Tomatoes?

[Newtonian 453]

It's almost August. My plants are beautiful and laden with fruit, but except for a couple of dozen cherry tomatoes nothing has ripened. Up here in Sussex Cty. even the farm stands are very low on home-growns. They're mostly still bringing those plastic-looking tomatoes up from points south. 

 

Anyone have any luck thus far with tomatoes? Post the variety and your location. 

[T Bill 649]

NW Warren County.  Grape tomatoes will start next week.  Roma the week after.  Vines are loaded with fruit.  About two weeks late, but after cold wet spring that is about normal.  Still getting green and yellow squash daily. That is an exception around here.  Kirby cucumbers are off the wall again.  Can't pickle them fast enough.  All the spices except the Thai Basil going strong. Don't know why that is this year.  Got enough Catnip to keep the felines tripping all the time.  Nothing like Kitty Cat Crack!

[Mikeythumbs 1]

I'm in ocean and it's the same here cherries are ripe Roma's are starting and some of my others are starting to come in. So yeah it seems like a late harvest. July was very temperate heard somewhere it was the mildest July since 1909 only 3 90 degree plus days. The tomatoes love the heat so that put them behind also

[Smokin .50 1,907]

I'm in Middlesex Co. and we planted on Mother's day weekend.  We're eating cherry tomatoes and beefstakes as of yesterday.  BLT's were FANTASTIC with the bacon from my Hog Hunt last January!

[MedicYeti 96]

My tomato's are big, beautiful and green. I have had 3-4 ripe ones so far.

[magnawing 5]

Warren county, I've been picking cherry tomatoes for 2-3 weeks and just picked the first Better Girl variety earlier this week.

[Newtonian 453]

My tomato's are big, beautiful and green. I have had 3-4 ripe ones so far.

Wowow, and you're way down there. Amazing that even 40-100 miles south of me it's the same story.

 

I'd rather have this amazing weather and later tomatoes!

[Vlad G 345]

Middlesex, I've been eating cherries for three weeks, and Black Krim, Brandywine's and plums for the last week or 10 days.

 

Given the relatively cool summer we've had so far I wouldn't be surprised if the usually cooler Sussex would be a couple of week behind.

 

I'm also an aggressive  tomato vine pruner, which means my plants spend more time growing fruit then leaves and the fruit is more exposed to the sunlight as opposed to being hidden under leaves. My cherry tomatoes are now in the 10ft tall range, the rest of the plants about 5-6" ft tall.

[Duppie 73]

Monroe's farm stands are laden with cherrys and some beefsteaks but roma's are still a little sparse.

[Howard 538]

I remember growing tomatoes but it has been a long time.  My dogs and the deer would always get them before I did.  I miss the cherry tomatoes

[ogfarmer 138]

yes maters are late this year due to the cooler weather, and late plantings, cause of weird spring weather around here. I usually start to see good ripeness around 1st week August. I always tend to get mine in later cause I am busy planting early stuff,

[jrfly3006 42]

OT but just wanted to say its nice to see people still taking pride in agriculture...and to OGfarmer and all of the farm peeps on here...a big THANK YOU for feeding us all...you are the heart of this country

[blksheep 466]

We are late as well. Have about 15 plants in and little greens on em.

[CMJeepster 2,779]

I'm Dan Quayle and I approve this topic.

[CMJeepster 2,779]

D'oah! That was potatoes... Ha, ha, ha!

[blksheep 466]

Lol

[T Bill 649]

Minions, always minions.

[Newtonian 453]

Middlesex, I've been eating cherries for three weeks, and Black Krim, Brandywine's and plums for the last week or 10 days.

 

Given the relatively cool summer we've had so far I wouldn't be surprised if the usually cooler Sussex would be a couple of week behind.

 

I'm also an aggressive  tomato vine pruner, which means my plants spend more time growing fruit then leaves and the fruit is more exposed to the sunlight as opposed to being hidden under leaves. My cherry tomatoes are now in the 10ft tall range, the rest of the plants about 5-6" ft tall.

Can we talk about this? I never prune; wifey always does. What do you gain by it?

[Newtonian 453]

OT but just wanted to say its nice to see people still taking pride in agriculture...and to OGfarmer and all of the farm peeps on here...a big THANK YOU for feeding us all...you are the heart of this country

Sorry to say, but if my family depended on me to eat they'd have starved long ago. And I'd have a new wife, a very skinny one

[blksheep 466]

Thats some funny stuff^^^^

[JT Custom Guns 958]

I love nice big tomatoes........................

 

[blksheep 466]

Golly

[Vlad G 345]

Can we talk about this? I never prune; wifey always does. What do you gain by it?

 

Sure. If you look at tomato plants carefully, you will note they are vines. On each vine, it spawns to types of "branches". One type contains leafs, the other grows fruit.  The leaf branches eventually get a smaller leafy branch sprout from the joint between the main vine and the branch. This is called a sucker, and it grows into a whole second vine, which can then do this from every branch too .. etc.

 

If you allow the suckers to do their thing you end up with very bushy plants that spend lots of time and energy growing vines and leaves, chocking sunlight away from itself and other plants, etc, and not as much time growing actual fruit.

 

I let my tomato plants develop 2 MAYBE 3 main vines, which I Then train upwards and prune the suckers whenever I see them. My plants end up 10ft tall bearing lots and lots of fruit every year. You can prune teh suckers with your finger whenever the get to be 1" long, if they get away from you and get larger , you should probably snip them cleanly to not damage the rest of the plant.

 

One BIG WARNING: This should ONLY be done to indeterminate type tomatoes. Determinate types need all the vines because they produce all their fruit at once (or close enough) and you need as many vines as possible. For example I would never do this to Roma's or Rutgers, you need to make sure you know what tomatoes you are growing.

[Newtonian 453]

I let my tomato plants develop 2 MAYBE 3 main vines, which I Then train upwards and prune the suckers whenever I see them. My plants end up 10ft tall bearing lots and lots of fruit every year. You can prune teh suckers with your finger whenever the get to be 1" long, if they get away from you and get larger , you should probably snip them cleanly to not damage the rest of the plant.

 

This sounds like great advice. I will try it next year. 

 

What do you use to stake a 10-foot tomato plant? My soil is so full of slate I need a sledgehammer and steel dowel to get stakes into the ground. Eventually the plant pushes the stake up and falls over.

[T Bill 649]

Create planter boxes.  2 X 10 PT lumber built into 5 X 10 squares filled with a mix of topsoil and mulch spaced two feet apart and different vegetables grown in each depending a their compatibility.  I have one for spices, tomatoes, zukes and cukes, and one for peppers and sprouts.

 

The low fence them in to keep the garden raiders out, chickens and rabbits and such.

[ogfarmer 138]

[Vlad G 345]

What do you use to stake a 10-foot tomato plant?

 

Prayer.

 

In the past I was using 8ft furing strips. First I just stuck them in the ground but they would fall under the weight. As I use raised beds I then screwed them to the side of the beds and had the plants close to the sides of the beds. When they got to the top,  I would train the plants in a "crown" horizontally around the various strips. I would also add short bits of strips connecting the verticals, basically building the worlds biggest tomato cage.

 

However this was always somewhat unsatisfactory. The strips rot and snap. You need to drill holes in them because when you tie the plant to it you can just tie around the strip as eventually the weight of the plant makes it collapse and it all comes crashing down around strip. 

 

This year I'm trying something new.  I bought some of those metal posts for chicken wire, one ones which are kinda U shaped (or really omega shaped) with bits popped out at regular intervals to hold onto fence material. I could only find them in 7ft or shorter, so I bought some 7ft and some 4ft and bolted them together (they are pre-drilled). Then I screwed one of these 11ft things at the ends of each of my garden beds, to the 2x10s that make up the boxes. I planted the tomatoes in a row between the two end supports, and as the plants grew I've kept adding twine line between the two posts, weaving in a figure 8 between the vines. The twine ties nicely to the posts on the popped out sections so it doesn't slip down. If your run the twine under the fruits themselves (and weave it between plants and vine as you go down the length of the bed) it seems to be doing a pretty good job supporting the weight.

 

I'll decide at the end of the year if it was a good idea, but so far so good.

[Newtonian 453]

Prayer.

 

I'll decide at the end of the year if it was a good idea, but so far so good.

Vlad, you've inspired me to figure out how to grow these plants tall. Most of my tomatoes are indeterminate, and they drive me crazy. I'll post anything I find on this subject. Thanks!!

[TheLugNutZ 21]

Monmouth county, mix of hybrid and heirloom.  Not sure what they are exactly, my father started them from seeds and gave me what he didnt have room for in his garden.  So mine went in a bit late and they are a bit behind schedule.  There are tomatoes on the vines, but def not ready yet..

[AlDente67 563]

So trim the suckers but how do you know what not to trim again?  I'm confused.

 

My red peppers are coming in, but by the time they ripen on the plant, they get rot spots.  Drives me crazy.