Tomato plants are tough!!

[duajones]

In a previous post I mentioned that a friend had bought me a topsy turvy planter for my birthday. It was pretty late and the only plant I had was a Purple Haze F4 that was part of a germination test. I carefully dug a seedling out of the ground and planted it in the planter.
My support for the plant failed the next day and I came home to find the planter on the ground and the plant broke off near the soil at the main stem. I dumped the plant and soil mix in an old recycling container that still had some soil in it. A few days later I noticed that the plant had started coming up through the soil. I let it grow and then added some manure to the planter that I had laying around. Its awful late and it is struggling to set fruit but looks real healthy.
This plant was basically buried alive and still made it.
These guys are tougher than most give them credit for

[dustdevil]

I'd say your hardening off regiment is a little tougher than most ;-)

[barkeater]

Duane,

I read a very well-researched article yesterday on upside-down tomatoes, and as you experienced, the topsy-turvys are the worst way to do it. People complained they were flimsy and dried out too fast. The best results and cheapest suggestion was to use a plastic 5 gallon bucket hung from a shepherds crook which is attached to the deck railing (if you have one).

[duajones]

Bark, I dont suggest or back the topsy turvey planter by no means. All of my plants were already in the ground when this was given to me as a gift on March 2nd. I actually let it sit and really had no plans for it until my buddy's questions about it got me to go ahead and plant it.
Despite the initial failure, I replanted in it with a reinforced setup and put a storebought Sweet 100 plant in it.
That plant has over a hundred tomatoes on it at this point and I have harvested a dozen or so from it.
Probably a little smaller fruit size than one grown in the ground and I am watering it 2, sometimes 3 times a day.
Not real fond of the variety either but I have had success with it if one wants to call it that. I put an 8ft stake next to it and have attached the plant to it as it has grown, otherwise it would be hanging on the ground by now with several broken stems.
Would I suggest it? No sir

[OneoftheEarls]

I hardened off like this, this year

[geeboss]

Yep snow is the secret to my tough maters.



George

[b54red]

I'm hoping one is really tough. The one I nearly cut the main stem in half with my weed whacker this morning.

[OneoftheEarls]

Just for documentation...the plant on first row, far left that has red basket atop the styrofoam cover, looks like this today

[platys]

I moved this week, and I've been holding about 8 tomatoes in little 4 inch planters for weeks now. It got into the 90s, the poor things were watered inconsistently. (I was doing it twice a day, but it was hot, and they dried out fast!)

This morning before work I managed to get three of them into their containers, and I found out that the Stupice had still managed to set fruit, despite being horribly root bound, badly watered, and way too hot. Go Stupice!

[habitat_gardener]

It's been a cooler than usual spring. I planted my seeds outdoors in a cold frame in mid-March, they waited until April to germinate (some more than a couple weeks), they hardly grew and most had only the seed leaves for over a month, and then a couple weeks ago most of them looked yellowish and pretty pitiful, only a couple inches or so tall. Slugs got a bunch of sprouts from many different containers, but of 42 varieties they took out only one.

I was almost ready to give up on them, because in the meantime I'd gotten a bunch of plants from various sources. But I know tomatoes are tough, and I couldn't give up on them (and I really want to try all those new-to-me varieties!).

So I removed the peat pots (a bad idea for long incubations), repotted them all into 4-inch pots with compost, and watered them with alfalfa tea. It took a week or so for them to green up, and all of them have true leaves now and are growing taller.

We finally have nighttime temperatures of 50F+ this week, and I've noticed all the volunteer tomato seeds from the compost are germinating as well (and growing fast -- I have to weed them out every couple days).

I planted one 2-inch seedling in the ground with a cloche and a wall-o-water a week or so ago, and it's finally growing.

Now all I have to do is find the garden (or container) space to plant them all! Oh, and find homes for all the extras. Yay dense planting! Boo slugs! Yay tough tomato seedlings!

[b54red]

I've got a few plants that have been suffering from fusarium wilt and foliage disease for over a month and yet they are still hanging in there. Don't know if they will make it to the ripe fruit stage but Aunt Gerties Gold and Cowlicks have impressed me with their toughness. On the other hand I have had several varieties that showed no resistance whatsoever.