2014 Tomato Growing

Lovely service, I was quite stirred.

And so here are my five for a dollar seeds - 5/$, wow

Parsley, nasturtium, bachelor button, marigold (dwarf, mixed), portulaca, red alyssum, dark zucchini squash, morning glory, African daisy, forget me not, and lemon drop marigold, dwarf zinnias.

Off to plant, and take the chickens their pogy bread I make (made from local fish, cracked corn, any damaged eggs, and flour - they love it), and put in the tomato garden for canning tomatoes. My wife was at an estate sale and they had cases of canning jars, new in the box - the person had been a bee keeper and had these jars for honey. So she bought a couple cases very cheap (empty jars) - and so we are growing a tomato canning garden. These are the jars she bought, dozens, and hopefully they will look like this later, stink bugs permitting.



Picture from web.

we use a lot of canned tomatoes, I do a good bit of Mediterranean cooking - and creole/Cajun.

 

Couple of questions for the experts on here if anyone can take a minute to offer some advice -

1) I've been donated a packet of San Marzano seeds this year and they seem to be sprouting well in the greenhouse at work (around 5" high now and getting ready to pot on I think) - I've found some info. about them online but there seems to be conflicting advice about side=shooting and whether they'll grow outdoors in the north (East Yorks here).
In spirit I'm the kind who just likes to give these things a go and see, but as my garden is so small I can't really afford failed experiments at the moment if I actually want to produce something to eat! So, what's the word on growing these fellas outdoors? Stake and support as usual, pinch out the growing tip after 4 trusses or so?

2) Indigo Rose toms - has anyone tried growing these black tomatoes yet, and if so what are your thoughts? I've been looking to get hold of some seeds but all I can find online are grafted plugs from Suttons or seeds from abroad with customer comments suggesting either the seeds are naff or the supplier disreputable or both.

3) Where's a healthy place for toms to be at currently with the spring we're having? I've got San Marzano, Golden Sunrise, some unspecified cherry red toms and red tumbling toms in. The SMs and GSs are all about 5-6" high and producing their true leaves, the other two types are all either struggling to germinate or some are a couple of inches high and still just seed leaves. I was happy with this til I went to someone's house last week who's plants are knee-high and bushy already! My seedlings are in an unheated greenhouse at work with a couple of glass roof panels missing so I guess this is not ideal with current night temps still quite low? Oh for a polytunnel!

Cheers, Andy

 

Oh, and one more - I'm trying to grow everything organically and will be making more comfrey tea this year, but I don't have enough comfrey to be totally self-sufficient in this regard, so what's the best organic feed to buy as a back-up for my toms, cuces, chillis etc? And does anyone have any thoughts on how shop-bought organic feeds compare to comfrey tea? Thanks

 

I have had bad luck, or bad management really, growing tomatoes the last few years - always something does in having a bumper crop. The last place I lived I would grow massive, just beautiful, plants 6 foot tall with scarlet, globe like fruit. Like out of a magazine.

I would dig compost in well, buy plants at optimum times, plant deep, and use Miracle Grow™
as instructed, and spray malathion as needed. It really worked - but I no longer care for doing that, it seems like delegating your gardening to some professional - not too many stages from just buying the tomatoes. But very good results.

I have never replicated those tomatoes, but I get enough using organish ways, and prefer it for some reason.

I have never figured out picking out the buds that grow in the leaf joint - that is something I need to read on this year. Not paying attention to such a thing is silly and I should understand the how and why of it.

 

I've been using this for several years now. It's not cheap, but usually gives me good results with toms, cues and peppers.
http://www.organiccatalogue.com/Soi...RGANIC-TOMATO-FEED-5-Litres/product_info.html
I use it in combination with SM3 seaweed extract from the same catalogue and I also dig a good handful of blood, fish and bone into the soil at the planting out stage.

 

Thanks for all the good advice and encouragement, JWK.
I did mix nettles into my comfrey tea last year but was just reading that nettles are high in nitrogen so I was going to go for pure comfrey tea this year to feed the fruit rather than promote foliage. As you say, it's hard to be sure of the right dosage so I think I'll have to bite the bullet and cough up for some expensive off-the-shelf feed.

Thanks again, will look up those black cherry seeds for next year :-)

 

Trunky, when you say Blood Fish & Bone, do you mean something like this?
http://www.organiccatalogue.com/p442/BONE-MEAL-4kg/product_info.html

I've never seen organic BF&B and would have doubts about how trace-ably organic such a product could be....though I guess they are claiming this bonemeal as organic...would it be just as good as BF&B do you reckon?

With the seaweed extract and the tom feed, I was thinking of just going for one as I only have space for 6 or so tom plants anyway. I notice the tom feed has seaweed in it - do you find a big advantage from using both? What balance do you use (i.e alternate feeds between the 2 each week, or use one earlier in the season then switch once plants are fruting etc?).
Seems a big outlay to buy one, nevermind both, but then I am a Yorkshireman I suppose!

 

Do you support your plants with cages, as that seems to be a US thing, but in the UK gardeners remove the 'sideshoots' and restrict to a single stem (except for growers in both the US & UK aiming to produce giant tomatoes for competitions who will both restrict to one, or possibly 'one and a half' stems.

Another difference between UK & US growers is that we don't have 'Wall of water' products available to protect early, outdoor plants against frosts.

 

@AndyS I use this fish blood & bone fertilizer, a couple of good garden centres near me stock it, although oddly, I can't find it on the Miracle Gro website.
http://www.gardensite.co.uk/Miracle_Gro_Fish_Blood_and_Bone_Natural_Plant_Food.htm

When it comes to deciding whether something is organic or not, I usually refer to my trusty HDRA (now Garden Organic) Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.
They list fish blood & bone as acceptable for organic use, as it is of animal, rather than artificial origin. I guess to be truly organic, it would have to come from animals which had been 'organically' managed, but that really depends on your personal definition of 'organic' doesn't it?

According to the HDRA, bonemeal contains 20% phosphate, which promotes strong root growth, while fish blood & bone contains 8% phosphate + 3.5% nitrogen, as a general fertilizer for leaf and root growth.
I prefer to use fish blood & bone, as the organic tomato feed I mentioned in my previous post contains only 3% nitrogen, so the fish blood & bone, used when planting out, gives some extra, slow release nitrogen throughout the season.

I usually feed weekly with the tomato feed once the first fruit begin to form and add some seaweed extract once a fortnight, throughout the season.
While the seaweed extract doesn't contain much in the way of major plant nutrients, it does contain a wide range of trace elements and definitely seems to promote good plant health and disease resistance. I tend to regard it as a useful 'supplement' to the other feed.

 

Drat scrungee - I lost my post because I was no longer logged in - will try again later

Back later: In USA they call the kinds of tomatoes determinate and indeterminate (isn't there cordon or something in UK?) with indeterminate fruiting all summer - or until the heat stops them like here, or winter - and determinate fruit mostly at one time for commercial harvesting or home canning. The indeterminate are really floppy and the cages are used by most people for the convenience - $3 to 5 each, last for years.

determinate tend to be bush kinds and not so needing of support. Then how one pinches off the laterals is a issue with a long season because the succession of fruit goes higher and higher - It is supposed to be for bigger fruit, or more smaller fruit - and length of fruiting - but I have forgotten it all mostly. Sorry I have not been able to tell you the proper thing about American tomato growing.

I have 8 kinds growing now, and about 17 plants - much more than I would normally have because I hope to can some.

I have never seen anyone using the wall of water, cold is not a real problem for us.

 

Thanks for the thorough explanation. The slow release nitrogen makes sense, never thought of that. In an ideal world I'd prefer to use BF&B from organically-reared animals, but in the grand scheme of things I guess it's not something to get too hung up about, and if it's good enough for your HDRA encyclopedia I think that's good enough for me :-)

Again, thanks for clarifying, and again, makes total sense now you've explained it. I can't justify the outlay on both for such a small number of plants I don't think, so I reckon I'll go for the tomato feed and see if I can't bring home some seaweed from the coast next time I'm out there and look into if it's possible to use this instead of the seaweed feed, to achieve similar benefits from the trace elements. Thanks for your kind guidance :-)