Wispy/sparse foliage

Originally Posted by JLJ_

Anna Maria's Heart is early, wispy, and fairly productive for me. Here, it has done better than Anna Russian.

Thanks for the information. Where did you get your seeds?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shule1

Thanks for the information. Where did you get your seeds?

I was the person who got the seeds from Scott and first SSE listed it.

While Tania says wispy leaves I grew it a lot for SSE listings and seed offers and never saw anything wispy about it.

It's true that most hearts do have wispy foliage,but not all do.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...aria%27s_Heart

Be sure to look at the few leaves showing in a couple of pictures and share with me if you think they are wispy,for I don't.

Carolyn

[Ricky Shaw]

And please tell me Carolyn, of Anna Margaret's Heart habit, which I've been lucky enough to come upon seeds. Thank you and so good to see you posting every day.

The pics do not look wispy, but they're taken fairly close up.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...aret%27s_Heart

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

And please tell me Carolyn, of Anna Margaret's Heart habit, which I've been lucky enough to come upon seeds. Thank you and so good to see you posting every day.

The pics do not look wispy, but they're taken fairly close up.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...aret%27s_Heart

Tania has it right, and if you were to drive over to the Western Slope of Co you could meet George,who is the one who gave me seeds for it,a family heirloom of his,also the one who was giving out seeds for Orange Russian 117,also the one who just started a thread trying to help out imp in her current situation.

And also the one who sent me lucious peaches from the western slope last week and now two days ago some of those western slope melons.

When I was in Denver we couldn't wait until the great fruits were sent over to where we were.There was one place in particular, a nursery,who were the first to get them, I think they may have sent over their own trucks to get them, and the line was very long indeed, and I was in those lines week after week until the season was over.

Carolyn, who almost forgot to mention that no,again,not wispy and Tania says nothing about wispy.George sent me LOTS of seeds,I offered it in my 2014 seed offer and still have LOTS of seed that will probably be in my catch up offer this Fall.And I won't be posting every day b/c for medical reasons I had to get a 6 mo ext for taxes, due mid Oct, and I haven't the faintest idea of where all that info is. Knowing me I may stop by from time to time,but not posting as much.

[Ricky Shaw]

I've corresponded with George, a kind and sharing individual. I believe he's residing along the front range now, couple hundred miles to the south of here. Those are some lovely pictures of ripened Anna Margaret's Hearts at Tatiana's site.

Shule, not wanted cages. Are you going to pole or stake these plants? Or, are you looking to let them sprawl? I believe the market grower in Utah, Joshep, let's his sprawl. You'll need room for that.

[Gerardo]

Larisa fits the bill, flavor is right down the middle of the plate. Very productive, relatively compact, wispy, big fruits.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Larisa

I can get you some seeds if you want to grow it, mine came from the great state of Tennessee (thank you Sir!).

[b54red]

Pruden's Purple is not wispy but if the suckers are kept trimmed off it is very sparse and very productive and it sure taste better than most of the hearts I have eaten. It is also very early and sets fruit well in the heat of summer. I have to use the Missouri pruning so they aren't too sparse in our southern sunshine.

Bill

[Ricky Shaw]

Pruden's Purple is not wispy but if the suckers are kept trimmed off it is very sparse and very productive. -Bill

I've not grown Pruden's Purple, but that's how I found Rebel Yell to be. Grown beside Brandy Boy and each pruned to 3 stems, the Rebel Yell was noticeably skinnier at equal height.

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

…

Shule, not wanted cages. Are you going to pole or stake these plants? Or, are you looking to let them sprawl? I believe the market grower in Utah, Joshep, let's his sprawl. You'll need room for that.

I generally let most of my tomatoes sprawl (most of them are indeterminate, too). That's what I grew up doing, and I still enjoy it. I'm just starting to experience using tomato cages. I've staked tomatoes a few times, but not much. Cages seem a lot more effective, so far.

I'll probably let most of my plants sprawl next year, but I may cage about five to fifteen plants, and I might put up a panel or two for several others. I might not, though. It all depends.

I'm used to tomatoes lying on the ground. It's pretty dry here; so, it doesn't seem to bother them much (even if I water a lot).

How much room you need to give sprawling tomatoes depends on a lot of things. I probably better not get into it much, though, since planting sprawling indeterminate tomatoes close together probably isn't ideal for most people (although it can be functional, for certain goals). It is good to know that you can still get plenty or fruit, and large fruit, when plants are as close as a foot and a half apart, at least in our soil with the watering methods I used this year (but finding and harvesting that fruit may be difficult, as may navigating through the plants, and finding the tags for the plants). Plants will definitely smother other plants (but sometimes they escape), and the smothered plants sometimes (not always) still produce (like if they grow out from under the smothering tomato, or if they're just awesome).

Golden King of Siberia is the only really wispy/sparse plant I've grown, in my opinion (with the possible exception of Maglia Rosa). My Galapagos Island tomato isn't exactly sparse, but the branches are thin and the leaves are smaller as a result (so, it's also easy to see all the ripe tomatoes).

My primary goal with growing wispy/sparse tomatoes is to make it so I can know where all the ripe tomatoes are without too much work, if I want to grow a jungle (i.e. see and/or reach through the foliage easily to the fruit). If all the plants are like Golden King of Siberia was last year, it should work out pretty well, in theory. The fruit was easier to find than the foliage, I think.

Originally Posted by b54red

Pruden's Purple is not wispy but if the suckers are kept trimmed off it is very sparse and very productive and it sure taste better than most of the hearts I have eaten. It is also very early and sets fruit well in the heat of summer. I have to use the Missouri pruning so they aren't too sparse in our southern sunshine.

Bill

I grew Pruden's Purple last year, and I'm growing it this year, too. It's my favorite hamburger tomato. I plan to grow it next year, too (again from saved seeds). It was indeed heat-tolerant last year (probably this year, too—but I haven't noticed significant problems with heat-tolerance on any of my tomatoes, this year, even though it has been in the 90's and 100's a lot; I'm guessing the change in my watering methods, and the soil pH, might have improved their heat-tolerance; to be fair, I did grow a lot more heat-tolerant varieties this year, though). I'm excited to see how Pruden's Purple does on its third year.

While I do agree that it is perhaps sparser than average, it's not as sparse as I'm looking for (and the leaves are large). I still had to search with effort through the foliage to find the fruit, eventually. It was sprawling, though, and near other non-wispy plants. This year, the plant isn't accessible for examination (yet), except for two plants that I planted in the same spot off in a raised bed (because I wasn't sure what to do with them, and I left them there to experiment; I figured if I put two in the same spot they would be kind of stunted and not take over the raised bed, even if they didn't get much fruit—this turned out to be true on both accounts). I'm grateful to say that I got a fruit from one of those plants, saved seeds, and ate the fruit on a hamburger (it was good, again). I hope to give it better conditions next year (especially as it'll be a third-year tomato, and it should be fairly acclimatized to a lot of the stuff around here).

I haven't tried pruning suckers off to improve production. Thanks for the idea. I'm generally not a big pruner, though. How much does it improve production?

Originally Posted by carolyn137

…

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...aria%27s_Heart

Be sure to look at the few leaves showing in a couple of pictures and share with me if you think they are wispy,for I don't.

Carolyn

I don't really consider that wispy/sparse, either, as far as I can tell, but it's hard to tell for sure without seeing the branches with the leaves on them.

The pictures of Silvery Fir Tree actually don't look very sparse to me, either, but it does look cool (and wispy), and I do want to grow it. I ordered seeds last night.

I guess what I'm looking for is plants with smaller leaves. That's kind of how Golden King of Siberia is. The leaves are small and wispy and they don't really cover the plant at all, but it still grows fruit.

[carolyn137]

My primary goal with growing wispy/sparse tomatoes is to make it so I can know where all the ripe tomatoes are without too much work, if I want to grow a jungle (i.e. see and/or reach through the foliage easily to the fruit). If all the plants are like Golden King of Siberia was last year, it should work out pretty well, in theory. The fruit was easier to find than the foliage, I think.

******

For me,depending on the season and varieties grown,those varieties with normally sparse foliage cover of leaves,or indeed wispy,whatever that means to each person,are far more affected by sunscald.

And when I was growing several hundreds of plants and varieties they were all planted in a single row, 3-4ft apart,5 ft between rows and grown inground and 8-10 such rows.

I don't think most folks realize that with inground indet the fruits are nestled at the top of the sprawling plant, where it's flat,not underneath.

SoI had 8-10 rows,250 ft long and could compare indet and det and every couple of days I'd go down thru the rows with my data book and record,first blossoms,first fruit set,fruit color and form,and when first ripe one. also plant habit and leaf form,just to confirm they were true.

There would be seeds sent to me with no in fo at all,so I paid closer attention to them in terms of recording data.

And yes,I worked at several places and sometimes caged tomatoes as well,and when I moved up here I had the opportunity to grow the same variety both caged and sprawled at someone else's place.

Here at home I have few plants, freda takes care of them since I can't do that now,all are in containers or special bags and a couple at the end of one raised bed andthereare 17 plants.

And those plants are such a disaster this year that I want to


Carolyn

[b54red]

Originally Posted by shule1

I grew Pruden's Purple last year, and I'm growing it this year, too. It's my favorite hamburger tomato. I plan to grow it next year, too (again from saved seeds). It was indeed heat-tolerant last year (probably this year, too—but I haven't noticed significant problems with heat-tolerance on any of my tomatoes, this year, even though it has been in the 90's and 100's a lot; I'm guessing the change in my watering methods, and the soil pH, might have improved their heat-tolerance; to be fair, I did grow a lot more heat-tolerant varieties this year, though). I'm excited to see how Pruden's Purple does on its third year.

While I do agree that it is perhaps sparser than average, it's not as sparse as I'm looking for (and the leaves are large). I still had to search with effort through the foliage to find the fruit, eventually. It was sprawling, though, and near other non-wispy plants. This year, the plant isn't accessible for examination (yet), except for two plants that I planted in the same spot off in a raised bed (because I wasn't sure what to do with them, and I left them there to experiment; I figured if I put two in the same spot they would be kind of stunted and not take over the raised bed, even if they didn't get much fruit—this turned out to be true on both accounts). I'm grateful to say that I got a fruit from one of those plants, saved seeds, and ate the fruit on a hamburger (it was good, again). I hope to give it better conditions next year (especially as it'll be a third-year tomato, and it should be fairly acclimatized to a lot of the stuff around here).

I haven't tried pruning suckers off to improve production. Thanks for the idea. I'm generally not a big pruner, though. How much does it improve production?

Pruning doesn't necessarily improve production so much as it tends to make the fruit larger and keep the plant more manageable. Too many suckers can result in a plant that is too bushy and has far too many blossoms for many of them to set. I have found that when a plant has too many blossoms it tends to expend too much of its energy into growth tips and not enough into fruit production. With some plants I remove all suckers at the node of the main stem and cut off one of the two forks every time the stem forks. With others I still cut the extra fork but on the suckers I let some of them grow out enough to give a sparse plant like Pruden's Purple a little extra shade then pinch off the growth tip on the sucker leaving just a few leaves.

This year I kept all my plants to just one stem but now that fall is here and so many of the plants got devastated by spider mites I am letting an extra stem or two form on my old plants. My newer plants are still being limited to one stem for the most part and they are fruiting good despite the heat. This time of the year plants try to put out suckers more aggressively so every day I am pinching off suckers and forks and can hardly keep up with them; but if I don't they become a tangled mess that produce mostly small little fruit.

Bill

Has anyone mentioned Prue? It's not a heart, but it is wispy, wispy, wispy.

Ted

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Has anyone mentioned Prue? It's not a heart, but it is wispy, wispy, wispy.

Ted

I don't think anyone has mentioned Prue but I know it very well,as the link below shows as to who got seeds from me.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Prue

I was one of the first,if not the first to get it from Tom Galluci and spread it around in seed offers and SSE listings and sending to some vendors.

I like it very much,but again,I'm having trouble understanding growing so called wispy varieties to have better access to fruits, as I wrote in my post above.

Carolyn