• General food and cooking questions, discussion, and recipes. To blog your food or to create (or post in) a community food thread, please post in Post Your Eats!

Tomato Talk

Cherry tomatoes are some of my favorite. But only right off the vine. I could just (and have) pop those suckers into my mouth one after another.
 
imaguitargod said:
Cherry tomatoes are some of my favorite. But only right off the vine. I could just (and have) pop those suckers into my mouth one after another.
Click to expand...

I treat current tomatoes that way. Most of them never make it into the house, I walk around in the evening checking out the garden and popping them into my mouth like little bonbons.
 
i eat them like most people would eat chips. when i feel snacky i just go out to the patio and grab a bowlful and eat them with a little french onion dip.
 
I have ammended my growing list

Super Sweet 100 Hybrid
Ferline F1 Hybrid
Abe Lincoln
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Arkansas Travelor
Mexico Tomato
Moneymaker

and may add to my list...My "cement farm" will be all tomatoes this year so I will have room for about 30 plants (cement farm is 40 feet long, 16 inches wide and will have 24" soil depth....
 
AJ,

you are going to try to grow 30 plants in 40 feet? I grew mine real, real close last year and had 15 plants in 30 feet. I'm not sure that even if you stake them that 16 inches is enough room. Enough for the roots - yeah.

I may have to become AR like you claim to be and weigh my produce! I already have a headstart - one plant is already in a 5-gallon pot and another is in an upside container. Last summer I put up 130 quarts of juice and about 20 quarts of whole tomatoes - I hope to double that this year.

Mike
 
yea, i think the plants will grow and you'll certainly end up with a hedge of tomatoes but i'm not sure that's as cool as it sounds...i grow six in ten feet and even thats kind of a squeeze. maybe choose your favorite 20?
 
That 30 is a rough guess, have not figured it out yet. The will be on 18" centers...I grew 6 in 8' last year and they did really well...all were reinforcement wire caged under my bird netting...agreed it was full of vines but they are sheltered from the hot north Texas afternoon sun by the fence..

Here is an early season pic...

backyardfarm10051kl6.jpg
 
are those cherry/currants tho? or is it just a pic from early on? they look kinda small there, i was growing sub arctic plenty and better boy and they were about the size of me...
 
This is way way early in season...probably April....looking for another photo of the season peak...and yo know what, I don't even remember the names of what I planted last year....
 
I will say my neighbors get a good dose of fresh cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and peppers if they want during growing season....
 
we have a good 'over the fence' arrangement with one of our neighbors, the only thing we differ on in the garden is we grow tomatoes and they grow beans so we periodically send a bagfull over. it's like trade specialization between two global north countries...
 
barter system
 
Someone offered me a piece of his land to grow as I wish. Obviously I accepted!
Now I'm not sure how much space I got, but here's my basic list I made from reading online:
  1. 1884
  2. Amish Gold
  3. Amish Paste
  4. Aunt Gertie's Gold
  5. Black Plum
  6. Brandy Boy
  7. Carmello
  8. Champion
  9. Dona
  10. Dr. Wyche's Yellow
  11. Earl Of Edgecombe
  12. Gardener's Delight
  13. Halfmoon China
  14. Hawaiian Pineapple
  15. Henderson's Winsall
  16. Jaune Flamme
  17. Jumbo Roma
  18. Lemon Boy
  19. Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
  20. Marianna's Peace
  21. Matt's Wild Cherry
  22. Martino’s Roma
  23. Nebraska Wedding
  24. Orange Roma
  25. Oridoko
  26. Speckled Roman
  27. Stupice
  28. Sungold
  29. Super Sweet 100
  30. Sweet Olive
  31. Sweet Orange Roma
  32. White Queen
  33. Winsall
  34. Yellow Pear
If there's enough space, I'll plant one of each... just to see what I like best.
If possible I'll plant more and if there's too little space, I'll just pick the most recommended ones.
TOM GROWING... HERE I COME!
 
my goodness what a list. How big is the parcel of land? Thats all tom? Wheres the peppers going to be? I am just amazed at all thew different tom out there. I feel like I stuck in the dark lol I haven't decided yet which ones I am growing yet.. I just worried about space for all my peppers right now
 
I'm not really sure how big it is. I'll be checking it tomorrow, no doubt.
The peppers are staying right here, so instead of growing even more peppers, I'll give tomatoes a try.
It is a very fine list, though. all the popular toms online that I would just love to try.
 
Yeah, it's not a massive amount of land.
I'm not really sure how big some of the plants get, so I'll just put them all in pots and remove some if they're too big.
 
If you stake them (and Icertainly recommend doing this) you will four square feet per plant, and that is at the minimum.

Do you have lots of friends to share tomatoes with? I'm not familiar with the plants you list but the popular hybrids tend to average about a half-bushel to a bushel of tomatoes per plant. That wouldn't be too much except they tend to ripen at the same time.

Mike
 
I have one plant upstairs that I replanted into a 5-gallon pot. This thing is growing extremely fast since I put a 20 watt, 2700K CFL lite over it. For a reflector I used a foil pan and cut a hole in the middle. It hangs down within 1.5 inches of the heart of the plant. Every morning I have to raise the light at least an inch, sometimes 1.5 inches. I wish my peppers grew this fast.

Mike
 
I checked the light over my tomato plant this morning (it needs to be raised about every day) and lo and behold - it has a bloom. No chance of me sonicating it, but I did shake the plant a couple of times (using a brush is supposedly not very effective on tomatoes.

Perhaps my wife will enjoy a fried green tomato by Passover instead of having to wait until Mother's Day.

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top