Its almost here time to think like a tomato

Tapout · February 20, 2013

Its almost time here in NW Indiana for the tomato frenzy.

I am back, with new vigor and stamina

Last year I was a bucket man with a dream for huge tomatoes. I found out that buckets can only hold so many roots before the plant freaks out. My tomato plants suffered because I decided not to prune them into a single or double stemmed plant. I pruned them some what, but let to many leaders go and suffered with stunted plants because of root over load in the buckets. Over all my plants reached a average height of right under 6 foot some 5. The yields were terrible.

This year I am going at it again with a better concept of root to plant ratio and wont make the same mistake again

I hope

I think I have skewed results (that I cant count on IE: yield, plant health, growth) on the types of plants I tried last year.

I was fooled by early fantastic growth health and flower set, only to have it all go to pot later on because of over crowding the roots.

So I am thinking about what plants to grow this year and trying not to be biased about the ones that did poorly last year but its hard not to be.

livinonfaith · February 20, 2013

Tapout, I hope this year will be better for you!

This year, I have a stash of Root Pots (Thanks to my family at Christmas) and am hoping that they will do a little better than the buckets.

One, most of them are bigger. The five gallon ones are only for the Dwarf plants, while the other plants will get either a ten or fifteen gallon pot.

Two, I think these pots are supposed to "air prune" the roots so that they don't get so crowded.

We'll see, anyway.

I am always amazed at the pics that some people show of huge plants, covered with fruit, growing in buckets. I wonder if their success has more to do with the watering and nutrients?

My results have been closer to yours.

b54red · February 21, 2013

I have never been able to attain the size plants nor the tomato production in containers that I have achieved in the garden. I think a lot of that is not keeping them adequately pruned and not being able to maintain a steady flow of nutrients and moisture. At times in our very hot climate it can mean watering twice a day just to keep them from wilting. I think those self watering systems of pots would be the ticket but that is just more trouble and expense than I want to go to. I have had a few plants of the smaller variety do quite well. I had terrific luck with a bell pepper last year that produced almost as well as some of the good ones in the garden.

I think you are on the right track going with larger containers. There are some people on this forum who are experts at growing in them and they could give you some really good pointers.

My garden soil is heavily infested with fusarium but I still prefer the tomatoes grown in the ground even though container planting would relieve me of most of the fusarium concern.

livinonfaith · February 21, 2013

b54red, If your grafts work as planned this year, hopefully the fusarium will not be such a problem! Crossing my fingers for you!

TightenUp · February 21, 2013

Tapout

i had fantastic results in 4 gallon pots going with the 2 stem method. my tomatoes never got huge but i was very happy with the overall production. i ended up getting vines up to 8 ft long maybe even a bit bigger.

i used happy frog tomato and veggie fertilizer and added some every week or 2. also added azomite and a biobizz biogrow. i sprayed with actinovate, exel lg, and molasses. and i inoculated with mycogrow soluble and one other product thats eluding me right now.

these three plants are a mystery(seed mix up), mr stripey, and cherokee purple. the last pic i think is 2 mystery and a cherokee purple. the mr stripey took a while to produce any toms.

and the pics of the plants were taken in June which is pretty early in my season

Tapout · February 22, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by TightenUp

Tapout

i had fantastic results in 4 gallon pots going with the 2 stem method. my tomatoes never got huge but i was very happy with the overall production. i ended up getting vines up to 8 ft long maybe even a bit bigger.

i used happy frog tomato and veggie fertilizer and added some every week or 2. also added azomite and a biobizz biogrow. i sprayed with actinovate, exel lg, and molasses. and i inoculated with mycogrow soluble and one other product thats eluding me right now.

these three plants are a mystery(seed mix up), mr stripey, and cherokee purple. the last pic i think is 2 mystery and a cherokee purple. the mr stripey took a while to produce any toms.

and the pics of the plants were taken in June which is pretty early in my season

very nice plants. If I would have pruned them to a 2 stem I am sure I would have way better results then I got last season. I got carried away and "greedy".

At first my plants were amazing, dwarfing my neighbors by at least 2 foot in height and double total mass. Then problems started to occur. I pruned substantial amounts all through out the season from beginning to end, but I didn't prune to a one stem or two stem system. I got greedy and it cost me a season because of overcrowded roots.... I will not make that mistake again. The season wasn't a total loss I did get some amazing cherry tomatoes. At the height of the season I was harvesting about 5lbs a week from one cherry tomato plant, and they were delicious. The cherry tomato plant reached about 9 feet in height but was bent over. Well it was bent "all" over the place. The plant decided to grow into two other cages that were in the same row then it filled the cages and grew out the top of those other cages. I didn't mind much because I had a Rutger determinate plant in each of those that didn't make it. I will definitely grow that variety again this year.

janezee · February 22, 2013

Ya're killin' me here, Tapout, ya're killin' me!!!

WHAT cherry?

j

Tapout · February 22, 2013

Hehe I am sorry but you are going to have to wait till its daylight out Its still dark here in NW Indiana. What I mean by that is I have to go outside to the shed to look at the plastic marker that came with the plant. I managed to write down all the other plants in my journal except this one.

Whats funny to me was that I didn't plan on planting "any" cherry tomatoes.
I was walking through my local greenhouse picking up a few odds and ends and ran across some nice looking plants. I looked further and discovered that they were a cherry variety tomato. I wasn't big on cherry tomatoes at the time, but decided what the heck why not. I had a few extra buckets left over so it wouldn't be any trouble to plant and test it out. I am sure glad I did. Everyone loved including myself loved that plant (and the tomatoes hehe). What I mean by everyone loving the plant was that it was impressive. It stood out from all the others by sheer size.

After the season was over and I was moving my buckets for storage I discovered that some had grown roots through the drainage holes that I drilled in the bottom sides of the buckets. I quickly deduced a correlation between why some plants did well in the buckets and some didn't. As I cleaned out the root balls from each bucket my suspicion of root over crowding was confirmed. The only plants that did well were the ones that managed to grow through the drainage holes into the soil. The cherry tomato plant had the largest thickest roots out of all the other tomato plants that grew through the drainage holes.

TightenUp · February 22, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by janezee

Ya're killin' me here, Tapout, ya're killin' me!!!

WHAT cherry?

j

haha my thoughts exactly

Tapout · February 22, 2013

Ok it's daylight out and I went to the shed and found the tag.

livinonfaith · February 22, 2013

And? ......Why the suspense?

TightenUp · February 22, 2013

maybe the tag was blank cause the sun and weather wore off the marker

Tapout · February 22, 2013

Sorry had to rush out in the middle of posting, my daughters buss didn't come so I had to rush her to school. We had a 2 hour delay because of ice.

It was a Sunsugar cherry tomato plant.

livinonfaith · February 22, 2013

Understood! We had a three hour delay.

janezee · February 27, 2013

So glad to hear it! So totally my family's favorite, too. And it is the monster that ate New Yorker last year. Good thing that they're different colors!

Thanks for the info.

j

February 20, 2013	#1
Tapout Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 355	Its almost here time to think like a tomato Its almost time here in NW Indiana for the tomato frenzy. I am back, with new vigor and stamina Last year I was a bucket man with a dream for huge tomatoes. I found out that buckets can only hold so many roots before the plant freaks out. My tomato plants suffered because I decided not to prune them into a single or double stemmed plant. I pruned them some what, but let to many leaders go and suffered with stunted plants because of root over load in the buckets. Over all my plants reached a average height of right under 6 foot some 5. The yields were terrible. This year I am going at it again with a better concept of root to plant ratio and wont make the same mistake again I hope I think I have skewed results (that I cant count on IE: yield, plant health, growth) on the types of plants I tried last year. I was fooled by early fantastic growth health and flower set, only to have it all go to pot later on because of over crowding the roots. So I am thinking about what plants to grow this year and trying not to be biased about the ones that did poorly last year but its hard not to be.

February 22, 2013	#12
TightenUp Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Jersey Posts: 1,183	maybe the tag was blank cause the sun and weather wore off the marker __________________

February 20, 2013	#2
livinonfaith Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina Posts: 1,332	Tapout, I hope this year will be better for you! This year, I have a stash of Root Pots (Thanks to my family at Christmas) and am hoping that they will do a little better than the buckets. One, most of them are bigger. The five gallon ones are only for the Dwarf plants, while the other plants will get either a ten or fifteen gallon pot. Two, I think these pots are supposed to "air prune" the roots so that they don't get so crowded. We'll see, anyway. I am always amazed at the pics that some people show of huge plants, covered with fruit, growing in buckets. I wonder if their success has more to do with the watering and nutrients? My results have been closer to yours.

February 21, 2013	#3
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I have never been able to attain the size plants nor the tomato production in containers that I have achieved in the garden. I think a lot of that is not keeping them adequately pruned and not being able to maintain a steady flow of nutrients and moisture. At times in our very hot climate it can mean watering twice a day just to keep them from wilting. I think those self watering systems of pots would be the ticket but that is just more trouble and expense than I want to go to. I have had a few plants of the smaller variety do quite well. I had terrific luck with a bell pepper last year that produced almost as well as some of the good ones in the garden. I think you are on the right track going with larger containers. There are some people on this forum who are experts at growing in them and they could give you some really good pointers. My garden soil is heavily infested with fusarium but I still prefer the tomatoes grown in the ground even though container planting would relieve me of most of the fusarium concern.

February 22, 2013	#7
janezee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Whidbey Island, WA Zone 7, Sunset 5 Posts: 931	Ya're killin' me here, Tapout, ya're killin' me!!! WHAT cherry? j

February 27, 2013	#15
janezee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Whidbey Island, WA Zone 7, Sunset 5 Posts: 931	So glad to hear it! So totally my family's favorite, too. And it is the monster that ate New Yorker last year. Good thing that they're different colors! Thanks for the info. j