2 tomato plant questions

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What does "when the plant sets fruit" mean?

Taken from this link...
http://www.veggiegardener.com/reduce-watering-by-dry-farming-tomatoes/

Dry farming tomatoes is a very simple process where you plant and water your tomatoes just as you normally would until the plant begins setting fruit. Once the fruit appears on the tomato plant, you cease to water it.

Does it mean the first time you see ANY green fruit start to form, even if it's only the first on the plant?

Or does it mean when the entire plant is covered with what would seem to be their quota of fruit? Meaning there would be some tiny just formed green tomatoes and others of varying sizes.

BTW, I don't think I would completely stop watering the tomatoes, but I would cut down a lot, until it looked like the plants really needed it.

2nd question, when the plants really need it, do I deep water them, or just enough to perk up the leaves?

I was looking at my plants this morning, and am thrilled to see some tiny green fruit forming. However, there are a lot of flowers that will form fruit.

Another BTW, these are determinate plants, not indeterminate. I've got some younger, smaller plants in another area for a 2nd batch, and I'm sure I'll plant another batch in the September, since it stays warm here.

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[+3] - djjd62 - 04/03/2011when the fruit first appears, after the flowers have been pollinated i'm not really getting the whole stop watering thing, a plant will produce a set of flowers about every week (per main stem),...

@chai2,

when the fruit first appears, after the flowers have been pollinated

i'm not really getting the whole stop watering thing, a plant will produce a set of flowers about every week (per main stem), the first set of fruit should start ripening about the time the 8th flower set opens

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

when the fruit first appears, after the flowers have been polinated

um, I'm not sure what that means, as far as do I wait until the plant is covered with fruit?

How do I know if the flower has been polinated?

I wish I had planted a lavender plant near them. My lavender is at the opposite end of the garden, and is covered with bees all the time.

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@chai2,

after pollination the flowers will sort of close, if you pull the flower out, you'll see the little fruit inside the part that's the tomato top

you can also look for pollination marks inside the flower, little brown dots around the yellow cone like thing inside the yellow petals, it's an acquired trick

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@djjd62,

is that near the clitoris...?

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@Rockhead,

could be, i'm not as up on my plant terminology as i once was

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Quote:

when the entire plant is covered with what would seem to be their quota of fruit?

I'd go more toward this.
I assume the purpous of this process is to intensify the flavour. Allow the bush to set fruit on a few sets of flowers 4 - 10 fruit then slowly reduce the water.

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Bumblebees are used to efficiently pollinate tomato crops in greenhousesin many countries. There are no bumblebees in Australia.

Quote:

Many Australian greenhouse tomato growers use a vibrating wand called an 'electric bee' to pollinate their crops.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

why are you pointing that thing at me...?

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@chai2,

From your link Chai2

Quote:

cutting back on water inputs can also result in undesirable
consequences such as yield decline (especially economic
yield), reduced fruit size, and increased occurrence of the
condition known as blossom end-rot, which can develop
when irrigation fluctuates, resulting in calcium not being
translocated to young tomato fruit tissue.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

dadpad wrote:

Quote:
when the entire plant is covered with what would seem to be their quota of fruit?

I'd go more toward this.
I assume the purpous of this process is to intensify the flavour. Allow the bush to set fruit on a few sets of flowers 4 - 10 fruit then slowly reduce the water.

Yeah, I'm leaning toward this too.

thanks dj, I didn't know what to look for, I was thinking maybe there there would just be this glowing, satisfied look.

Yes, the purpose is to increase the intensity of flavor.

Every year, whole foods sells a crop of "dirty girl" tomatoes that are dry farmed.

I can honestly say I have never tasted a sweet more delicious tomato than these. It's like taking all the flavor of a good tomato, and condencing it into a much smaller package. They are bright bright red, and the aroma when you cut one open....ahhhhhh.

They are what I would call Real Tomatoes.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

dadpad wrote:

From your link Chai2

Quote:
cutting back on water inputs can also result in undesirable
consequences such as yield decline (especially economic
yield), reduced fruit size, and increased occurrence of the
condition known as blossom end-rot, which can develop
when irrigation fluctuates, resulting in calcium not being
translocated to young tomato fruit tissue.

yeah I know about the negative aspects.
That's why those dirty girls are expensive, there are less of them.

I'd rather have 1 small wonderful tomato than 3 large tasteless ones.

That's why I decided to plant tomatoes this year. I've never done it before, but I'm enjoying watching them grow, fertilizing, etc. If I can grow delicious tomatoes, I don't care if I have to plant extra plants to get the amount I need. It's not like the plants themselves are expensive, and I've already got the fertilizer and stuff. It's not a chore for me, it's a pleasure. I'm going outside soon to deadhead some spent flowers, check out how the honey suckle is climbing, make sure Belle's birdbath has water. Oft times while I'm doing these things, I find myself humming a little tune.

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@chai2,

the theme from "andy griffith"...?

1 Reply

@chai2,

Dirty girls are definitly sweet and delicious

I'm trying really really hard to stay on topic here

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@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

the theme from "andy griffith"...?

no, more like that song he'd play on his git-tar come a summer evenin' sitting on the porch.

You get a line and I'll get a pole honey,
You get a line and I'll get a pole babe,
You get a line and I'll get a pole
and we'll go down to the crawdad hole,
Honey, baby mine.

That would sure get Aint Bea a-tapping her foot.

1 Reply

@chai2,

funny you should bring up fishin' holes.

I commence digging my pond today.

no koi allowed.

1 Reply

Its not a bad idea to plant a few different varieties of tomato. You can extend the availability of fresh tomato that way.
cherry tomato usually ripen first. then the pear shaped ones (i forget their name) big reds come later.
Get some basil too the two plants seem to work holistically together for some reason and fresh home made bruchetta for lunch on crusty bread spraed with Aoli is to die for.

Mid and late season you wil probably have a glut but you can make some relish or sauce and bottle the excess.

Personally with the watering I'd just focus on giving them a weekly deep water. Are these in the ground or potted? If potted, dry farming is prolly not gonna work

0 Replies

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

funny you should bring up fishin' holes.

I commence digging my pond today.

no koi allowed.

Funny you should bring up a pond.

Driving back from Ft. Worth yesterday, we drove through lots of pasture/farmland. Lots of little ponds here and there.

I wondered and marveled at how much water was needed to completely saturate the ground underneath it, in order to sustain a pond of water.

How deep does the water have to saturate to form a standing pond of water? Will you have to replenish it, top it off through the year to give the fish you'll stock it with enough room? What will you do for plant life in there?
What kind of fish will you stock it with?

1 Reply

@chai2,

ponds don't naturally occur here.

I am putting down rubber sheeting as a bottom, and surrounding it with natural stone.

gonna have 3 waterfalls as the "stream" makes it's way to the bottom pond.

I already have water lilies, and some other miscellaneous water plants, waiting for their new home. my buddy stored them over the long pririe winter till I could regroup and plot my new garden...

a hidden pump will keep the water flowing.

not sure what I want to do for fish.

we had wild guppies before...

kinda sorta like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLD0La9qqaY&feature=related

1 Reply

you can also sucker the plant (removing the little shoots that grow from where the leaves meet the plants), this puts more energy into the main plant and fruit, i usually let a sucker grow right about where the first flower set is, then remove any other suckers as the plant grows, effectively giving you two plants from one, keep them staked up, the stokes seed catalogue suggests an eight foot stake, and top the plant (cut the head off) when it reaches that height

you can also trim back the fruit sets if you want, this conserves energy for the plant and the fruit left, for beefsteak i usually prune back to about six fruit, for cherry maybe ten, after the fruit has set and is very visible, you just pinch of the small fruit at the end of the set, this is especially good at the end of the season where the last fruits might not ripen and will drain energy from the plant

if you want to go all out you can de-leaf the plant, strip the leaves up to the current fruiting set, this again directs energy up the plant, be careful though, de-leaf only in dry weather and after the dew but well before evening so the wound has time to dry, tomato plants are very susceptible to fungus and rot diseases, also make sure the leaf is cleanly snapped off, not leaving a stub or deep scar

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