How long from bloom to tomatoes

[SharonRossy]

NG, my sucker looks more robust too, but I have no idea why, seeing as I basically just stuck it in the garden. I'm going to start removing fruits that have started to blush. The experts say there is no advantage keeping them on the vine till ripe and I agree. I found a critter on one of my Bloody butchers that was ripening so I brought it in. The longer they stay exposed, the more vulnerable they are to insects, disease and animals, plus cracking, if they are prone. So having learned that lesson from last year, I'm going to keep an eye out, bring them in and let them ripen on the counter out of direct sun. After all that work, I'm not losing them to the squirrels or bugs or weird weather!

[emcd124]

Im in Z5 and we had an unusually cold spring that delayed maturity, but man I'm depressed that it is August and I STILL havent tasted even so much as a cherry tom from my garden.

[SharonRossy]

I've picked maybe 5 cherries to date. It's a long, slow season. I'm in 5b and we had the same spring and the weather has been all over the map. Cold, rain, hot, rain, cold, well you get my point!
Frustrating!

[Labradors2]

I guess I shouldn't complain then. Kingston, ON is pretty similar to Montreal for weather.

Cherokee Purple surprised me by ripening early and giving me three delicious tomatoes. My Yellow Pear morphed into a round yellow cherry and was actually the first to provide me with ripe tommies. I've had a few Sweet Million cherries.

Next year, I'll be growing Stupice, Cherokee Purple and some more EARLY varieties!

Linda

[cythaenopsis]

Interesting to see a few folks also growing some rooted Black Krim suckers (Sharon and NG).

I did a few things differently this time around, the biggest being the potting mix. I went with a mix by the big MG corp (I didn't want to, but it was the only thing conveniently available at the time), then mixed in some of Jobe's tomato plant fertilizer and a good amount of eggshell powder. Again I'm using a 6 gallon container (which I feel is probably a bit too small for a reasonably productive Black Krim) but with a slight modification for better wick action through the soil. So far it does seem to be growing better and faster than the parent plant did at the post seedling stage, with a few flower blossoms and soon to be needing additional supports.

July 15th:



July 29th:

[SharonRossy]

it's really interesting to see how the black krim sucker is going to progress. Frankly, I am shocked that it has flowers and seems to be growing fairly rapidly. On another note, I tried my first Bloody Butcher today and was very impressed! It had nice acidity and good flavor. I tried to do the same thing with a sucker from BB but so far it hasn't done much, which is surprising because the big plant is quite prolific.

[NarnianGarden]

Good pics!

My suckers are very alive and lush - and full of flowers. They are growing in very cramped conditions, in a box... and look happier than my 'real' plants.
I almost feel bad for them knowing the season is short & they won't be able to grow and produce to their fullest ability.
This was just an experiment to see how tomatoes behave - and what they can do in different situations. So far so good, I hope they will set small fruits that will blush before the first frost hits.

Lesson learned: take a healthy-looking sucker, let it grow roots in a glass of water for a few days, and plant it in a good soil... A healthy nurseling is worth money and you can always give it as a gift to someone who likes gardening..

[GunnarSK]

Good to know about the 60 days which are typical. I'm most concerned aout a couple of plants direct seeded from seed squeezed out of a bought tomato 1 May, which started blooming a couple of days ago. So basically I don't know much, but it's likely a pink non-cherry.

[SharonRossy]

Well it's exciting to see how these plants will succeed. It just shows how durable tomatoes are and how things can flourish even under the strangest circumstances.

[NarnianGarden]

The sucker branches have set their first fruits - woo hoo! Looks very plump and juicy!

If the weather stays mild the whole month and the fruits stay small - cherry, or currant size, they won't be a problem them ripening. What a fun experiment - hope to get my Krimean currants in a few weeks ..

[cythaenopsis]

^ Wow, that's fast -- already seeing plump fruits? Pics, pics, pics!

My sucker-to-seedling is growing pretty quickly and I estimate it's about an inch every two days.

[Ken4230]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Lesson learned: take a healthy-looking sucker, let it grow roots in a glass of water for a few days, and plant it in a good soil... A healthy nurseling is worth money and you can always give it as a gift to someone who likes gardening..

I plant my suckers directly in the garden, usually right below a plant that i expect to remove. I planted an 18" Ky Cabin sucker in a SWC on June 1st. It's 5' tall now and loaded with tomatoes, with 6 baseball size ones just starting to blush.
I think planting directly in the garden eliminates one round of transplant shock.

My mother water-rooted hers. Her south-facing kitchen window was always full of glasses of something being rooted. I bought a "window greenhouse" and put it in for her.
I got a chicken liver dinner and some sweet tea out of it, so i came out ahead.

[MarieV]

I'm in Seattle, and I've been keeping records of my tomato plants for the past 3 years. I grew different varieties from seed, and I kept records of time from transplant to fruit set and days to breaking color, at least for the first few fruit that formed on each plant.

Summer 2011 and 2012 were unusually cool for Seattle, with highs in the mid-60s to mid-70s and lows in the mid-50s through most of June, July, and August. In 2011 and 2012 I planted my tomatoes between Memorial Day and the first week of June and kept the plants under PVC tunnels until early July, when it usually stopped raining. Under these conditions cherry tomatoes like Sungold and Blush and very early tomatoes like Kimberley and Jaune Flamme took about 35-40 days from transplant to fruit set, then they took an additional 30-40 days from fruit set to color break. Early black tomatoes like Cherokee Purple, Spudakee, Vorlon, Indian Stripe, and Black and Red Boar took about 40-45 days from transplant to fruit set, then they also took an additional 30-40 days to break color. Later tomatoes like White Queen, Orange Russian 117, Porkchop, and Gary'O Sena took 40-45 days to set fruit and an additional 45-50 days to break color.

This summer has been much warmer, with highs in the mid-70s to mid-80s and lows in the high-50s since late May, but I got a late start. I wasn't able to transplant my starts and seedlings until mid-June, and I only had to keep the plastic on the tunnels for about 10 days before it stopped raining, and temperatures heated up. Given the much warmer weather the plants have been setting fruit much earlier. The larger Sungold plants from 1 gallon containers weren't even put under plastic, and they took less than 20 days to set fruit and only an additional 20-25 days to break color. All of my other seedlings, including Cherokee Purple, Black and Red Boar, Vorlon, Spudakee, Paul Robeson, Rosella Purple, and Tasmanian Chocolate have all set fruit within 30-35 days from transplant. None of the larger varieties have started blushing, but I'm guessing a few of them will start blushing in another week or two, or about 30-35 days after fruit set. Even with the late start, I'm hoping we'll be eating more fresh tomatoes earlier than we did the past two years.

Here in Seattle our fall rains usually start around the last week of September, so a lot of tomato growers remove new flowers and buds around Labor Day. However, last year we had unusually warm and dry weather until the second week of October, so I was harvesting fruit at least until mid-October before the fruit started splitting.

[cythaenopsis]

Marie, thanks for posting your records on tomato plant growth -- very interesting.

With your indeterminate varieties, have you observed the time from setting fruit to ripened fruit varies by the growth stage of the plant? I'm just curious if you've seen flowers set in the latter stage of the plant's maturity to grow and ripen faster, or if the time required to ripen is unchanged on average.

Also, what do you do to help encourage pollination?

[SharonRossy]

I would like to know that as well. I've found that cherries can keep going here in Montreal till September if temps stay warm. But bigger varieties like brandywine, black Krim, Cuore Di Bue probably won't have a chance if they haven't set fruit by now. My really late varieties like Aunt Ruby's German Green and Aunt Gertie's Gold is where I am really struggling, because they took forever to blossom and set fruit. I am really trying to contain any new blossoms. The only indeterminant I will probably take a chance with is Bloody Butcher, cause its 55 days.