tomato garden pics on Oct 6 2011

[kygreg]

Tomato plants are still looking pretty good even at this late date in the season. The first pic is fruits after not harvesting for 2 days. The second one is a 9ft Beefywine plant, and the third is an overall shot of part of the garden.

[kath]

Beautiful colors! Beautiful plants! Hope you can still expect a stretch of warm weather to keep them going. Thanks for sharing your pics. It all seems a distant memory for me. My thoughts are focused on next year.

[BigBrownDogHouse]

Congrats! Looks great!
My back garden is already composting grass clippings and pine needles.

The side garden.....will be grass clippings and pine needles by the end of the weekend.

Enjoy your late harvest!

[remy]

Very nice looking for this time of year!
Remy

[Tania]

Greg,

I love looking at the pictures of your garden! So nice and neat and plentiful. Awesome job!

What are your favorites this year?

Tania

[Goldie]

Great looking plants, thanks for sharing your pictures. Can you tell us about your buckets? (or is there a previous thread about them that I missed?)

[kygreg]

Tania,

My favorites for taste this year are Brandywine Liams and Mazarini. Both had good production and plant health and both are still producing a little even at this late date.

My overall favorite is Emma Pink. It was a great looking plant, very green and healthy all summer and still going; probably the best looking tomato plant I have ever grown; it produced a ton of tomates and still has bunch on it. While not a wow flavor for me was very good. Some others that were close are Chocolate Stripes, Dark Chocolate Stripes, and Jean's Prize.

[kygreg]

Goldie,

There probably is a post on here somewhere about the buckets. I call them "bucket sleeves" as they are 5 gallon buckets cut in half with the bottom cut out. I dig my hole and put in my garden soil/mix mixture and then tap the buckets into the ground and inch or two. By doing this I only have to water and add any soil ammendments to the soil inside the bucket sleeves. In addition it seems to help some in varmit control - cutworms, squirrels etc. It does keep my big feet off seedlings and small plants and as the seedling get taller I can add more soil mixture to simulate "potting up". I got the idea a few years ago from Ozark who is on another site and expanded it some. Early garden pic attached.

[Heritage]

Greg,

Great looking garden and creative growing method! It makes for a nice clean look and the plants are obviously happy.

Steve

[Gobig_or_Gohome_toms]

Based on Craig L. experiance/observations this year around the black versus white grow bags in another thread I wonder if you would see improvement with the use of black 5 gallon bucket sleves. Not that it looks like you need to change but just throwing it out there. Nice looking plants!!

Craig

Originally Posted by kygreg

Goldie,

There probably is a post on here somewhere about the buckets. I call them "bucket sleeves" as they are 5 gallon buckets cut in half with the bottom cut out. I dig my hole and put in my garden soil/mix mixture and then tap the buckets into the ground and inch or two. By doing this I only have to water and add any soil ammendments to the soil inside the bucket sleeves. In addition it seems to help some in varmit control - cutworms, squirrels etc. It does keep my big feet off seedlings and small plants and as the seedling get taller I can add more soil mixture to simulate "potting up". I got the idea a few years ago from Ozark who is on another site and expanded it some. Early garden pic attached.

[amideutch]

Greg, your growing method is a form of Ring Culture that was developed in England. You are forming two root systems, one in the bucket and the other in the underlying aggregate beneath.
Plus as you have mentioned the nutrients and water given to each plant remain in their respective root zones. They can be watered and fertilized via a drip system as well. Good stuff, Ami

[kygreg]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Greg, your growing method is a form of Ring Culture that was developed in England. You are forming two root systems, one in the bucket and the other in the underlying aggregate beneath.
Plus as you have mentioned the nutrients and water given to each plant remain in their respective root zones. They can be watered and fertilized via a drip system as well. Good stuff, Ami

Thanks for the info on Ring Culture. The information about two root systems just gives me one more reason to use this method.

[Medbury Gardens]

Good looking haul of tomatoes there Greg.

I grow indoors using a similar system though i didnt know it was referred to as Ring Culture,outside they are just planted directly into the garden but unfortunately i cant leave them out in the open with out been netted otherwise the black birds would take every one,even half ripe.

[lakelady]

Oh I am so jealous! Those maters look beautiful .... I have 3 pathetic pineapple tomatoes left that I took off the last plant earlier last week, they were green but I think they are turning yellow now. The San Marzano just continues to crank out red tomatoes even though it is almost dead, they look funny on a brown plant. Today I yanked out that last pineapple plant and all I could hear was crinkle crinkle; and that was BEFORE I tossed it into the firepit.

I Planted garlic today so I don't feel so bad. At least something besides my herbs will be growing .....

[kygreg]

October 24, tomato plants still looking pretty good. There are still lots of green ones on the vines. Get a few ripe ones every day, not prime time flavor and the skin is fairly firm, but they are garden tomatoes. Am trying to stretch it so that I can get some ripe ones in November, which I have never done (with the possible exception of a cherry type) in my decade of growing heirlooms.