It was quite cloudy, cool, and wet this day. This base became counter-sunk by about 4 inches.
Notice the nice crispy grass.
Posted on 07/03/2009 4:00:47 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. I hope every one of you have a safe and Happy 4th of July weekend! Since just about everyone grows tomatoes in their vegetable garden I thought I would share some information I stumbled across concerning when to pick your tomatoes.
Every tomato lover knows fresh, “vine-ripe” flavor is by far the best.
At the same time, many don’t know what “vine ripe” means. So, whether growing or buying tomatoes, they may be limiting their access to the top flavor of the season.
Tomatoes develop their optimum nutrition, color and flavor when they’re in the full red-ripe stage. But getting to that point doesn’t have to occur on the plant.
Tomatoes go through specific steps in developing “vine ripeness”:
* A gas called ethylene regulates the ripening process. Tomatoes start producing this gas internally when they reach full size and become pale green.
* When tomatoes turn about one-half green and one-half pink (called the breaker stage), a layer of cells forms across their stem, sealing them off from the main vine. At this stage, tomatoes can ripen on or off the vine with no loss of quality or flavor.
* Tomatoes don’t ripen at refrigerator temperatures. If harvested in the breaker stage, however, keeping them in a cool place (to a minimum 50 F) will slow down their ripening process. Keeping them warm (to a maximum 85 F) will rapidly bring full ripeness. And, once ripe, they can keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.
This kind of control allows you to spread out the good eating over a longer period. A breaker-stage harvest also allows you to protect tomatoes from the heat extremes of summer. Tomatoes can’t form their red pigments when temperatures are above 95 degrees. They’ll still ripen, but they’ll end up a yellowish-orange.
Leaving tomatoes to ripen on the vine also increases the odds for cracking and other types of damage. Plus, it puts an increasing weight load on the viney plant.
It has been a cold year so far here at 8,500 ft in the Colorado Rockies! I have to hold back laughter every time my leftist (retired social worker) neighbor complains about the cold weather and blames global warming. On July 4th it struggled all day to break 60F and is into the 40’s most nights. The only veggies really growing well are cold tolerant like potatoes and turnips. varieties that like warmer weather like tomatoes, squash, eggplant and peppers are still growing very slowly. Those 4th of July tomatoes were only about 3 inches tall yesterday. I gave everything a light feeding of 10-10-10 a few days ago so I am hoping that will speed things up a bit.
It was quite cloudy, cool, and wet this day. This base became counter-sunk by about 4 inches.
Notice the nice crispy grass.
Outstanding! LOL! Thanks.
Don't be. Yes they can cross pollinate, but according to the expert Dr Carolyn Male, there is only about a 5% chance of this happening naturally. She has grown thousands of varieties over decades.
Even if you do get a natural cross, it would not show up
in this years tomato crop, rather in the seeds of the next year's generation. This is how all the new varieties come about though, either through natural or intentional crossing.
To be absolute that your varieties don't cross, you can alway “bag” the blossoms. Blossom bags(i’ve never used them)are extremely fine mesh little sacks, that get placed over and blossom and tied. Once the tomato set forms, the bag is removed. This will ensure no outside pollen interaction.
However, blossom bags are a little expensive, hard to find and tedious to work with.
I've grown about 40 different varieties of OP tomatoes in the last five years, all in close proximity, and so far I've have no crosses that i know of.
JJ61
Check out tomatoville.com
My gardening in pots is taking off. Cold weather crops are gone, except for one or two kale and swiss chard plants. Have been having tomatoes for a couple of weeks, and cucumbers are now in abundance. I noticed the leaves of all tomato plants are turning a rusty red color and so are the leaves of basil plants. I’ve never seen this before and don’t know what it is or how to treat it. Have been thinking it is something in the soil or maybe the lack of it. Would appreciate any information offered.
JJ61, Thanks for the information! I will be trying some heirlooms next season!
Are your tomato and basil plants all in pots or containers? If so you may need to fertilize/water them more often.
They are in pots and have been fertilized with dried blood, also a squirrel repellant, dried cow manure and dried chicken poop. The pots get watered every other day. I’ve taken pictures but don’t know how to post them.
Oh, will stop fertilizing them and see what happens. Thanks.
I don't know if you can reverse what has been done. Maybe one of our experts can help out.
Not sure if this will help or not, but alot of times our stuff in containers “bronzes up”, esp if we are watering a lot b/c of hot weather or if we have a hurricane w/ a lot of rain. It’s a lack of potash usually.
Fertilize. At the garden center where I work we use miracle gro, acid miracle gro, and epsom salt—1 tablespoon of each to 1 gallon of water. It may take several days of this but you should notice them greening back up.
We have really hard water here, so you may have to adjust accordingly. :)
I've never seen foilage like that on a tomato plant.
If you can see the tomato it is growing, it definitely isn't a yellow pear!
I also am showing my first ripening tomato in the next pic... I'm so excited!
It was also the first fruit to show up in the garden.
Wow! Could it be that plant is a tomatillo? Strange that seed would be in a packet of tomatoes. Let us know what you find out. You have me curious. :)
Tomatillo was EXACTLY my first thought.
Tomatillo seeds do look very much like tomato seeds, so the possibility of one getting into the seed packet of the other doesn’t seem so strange.
If it is a tomatillo -— I am waaaaaaaay jealous because none of mine ever came up, and I love tomatilloes.
Thanks. It sure looks like one to me. I just bet you have a killer recipe for tomatillo salsa too. LOL
I just have the regular toms myself and nary a ripe one yet. In Minnesota we have to cultivate patience along with the soil. It’s fun to live vicariously through other Freepers’ harvests.
That leaf looks like my Brandwine tomato plants. They have what is called a potato leaf. Here in North Florida mine are just about done.
It’s HOT here now and my plants are literally melting. A fungus got them, even the VFN rated Goliaths, but not until we had our fill thank goodness! I’ll have to cover the beds with black plastic and hope I can kill the spores with heat.
Boy am I ignorant.. What is a tomatillo?
Probably more than you want to know:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/tomatillos.htm
They make really tasty green salsa.
Wouldn’t swear to it, but it looks like a tomatillo. :)
Have fun, whatever it is!
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