• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

My Tomatoes 2009

Josh,

I have the room and light but what am I going to do with an 18" tom that I need to keep indoors for at least a month and then harden off for a week?

My biggest peppers are probably the cayennes and they are maybe 8" tall. Nice, stocky plants, but I sowed them a month before the toms.

Mike
 
Ciao all-

Lol Mike, it's ok to talk about tomatoes in this thread, even if I was the one to start it. Most of this forum is about peppers and rightly so, given its name. ;)

Tomatoes are crazy growers once they germinate and germination tends to be much faster as well. Most of mine come up between 4-7 days, especially if I use bottom heat. I don't take the dome lid off until a good number of them are up. Those first ones will be a bit leggier because of that, but the extra humidity of the dome lid helps a lot to get the others out of the soil. Stuck seed coats aren't as much of a problem with tomato seeds either. I think the seed coat itself is not as tough as it is with peppers and softens easier.

If you have access to fluorescent lighting, your plants will be less leggy, but if you don't, it's not a lost cause, just pot them up deeper and then bury them deeper when you plant outside. They grow roots readily from the stem, much faster and bigger than peppers do. The whole plant is fleshier than a pepper plant. It also makes tomatoes somewhat more susceptible to disease than peppers because of that thin epidermal layer.
 
Ciao all-

Here are some photos of my micro-dwarf tomatoes and one dwarf/determinate I sowed back on 20 Feb 09. Photos were taken on 4 April 09:

Florida Petite

FloridaPetiteTomato040409.jpg


Red Robins

RedRobinTomatoes040409.jpg


Tigerette Cherries - I just love the chartreuse foliage on these

TigeretteCherryTomatoes040409.jpg


Whippersnapper - dwarf/determinate, plant will reach a top height of 2 ft and bush out hugely with lots of side shoots

WhippersnapperswBudsandFlowers04040.jpg


All of these are cherries, grown for early fruit. Whippersnapper will start to give us ripe fruit by Canada Day.
 
Looks just superb Sorellina...I'm just starting my tomato seeds tonight. I'm sowing Hungarian Italian, Santa Clara Canner, Early Girl VFF, Sugary and Sprite.
 
Ciao all-

Potawie, I was a little scared with those Red Robins. I got 5 seeds from a gardening friend in Hawaii and they took a really long time. I sowed 2 of them initially and when those never came up, I put the other 3 between damp paper towels in a ziploc bag on top of my computer until they sprouted. I've since gotten seeds from another seed source, but I'm hoping with these 3 plants, I'll be able to save a bunch of seeds and not have to worry about Red Robins anymore! :shocked:
 
Ciao Hotpeppa-

The last photo I posted was taken on 4 April. It's crazy how much these plants have grown in only a few days. I've since potted them up to larger containers. This is a very busy week for us, with Easter only a few days away. I'll try to shoehorn some time probably Monday to take photos and post them here.
 
Ciao all-

As promised, a photo of the fruit set on my Whippersnapper tomatoes.

WhippersnapperFruitSet040909.jpg


That photo was taken on 9 April and since then, the plants have about 12 fruit apiece.

Life is even more crazy and interesting now. I was outside yesterday, getting prepared to sow some peas when I heard a kitten mewing. I went over to investigate and found her in a wood pile. She's about 6 weeks old and still nursing, but she would have starved soon if I hadn't found her. We've named her Grace. Here's a photo:

Gracesfirstmeal041309.jpg
 
I found Grace's other 3 litter mates today. It's kitten circus at our house now. Good thing I got the big can of kitten formula. She had to eat Heinz chicken human baby food yesterday.

Hotpeppa, spoken like a dog person..cats are people too you know. :P
 
millworkman said:
Kittens are cool, cats are not.
Click to expand...

Hey, I have a cat - about a 22-pounder, that is cool. She is my "plant kitty" because she comes upstairs with me every time I go to work on my plants. Found her and another cat sunning themselves under my HID lights one day!

Mike
 
Ciao all-

I managed to take a few photos yesterday of my Whippersnapper plants in between feeding times at the zoo. They're about a foot tall now and will only double in size. There are many trusses of buds and blossoms on each plant and some smaller fruit set than in the close-up photo. This is an excellent variety for early cherries with good flavour.

WindowsillWhippersnappers041509.jpg


WhippersnapperFruitSetCloseup041509.jpg
 
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