Planting out tomatoes and other veggies thread 2017

OK folks, I’m starting a new thread this year about putting transplants and seed starts in your veggie plots. I’m sure there’s lots of folks who’ve already planted stuff.

I regret to report we haven’t planted anything but a few onion sets. But, we have tomato, pepper, greens, and herb seedlings growing indoors, and hope to get them in the ground over the next few weeks. Looks like we will have about 40 tom plants, and 30 or so pepper plants going in the garden this year.

Our plots have been disked, limed and fertilized. All we need to do is till our plots and we’ll be ready to go. Hope to put seed potatoes, and sweet taters in the ground this week.

So, whatever you’ve planted, let’s hear about it, and if you want, post some pics.

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Not planting out yet, but here are some pics of what I potted up today. That’s 22 peppers and a couple basil plants. That’s in addition to the 40 tomatoes and 4 peppers under the grow lights.

Don’t have room for these under the lights, so I guess they’ll stay on the dining table for now. It’s not like we eat at the table anymore.

And, a pic for those with X ray vision:

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Today was planned to be my day for putting out the toms and pepps, but the threat of mud got me to do it Monday instead, while the ground was workable.

Lettuce, brassicas, onions, potatoes etc went out 6 weeks ago. For the most part these days I start veggies inside and transplant them out. Exceptions being spinach and legumes. I’ve already got one row of bush beans coming up, but they’re sulking because of the cool weather and may never do well

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Today I planted my small amount of tomatoes, peppers, and a cucumber at home. Trying some new tomatoes this year, Carbon and Sunpeach along with some reliable ones like Early Girl, Tidy Treats, and Big Beef. Same old peppers that produce like crazy for me, Sweet Banana and Cubanelle.

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My plants are all struggling - tomatoes in the ground (too cold outside) and peppers and eggplants in the pots - too crowded. Can’t wait when weather gets to normal.

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These are the peppers that I got to sprout and will be planting them out when they get a bit bigger:

Jalapeño (5)
Yellow Banana (3)
Stavros Pepperoncini (3)
Serrano (2)
Red Marconi (2)
Golden Calwonder
Quadrato d’Asti Rosso

From @thepodpiper:
Bulgarian Carrot (2)
Ancient Sweet (2)
Tobago Sweet Scotch Bonnet (2)
Ancho Mulato (2)
Beaver Dam
Padron

I tried some others he provided, but they haven’t sprouted, yet. Some take a while, so I’m not giving up on them yet.

My wife wants lots of jalapeño’s, so we’ll probably need to buy some more, along with some other peppers.

I planted my tomatoes out this past weekend. So far so good.

Keep your head up…extended shows summer warmth a week to 10 days from now.

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Here’s the tomatoes I potted up last week:

Chocolate Cherry (2)
Orange KY Beefsteak (3)
Abe Lincoln (3)
Paul Robeson (2)
Jaune Flamme (2)
Striped Roman (2)
Russian Pink Honey (3)
Gordost Sibiri (3)
Red Calabash (3)
Watermelon Beefsteak (3)
De Barao (2)
Pineapple (2)
Russian Queen (2)
Cream Sausage (2)
Red Beefsteak (2)

From @Drew51:
Indian Stripe (2)
Girl Girl’s Weird Thing (2)

We wanted bigger tomatoes for slicing and canning, so we have about 26 of those. The rest are Roma types, cherry, etc. I’m not counting Drew’s, as I don’t know what size his tom’s get. What would you say is the average weight of these two varieties, Drew?

Indian Stripe is a smaller tomato, even though related to Cherokee Purple, it is not as big. I don’t know weight? I never really weighed any. Bigger than a golf ball. GGWT can get to be the size of a softball. Size varies from golf ball to softball.
I lost 7 plants to frost, really pissed. I decided to just grow more seed out. it will put my way behind, but I will get some production. I only had 14 so lost half my crop. No big deal, I don’t really need that many for just me and the wife anyway. She said “good, you grow too many!” Well I planted 16 more, and some Thai basil too. See what comes up as my seeds are in bad shape. Some of them anyway. The plants I’m growing I need to restock seed. So that kinda hurt. Also a couple were way ahead. Oh well, part of gardening. And I still have time. I lost 6 weeks, big deal.

Striped Roman is a nice tomato, for a Roma type. I would grow those for sure.

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I’m hoping my “new” garden will produce - - something/anything!

I’m forced to break ground on a new spot as my metal building went over half my old garden spot. (that I had amended over the years…)

Been trying to get a fence around the new garden between rains and commitments, so I could get some stuff planted out. Was running out of daylight last night, so as soon as I got three sides fenced, I picked up all my tools and put the ATV away in advance of the rain, then got the tiller out and tilled - planted 12 tomatoes and at 9:45 my daughter stopped by and walked out into the garden with her cell phone light to shine on the last two I got in. It was just too dark by then.

So I got Brandywine Sudduth, Neves Azorean Red (NAR), and San Marzano heirlooms in and then a couple of Hybrid Beefsteaks in ahead of the rain (12 total)

Then I ran and got a spare roll of lightweight fencing that I could run across the front of the garden to keep wildlife out.

Then the rains came…

Well, 8/10th anyway.

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That’s dedication, planting by phone light! Those sound like a good variety of tom’s, the first two varieties can make some huge fruits. Did you grow those from seed?

We like San Marzano a lot, but the last two years we’ve tried to grow them, they were one of the first plants to get diseases, so we dropped them from the rotation this year.

On another theme, are you trying strawberries this year? I know you had some issues with them last year, and ended up plowing them up. So, are you giving them another shot?

It’s just been such a frustrating year I guess. I can’t remember ever planting a garden this late, and I knew if I didn’t get something in the ground it’d be even longer before the ground dried enough with the rain we had coming our way. Plus I’d started my seed trays on 3/6 & 3/10 so they were feeling a bit crowded anyway.

I still have a few other varieties I want to get planted out but they’ll be later now.

Mostly I use seeds I save from year to year, but I lurk over on Tomatoville and after following a couple threads I decided to order some Brandywine Sudduth & NAR seeds in to give a try. Both sounded like something we’d like and we were shy on bigger toms last year. And I grabbed a packet of Beefsteak from someplace to try those as well.

That’s why I went from Roma to San Marzano, just trying to get a paste tomato that wouldn’t be so prone to issues. I just could never get Roma’s to do well here so I stopped planting them and went to SM. Overall they’ve been pretty good, though I do usually suffer BER on a few of the early fruit. The plants seem to out grow it, and it wasn’t as bad last year so maybe the extra calcium was actually working…

Not this year anyway, just too much on the agenda that will probably not get attended to as it is. Maybe down the line though.

Looks like we’re in for some summer-like weather this next week so hopefully we can get planted and see some things start to grow!

My best would be Romeo, massive beasts too. Produce well and seem to resist many diseases. Hard to find seed.

Wow… I just looked this up on the Michigan Heirlooms site - they say they can get up to one and a half pounds!! THAT’s a whopper of a paste tomato now.

Yes impressive, I can look for my saved seeds for you. I have not grown it since 2015. I have been trying others. I have limited room. I will grow more next year.

What’s funny these are not heavy, they are very dry, meant for sauce for sure. I make sauce, I did not taste any as in my opinion fresh taste tells you little about cooked taste. I thought they were excellent as sauce.

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Thanks Drew, If you did save some and happen to run across them that’d be very cool, but don’t make a project out of it for sure. I mean I doubt I’d get 'em planted until next year anyway.

BTW, unless that’s like a 2-year old grandchild holding the three toms, THOSE ARE AWESOME!

The San Marzano are rather bland to me fresh, but the wife is all about the taste in cooking. I had only planted two plants last year, and although they each were over 6’ tall and loaded, that simply was not enough for her. She gave me the directive this year: PLANT MORE SAN MARZANO’S!!!

As an aside; my daughter works at an Italian restaurant in Omaha, we were in there to eat one evening and she brings the owner over to introduce him, commenting that she’d told him her dad grows San Marzano tomatoes (Their menu mentions San Marzano in about every meal description)

The owner grows his own in a little garden outside his establishment. So we’re jaw-jacking about that, and I told him that I’d read a Wikipedia article on them and that they’re a real big deal over in “the old country” and that there have been mega-dollar lawsuits, etc. He leans in nodding his head a with kind of a down-turn smile and says “There have been people KILLED because of them…” all the while nodding as he’s talking. (Really fed my preconceived notion about some things…:slight_smile:)

Anyway, that Wiki article is very interesting reading I think.

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I was not getting the gist of the restaurateur’s conversation, then I figured he was talking about SM’s back in Italy? Wow, that’s some interesting stuff. Guess they take their 'mater’s pretty seriously!

Exactly!

I tried to put the Wikipedia link here, but it just would show the first paragraph. Anyway, here’s one excerpt from the article I found pretty interesting:

Because of San Marzano’s premium pricing, there is an ongoing battle against fraudulent product. On November 22, 2010,[citation needed] the Italian carabinieri confiscated 1,470 tons of canned tomatoes worth €1.2 million of improperly labeled product.

San Marzano tomatoes have been designated as the only tomatoes that can be used for Vera Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza)

In Italy, Spain, and Basque region, food is everything, and it is some of the best in the world. France too! Check out that last episode of Anthony Bourdan in Basque on CNN if you have on Demand cable. Fascinating!

Back to tomatoes, one woman on Tomatoville goes all over the world and collects seed. She has introduced many new varieties to members.
Another common sauce tomato are the Costoluto tomatoes. These are not past tomatoes, but have a rigid structure, are the pleated tomatoes.
I have seed to these, I tried them, and they are very good, but I don’t like all the seeds. Sauce only tomatoes, as they are rather bland fresh.
I have the following

Costoluto Di Parma - One of our all time favourites. This stunning old
fashioned heirloom variety from ITALY produces lots of large flat round
shaped bright red tomatoes. The sweet taste and meaty flesh with few
seeds an all round delicious tomato. Tomatoes are flattened globe shaped
and slightly ribbed and can grow to a weight of 10 - 12 oz. Great for
stuffed tomatoes. Very productive for an heirloom variety. good old
fashioned tomato taste either in a salad or perfect for cooking in sauces.
Indeterminate. A large squashed ribbed tomato from Parma in the region of
Emilia -Romagna.A mid-early vigourous plant producing meaty fruits with
few seeds and “old fashioned” flavour. This particular variety has been
around for a long time and highly revered in this food producing region
Purchased from biotom49 on EBay (owns 50 acre certified organic farm)

Costoluto Fiorentino -
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type heirloom
Country Italy
Tomato Costoluto Fiorintino. Large heirloom beefsteak type from Florence.
Red, 12-16 ounces slightly flattened fruit. Outstanding taste. 75-80 days.
Large vigorous Indeterminate plant with good production. This makes a
really nice sauce also, especially the quick cooked type.
Purchashed from Seeds From Italy

Costoluto Genovese -
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type open-pollinated, heirloom
Country Italy
Italian, heat-loving, heirloom tomato that has been enjoyed for many
generations along the Mediterranean. Large, deep-red fruits have a
singularly fluted profile, are deeply ridged, and heavily lobed. Meaty,
full-flavored, slightly tart, and delicious. Because of its scalloped
edges, perfect for use in an arrangement of different colored sliced
tomatoes. Makes a rich and pungent pasta sauce. Thomas Jefferson grew these
and mentions them in 1782 in his State of Virgina Address.
obtained from Nancyruhl at TomatoVille - This is brokenbar strain
brought back from Italy. No germination
Fresh source from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds

Costoluto Genovese sel Valente
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type open-pollinated, heirloom
Country Italy
VF Indeterminate. A vigorous, high producing plant with brilliant red
fruit of 8-10 ounces. Fruit are somewhat flattened and have pronounced
ribs and excellent taste. This selection has resistance to fusarium &
vert. wilts. Also makes a very good sauce. A good mid-season tomato
(75-80 days).
Purchashed from Seeds From Italy

Also one I bought, I forgot about is Cow’s Tit, I have yet to grow out. My wife asked me this year to limit sauce making this year. It takes all day, and I have to do this three or 4 times. Instead she wants me to concentrate on my Honey Do list.

We tried a couple Costoluto Fiorentino plants last year. They didn’t grow as big as the other plants, and didn’t produce a lot. The taste was OK, but all that fluting is a pain if you’re canning. The fruit is medium sized and the plant seemed to be pretty disease resistant. So, it didn’t make the cut this year. It is a very interesting fruit to look at tho.