Variety Recommendations

[ShinerDraft]

I was hoping for some variety reccomendations for South Texas on the coast. I have a spot for a small tomoato garden against the fence in my backyard. About 16' long, 2' wide or so, facing SSW.

Last year I tried two different varieties, one cherry one normal sized. The plants grew pretty well, but they weren't all that productive. I think we got one or two of the full sized that ended up being edible and maybe 30 cherries. I was disappointed.

I'm a relative newbie with the whole gardening thing, so my priorities are
1) productivity over a long growing season (I'm thinking indeterminate)
2) forgiving & hard to kill
3) taste.

Size doesn't matter to me (or my wife, thank goodness). I'd like to plant 2 or 3 cherry plants and 4 full size plants. Our climate is very warm, so I'm ready to get them in the ground soon.

Any reccomendations?

[pacmanJohn]

I'm in a different climate (Kentucky) so bear that in mind. Though not an heirloom, Big Beef is one of the best hybrids I've tried as far as disease resistance and taste, and I've picked tomatoes from them from July through October...

[feldon30]

I think the real issue is going to be improving the soil and proper fertilization and watering and mulching so that you get some good tomatoes.

Can you tell us what city you live in? It's really going to come down to what plants are available at local nurseries as you need to plant soon. I will be planting tomatoes on March 3rd 8th if weather looks cooperative.

P.S. I never go into a season expecting decent tomatoes in mid-July through mid-September. My peak harvest is mid-May through mid-June.

[duajones]

I live in South Texas as well (Corpus Christi) and planted my first in ground garden in 2007. I ammended the soil with cotton burr compost, manure along with leaves, coffee grounds and such. At planting time I added compost, manure, epsom salts and tomato tone fertilizer to the hole. You still have time to amend but its too late to start from seed as you should be getting ready to put the plants in the ground shortly. I dont know where you live but you should check with the better nurseries in your are including HEB plus if there is one nearby, The on in my area carries Chef Jeff's plants and has some nice varieties available.
Cherry types are pretty forgiving and rather easy to grow. Im not sure what to recommend because I dont know what might be available to you in your area. If you get them in the ground early you can pretty much grow any variety you choose. Jet Star is one that comes to mind, productive and tasty, Big Beef is another and might be easier to find. Good luck with whatever you decide

Tons of knowledge here at TV and plenty of nice people to help you with answers

[ShinerDraft]

feldon, I'm a few hours south of you. Climate is pretty much exactly like Houston.

last year, i dug the holes and filled them with good gardening soil. I fertilized a little bit, but the soil I used said that it was good for a couple of months, so I didn't do much. I watered pretty well.

[ShinerDraft]

I'm from the same area as dua..

Sounds like Big Beef might be the way to go..

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by ShinerDraft

feldon, I'm a few hours south of you. Climate is pretty much exactly like Houston.

last year, i dug the holes and filled them with good gardening soil. I fertilized a little bit, but the soil I used said that it was good for a couple of months, so I didn't do much. I watered pretty well.

Unfortunately there are so many scam artists out there like Home Depot/Lowe's/Wal-Mart sell "garden soil" in 99 cent bags and it's really just trash scraped from God knows where. It's mostly sand. I don't know what soil you bought so I can't really comment.

Even the best "garden soil" needs some compost added. In large quantities, there are companies that will deliver a proper "vegetable garden mix" for as little as $25 a cubic yard but that might be out of your price range or too large a quantity for your needs.

I would ask how big did your plants get? Did you grow Sweet 100 Cherry? If so, it should have reached 6-8 feet tall.

How many hours of sunlight is your garden getting?

[Elliot]

I live in the New York area but the tomato plant I love the most is by far, miracle sweet. I have tried so many other varieties and nothing can hold a candle up to this.

Elliot

[Tomstrees]

I think I would suggest "Thessaloniki" for you to try - a round red Greek variety that grows in most soils, sets in the heat, tastey, and disease tolerant

~ Tom

[creister]

I grew Thessaloniki last fall, and it did very well for me in our heat, and somewhat less humidity. Super Sioux did just as well.

[ShinerDraft]

Well, I looked for big beef & couldn't find it.

I ended up with 3 Celebrities, 3 Early Girls, and two patio cherries. I got them all in the ground yesterday.

I dug down about 12"-16" for each plant and put in a fertilizer mixture (from a local weatherman - duajones probably knows what I'm talking about) and then covered that over with 2-3" of new soil. Then I placed the plants and filled in the rest of the soil. All of the plants were about 8"-12" tall, and there's only 2 or 3 inches of each one showing above the ground.

As far as soil goes, I used 3 bags of Miracle-Gro organic choice (1.5cu ft each), a bag of organic landscape mix (2cu ft) from Lowes, and 2 40# bags of manure/humus.

Questions...
1. I use weed block fabric and cypress mulch in my other flowerbeds. I've read that mulch is helpful, but I'm not sure about using it in conjuction with the weedblock. It seems like that might prevent additional fertilizer from working its way into the ground. Should I use one, both, or neither?

2. What kind of trellis or supports are reccomended? I see the circular wire things often, but are there other ideas that work better?

3. Any tips on when/how to support the plants?

4. Do I need to prune or trim the plants, or just let them grow?

5. How much water is too much? A good number of the tomatos I got last year had splitting problems. One lady at the nursery said that's because of too much water. But the planting instructions all said "water freely"... I have an automatic sprinkler system that I can easily adapt to water the garden on a regular basis. Any thoughts?

[ShinerDraft]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Unfortunately there are so many scam artists out there like Home Depot/Lowe's/Wal-Mart sell "garden soil" in 99 cent bags and it's really just trash scraped from God knows where. It's mostly sand. I don't know what soil you bought so I can't really comment.

Even the best "garden soil" needs some compost added. In large quantities, there are companies that will deliver a proper "vegetable garden mix" for as little as $25 a cubic yard but that might be out of your price range or too large a quantity for your needs.

Last year, I used a roughly 1:1 mix of Miracle Gro Organic Choice and other, less expensive gardening soil. This year I did 3:1 MG/cheapstuff plus 80lbs of humus/manure.

Originally Posted by feldon30

I would ask how big did your plants get? Did you grow Sweet 100 Cherry? If so, it should have reached 6-8 feet tall.

I don't remember any of the varieties I grew last year. The plants all got to be about 4' tall, max. Seems short from what you're saying. Also, they weren't nearly as "bushy" as the pictures I've seen of more successful gardens.

Originally Posted by feldon30

How many hours of sunlight is your garden getting?

Most of the plants get sun from about 9 or 10am till 6pm. A couple are in a little bit of shade until about 12 or 1, but once they get a little bit of height on them (18" maybe?) the top leaves get the extra two hours as well.

[lumierefrere]

Supporting your plants? If they're anything like mine, they'll take down one of those little twisty things in about 4 weeks. Those must be for dwarf plants. Beans maybe. Think heavy-duty, think structurally sound. The larger the fruit, the heavier the tomatoes are, the more support they need. I use cages made from PVC pipe. They'd be fine if I was better at putting them together.

Barb

[duajones]

Whatever you do concerning watering, dont water the plants from overhead with any type of sprinkler, we have enough foliage type problems with the humidity that we have down here. Soaker hoses are a good way to go. ( Make sure you mulch your plants as well)
As far as support goes, you should at least use medium to large cages for your plants with a stake of some sort driven in the ground to tie the cages to, otherwise the plants will pull the cages down especially with the windy conditions we have. If you end up with an indeterminate like Big Beef you will need the largest cage you can find and it may still not be quite enough, as I have found out.
Texas Tomato Cages are on my wish list for the future as they are a great product.

I do have an extra Big Beef plant or two that I picked up at Lowes last week, if you want them