PNW tomato season

[flying mater]

Nice garden there kieth. Wish mine looked as nice. I asked on the GW tomato forum and i might as well ask here.

on the south side of my house, I have planted ML, BW, and some others in the ground and a few in containers. However, these plants are very small. they look like I just transplanted them. on the north side of the house in containers, I planted Paul robeson, BB, SFT, Stupic and Lemonboy. But these are twice the size of the south side plants. All plants were planted at the same time, feed, watered and mulched the same. all plants get about the same amount of sun.

Any ideas why the tomatoes on the south side of the house are so much smaller? I'll try to take some pictures tonight and post them. If the rain stops long enough.

Bill

[amideutch]

Flying mater welcome. First time I've seen you post. Enjoy your stay at Tville. Question, which side of your house has more shelter from the weather, north or south. Just like to say also that be some beautiful country you PNW's have out there. Ami

[flying mater]

Thanks ami. The south side is more sheltered. The plants are in raised beds between a fence and the house. There sure is some pretty scenerary up here. But I sure do miss KY and I'm a transplant up here.

Bill

[keithaxis]

flying mater, is there anything on the north side that could be keeping things a little warmer at night? That is my biggest issue is the night time temps where I live, when I get below 50 at night, which is pretty much every single night until close to July, I seem to have my plants really slow down, it does not really seem to matter if it gets to 70 or 80 during the day if it still hits 42 at night, you can see how small my plants are here in mid june but that is always my case due to the 700 feet elevation...

so that is why I was asking if there is maybe something that is keepign your northside plants more cozy at night.


Looking closer I do see that you have the late season on your south side and some mid season on your northside, stupice, SFT, maybe that also makes a difference, of course my kimberly plants are the same small size as my BW only difference being the 8inch kimberly has a small tomato growing on it..
Keith

[flying mater]

Keith,

I don't think so. As you can tell by the pics, there is gravel at both places. Yes my temps at night have been getting below 50 and the day temps aren't much better either!! But my CPs are so much better and they are on the south side as well and 5' in front of those are some containers with maters that are hibernating as well. Go figure?

BWs

MLs

and the north side


and for all the pics...
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...59441385jItRAf

[cukes]

Hi Guys,
I live out in Sultan. Wishing for some more sun, but we all know that won't happen until July 5.
Maters are doing OK and still setting fruit.
The Sungold is starting to go crazy.
The Box Car Willie is starting to set alot of fruit.
Matina is doing great.
Mortgage lifter is setting fruit.
Nothing yet on Omars or Anna Russian.

[dice]

Some early seedlings I put out around the first
of May and then covered them with gallon plastic milk
cartons (with bottoms removed) or plastic grocery bags
weighted down with rocks at night for a couple of weeks. Those look like the plants in cukes's pictures (though I
have yet to see an actual fruit).

A few spares that were sprouted at least a month
later I put out about mid-May in a different spot.
They still look like the BWs and MLs in flying mater's
pictures, less than a foot tall.

Both spots get plenty of sun and are well-fertilized
(though the bigger ones are in a raised bed that
is about half horse manure and the small ones
are in open ground amended with compost).

It simply has not been warm enough the past couple
of weeks for any of them to make much progress,
and that is more obvious on the little ones than
on those that were already well-established when
it was warm and sunny a few weeks ago.

(I console myself that they are probably still growing
roots in the cool weather, though.)

[maryinoregon]

Almost all of my plants are below a foot tall. I'm way behind most of you. Last year I planted early and the plants just pouted because of all the rain from mid-May to about mid-June. I had to dig them out and add compost to the planting holes. It was pathetic.

I think I would tend to agree that it's just not been hot enough for much growth yet. Give it some time and I expect to catch up. My best looking and biggest plant is in the old Weber barbecue grill kettle. Just a beautiful, healthy plant. Maybe be a foot tall.

I've been trying to plant the remaining 17 plants I mentioned previously. Two tiny plants I threw away. That hurt. Two are in planting sacks-these are normally used for flowers-and I hung those Sun Gold F3s on the fence. I've planted more in pots than ever before and am down to 7 unplanted tomatoes.

I've given away 34 plants so far. May have to just compost the 7 remaining. There is not much time left to plant, maybe about a week and that's it. If they aren't in the ground by then, I don't hold much hope they will ripen anything.

No flowers on any plants. I wish. Hoping for a long season.

[cukes]

Scored big time!!!!
I have been doing volunteer work at a local nursery, just helping them get up and running.
Well, they gave me 15 tomato plants and a big greenhouse to grow them in. I'm going to let them sprawl from their pots to were ever they want to go.
Black Gold Organic potting soil and homemade organic fertilizer.
Way cool.
Brandywine ( don't know if they are pink or yellow but they are PL)
Cherokee Purple
Sweet 100
Early Girl
Yellow Pear
All have fruit set already.
Some pics

[flying mater]

Cukes, nice score!! But I've got to ask you....in your pics it looks like you've only just set the plants in the pots or you've used very little dirt. I hope its not the latter as you need to fill thos pots up to almost completely full and then mulch them.

Bill

[cukes]

The tomatoes were in 1 gallon pots when I got them.
I pruned out the lower branches and suckers. I let the wounds heal over and filled the pots with potting soil yesterday. Should be good to go now.
I swing by once a day and thump the flowers.
Will take more pics once they start to take off.

[Tania]

yes, the weather hasn't been very nice lately... [sigh]

The plants outside the greenhouses haven't grown much in the last couple of weeks. Our night temps have been staying below 50F, hitting 42F 3 days ago. The day temps are about 6-10 degrees cooler than 'normal', and staying around low-mid 60s. That hurts.
There is some fruit set on some plants, but not a lot, mainly on 'russians' that I received from Tamara.

However, the tomato plants in the greenhouses are growing like crazy, some are 4' tall and going. the night temps in the greenhouse are the same as outside, but even on overcast day the day temps are significantly higher, which definitely helps to warm up the soil and the air.

On a bright note, it is supposed to warm up in a week or so, according to extended forecast on the Weather Network. Hopefully the forecast is correct.

Last year I had ripe Black Cherry on June 9. This year... well... looks like my first ripe 'greenhouse' tomato will be... Reif Italian Heart ; 137 days to ripe fruit from germination. This was more of an 'accidental' fruit set back in March/April, when the seedlings were still under lights. I'll take some pictures later when both me and my camera happen to be in the garden at the same time.
Sungold is way behind...

My conclusion is that all these DTM things are not so reliable when it comes to PNW - fruit set is more like luck, and highly depends on weather in May/June, which is highly variable as I am sure all PNW'ers will agree.

[jwr6404]

Worst year I've had with fruit setting. In my area of the PNW we average 71 degrees in June and unless we get a heatwave we will average about 64 degrees this June. In May we had a warm week,in the 80s and I actually got two small tomatoes on the BW but they have since dropped off. Tomatoless in the PNW.

[akgardengirl]

You PNW's can come on over and join the 3/4 zone thread! Sounds like our summers are both chilly although we are expected to get to 70 today. It is still in the higher 40's at night. No rain to speak of just overcast and chilly, except for a few sunny surprizes.
Sue

[Tania]

here are a few very nice tomatoes we harvested last week:



although the picture might not show it, the color is actually pinkish rather than red, and the taste is delicious! That's the Tumbler de-hyb line that I would like to continue with.

Here is the Reid Italian Heart, picked yesterday (9.6 oz):


And Nevsky (btw, it is very tasty, I highly recommend it for everyone who grows in pots):