Tomatoes

[Randy]

You are right about that, Blue. My neighbors have an open invitation to come over to my garden and pilfer what they want. It's never been a problem either.

 

[Crabbergirl]

I only had trouble one time. My garden was on a corner in a neighborhood that had been previously , economically depressed . There were a lot of lower income families still in the area , and I would let them come and get a few things from my garden. They were always very respectful. However I had a lady who could have well afforded to go to the store come and just whack my herbs to the ground for her Rabbits! For a long time I had no idea who it was. I knew it wasn't one of my regulars, then one day Tim caught her. She said "oh I thought this was a free garden." Grrrrr. You think she might have asked or at least left some for others. We ended up becoming friends.
The other time I had a not so nice nosey neighbor called me and was so rude, she says "Do you know there are a bunch of *&^^$% kids in your yard picking plums?" Man I lost it, I told her they had my permisson to be there and futher more if she ever made that referrance again I would kick her.... well you get the idea. anyway I always had people gathering from my yard and loved every minute of it.

My tomatoes I just replanted are looking good. I did half in buckets and 1/2 in the ground.

 

[Blueaussi]

I've only someone over pick once. I was going to be out of town for two weeks, and invited some of my coworkers to pick some peppers while I was gone. One of them went by the day before I was coming home and just stripped the garden. And, since I grow on the order on 50 pepper plants, plus or minus a few every year, that's whole heaping bunch of peppers. When I mentioned that to her, she said she had to get what she could while she could. I pointed out that I generally brought a couple of grocery bags of peppers into work from August to frost, and she got huffy.

Didn't invite her back that next year.

 

[Dale]

Blue some people are so greedy they will strip your bushes. It's not the norm but it does happen. You probably never invited her back in your garden again did you?

 

[Blueaussi]

No, I didn't invite her back. I do tell my next door neighbors to help themselves, and they are always so careful not to take too much. It's nice to have good neighbors.

 

[Dor]

Well tomorrow I am getting serious about making a batch of CG's pepper spray. Something is eating my tomatoes off the vine, even my sweet 100's.

 

[Dale]

Oh no Dor that is awful. Good luck on the spray.

 

[Blueaussi]

I picked some Sun Gold tomatoes this morning, and I have to say, they live up to the hype. They're delicious! I still think the yellow current tomatoes are just as good, but the sun gold are a little bigger and a pretty orange-y gold color.

 

[Randy]

I think I have three Sungold plants. One is on the back porch so we can snag one in passing. The other two are out in the garden. They do better out there, but it's also further to walk.

 

[Dale]

All but one of my sungold tomatoes died when we got 4.7 inches of rain. They are something good.

 

[John W_in_Indy]

Well, well, well.... after planting way too early, then enduring some awfully cool nights with the days being WAY too cloudy and wet, wet, wet through ALL of May and most of the first part of June, dropping all of their early blooms, I FINALLY have tomatoes set and growing!!! At last count, I have three solid ones on my Beefsteak plant, over a dozen on my Roma plant, five on my Big Boy plant and four on my Better Boy plant.

Blooms are popping open all over the place and the current tomatoes are set pretty high on the plants (except for the Roma's which are more of a determinate bush type plant) All three of my indeterminates are WAY above the cages (the Beefsteak is now 6' tall and still growing) so I'm going to need to steak them as well to hold all the weight of the fruit that will be above the cages.

But, I'm FINALLY at peace knowing that I'll have tomatoes after all this year. The jury's still out on the peppers though. For the LIFE of me I just can't figure those darned things out this year. Dropping blooms AND set fruit a couple of weeks ago through all the rain, I understand. But we've had some fairly dry weather and sun (although temps well in the 90's with high humidity) along with warm nights (above 70 for the most part) and I don't have that first bloom or set fruit. One plant doesn't even show ANY signs of blooms even forming.

So, I guess it's just wait and see....

 

[curbhopper]

I haven't read this whole thread so tell me ~ do tomatoes need a lot of water or a lot of sunshine or both (i.e. daily watering in modreation)? I have 3 in containers and had a friend tell me that his, IN the ground need 6 -> 8 hours of consistent sunlight. Good for you John W ! (I only have 2 heroes = Walk Disney and John Wayne ) ~

 

[Blueaussi]

Tomatoes do need a lot of sun, anything less than 6 hours and your production goes way down. Less than 4 hours, and you get lots of green growth and almost no tomatoes. They don't necessarily need lots of water, but they like consistent watering.

John, if you went straight from cool nights to hot nights, the peppers will have difficulty setting fruit. If you're getting blossoms, but they drop, it's probably the temperatures. If you're not even getting blossoms, make sure they're getting enough sun, and that you're not giving them a high nitrogen fertilizer.

 

[Randy]

Curbie, the containers do dry out very quickly, depending on weather conditions. Tomatoes have a deep root system and can tolerate some abuse on lack of watering when they are in the ground. I have one Sungold in a half-barrel container on the back porch and two more out in the garden. The ones in the garden always fare much better than the one in the container. By the way, blossom end rot is sometimes caused by erratic watering, but I believe the major cause is lack of calcium.

 

[curbhopper]

Thank you both for your advice about these tomatoes. So, maybe daily watering in these containers? When I bought these 2 types, I noticed some said,"DEEP PLANTING ONLY" so I bought 2 that did not say that. Is there ONE fertilizer that is really a good all purpose one? ~

 

[palmettogal]

Sigh....the plants have survived although they look quite sickly. I've tossed more than I've kept and those that I let turn in the windowsill develop water logged spots. Too much rain this year, I think, but maybe some other problem or deficiency. I don't know. We put so much sweat equity into the garden and tomatoes just kill me year after year. It's disheartening. I think next year we'll buy local tomatoes at the farmer's market and use our garden space for something less frustrating!

 

[lynpenny]

my plants aren't doing too good this year. It got too hot to soon and although they are still setting on we are only getting 2 or 3 a week and I have a critter eating them so I have to pick when they first start turning. I put up cheese cloth shades for them and they are doing a little better. I'm about to think this is not a tomatoe year.

 

[Blueaussi]

Thank you both for your advice about these tomatoes. So, maybe daily watering in these containers? When I bought these 2 types, I noticed some said,"DEEP PLANTING ONLY" so I bought 2 that did not say that. Is there ONE fertilizer that is really a good all purpose one? ~

Erm...yes and no. To get your tomato plants to bloom and produce fruit, you want a fertilizer that has an N number lower than the P and K numbers. You can use a fertilizer like that on most of your flowering plants. So, yes, there are fertilizers that are good for more than one type of plant, but, no there isn't one that will cover all situations.

For tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, I like to use Espoma's Tomato-tone. There are other good ones out there, that's just my personal favorite. If you're using container's, Fox Farm's Tiger Bloom is a good one.

 

[curbhopper]

Once again , thank you. I wrote it down and will probably pick up tomatoes at the grocery store on my way to get the fertilizer ~ Man...how do farmers do it? ~ Curbie

 

[Gloria]

Curbie, it's not easy on farmers and thank goodness the "big time" farmers have the advantage of disaster crop insurance so they may be able to start over next year. Those of us that do a little back yard gardening just have to take the good with the bad. I do a little more than back yard.. at planting about 2 acres and I use 5-10-10 fertilizer that usually does well for me, 5% nitrogen, 10% pot ash and 10 % phospherous. I also add lime to my soil that is a neccessary additive for my soil condition. This is the first year in many that my garden was almost a total loss..I say it was just meant to be and next year will be better.