So HERE'S where everyone is! :-)))

[materlvr]

Well, hello my fellow (former) GW mater buds! I kept wondering where everyone went! Barb, I think I owe you an email!

Here's my question......we moved into a brand new house in March, and I planted out on May 8th, late, for my zone (8-9). We had "new house" dirt (not soil), so I dug huge holes and filled each one with a ton of Kellogg's "Gromulch". My tomato plants are 4-7 feet tall, but only Druzba and Kosovo are productive. I have about 50 greenies on each plant. I have one (1) mater on a 5 ft. Tidwell German, one (1) on a 5 ft. Stump of the World, one Aunt Gerties Gold, and, here's the shocker, about 8 maters on my Earl's Faux, which is from seed I saved from last year. My Marianna's Peace is as expected, with about 7 maters.

What's happened? Was the Gromulch a bad idea? What should I use next year????? Man, this is really crappy dirt, so I gotta use some type of soil amendment. Any ideas?

I tell you, Druzba was a last minute addition, as a "main crop" tomato, and I'll never again be without it!!

Glad to see this site doing so well, and glad to read postings from the GW oldsters! Hi, Chris!!!

[Mischka]

Welcome to Tomatoville®.

Many of us here have posted at GW that this site is up and running, but GW likes to delete the posts, filter the word "tomatoville" and outright ban folks for mentioning it.

Mischka (who's been banned at GW 4 times for mentioning how to get to Tomatoville® )

[vodreaux]

Can both GW and TV get along?

Both site do offer tomato incite. TV is more tomato specific and more oraganize.

[QAGuy]

materlvr - I had a similar problem. Moved into a new house last year in June. Planted, but not much grew.

My house isn't new (1921), but no real gardener had spent any time here in the last few years. Terrible adobe soil.

This year I built small raised beds using 1X8 and mixed in Kellogg's AMEND at the recommended amount. Also mulched heavily with grass clippings.

Getting great results this year.

I checked out both AMEND and GROMULCH and the AMEND seemed to fit my needs better.

From Kellogg's website:

Kellogg's Amend should be used to amend soils in which flowers, vegetables and bulbs are planted. The addition of Amend loosens clay and compacted soils.

Kellogg's Gromulch should be used to amend soils in which shrubs, trees, roses, bare-root, ground cover or turf are planted. The addition of Gromulch improves pH, stimulates early root growth, adds fertility and assists in the early establishment of plants.

Here's the results. You can click on the thumbs for a full size shot.

Black Cherry:



More Black Cherry:



Brandywine:



Dona:



Two overall shots:





And you're not alone in not finding this place for a while. Took me quite a few months too.

[coronabarb]

Well, darn it materlvr, where have you been? I know you were told about TV because you joined a long time ago. And you have been missed.

It sounds like you WILL get some tomatoes. That's a good start. You did the best you could with what you had at the time. (I feel your pain...my last house had had all the topsoil scraped off to level the pads) Work on your soil this fall/winter and keep amending it. It will get better.

What you really need are some raised beds, on top of digging down as far as you can. If you can't do r. b., maybe you could try some kind of variation of the lasagna bed idea. I am trying a ridiculously easy version of r. b., using 3-5 gal pots from H.D. with the bottoms cut out, filled with mix of soil and potting soil and placing them where I've dug down and amended with same mix as in pots. My plants look great and the gophers can't get to them.

And yes, you owe me an email. :wink:

[materlvr]

Hi, all! Yes, I joined a while ago, but my computer was in storage for several months (with my other junk), so when I could use it again, I forgot about Tomatoville. Someone left a cryptic message at GW and, duh, I finally remembered! Sure glad I did!

I'll try Amend later this year, as I get to grow a winter garden for the very first time. I thought Amend had some bad stuff in it. Barb, was it you who told me a few years back that it had "sludge". I'll use the best I can get. Raised beds are out, the d---ed landscapers poured "curbing" thru my garden (in the corner of the yard), so only place I can grow is along the ----- curbing!

I'm really disappointed about my Earl's Faux. I only planted 1, cuz it's so productive. Oh well, at least I'll have Druzba, and I'm dying to try Kosovo!

Barb, expect an email later today!!! :-)))

[kimpossible]

QA Guy, thx for the great pics! I'm curious as to the height of your cages? (Great looking garden ... )

[QAGuy]

Thanks, garden is going rather well. Picked a bunch of those
that you saw today. They don't exist any more because they got
eaten and enjoyed!

Cages are 6 feet tall. I could easily make them taller, but don't want
to have to get out the ladder to prune and harvest. They'll soon
cascade back down to the ground. Since the cages are 3/4" PVC,
the vines don't kink.

Here's today's harvest.

Top ones are Pineapple, to the right, Early Girl, to the left, Dona,
at the bottom are Lemon Boy with Black Cherry in the middle.