AnnaIkona
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Tomatoes not growing well!?

Last year I planted tomatoes, and they produced very little tomatoes, and most were green and never ripened. My husband loves tomatoes so I really want to plant some for next year. Do you know what might have been the problem with my tomatoes?

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lakngulf
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Where are you located? Tell us more about types of tomatoes, climate, soil, etc.

AnnaIkona
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Location: Canada zone 8b

I live in South Western Canada, where it gets about 27°C in the summer. I have tried all types of tomato plants and all of them failed to produce good tomatoes. I am willing to grow any varieties of tomatoes. And the soil I grew my tomatoes in was sandy and well drained.

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rainbowgardener
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Sandy isn't great for tomatoes, which prefer rich, organic, loamy soil. You might need to work on amending your soil with a lot of compost.

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digitS'
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Is South Western Canada coastal British Columbia?

A temperature of 27°C (80°f) isn't very warm for tomatoes. Warm enough but if your location has cooler afternoon highs and cloudy days, there can be a problem with sufficient "accumulated warmth" through a growing season for tomatoes to grow and ripen.

My grandparents lived for a time in Hope, B.C. Grandfather was Canadian and lived as a youngster near Garibaldi Provincial Park, on the coast. I bet that was a challenging place for tomatoes.

If you are in the Vancouver area, you have a great resource in Tatiana's Tomatobase. On that page, click "early maturity" over on the left side. Then, go through her catalog alphabetically.

I live close to the B.C. border and grow an early variety that originated not all that far north, in Kimberley. It's called Kimberley ;) and it is one of the earliest in my garden. Other earlies are Bloody Butcher, Sungold, and Early Girl. Gold Nugget was probably the earliest tomato that I have ever grown.

There are lots more that may work for you but the plants will likely appreciate a protected and sunny location in your garden.

Steve

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lakngulf
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Good info from digitS' above. I have some friends who live on Vancouver Island. I send them tomato pictures every year and they just respond that they wish the climate there would give them enough elevated temps for tomatoes to make it to harvest.

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digitS'
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Lakngulf, we don't yet know much about Annalkona's location but when I started gardening on my own, I was on the coast.

It was one county south of the Oregon border and I could see the Pacific Ocean from my front yard. Roses would bloom until Christmas. Frosts would occur on some January mornings and snow fell once while I lived there.

Almost no one bothered with sweet corn. Tomatoes would ssllooowly ripen, late in the season. When I moved here, I thought I was leaving all that behind.

Not. Cool springs set things back that hot, dry summers often couldn't overcome. My first serious gardening was about 500 feet higher in elevation than where I now live. I grew Polar Vee sweetcorn and Sub-arctic tomatoes! Shoot.

Steve

AnnaIkona
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I live in Vancouver. And many people I know who live here grow awesome tomatoes.

imafan26
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If you know people who grow good tomatoes. Ask them what varieties they are planting and how they are planting and culturing them. You probably want the short day tomatoes for your season. Apple grows a few winter tomatoes that might do well for you.

There are a lot of tomato varieties out there and some peole prefer tomatoes to taste sweet or have a little bite or have old fashioned tomato taste. You climate and soil will also impact the quality of the tomatoes you grow.

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rainbowgardener
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The reference to Apple is applestar, one of the moderators here. She does grow indoor tomatoes through the winter. The point of the comparison is that her criteria for varieties to grow indoors are:

"Basic criteria for My winter Indoor growing are -- perform well in under 3 gallon containers, early, cool setting, productive, low light tolerant *and* 30" tall or under varieties that taste good to excellent despite these adverse conditions." https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... oor+tomato

Setting aside the three gal containers, varieties that grow with cool conditions and less direct sun might be good for your climate. So that thread and this one

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... to#p370989

may give you some idea. But imafan is right. Talk to the people around you who are doing it; they can give you a lot better advice than we can who aren't familiar with your conditions. As far as people here --

Here's a thread of someone else who was recently writing in from Vancouver about tomato issues:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... er#p371440

perhaps reply on that or private message them.

Here's someone else from Vancouver who only made one post here, but is apparently still lurking around reading

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... er#p370039

Countryladiesgarden is one of our more active members and is in Vancouver. She is very experienced gardener and might be a good resource for you https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/me ... le&u=38156

Mr green
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My main advice is to grow cherry tomatoes, these are faster to fruit, and alot more suitable for your climate, also you might wanna pregrow them inside in containers a couple months before moving them out.

Some varieties that worked well for me in Sweden, with similar max temps as yours: Gardeners' Delight, Sungold and a dwarf bush tomato that I grow indoors and outdoors in summer awesome plant and the name of that one is: Florida Petit.
These are safe cards for me, I try 2-3 atleast new kinds every year, but still I have a small list of good tomatoes, might add I don't have green house.

Oh one more thing, your much much more likely to get good results in big (preferably black) pots/containers, as theese will heat up more than the soil in the ground would, and your tomatoes will love it. I even have a bunch of white containers (recycled buckets) that work well to, but the black is a little bit better. And remember this may not be true for all plants! Put theese pots in a protected area, like against a wall with good sun or something similar.

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Gary350
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My grandfather taught me how to grow tomatoes this works very well.

Dig several holes the side of a 10" flower pots, in a row 2 feet apart in a sunny location.

Put about 1/4 cup of 15-15-15 fertilizer in each hole.

Put about 1/8 cup of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer in each hole.

Put about 1/8 cup of pellet lime in each hole.

Fill all the holes with water. When the water goes down put about 4" of soil in each hole.

Strip the limbs from the bottom 1/2 of all your tomato plants.

Put 1 plant in each hole.

Fill holes with dirt with only the top 1/2 of the plant sticking out.

Tomatoes have the ability to grow roots every place soil touches the stem.

Water every day for 1 week. In 2 weeks plants will be growing 1" taller every day.

Put a tomato cage on each plant. Put a tall 6 foot stake in each cage to keep them from tipping over when plants are 6 feet tall.

In 65 days you will be getting 10 lbs of tomatoes per plant every week.



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