upsidedown tomatoes in oz

[Aussiemark]

Tessa,

That's out of control, nice, gives me something to look forward to. Fingers crossed Christmas dinner.

Mark

[Wi-sunflower]

For the benifit of us NH grower, help us understand your timing.

Around me, in a northern state with a rather short growing season, people here aim for a ripe tomato by the 4th of July holiday. That's really pushing it in my area.

It sounds like for you guys getting a ripe tomato by Christmas is the goal that is kind of pushing it. Meaning you probably need to do some special techniques to get them that "early".

In general when do most of you plant out ?

For me it's not until the end of May or early June unless I want to tunnel or wall-o-water everything. But my area is rather late compared to the states even just 1 layer south of me. I'm too close to a big ice cube called Lake Michigan. Keeps us cool in the spring.

Thanks for helping us understand things down there,
Carol

[tessa]

hi carol.
for me...i kinda live in the arizona of australia. hot. dry.
in theory i can grow year-round...tho winter tomatoes do not taste very nice (except for cherries) and they are slow to grow and produce.
in perth...i would be starting my seedlings in the hothouse in july...and be planting out in late september, early october. (frost is as rare as hen's teeth here, btw...but i like to keep the seedlings warm when they're young)

i fully expect ripe tomatoes well before christmas, and as you can see...i've got them coming in already.
it's a different story for the east coast...where pretty much everyone else lives. (i live in the world's more isolated city)

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

For the benifit of us NH grower, help us understand your timing.

Around me, in a northern state with a rather short growing season, people here aim for a ripe tomato by the 4th of July holiday. That's really pushing it in my area.

It sounds like for you guys getting a ripe tomato by Christmas is the goal that is kind of pushing it. Meaning you probably need to do some special techniques to get them that "early".

In general when do most of you plant out ?

For me it's not until the end of May or early June unless I want to tunnel or wall-o-water everything. But my area is rather late compared to the states even just 1 layer south of me. I'm too close to a big ice cube called Lake Michigan. Keeps us cool in the spring.

Thanks for helping us understand things down there,
Carol

I can't believe you get tomatoes started that early. Most of the ones I set out in late April died from early blight. My best tomatoes were set out in the garden in mid June and I live less than 100 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. Of course most of my plants were just now damaged or killed by our first hard freeze. I've still got a couple hanging on as well as some peppers trying to persevere. I tried a couple of really late tomatoes that seem to do fairly well in the colder weather. Have you tried Omar's Lebanese or 1st Prize up there?

[Medbury Gardens]

For me i only have a three month frost free season,so if i don't start off plants inside i would hardly get a crop at all,but i do use water sprinklers to extend the season by at least two months in Autumn.
I do have other advantages gardening where i live which is 70km inland from the Pacific Ocean,situated in a valley surrounded by maintains is that i have virtually nil disease problems because of low humidity and good wind flows.Also a short but intense summer being cut of from the cooling sea breezes which helps me achieve excellent plant growth along with having plenty of water at hand.

Plant out date for me is mid Nov which is about the time when the changeable spring weather gives way to more stable summer conditions.

[Aussiemark]

Carol,

The coldest part of mainland coastal Australia (where 90%+ of the population lives) is only about as cold as San Francisco. Most of the country is warmer than that.

I live in Melbourne, which is similar climate to San Francisco and we normally like to have plants in the ground some time in November. Then hope for tomatoes by Christmas, but normally get reliable supply by late January. I get a few plants that hang in there till May or June (which is early to mid winter here). That late fruit is normally pretty scarce and somewhat bland, but still better than store bought.

Mark

[Medbury Gardens]

The next tomato to now start producing for me is Pink Brandy Wine along side a Great White and Napal

[tessa]

yes baby.
LOL.

[tessa]

getting some nice haulage lately...
here's today's



there are three perth pride f4's at 9 o'clock (i keep growing those because they seem to be the largest fruited of the generations i've got at the moment. largest one here is 3.5 ounces)
a black from tula at 1 o'clock
the sarandipity from the other day that we will eat at dinner tonight along with another harvested today at 4 o'clock...
and the rest in the middle are a little project of mine i'm calling 'tessie's treat' for the moment. they come from what was supposed to be an earl's faux but came up regular leafed, an obvious cross. that plant turned out to have the tastiest tomatoes of the entire season and i'm now growing out seeds from that and selecting the RL plants. i have 3 of them growing at the moment and two of them are growing reds and one of them is growing pinks. we'll decide tonight whether to go forward with the reds, or the pinks...or maybe both.

[Medbury Gardens]

Great haulage there tessa, boy i do like the look of those sarandipity

[tessa]

you'd like the taste of them too, richard.

as for the tessie's treats...i'm going to go ahead with both the red AND the pink. the red was tart and had big flavour. the pink was amazingly sweet, yet mild. a nice stand alone tomato. hard to believe they both came out of the same tomato...they taste soooo different from each other.