Posted on 06/05/2015 8:42:34 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
“home-grown tomatoes are kind of pricey”, but BOY ARE THEY TASTY!
Make sure the pot is a minimum of 5 gal capacity. Keep the moisture level constant— dont over or underwater. In the real hot days of summer afternoons provide a little shade.
Use potting soil for containers/pots. Tomatoes like a little calcium and use fertilizer specified for tomatoes. Some varieties do better than others. Sometimes you get good production and sometimes not— what it is.
Ellendra - you might be interested in this thread.
Pull off the suckers, and remember that too much nitrogen produces leaves.
Read about them.
Bees don’t are not major pollinators of tomato flowers and they don’t visit them often. The flowers are self pollinating. The wind blowing through the plants and causing the flowers to vibrate is the best pollinator. You can do as I like to do, vibrate each plant every day by tapping the stems with your finger so the flowers vibrate. Summer heat can shut down pollination of the flowers.
Make sure your fertilizer is balanced and not high in nitrogen. Nitrogen is good for for green leaf growth, not flower/tomato production.
Well, you know the old saying...
“If you love something, set it free... If it comes back and grows tomatoes, they’re yours forever...” or sumpin’ like that ...
Tomatoes are healthy eats too... good stuff!!!!!! Love them stewed with chopped red/green/yellow bell peppers and onions, in some olive oil.
I’ve had great success transplanting up to the first branches, but having rushed once, I inadvertently tested the theory on a row of four plants. The one that eventually had the largest yield (yellow pear cherry tomatoes) was the one that was transplanted to a depth a quarter inch below the first branching.
One that buried the first branching was the second most prolific, the one which was about 3 inches below the first branching was the least prolific.
(It was a busy year starting a new business and I had nearly forgotten the plants in containers on the porch. All were root bound when I transplanted from 14” containers.)
I’ve searched a couple times, both at ChefJeff.com and at your home improvement center website, and can’t find a variety called ‘Potted Tomato Plants.’ Did the labels on the pots identify the specific variety?
SmartA$$!
Tomatoes don’t need pollinators. Their flowers have male and female parts unlike cucurbits (squashes, melons, cukes, pumpkins, etc, which require pollinators - bees,or whatever visits). Take a chopstick and gently tap the flower heads to help ensure pollination IF you have flowers. Don’t over-fertilize them. They’ll just become a dumb, happy shrub (think - people with EBT cards and welfare.. Ha!)
Flower don’t like high heat and humidity. Cool night are best for the flowers to “set”.
Someone else is correct about containers and tomatoes. There ARE certain varieties “engineered” for containers.. The Patio variety is one that comes to mind..
Boy, you should see my heirloom Black Krims.. AWESOME. I have some 75 Krims loaded with fruit, plus another 25 or so of hybrids - Better Boys and Super Steaks.. It’s going to be a great year here in GA.
I have great luck leaving the suckers on. They will produce flower heads. Given the method by which I stake my plants I have to need to curtail the height or girth. Size does matter.. (or should that be “size maters”)
:-)
By all means!! Blossom end rot is caused by calcium deficiency in the soil. If there’s a calcium deficiency in the plant when the flower drops off the tiny, tiny mater bacteria will get into its navel (the blossom end of the fruit). You can break up a chuck of sheetrock into the soil if you don’t want to purchase the spray.. I DO us the spray throughout the year as I do with Daconil (fungicide).
To me, a mater with blossom end rot tastes like an old lady’s chifferobe smells.. IMHO..
I’m in South Alabama, and I specifically grow ‘maters that are bred to put out fruit above 90 degrees and high humidity.
Try the following varieties:
Jeff Davis
Florida Pink
Atkinson
Tropic
Creole
Neptune
Sungold
You can google these varieties and find seeds at various places.
Water the roots but fertilize the leaves if you are using Miracle Grow or an organic alternative like liquid fish fertilizer.
Very gently press the blooms between you thumb and finger. Works every time.
We are harvesting cherry tomatoes, probably a full month early.
Do try the Black Krim for several seasons.
It gets really hot here in Atlanta but
they produce very, very well. Yes, they are heirlooms and probably will (about half of them in my case) succumb to the wilt before the end of the growing season. I have had Krims thrive until the frost kills them.. The krim is a fine, fine mater.., bearsteak class. Bloggers argue as to which is the best - the Black Krim or the Paul Robeson. (the robeson is small but has an INCREDIBLY complex “smokey”, “salty” taste). I just like the 12 to 16+ ounce fruit the Krim produces.
I do grow hybrids, too.
(I’m originally from LA (lower bama)) Ha!
Well, South Alabama is way up there, and we’ve had many a 100 degree plus day...
I’ve had good success with these, but once it gets and stays past 100 for more than a couple of dats, yield does go way down. For us that will only be a few days, then back to maybe 95-97 for a few days, then back to higher...
It NEVER gets below 92 in the day here unless it’s raining in a thunderstorm or tropic event, and this is all summer long.
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