What tomatoes will you grow this year (2017)?

I’m growing plants under a grow light. First time, not sure what is going on but they are not looking good. I don’t see spider mites but the bronze look is a sign I think. Help!

One of the common problem might be is it is too wet and roots do not receive enough oxygen. The soil maybe too heavy or you do not let them to dry between watering. Your peppers also do not look very happy. I usually water every 5-7 days and only if the soil gets dry.

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You are probably right on target with my over watering. Wow and the pepper catch! I hope I can cut back and get back to healthier veggies.

Thank you

I believe Antmary is spot on.

Let them dry out totally, if they are not wilting they do not need water, then when you do finally water them add H2o2 with your water.

If it were me I would repot in some drier soil. It would be the quickest way to recovery.

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Well, I put together my list of 15 last night after discussing with Mrs Dood. They really didn’t change from my earlier list:

Chocolate Cherry, Orange KY Beefsteak, Abe Lincoln, Watermelon, Paul Robeson, Jaune Flamme, Siberian Pink Honey, Striped Roman, Russian Queen, Gordost Sibiri, Red Calabash, Pineapple, Indian Stripe, Girl Girl’s Weird Thing and Dr Wyche’s Yellow.

Fifteen total varieties, at least one of each, and if we really like it, maybe three of some. I’m not planning on more than 40 plants this year. We’re looking for max production this year, and hope our soil amendments will pay off.

Starting my seeds around April 3, think that’ll give me plenty of time to get them big enough to be a decent size when they go in the ground. Would like to have them in the garden around the end of May. We had a mid-May freeze last year that spooked me, so I can wait. Plus, the ground should be warmer by then. Will also be starting my peppers at the same time.

Also starting lettuce, cabbage, chard, etc indoors, as I haven’t had much luck sowing them straight into the garden.

Was at Southern States today, and saw that they had seed potatoes out, but think we can wait a bit on those. They just had the usual Kennebec, Red Pontiac, and Yukon Gold varieties available.

The last week of March and first week of April will be mucho busy around here, with our fruit trees and bushes coming in as well.

Ginny has not been here all year, miss her input, I pm’ed her, see if she’s just busy. She was growing some tomatoes in Michigan for over 20 years, saving seed the whole time. Now well adapted to my environment. She was a member of Tomatoville, and may just be hanging there, it’s a great site for sure. I picked my final plants now too. I had to cull out as many as I’m growing. It’s a good thing seed is good for a long time!

Which ones have you decided on? Have you started them already? Didn’t you say you’ve started your peppers?

I’m tempted to start all mine now, but it’s still March, so what’s the rush? I’ve done that the last couple years, and my plants got too big (or leggy) before I planted them. I want them to be nice and thick and stocky plants this year. Was thinking of running a small fan across them while growing them to cause them to thicken up.

I’ll list them later. It is mostly seeds that are old, or got wet this year. Like the ones you gave me, I’ll try next year. I’ll post the list later, I have to go in a minute.[quote=“subdood_ky_z6b, post:87, topic:9320”]
Didnt you say you’ve started your peppers?
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Yeah yesterday and Tomatoes April 1st.
I usually run a fan, I have a bulb out, just ordered a replacement. No biggy I have 3 different plant lights. I have onions going too, started them last month.
Yeah they can get leggy for sure even under good light.
I started the peppers because many are hot and those take a long time to do anything. Once they start fruiting it’s like fireworks going off, they are very productive plants.

You can start peppers earlier. It takes longer time for them to germinate then tomatoes. And they grow slowly and never get leggy. I usually start mine in February and they do fine.

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Yeah, I wish I would have started some of the hot ones earlier, I know they can take their time producing.

Question: I had a lot of my jalapeño peppers turn red very quickly last year, I’ve never seen that before. Could that be because of a calcium deficiency? I had soil tests done on that plot, and it was very low in that nutrient, plus low in potassium and magnesium.

Almost all jalapeños ripen red. All pepper varieties will turn color when ripe. Jalapeno"s are actually a little sweet when ripe and certainly a different taste than one that is not ripe.

I start all chinense species in January because they are very slow growers and then all the others around March 1st. I start my tomatoes around St Patricks Day

Some wild pepper varieties I have grown have taken 3 months to germinate .

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Sometimes my sweet peppers ripen early and then they have a hole and a worm inside. But it happens only early in the season and quite rarely. I do not know what bug causes it. During calcium deficiency the peppers have rot on the tip that spreads and peppers just rot and do not ripen. Maybe you just had an early variety of jalapeño peppers.

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Is super sweet 100 as productive as they say it is? Last year I had 2 tomato plants. This year I’m cutting down to one. Thinking about doing a cherry variety. My kids hate tomatoes, hoping they’ll like cherry tomatoes. I don’t have the space to grow tomatoes, don’t want to give it the space it needs since no body in the family likes tomatoes.

It is productive, yes, and sweet. I plant it to eat fresh from the bush, but always end up with too many. It is also a monster - it takes over everything near it, so better planted alone with at least 4x4 space and support for very long vines. Stake doesn’t help much, it needs some wide 3 D structure.

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For those types I have these 4 foot square cages. I like them because you can attach them and make an 8 foot cage. I did this to protect a 5 foot fig tree. It was 7 feet and I cut it down to five.The one on the left.

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OK, final selection of tomatoes this year. Some are old, so not sure seed is still good? Why I’m growing before I lose them. I always have a plethora of varieties yet to try. I have a bunch of keepers now. Soon I will only grow them with only one or two new ones a year. For now though, most are new to me, and just testing them.
I wanted to grow Old Detroit, but seed is new and in good shape, it can wait till next year.

Tim’s Black Ruffles
Rosella Purple dwarf, one of the best from the project.
Stump of the World
Seek-No-Further Love Apple
Black from Tula
Federle
Bear Creek
Mortgage Lifter, Estler’s (hard to find, the best sub variety of this one)
Black Cherry - Cherry tomato
Black Sea Man
Caron Copy - Cherry Tomato
Black Pear
Pruden’s Purple

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Bush Early Girl, Seedling Vine and Roma

Vine and Roma seedlings

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Well it’s named right! Wow! If I ever want to make a tomato bonsai, it’s going to be Early Girl!

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I was thinking about some kind of pergola-like structure. For tomatoes I use Texas Tomato cages and love them, very convenient, though awfully expensive. But if my sweet 100 is growing in a row with others tomatoes it ends up spreading its branches on top of the other cages in all reachable directions for at least 6 ’ :slight_smile:. And if no support available on the sides it just drops new branches down from 6 foot tall cage to the ground.

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Looks like you’re a purple 'mater fan! I’ve mentioned it before, but the purples just don’t work that well for me. But, after some amendments to our soil they might work out, but not this year. The only dark tom’s I’m trying this year are Choc Cherry and Paul Robeson.

Another fertilizer questions fer ye, and maybe ask @Levers101, since he’s studied this stuff. My soil reports recommend some lime. Two of my plots have good calcium and magnesium levels, and pH above 6. My other five plots have low Ca and relatively low Mg levels, and all have pH of around 5.

Which type of lime would my 5 poor plots need? I have some dolomitic lime (25% Ca, 9% Mg), but don’t want to add too much mag to the soil. Would a calcitic lime (>50% Ca?, <5% Mg?), be better for my situation? I don’t want gypsum, as it won’t raise the pH enough.

Some other data, which might or might not mean anything. The CEC of all the plots is about 11-12%, which indicates the texture of the soil being silty loam? The % base Sat of these five plots is around 20%, which is too low. That includes about a 15% to 5% Ca to Mg ratio.

OK, hope I haven’t made yer brains overheat!