an hour to explain all the nuances associated with tomato growing. Start with something and learn by doing. Our soil mix is complicated BUT we’ve evolved the nutrient schedule to be quite simple. (Taken from the Renaissance farm site) add a cup of Espoma tomato tone to a 5 gallon bucket of water, use this when watering. We change it up a bit by replacing the water with pure rabbit urine!

This plant was 14 ft wide, 14 ft tall and at the ceiling it turned out from the wall and grew 8 more ft forward! It would produce a tray like this twice a week.

[jim 44-40]

Some Epson salt will also help.
A friend of mine used Epson salt and grew monster green bell peppers.

[jim 44-40]

Oh my goodness,that picture makes me hungry for real tomatoes.The ones in the store are horrible.What a healthy looking plant.

[ryanmattes]

That's... more tomatoes than I would know what to do with. I'd spend half my time canning and making paste, sauce, salsa, etc.

My plants look pitiful in comparison:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220517/ea2c42ae1742801a6326f22b33e09c2a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220517/97928b0f13439c378ef171a751c1c260.jpg

[Gewehr-Guy]

And I haven't even tilled my garden yet, and you guy are eating fresh tomatoes!

[Piedmont]

Alasgun, I have seen some incredible vegetables out of Alaska gardens on the internet. Is part of the secret the exceptionally long summer days?

[fecmech]

Just bought some Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes and Basil plants yesterday. We won't be getting any fresh local tomatoes here till the end of July. My cherry's are what I wait for every year. Makes a quick and easy cherry tomato, basil, garlic pasta.

[georgerkahn]

Some Epson salt will also help.

I've buried books of matches with my green pepper plants and sprayed foliage with Epson Salts, but quite frankly never heard of employing the stuff on tomatoes. Due to my bum leg I do just nine plants -- three each Sungold cherry; three Amish pasta; and, three Beefsteak. I remove all leaves from my plants before planting except for the very top whirl. My indeterminate plants generally grow pretty close to nine feet tall! I generally plant two (chicken) egg shells with each plant, and stick two Jobe's Tomato Fetilizer sticks adjacent to each plant.
You have my curiousity piqued re your using Epson Salts. Do you apply the stuff in hole at planting (HOW MUCH???); and/or, as I do with peppers, mix one tablespoon to one gallon water and spray the foliage as soon as flowers appear. ?????
My only sprays are, as soon as the first batch of 'maters form, I mix 600mg of plain-Jane Bayer aspirin in a gallon of water using this to spray all foliage. Then -- :( :( -- if late blight stuff appears, I spray with a commercial (Bonide brand) copper fungicide/blight killer.

PLEASE give me the details re your Epson salts use on your 'maters?

geo

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've grown tomato plants for 35 years. While I may not be an expert yet, I have come to the conclusion that it's better to grow normal size tomatoes. Growing the Monsters is a recipe for problems.

A number of years ago, I did some experimenting with open pollinated Rutgers tomato seed. I grew them using seed from several sources, in the same garden, the same year. Some of them got large fruit on large plants, others were smaller fruits. I saved the seed from the smallest plants that produced smaller fruits. The result was being able to grow them without having to cage them and much less "maintenance" to the plant. I am reasonably sure I harvested more weight of tomatoes per square foot, than I would have with larger plants with larger fruit.

My neighbor has recently transplanted some tomato plants into the garden, I'm waiting another week. It's just not warm enough yet, in MN.

[Beerd]

PLEASE give me the details re your Epson salts use on your 'maters?
geo

I just mix in a handful at the bottom of the hole when planting.
..

[Minerat]

Just planted 4 last weekend. We have a snow storm scheduled for Friday night thru Saturday with 4 to 10 inches over night reaching 32°. Guess that was a waste of time. I can only hope the water wells will save them. We have not has any rain/snow since mid April so I figured it was safe. [smilie=b:

[georgerkahn]

Just planted 4 last weekend. We have a snow storm scheduled for Friday night thru Saturday with 4 to 10 inches over night reaching 32°. Guess that was a waste of time. I can only hope the water wells will save them. We have not has any rain/snow since mid April so I figured it was safe. [smilie=b:

In a similar paradigm a few years back I took galvanized trash cans and put them upside down over my tomato plants. with a brick or rock atop each to guarantee good ground contact. . I had three smaller (20 gal?) cans (I use for wood ashes from woodstove) and two 30-gallon standard garbage-type cans. NOTHING fancy -- I just inverted cans over five plants... Daytime temps only got up to the low 40*s -- but I didn't touch them. Three days later it warmed to high 50*s and I took cans off. Their colour had blanched a bit -- but they looked no worse from their trash can enclosures.
The unprotected plants died. So I have "proof" this worked. And -- albeit their growth did seem "on hold" for a few days -- wife thought perhaps they wouldn't make it -- but they not only began to grow again, but really seemed to thrive.
Also -- with my "sick" sense of humour -- I told all my friends that I had canned tomatoes but a few days after transplanting.
Good luck!
geo

[Minerat]

Good idea George. They are in pots. But the big cans I have will cover them just fine. Thanks:2_high5:

[georgerkahn]

Good idea George. They are in pots. But the big cans I have will cover them just fine. Thanks:2_high5:

One of my after-the-fact thoughts -- re the no-freeze success I had -- was that the huge cans let ground temp temper ambient air and snow. I reckoned snow was in the 32*F/0*C range and the warmer ground -- given the large trash can size -- might work. A regret I had was not to have put, say, an inverted soup pot or pressure cooker -- much, much smaller vessels -- over the plants. I know I lost somewhere between 16 and 20 plants which I did not cover. (A sad end to this tale is I always have started ALL -- every one -- of my garden plants from seed. With the frost loss of those uncovered with the trash cans I bought plants (Bonnie) from a big box store -- and Late Blight got introduced into my garden as a :( :( :( bonus... -- never since or ever -- I'll do without -- than again purchase plants.)
geo

[jonp]

Good idea George. They are in pots. But the big cans I have will cover them just fine. Thanks:2_high5:

5 gal plastic pails to cover. What we always used

[Minerat]

Thanks jonp, turns out I only had 2 cans that would cover the pots so 5 gal pails and a log for weight worked on the other 4. They are now calling for 12 to 24 inches. It was 88° today and the forcast high tomorrow is 49° with lows thru Monday morning being 29°.

[farmerjim]

I am in central Louisiana. I have been growing tomatoes commercially for 25 years. I plant my seed in flats in late December, and grow them under grow lights for a couple of weeks. They then go out into cold frames until about Feb 15 when they are planted into the ground. I then cover them with a tent of Agribon 30. My tomatoes in the row are staked at the end of the row, and a stake every 4th plant. They are held up by the Florida weave method.
A heavy twine is tied on the stakes at about 20 in above the ground and the agribon is pushed down over the stake ( 4 foot 1/2 in rebar for determinate and 6 1/2 foot t posts for indeterminate) The agribon is stretched out to each side and held in place with sandbags or cinder blocks. The agribon tent lets air and water pass thru but gives 10 to 15 degrees warmth under the cover in the day and frost protection down to 27-28 deg ( at 26 they are dead unless you also run sprinklers on them)
I get my tomatoes 2 weeks sooner than my competitors.
You can find agribon at amazon and several of the seed companies. I use AG 30 ( 0.9 oz per sq yard) But I know some that use ag50 (1.5 oz per sq yard.)
The row cover is 83 inches wide and comes in many lengths. If you want early, give it a try. PM me if you want any more info.

[Freightman]

planted five plants yesterday hope they do good, took the advice of hot animal waste,(cleaned the goat and hogg pen) we shall se. By the way the wind was50 mph and 101 temp. I ate enough dirt to plant at least one more plant. Talk about true grit.:bigsmyl2:

[gwpercle]

I'm in Louisiana too just a little below Farmerjim ...He is a real Farmer , like he makes a living doing it ...you got any questions ...he's The Man to ask . 25 years teaches you what to do .

I got 4 tomater and 4 pepper plants in my back yard raised bed ... that's just piddling around .
I need a few BLT's with good home grown tomatoes and a few jars of pickled peppers every year ...
or I wouldn't bother... shoveling dirt and pulling weeds is getting to be work ... but dang ...home grown tomatoes sure do taste good !
Gary

[Omega]

I put out some cucumbers, tomatoes and jalapenos that I germinated indoors, but they came out real leggy, even though I had the light as low as I could get it. I buried them deep, so hopefully they will survive, but am planning on going to the local grower to buy amish raised ones as back up, and maybe get some melons too. I am all out of spicy jalapenos, and all I can find in stores taste like green peppers, so hoping I can get a good harvest this year. I think I will get more seeds started too, and stagger some plants to see if I can harvest at different times, should have plenty of warm weather to get a few at least.

[MT Gianni]

Our traditional last frost is memorial day. That at least gets them established before we have to cover them a few times in June.

[GregLaROCHE]

Over here I was introduced to grafted tomato plants. They are quite popular here. I think they are grafted to eggplants. They really take off, which is good for me because I am at a high altitude and spring comes late. I need to be careful and always keep trimming them back, so there’s not more foliage than fruit. Do they have them these days in the US?

[ulav8r]

My sister grew some tomatoes last year in a raised bed. She could not remember what type they were . Got part of one, it was not near enough. They were very dark red and were some of the best I have ever tasted. Definitely better than any I have tasted in the last 35-40 years.

[jonp]

I put out some cucumbers, tomatoes and jalapenos that I germinated indoors, but they came out real leggy, even though I had the light as low as I could get it. I buried them deep, so hopefully they will survive, but am planning on going to the local grower to buy amish raised ones as back up, and maybe get some melons too. I am all out of spicy jalapenos, and all I can find in stores taste like green peppers, so hoping I can get a good harvest this year. I think I will get more seeds started too, and stagger some plants to see if I can harvest at different times, should have plenty of warm weather to get a few at least.

I've seen a few Lowes and Tractor Supply here selling Carolina Reaper peppers. No interest in those death plants, haha.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Yesterday, I transplanted tomatoes and peppers, into my garden. It should be warm enough in my area (Zone 4b)...plus it's supposed to rain today, an all day soaker...seemed to be perfect.