Foliar Feeding?

[neoguy]

I have about 14 hybrids growing in a community garden, they are bushy, robust, full of flowers and fruit, but only about 3'-4' tall. I was thinking about giving them a fish fertilizer foliar feeding this weekend.

Now, having read another thread about showering the leaves from the top, I'm not sure this is a good thing. Any thoughts or suggestion?

Thanks

[Tomatovator]

What varieties are they? Maybe they are not supposed to get real tall. As long as they are producing a lot of fruit why worry about their height? You have about 3 months of growing season left don't you? I'd rather have small plants with a lot of tomatoes instead of giant plants with few tomatoes.

[neoguy]

Thanks for the reply. 7 Roma and 7 Celebrity, I also have 3 OP planted there and they are out growing the hybrids (next year it'll be all OP). I have 2 each of the Roma and Celebrity growing at home and they are approaching 5' in height, again plenty of flowers and fruit.

You may be right about just leaving them as is, but I have read plenty about people giving their toms a foliar feed or soil drench a few times throughout the growing season. I have fed them once with Tomato Tone, maybe thats all I need to do, maybe give them another TT feeding in a week or two.

I hope you're right about the growing season, we have such long winters here, it seems like 8 months of winter, 1 of spring, 2 of summer and 1 of fall.

[TJS]

I don't think that if you feed them in the morning it will be a problem. Maybe you could add liquid kelp with the fish emulsion.
Tim

[amideutch]

neoguy,I'd go with what TJS reccomends and add some unsulfered molasses as it will act as a spreader/sticker and also will add some potassium to the mix. Ami

[feldon30]

If it's Celebrity Bush, then it stops at 3 1/2 feet.
There are many types of Roma, some of which stop at 3 feet.

[neoguy]

Sorry, I don't know how to quote in the replies, hopefully I'll learn soon...

Tim, thanks for the suggestion, I think I'll try it on just a few of each hybrids this weekend to see how they respond.

Ami, thank you also, not only for this reply, but for others as well. I'll have to seek local sources of unsulfered molasses and potassium.

Feldon, thank you as well. These plants were grown from saved seeds from plants we've grown for at least the last 5 years. I have no idea which F they are at this point, not really knowing or understanding anything about that until finding this forum.

History is that these plants have grown to 6'-7' in the home garden. The plants appear healthy, although short in height and some wilting on the bottom. Possible cause for the wilting is I didn't cut the bottom leaves off. Of course the toms may have crossed, we may not getting the original plant anymore, but I thought a foliar feed wouldn't hurt.

[feldon30]

I have not heard of too many people liking the flavor of Celebrity and Roma enough to grow them a second year. It is interesting also that you are saving seed, since both of these are hybrids and saving seeds can produce wildly unpredictable results and genetic instability in subsequent years. There's really no way to know how tall the plants will get since you are in uncharted waters. I think the first thing that's lost when you save seeds of those hybrids is the determinate "tree-like" growth habit.

I suggest people grow whatever tomato tastes best for them with a decent productivity. If these two varieties meet your needs, that's great! I grew them both in 2006 and found them to have zero flavor.

As you are in Ohio, I hope you will get to attend CHOPTAG in Cincinnati this year and take the opportunity to taste even more varieties.

[neoguy]

Ami, after having read your reply again I realized the source of the potassium is the unsulfered molasses. I need to read more slowly.

[neoguy]

Feldon, you'll notice in my second post in this thread, I said I would be growing all OP plants next year. It was late this spring, too late to start seed, that I became familiar with this forum and GW. Because of these forums, and because of all of the knowledgeable people who contribute, my interest in growing OP has grown exponentially.

Your input is appreciated.

[neoguy]

Ami, I just googled unsulfered molasses and discovered that I have some in the kitchen. How much should I use for a 2 gallon sprayer?

[biermaster]

I use a table spoon per gal and there always seem to be a little left in the bottom of the sprayer.

[neoguy]

Much appreciated biermaster.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by neoguy

Feldon, you'll notice in my second post in this thread, I said I would be growing all OP plants next year. It was late this spring, too late to start seed, that I became familiar with this forum and GW. Because of these forums, and because of all of the knowledgeable people who contribute, my interest in growing OP has grown exponentially.

Your input is appreciated.

I've tried to be less judgmental in my comments about hybrids. There are some hybrids that are absolutely worth growing. Last March (was it really only a year ago?), I ran out and bought transplants at Home Depot of Celebrity and Roma, stuck them in the ground, and THEN found out about heirlooms, OP, etc. This spring, I ended up buying a few plants from transplant at local nurseries and grew the rest from seed.

Imagine what I'll know next year..

[neoguy]

I decided to try saving seed because I wanted to learn, and if successful it would be fun to be able to say we grew it from our own seeds. For years we've been saving seeds of lettuce, bush beans, pole beans, hot and sweet peppers and other stuff.

After learning about heirlooms and OP here and there, I stumbled across some plants at a nursery. But, I only had room for 6 plants. This year I'll be saving seed from Cherokee Purple, German Johnson, Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine Pink, Green Zebra and Mr. Stripey.