tomatolord
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2004
- Messages
- 548
Glad to share - since i luv em so much!!<br /><br />1st some tomato tidbits.<br /><br />tomato's are vines, so if they are not growing then no fruit, they grow 4-6 inches and produce flowers<br /><br />There are indeterminate tomato's they are bush or paste - they are designed to produce all their fruit at once for making sauce<br /><br />Flowers will pollinate only under certain conditions.<br />cool tomatos - early girl - need above 40 but BELOW 60 <br />warm tomato's - beefsteak type - need ABOVE 60 at NIGHT to pollinate.<br /><br />ABOVE 90 at night tomato's wont pollinate<br /><br />So dont worry if the 1st set of flowers fall off, if flowers continue to fall off they are not pollinating so<br />NIGHT TIME temps are wrong<br />or<br />Not enough bees<br />or<br />the first set of flowers tend to fall off<br /><br />1 - I dont rototill, i pile in 1 foot of leaf mulch and plant directly into that, you can get it from the city, or your own yard.<br /><br />This keeps the moisture in the roots - very important, it also promotes worms, and keeps all the weeds down.<br /><br /><br />2 - wall o waters. http://www.wallowater.com/ <br />You have to use these!!! These are the MAIN secret. They allow you to plant 2-3 months earlier than without them. The wow's protect the plant and keep it cosy, so that the roots are growing, but the plant is not. With these my tomato roots are always over 2 feet long<br /><br />When the NIGHT TIME warm weather hits your plant will grow 4 inches in 1 day, remember its a vine so it has to grow to produce fruit<br /><br />3- Put a ring of DOLOMTIC LIMESTONE around the plant and 4-5 handfuls into the hole - this prevents the blossom end rot, the rot at the bottom of a tomato<br /><br />4 - fertilizer I only drop some 10-10-10 into the hole and around the plant - I dont use miracle grow or anything else.<br /><br />5 - stake em high!! Either way by june/july your plants should be 6foot high<br /><br />Personally i only grow Cherokee Purple - it is an heirloom tomato, next is brandywine, then german johson in my opinion<br /><br />The only downside to this method, is you have to grow your own plants, because you can grow well before it is the local time to grow.<br /><br />happy tomatoing!!
