? on tomatoes

[Sara B]

I grow a patio tomato plant in a large container each year. The skins always seem tough and thick. Is it the variety I grow (usually different each year) or how I grow them? Thanks for your help.

[The Helpful Gardener]

That's a stumper! I know that certain varieties (Roma is a good example) have thicker skins, but I do not know of any cultural practices that might be causing that. I'll ask about with my veggie crew and get back to you...

Scott

[opabinia51]

Most likely it is the variety of tomatoe that you are growing. Some have thicker skins that others and some have thinner skins. A nice website to visit is: www.gardenpath.com the purveyor sells several varieties of heirloom tomato and she is very knowledeable as to what different varieties are like.
Good Luck!

[Sara B]

Thank you! I'll check that out so,hopefully, I can get the right one next year.

[opabinia51]

Many apologies, I gave you the wrong URL for that website... I just checked and it is actually:

www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath/


The Purveyors name is Carline and somewhere in there is her email address so you can email her and ask.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks again, Opa!

I have noticed that regular (scheduled) watering seems to help with skin toughness some (less water makes for meatier, albeit smaller (and tougher) tomatoes. But I am with you; it's probably genetic (grew some heirlooms this year and noticed Matt's Wild Cherry had much tougher skin than Sweet Hundreds; made up for it with much better flavor!)

Scott

[Sara B]

Thanks, Opa and Scott, I'll make note of this for next year. Have either of you tried white tomatoes? I was given some seeds and hope to try them next year

[opabinia51]

Actually, I just found out about them yesterday while perusing an Heirloom seed catalogue. I'm going to give them a try next year. The owner of the nursery where I found the catalogue says that they are nice and sweet.
As far as heirloom are concerned, the best one that I did this year was the zebra, it stayed green on the vine for over a month but, once it started to ripen, wow! And they are still going and don't split in the rain. Current tomatoes are great if you like a little blast of sweet.

[Sara B]

Maybe I should try some of the heirlooms. I usually only grow one plant but think I will have a few more next year.

[opabinia51]

I would definately recommend some variety of Currant Tomatoe. You can grow them in hanging baskets. The tomatoes are the size of a currant and are really nice and sweet. The best!
I actually have some leftover seeds if you'd like some. But, you'd have to plant them ASAP.

[Sara B]

Thank you. That sounds very interesting. I don't think I ever saw tomatoes in a hanging basket. That would be different for my porch!! I think I'll try it.

[opabinia51]

Give me your address and I will mail you some seeds. They should be planted indoors ASAP. Allow the plants to grow up until the root ball fills a small container then pot it up. Before planting outside in your pot, strip all the leaves except the top ones off and bury the stim in the dirt. This will give your plant a nice strong root system.
I found last year that planting the Currant tomatoes in a mixture of composted chicken manure and a bit of soil was the best. The plants literally shot up in less than a week.

[jackal_man]

does anyone know the best way to grow tomatoes, more specific, the Big beef Hybrid.

[opabinia51]

Refer to the tomatoe growing tips under "Growing tomatoes in 5 Gallon pots"

It doesn't really matter what variety of tomatoe you have, they all are grown with the same steps in mind.

One problem that people often have with Tomatoes is that the tomatoes get a black rot on their bottoms. This is due to a calcium deficiency, the non organic way to solve this problem is to get some calcium spray from your local nursery and spray your tomatoes with it.
The organic solution to this problem is to fortify your soil with eggshells before planting your tomatoes. Preferably the fall before planting ensues.

[Sara B]

Thank you. I will check that out. I always have a lot of eggshells and usually put them in my garden.

[opabinia51]

Be sure to crush the eggshells before adding them to the soil. I actually, rinse them out and dry them before crushing them. Have fun with your tomatoes.

[Sara B]

Thanks. I have a white one started in a pot and am hoping it will survive.

[NZG]

does anyone know the best way to grow tomatoes, more specific, the Big beef Hybrid.

The best way, in my experience, would be in a greenhouse. But that all depends on your climate. In the past 2 years here I've had better success outside with my large breeds on toamtoes than in the greenhouse.
We've had real crap growing seasons here the past 2 years so ripening has been pretty slow. Winter is here and I've still got green tomatoes on my plants.

But overall, there is no right from wrong way of growing tomatoes. Just play around. Grab say 6 plants, plant one here, one there and take notes over the season how each plant did you for to best work out where you should plant tomatoes for next season.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks Opa!

[Crash]

I am a first time gardner with about 15 tomatoe plants. The plants mostly look small and weak but there are tomatoes on all of them...is this OK? I have caged them. Some of the leaves are turning yellow and the tomatoes are changing from green to yellow...does this mean that they are progressing normally or should I bve doing something differently?

Thank for any help you can give this very, very beginner gardner.

[opabinia51]

Tomatoes are very heavy feeders. Right up there with corn. They like fertile soil and lots of Nitrogen. (In small doses) So, the advice that I would give you is to feed your plants some liquid fish and/or liquid seaweed fertilizer.
I would also be curious to find out how much sunlight your plants are getting.

[Crash]

Thank you so very much for your reply.

They get morning sun and early afternoon sun. I'll watch and see how late the afternoon sun is on them and let you know.

I assume that I can buy the nitrogen at Home Depot or a garden supply, is that correct?

My hubby was supposed to take care of the garden but he had an accident and is not even able to walk out there to look at it so I'm on my own this year until he is fully recuperated...thanks again!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Go to the garden center for organic fertilizer; they will just stare blankly at Big Orange...

HG

[opabinia51]

You should be able to get liquid fish/seaweed fertilizer from Home Depot but, the fish fertilizer will probably cost about 25 dollars for a 1 Gallon container. Though, one gallon makes about ..... (oh, metric conversion ....) 808.6 gallons of fertilizer. Liquid seaweed may be a bit cheaper. I've seen for as little as 6 dollars a bottle and for as much as about 9 dollars a bottle. Though, I don't personally shop at Home Depot.

Try your local garden shops as well.

[The Helpful Gardener]

What Opa said...