Is it to late to start new seeds

[jardinlady]

Hi, I am new to this forum and also new to tomato planting, this year will be my first year growing tomatoes from seeds. Anyways I started my first batch of tomatoes back in April I could have started them earlier but I was on vacation. I planted some Cherokee purple, Prudens purple, Hillbilly, Parks whopper, Brandywine( they are doing good so far tons of flowers but no matters just yet) . I also started some sungolds and Green grape back in april unfortunately they died so I was wondering if I could start a new batch of early tomatoes like sungold, Matt's wild cherry ect and be safe.
I live in Pensacola Fl it does get below 50's in the winter here so I can't grow tomatoes all year round like other folk in FL.

[jerseyjohn61]

Hello Carmin and welcome to Da-Ville.

I have no experience with growing in southern
climates, but you can easily do the math to see
if it would be worth your while.

Add the days of seed germination time to time
it would take to grow those seedlings to transplant
size. Then add the days it would take for transplants
to produce fruits for the varieties you wish to grow.

Remember it often takes longer than the seed
packets claim to produce tomatos. Also remember
that as summer drifts away, the days get shorter
and the sunlight diminishes, slowing down the toms
even more. Temps will fall off also, further slowing
their growth.

I'd suggest trying some of the better short season
varieties if you wish to start now. Certainly go for
the cherry types at this point.

Best of luck carmin....JJ61

P.S. Does anyone else out there have any experience
with growing in the coastal Floridian panhandle?
Hey! Who knows Carmin. My father was stationed
briefly at Camp Carabel back early in WWII and can
remember swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in november.
A true Jersey boy's dream in 1942. Swimming outdoors
in November!

[feldon30]

The amount of useful daily sunlight for ripening tomatoes diminishes substantially in November, December, and January. The sun is also at a markedly different angle that time of the year and your house, trees, or other large objects may shade a garden that now gets lots of sun.

Most of the advice I've gotten is to start seeds around June 15th to July 1st so that the plants are just getting into fruitsetting mode in September when the heat is starting to break.

But you might have great success, and I'm sure there are growing differences between Houston and Florida.

[jardinlady]

Thank you so much jerseyjohn61, feldon,
I started some seeds a couple of days ago some sungolds, matina and matt's wild cherry. At first I was going to purchase some plants for my winter growing but my gosh they are so expensive to have them shipped, also I wrote an e-mail to the owner of selected plants who lives in hamilton alabama and he told me that he is now starting to plant from seed and that the plants wont be available for shipping until 5 weeks from now. Pensacola is very close to alabama so I thought I might as well take a risk and see what happens. I already have some mature plants in the ground that have flowers on them and hopefully very soon I 'll be enjoying some fresh maters. One thing that I've learned since I am new at this is to plant more plants that what you are thinking about planting out, 3 of my tomato plants died (mainly my fault) so I had no choice but to buy some tomato plants at Lowes to replace those. And last but not least, never, never, never use the Bio dome to plant tomato seeds( they have this sponges made of soiles soil) and when I tried to tranplant the mater plants into another container well I could not bury the plant enough and ended up having very tall skinny leggy plants.
I guess live and learn.

Thank you so much for your advice I am glad I was told about this site and decided to join.

God bless

[sirtanon]

I started some seeds a couple of days ago some sungolds, matina and matt's wild cherry.

Sounds like you've got some excellent choices there for a fall crop. I have just recently started seed for my crop as well, and while our climates are not exactly the same, I expect they'll be similar in many ways.

You should have good luck with those. I hope you're expecting Matt's Wild Cherry to get wild, because it will. They can really take over if you let them... not that that's a bad thing, though - they taste GREAT

Good luck, and enjoy!

- Eric

[Polar_Lace]

carminator wrote:

I already have some mature plants in the ground that have flowers on them and hopefully very soon I'll be enjoying some fresh maters.

Do you know that you can take some of the suckers off of your maturing plants; nearer to the bottom of the plant & root them in plain water to have more of the same type of plants to grow more of the same tomatoes in the fall? As long as your plants are healthy.

You'd have to leave them in a bright light; but not direct sun until they show signs of a root. Change the water & check them daily. Don't take them in the house, your porch will do as long as it has bright light & shading. Make sure you mark the names on those containers! Then plant them right back out into the garden.

Please make sure you leave a nub of the piece you're removing on the stem piece, like a 1/2 inch. To prevent any damage to the main stem in anyway possible. Remove most of the leaves except 3 on the piece you're rooting also.

[jardinlady]

Hi Eric:
I got this wonerful seeds from another tomato grower in athother forum and really want to try them, and yes I have heard that matt's wild cherry really gets wild. I have an EB that right now has cucumber plants unfortunately it is dying even though I am watering it, I think it may be due because either it's done producing more fruit or because of the intense heat and humidity in Pensacola so I was thinking about replacing it with a couple of Matt's wild cherry plants.

Robin;
I have heard about rooting before but don't know really how to do it, or how do suckers really look and since I am a newbie I did not want to kill my plants trying to get suckers. I would love to learn though. I have a cherokee purple and prudens purple plant and I would love to have a couple more for this winter growing season. Do you have any pitcture or explanation of how to do it? also you say after getting the sucker out you just place it in water no need for anything else? once you see roots you plant them in the garden.

Thank you for all you imputs this is really helping a lot.

[feldon30]

A sucker comes out of the "armpit" of two existing stems. It is capable of creating a complete tomato plant when cut off and replanted.

Cut it off when it's 4-6" long and stick it in a glass of water for 2-3 days or plant it directly in good loose soil and keep it well watered. Roots will come out of the stem.

Rooting hormone is not necessary and I don't think it's safe on vegetables.

[jardinlady]

Thank you so much for the pic, I am going to get some suckers and put them in glasses of water hopefully they will form roots. By the way what can cause tomato plant to be droopy, I just went out to check on them and some of the upper leaves were droopy, could this be because of the heat, do I need to water them when I see this?
Also I have a porch where I can place the suckers into, I also have a grow light system do I need to place them underneath so they get some light?

Thanks

[feldon30]

Sometimes tomato plants just get droopy, no matter what amount of water you give them. I'd check the soil with your finger and inspect the leaves and stems closely for any discolorations.

...Please continue to hold, a tomato expert representative will be with your shortly....

[jardinlady]

It is nice to have a 911 emergency line for tomato problems.

I just picked 3 suckers and planted them in some potting soil, I just have to cross my fingers and hopefully they'll make it.

This definetely helps a lot, at first I was thinking about purchasing some mater plants online for fall crop but it is so expensive about $40 for 4 plants, this is just a luxury I can't really afford right now.

[Polar_Lace]

carminator,

You can read this here info: Pruning Tomatoes & save the pictures for further reference. I enlarged the pictures I saved; to see them better.

[jardinlady]

Thank you Robin,
The pictures really help a lot. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. I am definetely learning a lot in tomatoville, love this site.
I think I am becoming a tomatoholic.