Very early determinante tomatoes

[Cole_Robbie]

I have a lot of plants that look exactly like that one. Mine are cold-abused, too.

Oh, and I mis-spoke earlier. Productive from Altai is actually determinate.

[bower]

Vladimir, what variety is the PL that survived?

[MrBig46]

Yesterday tomatoes in a cold frame looked like this. All are growing. It tomato in the foil tunnel is Stupice. It is a big difference between Stupice in the cold frame and in foil tunnel.
Vladimír

[Cole_Robbie]

My 42 Days got sick, and I culled them.

[imp]

I'm finding this thread interesting and wondering both. Maybe next year ( gardener's lament!!) I can get in some earlies and watch them grow.

[bower]

Well my confidence in Stupice is unshaken, for sure!
It's great to see the difference between foil tunnel and cold frame, Vladimir. A lesson for all of us.

[Lindalana]

I planted Saraev Stoikiy and Zolushka/ Cinderella/ in the protected spot yesterday. Zolushka is oldie but goodie det with salad size red tomatoes.

[Gardeneer]

In my experience a lot of the so-called early tomatoes are not that early', especially if they are grown in cool climate like our PNW. Big Beef (F1) was just as early, though it is a mid season variety. Bloody Butcher and Siletz have been my earliest in the past.

Gardeneer

[MrBig46]

Stupice in the foil tunnel died. It did not survive the persistently low temperatures below 16 ° C.
All tomatoes in the cold frame are doing very well. Stupice and all Sarayev's tomatoes have already deployed flowers. Grows best M-22, worst 0-33. Even me, one of four 0-33 died and the other three have burnt leaves.
Some pictures in future.
Vladimír

[spuriousmonkey]

Growing tomatoes in Finland here.

I stopped pushing my tomatoes. This year I planted my seeds more than a month later than last year.

All the work you have to put in to get them out early is just not worth it any more for me. And all the stress when the weather turns, and usually it does unexpectedly. One year the weather turned in mid June. Lowest temperature was 2 degrees above freezing. This cold weather spell lasted an entire week.

This year I decided to not fight the climate any more. I am only growing short season varieties. Many determinants. And my seedlings are still tiny. I am aiming for them to go out on the 1st of june. Then they will have july and august. September is never any good.

I admire your experimental mindset though and dedication. It's good to try out this kind of stuff. It is the only way to find out what will work and what will not.

[MrBig46]

Originally Posted by spuriousmonkey

Growing tomatoes in Finland here.

I stopped pushing my tomatoes. This year I planted my seeds more than a month later than last year.

All the work you have to put in to get them out early is just not worth it any more for me. And all the stress when the weather turns, and usually it does unexpectedly. One year the weather turned in mid June. Lowest temperature was 2 degrees above freezing. This cold weather spell lasted an entire week.

This year I decided to not fight the climate any more. I am only growing short season varieties. Many determinants. And my seedlings are still tiny. I am aiming for them to go out on the 1st of june. Then they will have july and august. September is never any good.

I admire your experimental mindset though and dedication. It's good to try out this kind of stuff. It is the only way to find out what will work and what will not.

For me, this experiment is very important. The usual term planting tomatoes is with us after May 15. My tomatoes planted in this time begin to bloom in early June, it is a month later than the determinate tomatoes. So I should have ripe fruit a month earlier.
No work with the maintenance of these tomatoes, I just watched them grow and photographed them for documentation.
Vladimír

[Lydinge]

Originally Posted by spuriousmonkey

Growing tomatoes in Finland here.

I stopped pushing my tomatoes. This year I planted my seeds more than a month later than last year.


All the work you have to put in to get them out early is just not worth it any more for me. And all the stress when the weather turns, and usually it does unexpectedly. One year the weather turned in mid June. Lowest temperature was 2 degrees above freezing. This cold weather spell lasted an entire week.

This year I decided to not fight the climate any more. I am only growing short season varieties. Many determinants. And my seedlings are still tiny. I am aiming for them to go out on the 1st of june. Then they will have july and august. September is never any good.

I admire your experimental mindset though and dedication. It's good to try out this kind of stuff. It is the only way to find out what will work and what will not.

ACTUALLY, because of our northern latitude and the light, it is better to wait until late March/mid April to sow seeds. They grow quickly and "catch up" with seedlings from February. I know because this year I lost 20 plants to damping off and had to start over in April. Now there is no difference between the early and late starters.

Also this year my tomato plants moved outdoors in late May and were subjected to that same cold spell. I wrapped the larger ones in garden fleece and moved the smaller ones indoors. At this point all are outdoors, but the ones that were wrapped in fleece seem more vigourous.

Also must recommend the 0-33 variety (bought it from Tania's Tomatobase). It has grown like a weed throughout all our cold weather and set fruit that awful week in June. . .

Lycka till!

[MrBig46]

Now it is in our country very cold periods, comparable to 1991. Four nights were frosty, with the lowest temperature - 2 ° C. Day temperatures below 15 ° C. Only tonight temperature should be still below 0 ° C (probably the last this year). Then a warm up, day 16 to 20 ° C night over 5 ° C.
Determinate tomatoes in a cold frame are in excellent condition, are already on them inflorescence and some flowers are already developing. On Saturday, I will remove the frame and glass, to improve the conditions for pollination by wind. The picture is Sarayev Otbor 1, with four inflorescences, one is already blooming.
Vladimír

[RJGlew]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

The picture is Sarayev Otbor 1, with four inflorescences, one is already blooming.

Hi Vlado. As always, very interesting to hear about your progress. Great picture, it looks great.

[bower]

Vladimir, these results give me hope.
This april is colder than normal here. We had snow again last night, and another night of -2 C in the forecast this week. I've been monitoring the greenhouse temperatures and night time lows have shifted from 30's into 40's F in spite of the cold weather. My greenhouse has been running just 10 degrees F above outdoor temperature reported at the weather station. Compared to last year's figures, with a lot of mass mainly soil in large containers, and some water buckets, low temperatures were closer to 20 F higher inside.
The soil for my containers won't be available for a couple of weeks. Still I think I will move my tomato plants out there as soon as I can. Not ready to transplant but at least to get as much light as possible and start adapting to cold nights. They are just about four weeks old now.