So, how are those tomatos doing.

[croixflats]

With all this rain we have having my tomatoes are going crazy!

And thats with me not getting them in the ground untill May 30th.

I have Brandywines 4.5ft tall that have 2 inch fruit on them, rather early I think for brandywine.

My morgage lifters have lots of blossoms but no fruit yet and are close to 3.5ft tall

First prise and early wonders are starting to produce 1.5 inch fruit

The bella rosa, black krim,striped cavern and polish linguisa are lagging behind but have lots a blossums like the morgage lifters.

I started the toms from seed I believe it was march 11.

I am surprised I have three Brandywines producing so early as those are late producers and they are ahead of the early varieties.

I have planted close to 60 toms in my yard, I know crazy. The reasons were I wanted to try differant locations in the yard and have lots for canning. Another reason I went over board growing close to 200 toms from seed. I gave the rest away.

Let me know how your toms are going and your growing experiance.

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Mine were doing great until the deer invaded the last couple of nights. They took out a row of beans and ate the tops and fruit off almost all my tomatoe plants. I hope I can salvage the ones they missed.

[eurolarva]

My plants are growing like crazy but the fruit is real small. I am guessing my tomatoes are at least a month behind normal. I started my seeds in early March as well. When you can you might want to look at this site. Canning

Some of the newer breeds of tomatoes including heirloom tend to be less acidic and require the use of citric acid or lemon juice so they are safe for canning. I only grow early girls cause that is my favorite and have not needed to add acid when canning.

[boatfixer]

Our Celebrities are doing pretty good. Got some 3" fruit. No fancy varieties, sorry

[reinhard1]

i have a question on roma tomatoes. i dont have a beutiful garden like you guys yet, maby next year. these roma tomatoes are in containers. they are growing good, i'm watering them every day, but the ones that are green now on the tips they have a soft dark area. what is happening and what can i do? thank you and good luck.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Cut back on the watering. They're more or less rotting from the inside out.

[reinhard1]

thank you. i also have one of those upsidedown tomatoe planters. they said to water it everyday so i've been doing it to the roma's too. i will take your advice and water less. thanks again and good luck.

[Steve Foss]

We have two tomato plants in topsy turvy containers, too. One is a Sweet 100 cherry, the other a Champion. We have to water every other day or the leaves start wilting. Every day is too much water, as evidenced by your blossom end rot.

FWIW, we've also got a couple tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets (same two varieties), and they are growing faster and stronger than the upside down ones, so this'll be the first and last year we use the topsy-turvy system.

[KEN W]

Here is an interesting article from the NDSU extension service about up-side-down tomatoes.

http://www.dakotagardener.com/newsletters/2010Apr.pdf

[zzammon]

Ate 2 small ripe tomatoes today. The first of the year. They were "Fouth of July" tomatoes. My first time planting them. They were good but all the fruit it has is small. Just bigger than a golf ball. If this doesn't change I will be going back to Early Girl for the early toms next year. The Goliath plants are about 5' tall and the Roma's are doing well, lots of green tomatoes.

[Dotch]

Great article Ken! My wife sold a bundle of those things at the retail greenhouse she worked out of this spring. She was of the same opinion as the article though so when they sold out she didn't order any more. Another gimmick.

We have some Champion tomatoes growing in buckets (right side up) that are just about ready to pick, up out of harms way from the rodents.

[Steve Foss]

Another gimmick.

Yeah. Wasn't my wallet that got opened to buy them. My time's getting spent to grow them, though.

[reinhard1]

yes, after reading the article on upsidedown tomatoes i'm going back to the bucket type until i complete my garden area next year. one thing for sure if i need help i'll be on this forum again. thank you all and good luck.

[tweedlap]

I picked three Fourth of July's yesterday, too. They were about the size of golf

balls.

Still a treat.

tweed

[solbes]

Big boys and cherry tomatoes are doing really well this year. Seems they didn't even get this tall for us last year. Covered with blooms and tomatoes. Looks like the first ones will be ripe in 1-2 weeks.

[KEN W]

My plants are loaded with green tomatoes.....I have....

Beaver Lodge Plum....small Roma

Beaver Lodge Slicer.....small slicer

Glacier.....small slicer

Saucey.....medium sized Roma

Carbon.....black slicer

Health Kick.....large Roma

Legend.....large slicer

Taxi.....medium yellow

Lemon Boy....large yellow

I start all my plants.Usually give them a 2 year trial.

[trapperdirk]

I had some type of tiny tim variety that the mother in law bought in a planter . That plant produced alot of fruit and is finished and pulled almost 3 weeks . I just topped my early girl and beefsteak varieties as they reached the 6ft mark . Too tall and too hard to manage at that height . Half of the 15 plants are getting decent sized fruit on them and the other half have little fruit as of yet .

I need more time to sucker and trim the plants back . This is the first year for the garden at my new residence but I'm quite happy at the outcome so far and only issue I'm having is my pepper plants losing a ton of leaves as they yellow . Not sure what's up there . Beans ,onions ,leeks taters ,radishes,all doing well though and I'm harvesting often .

TD

[KEN W]

Started picking Beaver Lodge Slicer,Taxi,and Glacier the beginning of this week.

[Get'n Jiggy]

yes, after reading the article on upsidedown tomatoes i'm going back to the bucket type until i complete my garden area next year. one thing for sure if i need help i'll be on this forum again. thank you all and good luck. [/quote

You might try googling Global Bucket, I'm going to try some next year. Looks like a neat idea.

[Get'n Jiggy]

Wow! those Celebrities are looking great, Much better than Lindsy Lohan or Paris Hilton doing a "perp walk".

[Dotch]

I took 3 5 gallon plastic chore buckets with the handles broken off that I was gonna toss, drilled some drainage holes in the bottoms, plopped in some 14 year old sheep manure, planted a nice big overgrown tomato plant in each that the wife was discarding and voila! I water them with water from the water buckets in the lamb pen I otherwise would just dump. I started doing this a couple years ago. When it freezes I take the skidloader and haul them into the shed. Jeez, here I coulda made millions, selling manure, telling people how to do this and getting rid of a bunch of my junk to boot. Story of my life...

[eyeguy 54]

We have a very small sunny spot and I'm laid up at home so I thought I'd give the topsy turvy a shot. Should be reusable. Planted 2 on a pole but had to tie it to tree and house cuz it's heavy! lol also a plant on the table and a cucumber. Planted on June 17th and a few are popping out. Don't know if I'll get 50 but I need that many for a double batch of Salsa. :>) Usually I just buy them at farmers markt but this looked like fun so thought I'd give it a shot.