How are your tomatoes coming in?

[Lyric]

Urban container gardener here, and mine are amazing! I started with eight 3-inch "Big Boy" tomato seedlings bought at Lowe's back in early April. After growing them a few more inches in their small transplant containers, I planted them all in 5-gallon plastic buckets on April 16th. All eight tomato plants are now almost three feet tall, are just bursting with flowers, and all of them have at *least* five or six baby tomatoes growing in--some have more! The biggest fruits are a bit bigger than a golf ball, the smallest the size of a marble, and there's absolutely no sign of any insect damage, fungus, or disease of any kind. The main stems are all thick and sturdy--the plants are barely using the support stakes at all, which is pretty cool. Lesson learned--don't ever let someone tell you that growing big indeterminate varieties in containers just won't work out, because it's definitely working great for me! I'm not using any kind of chemical fertilizer, either--just good soil mixed with composted peat, manure, and a bit of organic mulch, plus two doses of "worm tea" and every-other-week waterings with diluted skim milk and a bit of dissolved epsom salt.

My baby Isis Candy and Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomato plants that I got last week from a friend have started shooting up, too. She brought me the seedlings from her organic CSA farm in the southern part of the state. They've gone from seedlings to being about 10 inches tall. They'll be ready to transplant soon, yay!

So how are your tomatoes coming in?

:hi:

[nc4bo]

1. Have lots of green ones!!

Bought a bunch of plants off a neighborhood kid walking up and down the street selling them off his wagon this Spring so not sure of the type except they are round LOL.

Roma's, Lemon Boy and Russian black(?) variety all showing signs of lots of fruit this season.

Yum Yum Yum!

[beac]

2. Oy. A little bit of tomato (and pepper) trauma here.

I'm a container gardener too. I waited later this year to plant b/c we commonly have such late frosts (5/15 is average and we had one at the END of May in 2009) and I got tired of hauling the containers inside several times a week last year.

So, since the tomatoes didn't really take off until it warmed up last year anyway, I waited this year. Put everything in earlier this week and now it's BLAZING HOT here all of a sudden-- like late-August-at-the-beach hot. I'm having to water the roots at mid-day just to cool the poor things down, as they start to get brown'ish-green and die-y looking without a little refreshing drink. Today I even put up cardboard box shades for them to give them a rest from the afternoon sun. Luckily, by dusk, they all seem to bounce back (so far) but it's been stressful trying to keep them happy until their roots systems have developed enough to handle the heat.

Oh, and did mention the TORRENTIAL evening rainstorms we've been treated to as well?

My Sweet baby Girl is having the hardest time of it. She's the first to wilt and the last to perk up every day. Poor thing.

Hoping I'm looking back on this time and laughing in a few weeks, but right now I'm afraid to leave the house for too long in case they need me cool them of shade them or plead "DON'T DIE! You LOVE sun, remember?!?" to them.

[Lyric]

4. We've had some crazy weather too.

I carried buckets in and outside for most of April and half of early May, and have had to dash out and bring them up on the porch to avoid more than one torrential thunderstorm. We had TWO freezes that I nearly lost my roses, lettuces, cucumbers, and squashes to. I had to cover them with plastic AND mounded hay in order to save them all, and the weight of the plastic and hay broke off my very first, topmost JFK rosebud. Grrrr. Oh well--it's sprouting buds all over the place now. :)

My banana peppers are doing extremely well, although my bell peppers just aren't growing as fast as I could wish. I'm going to try some more worm tea and see how that goes.

[beac]

9. I had a hard time getting w/my bell peppers last year too. I put two each in large containers which

SHOULD have been big enough according to my research, but the fruits never got very big. This year, I only put in one per pot and hope the extra real estate will make them more productive. :)

Glad your rose bush is recovering. :)

We're having a nice cloudy day today, with intermittent rain, and everyone's looking happy for the break from the beating sun.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. If you haven't grown Isis Candy before you're in for a treat. What a great cherry tomato.

When I grew Isis we had a brazillion large cherry tomatoes from one plant and they were so tasty.

Our tomatoes are late this year because of the rain and cool weather but there are two cherry tomato plants and one plum tomato with little green tomatoes. Everything else is flowering and putting on some height.

Indeterminate tomatoes grew fine for me in 5 gallon buckets too. Did better in bigger containers and the ground, but I still got enough fruit from them in the 5 gallon buckets. They do need more consistent light feedings.

I use Epsom salt too. I'm convinced that's why my plants have healthy thick stems even at only a couple of feed tall.

[Lyric]

5. Nope, never had 'em before

I looked them up and they look fantastic, though!

As for consistent, light feedings: I really haven't fed mine anything except for nonfat milk, epsom salt, and worm tea--at least not yet. I'll take a look at the organic plant foods down at the nursery when Rhythm gets paid on Thursday. I bet I can find something good for ALL my nightshades and fruiting vines. :)

[Gormy Cuss]

7. They'll need it in a few weeks - they're probably quite happy off the initial nutrient load.

I love the smell of tomato plants. I'd grow them even if they never fruited. :-)

[wildeyed]

6. Mine are coming along.

I got started late this year, but the weather has been cooperative. On the tomatoes, some of the lower leaves were getting yellow with brown spots. I trimmed those off, applied neem and added more mulch. I decided that the daily afternoon showers were causing soil to bounce up onto the plants, stating some sort of fungus. The fixes seem to be effective so far..... Peppers look good. Green beans growing like gang busters. Need to start some more of those. Have a couple of squash started too.

[bearfan454]

8. Mine are just starting

I finally quit pinching off yellow flowers.

[Lugnut]

10. The early tomatoes have tiny fruit on them.

I planted four early varieties and all of them are doing well. The Beefsteak and Brandywines look good and all the plants are ready for staking.

We have a small 8' X 8' raised bed. We only plant a few pickle plants and a few tomatoes since the local farms always have a huge variety of inexpensive slections available in season.

[hippywife]

11. We planted seeds several weeks ago

just like we usually do, but nothing came up. So I bought plants from one of our coop producers and they went in a couple of weeks ago.

Glad you are doing so well and enjoying gardening. :hi:

[DrDan]

12. have been enjoying the cherry's for several weeks - and the bigger ones for the past week or so

and a lot more coming in . . .

looks like a good year so far