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hendi_alex
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- Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina
The self watering planters whether commercial or home made seem to work very well at out performing ordinary planters. I've not used any yet, but am considering construction of some of the home made ones. Steady supply of water is always a problem for my tomatoes in containers, even very large planters of 20 gallon or more. The self watering containers solve that problem. I tried drip irrigation with them last year, but it seems I could never get the flow of water right and ended up drowning the plants.
I would not exactly call it an experiment but I am growing some new tomatoes for the first time. Black cherry, beefsteak, and German Johnson. Beefsteak went in first and is already fruiting. The Black cherry just got planted out this week and German Johnson has sprouted but does not have true leaves yet.
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dtizme
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- Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:23 pm
- Location: Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada. Zone 5a
Growing a few different kinds this year. 2 cherokee purple, 2 yellow plums and 2 hybrids as well as 3 cherry tomatoes. All transplants. Always had good success with the hybirds but well see how the heirlooms grow compared to the hybrids. gonna try the slow watering technique as opposed to just dumping water om them through a picture glass because what I read watering mimicing as the rain poromotes deeper roots. As well I'm gonna get a rain barrel and use the water out of that instead of tap water. well see how things turn out? I'm sure it wil be nothng but the best. we'll c. Best of luck everyone
Good luck with the new varieties. So many people rave about Beef this and Beef that, so I tried some last year. I did not get the right ones I guess. Did not have good luck. I have heard great things of Black cherry also.imafan26 wrote:I would not exactly call it an experiment but I am growing some new tomatoes for the first time. Black cherry, beefsteak, and German Johnson. Beefsteak went in first and is already fruiting. The Black cherry just got planted out this week and German Johnson has sprouted but does not have true leaves yet.
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hendi_alex
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- Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina
Blackcherry has become one of our favoites, very abundant with great combination of sweet and tart and rich flavor. We have also come to love the super sweet golden plums over the past couple of years. Very productive, mild, sweet. One unknown slightly pear shaped also lasted a long time off the vine and has a pleasant crunch when bitten. It came in a mislabled pack and I'm still trying to find the variety.
I googled black cherry to get info on them. Wow, they look like muscadines. I may have to give them a try.hendi_alex wrote:Blackcherry has become one of our favoites, very abundant with great combination of sweet and tart and rich flavor. We have also come to love the super sweet golden plums over the past couple of years. Very productive, mild, sweet. One unknown slightly pear shaped also lasted a long time off the vine and has a pleasant crunch when bitten. It came in a mislabled pack and I'm still trying to find the variety.
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hendi_alex
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Very interesting thread.
My "experiment" this year involves support and pruning. I am using the Florida weave system using T-posts and baler twine. With 18 tomato plants and being 57 years old, I really think the 4000 foot roll of twine will outlive me.
Growing both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Pruning the indeterminate varieties to 2-3 stems. Just don't have what it takes to prune them all the way back to a single stem. The determinate varieties are just being pruned of the bottom leaves to avoid soil splash.
For support in the past I have tried individual 2X2 treated lumber stakes for each plant. Although that method works, it is a bit of trouble especially if you let indeterminate plants get out of hand between tying sessions. Cages was a total disaster and I consider pre-made cages to be absolutely worthless for tomatoes. They do adequate on peppers though.
I am a relative newbie to gardening. Last year my garden was a tremendous success for the first time. I am going to attribute that success to recognizing that my garden needs a lot of water, in the absence of rain, here in central Illinois. In prior years, if we didn't get an inch of rain in a week, I would turn my sprinkler on the garden for an hour. Last year, if we didn't get an inch of rain, I would water for 4 hours. The additional water made a very noticeable improvement in production in tomato and pepper plants.
My "experiment" this year involves support and pruning. I am using the Florida weave system using T-posts and baler twine. With 18 tomato plants and being 57 years old, I really think the 4000 foot roll of twine will outlive me.
Growing both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Pruning the indeterminate varieties to 2-3 stems. Just don't have what it takes to prune them all the way back to a single stem. The determinate varieties are just being pruned of the bottom leaves to avoid soil splash.
For support in the past I have tried individual 2X2 treated lumber stakes for each plant. Although that method works, it is a bit of trouble especially if you let indeterminate plants get out of hand between tying sessions. Cages was a total disaster and I consider pre-made cages to be absolutely worthless for tomatoes. They do adequate on peppers though.
I am a relative newbie to gardening. Last year my garden was a tremendous success for the first time. I am going to attribute that success to recognizing that my garden needs a lot of water, in the absence of rain, here in central Illinois. In prior years, if we didn't get an inch of rain in a week, I would turn my sprinkler on the garden for an hour. Last year, if we didn't get an inch of rain, I would water for 4 hours. The additional water made a very noticeable improvement in production in tomato and pepper plants.
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JosephsGarden
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- Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:51 pm
- Location: Cache Valley, Rocky Mountains
- Contact: Website
My tomato experiment this year is selecting for varieties that are highly attractive to bumblebees. The goal being to develop my own strain of tomatoes that is promiscuously pollinating. Last growing season I grew two varieties that the bumble bees were constantly visiting. I replanted a few hundred seeds from those plants and will watch for naturally occurring hybrids. Also added about a dozen varieties to the trial that may have traits that would attract bumblebees. I'll also be watching the general tomato population for any plants beloved by the bumblebees or other pollinators.
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hendi_alex
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Interesting idea, though in a period of declining bee populations, it would seem that wind pollination offers some advantage. Also, when singularly focused on bee attraction, what will happen to things such as flavor, productivity, disease resistance, fruit size and shape, etc? Think I'll stick with bee balm for the bees, and select tomatoes based upon other more relevant traits for my needs and uses. BTW, you would not believe the number and variety of bees and wasps which visit our chaste tree each day. Of course we have wildlife friendly plantings throughout the grounds and as a result, have a very active assortment of bees and wasps to visit.
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grrlgeek
- Senior Member
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- Location: Southern California Desert
I have two experiments planned for this year. Can't say they're the "latest," though, since they're my first!
#1 - I am going to try starting new plants from cuttings of a couple of my determinates that I want more tomatoes from. Coinciding with this, I will try/hope to keep the parents going (okay, how about just, alive) during the 2 month, no-grow, 110 degree summer temps and see if they will produce again in the fall. I already have my first clone rooting in a pot. It's wilty, but still trying and hopefully it will take. It's one of the indeterminants however, and an impromptu selection at that, given that I broke the branch while moving the pot. Call it my test-run. I plan to snip the determinates this weekend.
#2 - Starting indoors from seed at three-week intervals July 5th through Sept 6 , (4 batches) I have some early "arctic" variety tomatoes that I want to torture test into the winter. The ones I'm trying are Bison, Beaverlodge 6806 Plum, and Sub Arctic Plenty. It remains to be seen if any of them taste great, or even good, but I figure that none will be worse than a grocery store tomato in general, and all will be better than a store-bought tomato in January no matter what! It's not the best test since all are determinate varieties, but if things work out at all well, I'll be on the lookout for indeterminates for next year, or for a winter leg up on all you Southern folks who were eating fresh tomatoes in May!
#1 - I am going to try starting new plants from cuttings of a couple of my determinates that I want more tomatoes from. Coinciding with this, I will try/hope to keep the parents going (okay, how about just, alive) during the 2 month, no-grow, 110 degree summer temps and see if they will produce again in the fall. I already have my first clone rooting in a pot. It's wilty, but still trying and hopefully it will take. It's one of the indeterminants however, and an impromptu selection at that, given that I broke the branch while moving the pot. Call it my test-run. I plan to snip the determinates this weekend.
#2 - Starting indoors from seed at three-week intervals July 5th through Sept 6 , (4 batches) I have some early "arctic" variety tomatoes that I want to torture test into the winter. The ones I'm trying are Bison, Beaverlodge 6806 Plum, and Sub Arctic Plenty. It remains to be seen if any of them taste great, or even good, but I figure that none will be worse than a grocery store tomato in general, and all will be better than a store-bought tomato in January no matter what! It's not the best test since all are determinate varieties, but if things work out at all well, I'll be on the lookout for indeterminates for next year, or for a winter leg up on all you Southern folks who were eating fresh tomatoes in May!
This year I planted Black cherry. It is very tall with long internodes and does not have a lot of trusses. It is just flowering now.
The second tomato is Beefsteak. It has started making tomatoes, but I haven't eaten any yet.
The third tomato. I haven't planted that one yet. I have a couple of wild cherries from former plantings that have been coming up and producing fruit. I still haven't really decided what to plant for the third tomato.
The second tomato is Beefsteak. It has started making tomatoes, but I haven't eaten any yet.
The third tomato. I haven't planted that one yet. I have a couple of wild cherries from former plantings that have been coming up and producing fruit. I still haven't really decided what to plant for the third tomato.
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JosephsGarden
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- Location: Cache Valley, Rocky Mountains
- Contact: Website
The bumblebee population in my garden seems adequate for the task. I noted at least 5 species last year on the tomatoes.
Last year in my garden the tomato plants that were highly attractive to bumblebees were the earliest and most productive plants in my garden. Other plants flowered earlier, but they did not set fruit. The flowers just dropped off. (I figure that wind-shake pollination was inadequate.)
I believe that every trait that I care about will be enhanced by encouraging promiscuous pollination. The genetic roulette wheel will spin more often, giving me many more opportunities to find winning combinations of genes.
Last year in my garden the tomato plants that were highly attractive to bumblebees were the earliest and most productive plants in my garden. Other plants flowered earlier, but they did not set fruit. The flowers just dropped off. (I figure that wind-shake pollination was inadequate.)
I believe that every trait that I care about will be enhanced by encouraging promiscuous pollination. The genetic roulette wheel will spin more often, giving me many more opportunities to find winning combinations of genes.
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JC's Garden
- Senior Member
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- Joined: Mon May 12, 2014 10:43 pm
- Location: Moultrie, GA Planting Zone 8, Sunset Zone 31
This thread has been interesting to go through and find what's new. I had a couple of things going last year that didn't quite work out. I'm trying again!
One was cross-pollinating varieties of small, early tomatoes that I like and don't much care if they share one characteristic or another. So, why do that cross? Well, you gotta start somewhere and having a nice little tomato that is a bit different from either parent is about the best I can hope for. I'm a total novice at this!
I messed up last year probably because I kept those plants in too small of containers, making life too difficult so that they didn't have very many blooms. When they did bloom, it was at different times! How you gonna move pollen around when you don't have a fresh flower to move it to?! (I 've since learned that you can keep it in the fridge for a few days.) The easy to recognize difference, indicating that I succeeded in making the cross, is that the potato-leaf mother will have regular-leaf offspring. The leaves are not important to me but it will just show that the pollen made it!
My second experiment is to continue to grow out an unintended cross of Kellogg's Breakfast. It was red, not yellow. And, it was much earlier than Kellogg's Breakfast! Last year I grew 4 plants from the seeds of those fruits. Two had yellow fruit and two had red. I saved seed from the red. Hopefully, I won't lose the earliness while I'm messing around trying to weed out the yellow genes. BTW, the red tastes great but the yellow isn't as good as the Kellogg's Breakfast grandparents.
These things are gonna take a few seasons
.
Steve
One was cross-pollinating varieties of small, early tomatoes that I like and don't much care if they share one characteristic or another. So, why do that cross? Well, you gotta start somewhere and having a nice little tomato that is a bit different from either parent is about the best I can hope for. I'm a total novice at this!
I messed up last year probably because I kept those plants in too small of containers, making life too difficult so that they didn't have very many blooms. When they did bloom, it was at different times! How you gonna move pollen around when you don't have a fresh flower to move it to?! (I 've since learned that you can keep it in the fridge for a few days.) The easy to recognize difference, indicating that I succeeded in making the cross, is that the potato-leaf mother will have regular-leaf offspring. The leaves are not important to me but it will just show that the pollen made it!
My second experiment is to continue to grow out an unintended cross of Kellogg's Breakfast. It was red, not yellow. And, it was much earlier than Kellogg's Breakfast! Last year I grew 4 plants from the seeds of those fruits. Two had yellow fruit and two had red. I saved seed from the red. Hopefully, I won't lose the earliness while I'm messing around trying to weed out the yellow genes. BTW, the red tastes great but the yellow isn't as good as the Kellogg's Breakfast grandparents.
These things are gonna take a few seasons
.Steve