would you start a second planting?

[gardeninglee]

I may have started too early in growing some of my tomatoes. There are 4 that have grown to the max that my support can handle (4 or 5 feet now). Should I start rooting some of the suckers and pull out the old plant and put a new one in its place?

I haven't gotten very many tomatoes to set yet because of all the foggy weather (my cherries just started setting this week). Very frustrating since I've probably lost a couple of hundred blooms (I have 16 plants on my patio)! Most are on the smaller side about a foot high since I haven't had much sun but a few have grown to be huge already.

[KC.Sun]

It doesn't hurt to root your suckers in case something happens to your original plants.

Worse case scenario, you'd have extra tomato plants you can plant.

Your original plant can succomb to disease or environmental disasters at any time. So it really doesn't hurt.

[pixlpush]

I'm having similar issues here in Manhattan Beach. I'm about 1/4 mile from the ocean and the coastal fog is back to it's normal pattern this year and it's been really cool too. Not like last year where we barely had any marine layer and it was really warm. I've got 16 plants going with hardly any fruit setting. I'm going to wait it out but I'm worried as well. My plants look very healthy at least I've had issues with the fog and blight in the past. Good luck!

[gardeninglee]

The warm weather is coming! The next 6 days here are forecasted to be sunny and 3 of those days it will be in the 80s! I hope fruit starts setting soon.

[BajaMitch]

FWIW, last year I planted tomato seedlings in mid April, but, because of my rank ignorance at that time, I put way too much nitrogen in the potting mix and all I got were giant lush plants and no fruit at all. So, I rushed out to Walmart and bought 4 self-watering 6.5 gallon containers and replanted on July 1, 2015. That was way too late to plant in Orange County Southern California.

But, my results were very interesting and informative. The plants grew very slowly...but surely. They lasted through the winter and were fruiting (but not ripening) quite well by mid March 2016, remarkably.

[pixlpush]

Interesting BajaMitch. I'm always curious if I'm getting my plants in the ground a bit too soon and have toyed with the idea of starting later being close to the ocean and subject to lots of fog early in the season. I've never had the guts to wait but perhaps I'll try a few into May next year. did the fruit that showed up on last years plants in march ever ripen?

I used way too much miracle grow one year and ended up with giant plants like you described. I had one that was nearly 13' tall but not a lot of fruit. Last year was better for me. I've started saving seed from varieties that have done well in hopes to narrow down stuff that works well in my coastal micro climate. The plants I started from seed are doing really well thus far.

Praying for that warm weather and full days of sun gardeninglee! I was doing some pruning and staking on the weekend and spotted some fruit starting to set deep inside one of my larger plants. I think we're going to be fine, fingers crossed.

[BajaMitch]

Pix, I had to discard the plants in late April 2016 in order to get going on this year's crop. It really hurt to get rid of growing plants, but I had no choice in order to set up for this year's set of experiments. On two of the plants (Better Bush determinates), there were over 24 small green tomatoes on each plant and they had not ripened by the time I took them out.

The funny thing is that they started fruiting in late February and late March 2016 but never developed enough to ripen as the air temps were low and not much sunlight, especially not much direct sunlight as it was very cloudy up until late April (as you may remember) when I took them out.

This year, after 10 months of research, I have both a good potting mix recipe and a good recipe for the fertilizers (I think). I planted seedlings this year on May 5, 2016 and they are doing exceptionally well, so I believe I am in a good "ball park" on the potting mix recipes and fertilizer regimen. We shall see.

[peebee]

I live in Torrance so its not technically that close to the coast here but I plant out earlier and earlier each year. This year I planted in March. They are all doing well, I switch to a blossom-encouraging fert once they are big enough and starting to bloom. And because there are hardly any bees around anymore, I give all plants a good shake or two every once in a while to encourage pollination.
I would not take out a mature plant that is healthy at this point, to replace with a sucker. But if you just want to have a sucker as a standby, why not if you want to. Give the big plants a chance, to me there is no such thing anymore as planting too early here. We no longer have winters with cold and rain like we used to.

[peebee]

Forgot to add, last year due to time constraints (had a trip coming up), I planted most of my toms in Feb and had a fabulous harvest, the best ever. Of course, a lot of that was probably because of the first time cover-cropping I did.
I planted in Mar this year because once again I had this annual trip earlier that took up all my time and I was not able to plant that soon. My cherries have been producing for a while now and I am about to eat my first Momotaro in a few days. Most of my plants have good sized fruits that hopefully will ripen soon, can't wait.

[BajaMitch]

I have read that tomato plants need overnight temps no lower than 55 F and daytime temps no higher than 85F. That's a pretty stringent range. However, that was the reason I didn't plant until May 5 this year as overnight temps were dipping into the mid to low 40s F just before May 5.

It appears to me now that tomato plants, generally, have the ability to withstand overnight lows lower than 55 F, they just don't "flourish". That is, they just don't grow much, but they just stay a little dormant and will not die. Bottom line, next year I will plant in mid April, no matter what the temps are. The temps in
winter got to mid 30s F and they kept their composure OK. I mean, last year I planted on July 1st and the plants lasted until mid April 2016 when I took them out to start this years planting. The July 1st plants didn't die, not even close to dying, they just weathered it out, literally, until mid April with no real problems at all, they just didn't thrive.

On May 5, 2016, I planted Momotaro, Early Girl, Celebrity, Cherry Red, Cherokee Purple, and San Marzanos, all in Containers. So far, the Momotaro is doing the best in a self-watering bucket with Cherokee Purples and Cherry Reds a close second. Love the color of the Momotaros. Canardlywait to eat a Cherokee Purple.

Got a question. Can you cut a sucker off and plant the sucker? Will it grow in the right potting mix?

[AKmark]

You can just poke the sucker in the mix Mitch, I've done about a 1000 that way so far this year. Just keep it moist and out of too much blazing sun.

[gardeninglee]

I always just put the suckers in whatever old potting soil I have laying around, water it well and keep it in the shade for about a week or week and a half. Even suckers that have completely wilted come back after the roots start to come out. I went ahead and threw some suckers into a pot today - just case in my plant gets too out of control. I just found 2 more fruit so it is finally starting to set.

[BajaMitch]

Amazing! It's a "freebee" from nature. What a gift.

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by gardeninglee

I may have started too early in growing some of my tomatoes. There are 4 that have grown to the max that my support can handle (4 or 5 feet now). Should I start rooting some of the suckers and pull out the old plant and put a new one in its place?

I haven't gotten very many tomatoes to set yet because of all the foggy weather (my cherries just started setting this week). Very frustrating since I've probably lost a couple of hundred blooms (I have 16 plants on my patio)! Most are on the smaller side about a foot high since I haven't had much sun but a few have grown to be huge already.

I do a bunch of successive plantings starting in January-Feb, and just change the population makeup based on the projected weather. Production is less than ideal in certain months, and a few will be grainy from cold damage, still better than store ones.

Don't think of the flowers as lost tomatoes, it'll just hurt. Think of it as a way to assess your stewardship.

If you put in a fresh plant now you'll be having Thanksgiving tomatoes that matured and grew during those optimal late summer-early fall months.

Rooting suckers ( or growing tips for that matter) saves you a few weeks. It's also a good way to keep hybrids going. I have two Odoriko plants that were fully reborn from growing tips. Vigor stays more or less the same.

This June portends fungus.

[gardeninglee]

Gerardo - Can you share how you space out the successive plantings? Do you group by early/mid/late season? Do you stagger it a few weeks apart or ?