need some information about------

ddsack · July 6, 2013

Jon,

I keep coming back to sun, and the quality of sun as most important to spindly tomatoes in the garden. I have two garden locations. My front garden gets morning, mid-day, and afternoon sun, also lots of wind. If I get any spindly tomatoes there, it does have to do with soil fertility in a spot where the original clay pan is trying to resurface, or maybe just a wispy variety that looks more spindly than other stouter RL varieties. I have another garden about 150 ft away that is surrounded by tall trees. Most of it doesn't get morning sun until after 10AM, for the last bit it's after 11:30, but then it gets sun until after 6PM or later. So although the garden gets at least 6-8 hours of sun during the peak of summer (less as the sun stays lower on the horizon starting in August) the same varieties of tomatoes that grow back there are very noticeably spindlier and set and ripen later than my front garden. The extra morning sun makes a big difference, and there is nothing I can add to the soil in back that will make a difference in the long internode length of tomatoes stretching due to lack of enough sun. I see this in the rugose dwarfs, as well as normal indets. There are a few early varieties, like Stupice, that do fine back there, ripening at about the same rate as the front garden, but most other tomatoes lag behind about two weeks.

July 6, 2013	#16
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,231	Jon, I keep coming back to sun, and the quality of sun as most important to spindly tomatoes in the garden. I have two garden locations. My front garden gets morning, mid-day, and afternoon sun, also lots of wind. If I get any spindly tomatoes there, it does have to do with soil fertility in a spot where the original clay pan is trying to resurface, or maybe just a wispy variety that looks more spindly than other stouter RL varieties. I have another garden about 150 ft away that is surrounded by tall trees. Most of it doesn't get morning sun until after 10AM, for the last bit it's after 11:30, but then it gets sun until after 6PM or later. So although the garden gets at least 6-8 hours of sun during the peak of summer (less as the sun stays lower on the horizon starting in August) the same varieties of tomatoes that grow back there are very noticeably spindlier and set and ripen later than my front garden. The extra morning sun makes a big difference, and there is nothing I can add to the soil in back that will make a difference in the long internode length of tomatoes stretching due to lack of enough sun. I see this in the rugose dwarfs, as well as normal indets. There are a few early varieties, like Stupice, that do fine back there, ripening at about the same rate as the front garden, but most other tomatoes lag behind about two weeks. __________________ Dee **************