2 tomato plant questions

Oh crap, I thought you meant a cattle pond or something, where you would catch fish to eat!

Wow, your pond sounds really nice. That was a cool tutorial.

oh god, here's an example of how NOT to create a pond.

What a dope.

wow, thanks dj!

I had to look up a video to understand exactly what you were talking about, but yeah, that's a great tip.

I'm going to go outside right now and check out the plants.

My first tomato is starting to turn pink!

I figure right about the time I leave for vacation in 2 weeks, the bulk of them will be getting ready to pick.
Oh well, my neighbors who'll be taking care of roland and otis will have them to enjoy. That's a pleasure.

As far as cucumbers, I've been harvesting 2 or 3 a day, yum! They are about 6-8 inches long a piece and very delicious.

mmmm pink and moist, acidic, flavoursome.
Well done Chai

When that tomato turns red, begging to be picked, I'm going to have some sort of ceremony.

It going to involve the passing of hands over the fruit, mumbled words in an archaic language, and a the throwing of a small amount of kosher salt.

How long will you be on vacation? If only a week, they should last that long for when you return.

2 weeks.

That's ok, they'll still be a lot of tomatoes, and I'm glad my neighbors will get some. They have 2 kids so I'm sure they will enjoy cucumber and tomato salads.

My wheat should ripen in another month or so. I'm going to make a muffin.

Next year I might try to grow a cow.

That would mean no vacation though. Ya gotta watch the cow doesn't get into an onion patch.

i planted 4 tomato seedlings back in february (i live in southern california), have regularly watered and fed them. those 4 little plants have now become a giant cluster bush, 8 feet tall by 10 feet wide by 4 feet thick, and grow a foot a week. there are many clusters of tomatoes (about a hundred) all different sizes and the plants look very healthy with new flowers and fruits appearing all the time. it is so bushy, you can't even see the "inside" fruit. the problem? it's now june and none of the tomatoes have started getting red yet. is this normal?

It would be normal in northern New Mexico, but I don't know what happens in southern California. In most areas though, when tomatoes won't ripen you cut off the water. I think it scares them and they go ahead and ripen in hopes of getting the seeds out before they die from lack of water. If it's possible, you might try that on just one. That way you might even be able to spread production over more time, and you do have a lot of tomatoes to contend with.

Yeah, I would definately cut out the water.
Otherwise your fruit is going to start to split.

No more fertilizer! The fertilizer is causing the plants to continue to grow, which you don't want. You want the energy of the plant to go towards the tomato, not the leaves.

If you use a fertilizer like a 5 20 10, you wont drive the plant to grow only greens. (I hope that we arent talking about overfertilizing with nitrogen rich organic manures which were uncomposted). You could have 30 ft plants and giants by fall.

I feed and water my tomatoes with a high P/K liquid fertilizer at the roots and in the leaves all season. I also clean out the leaves at the bottom of the plant to allow air to circulate. Last year , on several plants I had over 300 tomatoes off of each bush throughout the season. OH YEH, tomatoes are heavy feeders of magnesium so Ive alwasy planted them with epsom salts and use a mid season side dress of more epsom salts in water (about a T in 3 gall).

I know that the AMish fertilize their tomatoes with powdered milk that is given them by thewir dairy coops.

(CHAIS-if youre gonna have a milking cow next year, you should start growing her from 2 years ago)

They got cows that give powdered milk!? Always wondered where that stuff came from.

How do their tomatoe patches smell, by the way.

I just report em, I dont sniff em.

Back to your regularly scheduled entertainment.

I priced powdered milk the other day. Egads.

I don't think I've ever fully deprived tomato plants of water. I've just cut it down gradually at some point. I know there is something called dry tomato gardening. Trying to picture that working here in heatville, but live and learn.

I am guessing you all know that different varieties of tomatoes take differing number of days to produce ripe fruit. This is why some plants are called "early girl".

I agree with farmer about looking at nutrient proportions in any fertilizer you use.

I tended to pick off the stems that would start between other stems.

I've never been a big fertilizer person, even before eco concerns. In california, both north and south, I did use compost and amendments when making raised beds, and then that was that.

Here in sandy town, I can only laugh at the futility. As dys said, this is not soil.
Of course I argued, as I still like to not put black plastic all over the yard - not that he did, but it is prevalent here (a let it burn move, in my view). In my situation either natives or extremely drought tolerant plants make sense - for tomatoes, big containers with amendments. Bob got tomatoes going pretty well with his steer manure maneuvers.

Some photos from my southern california garden/kitchen -
there are better pics, but my photos are in present disarray, I'm trying to cull a lot. Sort of a blanket of albums across the so called living room.

So, for now, red and green tomatoes.



I've never lived in what we call the south in the US, have never tried fried green tomatoes., which I would probably like. But in the south of california, I did try making pizza with what I thought of then as good (and certainly expensive) and thinly sliced whole milk mozzarella with a layer of fairly thinly sliced green tomato. I probably threw some minced garlic over it.
Primo.

A little pale, sniff, perhaps the photo or not, romas -


I don't know what these are - I grew about eight kinds for a bunch of years in 4 x 8 foot raised beds.

I never had good luck with "patio" type tomatoes (those bred for confined space growing like big pots). Id always fporget to water them in the fashion they needed or wed be away or Id be on business and everybody else didnt water them.

Even though we usually get nice rain here in PA and our asoils are great, I still fertilize and water THE PLANT . (Good organic farmers nourish THE SOIL).
Im not very organic cause I use stuff like Roundup and rock fertilizers.
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The AMish are GIVEN dry milk from their dairy coopes since dry milk is often made in abundance for overseas and bakery and coffee creamer use. There is always an abundance and so the dairy farmers are often given back some of thweoir own product in bulk. They use it for baking and fertilizing veggies cause ITS CHEAP. No AMishman ever buys anything he doesnt have to.

The thing is, we all have different climates. Southern California rarely has any real rain in the summer, which can hit 105. I've mapped when it was 105. (swears in memory) It was a Schindler house property. Over a hundred, more routine. I know you, you brat, you have probably surveyed at +120...
Oh, and desert areas are hotter.

We haven't had any rain in my neighborhood in Albuquerque, this year, at all.