First and most important, it was free wood chip mulch that I load up on at my local compost depot by the half-ton truck load. You can get free wood chips in lots of areas as it is usually considered a waste product. My chips will be a mix of whatever trees grow locally around here: poplar, spruce, maple, pine, birch, willow, etc. I had prepared the area in 2021 by first laying down waterlogged cardboard on top of the grass and then piling maybe 6" of wood chips on top of that (could easily have gone deeper but I only had so many woodchips). The soaked cardboard lets water through while (mostly) smothering out the grass below, which all just composts in place. First time we planted tomatoes out there was the following year. I think the year to let things sit and percolate is a good idea. Otherwise you are punching holes in the cardboard for the grass to grow through.
There is a channel on Youtube called Canadian Permaculture Legacy and what I’ve learned about this stuff is largely from him. Here is his video of planting tomatoes in woodchips. I don’t have a picture of my bed from last year but just think of tomatoes growing in a bed of wood chips and there you go
Wood chip mulch does amazing things. My raspberries are in heaven.
Does anyone know a way to fight off powdery mildew? I finally had time to prune off the lower leaves of all the tomatoes, and I noticed that a couple have some on the main stem. This June gloom in SoCal wasn’t helping, but it should be sunny moving forward.
So this is my first post on this forum, just found the site recently. I live in Lakeland Florida so it is not tomato season currently due to the heat and excessive rain and humidity. However it will be seed starting time in a few weeks in my grow room. I plant in ground at the end of August beginning of September, growing indeterminate plants so we will start harvesting in late fall, through winter and spring up until about May when it gets to hot again. I pull a large 40x60 tarp (clear) over the trellis system if we have a potential freeze event or frost which is usually only 0-4 nights per winter. I place an electric heater inside to keep temps above freezing.
This past year we had bad nematode issues as well as some areas have Ralstonia (bacterial wilt) so it was a poor season. A few months ago I began researching grafting and decided to give it a go. I bought everything I needed to do this. I decided to get some practice so i don’t waste a bunch of expensive seed (rootstock seed is expensive). The rootstock I’m using is RST- 04- 105-T, for its resistance to nematodes and bacterial wilt. I started 10 of them with 10 sungold seeds as a test. The Sungold come up quick, 1-3 days before my rootstock so i learned i will need to start rootstock a few days before scions. My initial experiment failed quickly with all plants dying from damping off. I had used our pond water and i think this was the cause. I did a second trial and had no damping off issues however my rootstock developed bad edema, to the point of killing the seedlings. I did manage to save one by getting it outside in the sun. My research led me to realize many rootstock varieties need UV-B light otherwise they will get edema. Thus i had to buy some UV-B grow lights to solve that issue. I don’t know yet for sure if that will work but i believe it will.
Since i only had sungolds left for the experiment I went ahead at end of week 3 and grafted them on to their own rootstock. I don’t plan on using them but just wanted to get experience grafting. I kept my humidity chamber between 95-100% humidity for four days with temperature range of 74-78 degrees F, trimmed some leaves off, kept the grow lights on (no UV-B) except the day of grafting, and lowered the humidity 5% on day 5, another 5% on day 6, and 10% on day 7, and returned to normal humidity on day 8 which fluctuates between 55-75%. I had 9 plants and had 100% success rate. Today is end of week 5 since starting seed. I have the UV-B light on them for last few days to prepare them for the real sun which will be a couple of days from now. This will teach me what i need to do to harden the plants off.
So hopefully I have everything figured out for the real event coming up. The varieties ill be growing this year are San Marzano 2 as I love pasa sauce, Big Beef, and Sungolds. Planning on 40 San, 10, BB, and 10 SG, and self off extra grafted plants to locals. This could change some. Hope you all have a good season while i wait for mine.
i assume you mean the first one in the row. its ‘black strawberry’. we just ate the first few fruits tonight. not what youd expect out of plum tomato- more like a mini beefsteak type
This season I have discovered that the dwarf hybrid Husky Red Cherry is absolute cherry tomato perfection for my taste buds. I only wish that I could get a red cherry with this taste in an indeterminate plant (i.e., not dwarf indeterminate). As such, I’m wondering if anyone here also loves the taste of Husky Red Cherry, and if you do, have you found an indeterminate red cherry with an equally good taste? I’m looking for direct experience, not gardener hearsay. And I should note that neither Black Cherry nor Super Sweet 100 has the taste that I’m looking for. In addition, has anyone saved seeds from Husky Red Cherry, and if so, what kind of results did you get for F2?
An update on the megabloom: it looks like it pollinated. Also, I’m not sure what’s happening with two potato leaf plants. The leaves look yellowish and stunted.
Re Husky Red Cherry, get Lorelei and see if it gives the flavor you are looking for.
The plant with leaf margin necrosis is an example of a soil nutrient problem. It may be from lack of micronutrients. Check Walmart for a fertilizer with micronutrients and apply about a teaspoon to each plant each week for the next 3 weeks.
I’ve got a problem and could use some help figuring out what is going wrong. I normally grow plenty of watermelon size tomatoes. The smallest are normally the size of a dinner plate and the largest take a dishpan to hold one while cutting it. This year I can’t seem to get any BIG tomatoes. They are all small guys like these. Even the potatoes are getting in on the act. The last pic is of one from my Sarpo Mira potatoes. It is tiny too.
