2016 Season Progression

[Worth1]

I might just go out and pick a little one and fry it up just so I can say I harvested my first tomato in February.

Worth

[jpop]

Haha, that's great Worth. Although I'm sure some heads would explode. What's that, outdoor tomatoes in February in Austin.

[jpop]

A little update. Harvested a new big dwarf, Tasmanian chocolate, and rosella purple. To those inquiring, approximately 65-70 DTM.

[jpop]

The new big dwarf won this round hands down w/ a 9 (do not give 10's so I will reserve the 9.5 after I taste the other varieties once ripened), followed very closely by Tasmanian chocolate at 8.5, and rosella purple at 7.5. All very good but the NBD and TC really stood out against the RP. We will see how our current warmer weather does for the RP. Some background:

My wife can take or leave a tomato and when she tried the NBD, she could not believe the flavor and texted her family how amazing it was and how excited she is that I grew tomatoes this year, w/ a laundry list of potential dishes. I am hoping to bring her over to this side as this opens potentially more backyard for my containers haha.

[Fiishergurl]

So exciting!! The plants look loaded with fruit. How are the temps?

Ginny

[jpop]

Thank you Ginny. Mid 80's day, high 60's night. Fruit set on the dwarfs have been outstanding

[Barb_FL]

Your plants still look great with all that fruit. The tomatoes looks so good.

I need to try NBD again.

How did the containers without the Calcium Nitrate do?

[JohnAtk]

Wow. This is great. Here, in England we need to wait for three more months to start eating home-grown tomatoes. I really envy you. Great job.

[jpop]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Your plants still look great with all that fruit. The tomatoes looks so good.

I need to try NBD again.

How did the containers without the Calcium Nitrate do?

Thank you Barb, and great question. The earthboxes with 2-3 plants each w/ the calcium nitrate produced faster growth, flowered and set fruit faster w/ greater yields than the same planted by themselves in single pots. However, I will update soon as just today I had to cut back and discard much of 2 big beef, 3 new big dwarf, and 1 Sioux plant and app. 30 young unripen tomatoes due to disease or tomato russet mites. Very humbling as I have never had this much fruit set and the stems started to fold due to the stress from the disease/pests.

You can see the link I posted a couple days ago asking for help. http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=40170

[jpop]

Originally Posted by JohnAtk

Wow. This is great. Here, in England we need to wait for three more months to start eating home-grown tomatoes. I really envy you. Great job.

Thank you for the kind words. However, if you see the post above a lot has transpired in the past 3 days due to disease/pests resulting in 30 young unripe tomatoes being harvested as a result which will likely end in the trash. At least I have August around the corner to start new seeds.

[JohnAtk]

I've heard that some people make pickled green tomatoes. You can try it on the young picked ones, if you want. You don't have to throw them in the trash, there still are options to use them.

Originally Posted by jpop

Thank you for the kind words. However, if you see the post above a lot has transpired in the past 3 days due to disease/pests resulting in 30 young unripe tomatoes being harvested as a result which will likely end in the trash. At least I have August around the corner to start new seeds.

[PureHarvest]

Nice plants jpop.
Sorry to hear about the difficulties.

If pests and disease didn't mess things up, could you give a rough estimate of how many pounds per plant you think you could get on the dwarfs?

[Dinahsb]

I love your pictures. I am a new member. I know I'm going to learn so much.

[jpop]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

Nice plants jpop.
Sorry to hear about the difficulties.

If pests and disease didn't mess things up, could you give a rough estimate of how many pounds per plant you think you could get on the dwarfs?

Since this is my 1st growing them Gerardo can give you better input on overall yields but I have 3 plants per earthbox w/ a fruit avg. app. 6-8 oz. w/ over 20 fruit each w/ new ones setting as we speak. So, I would venture 10 lbs. per plant, maybe better. Also, have a number of fused blossoms for some reason w/ some fruit likely around 16oz. or so. You need to factor that 3-4 can be planted where 2 plants could and under ideal controlled growing conditions, I would not be surprised to get 30% or better yields as I had a lot of blossoms drop during our cold spell. Very impressed w/ the yields and the taste of Tasmanian chocolate is excellent. Will definitely grow again come this August. Here is a different pic of another earthbox loaded w/ fruit.

[Ricky Shaw]

So healthy! Beautiful work.