Tomato Garden

[Foam Steak]

Hello,

When do you start your tomato plants indoors? When do you usually plant them outdoors?

I just got my seeds but I am not sure when I should get to work.

As long as I am asking questions may as well make this a two parter. What variety do you like the best? I am growing Big Beef, Brandywine, Celebrity and Super Sweet 100's.

Thanks

[Duster]

Let ya in on a little secret we found on planting those tomato's when you get ready to put them in the ground this spring. First off dig a hole about 10 inches deep, into the hole place one large cup of bone meal, one large cup of blood meal and a few handfull's of good old manure. Place the plant on top of this and cover up to the first leaf. Warning Warning Warning....cage those plants at this time as you may never get a cage around them if you wait. Also use stout cages. I had to support mine up when we planted this way with steel t-post because they grew so big they bent the wire cages over to the ground with the weight of the tomato's and plants.

[pentail]

I was the retail manager at Fayette Seed in Lexington for years, we sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 varieties of tomato plants. As for time, usually around 3 to 4 weeks before you plan to put them out is fine, much longer and they will tend to get spindly on you and want to fall over unless you have a really strong light source. another trick to get stronger stalks is to keep a fan blowing over the young plants. this does two things, one, it makes the plants grow thicker stalks to counteract the back and forth movement from the wind, and two, it keeps the bottom of the plants dry so that you don't get stem rot. A lot of people try to get early fruit by putting out their plants early in the year and protecting them from the cold, but bloom set is a problem until the temps get to where they are supposed to be.

as far as varieties go, you ask 50 people and you get 51 different answers:D but you have two of my favorites. Big beef might be the best hybrid tomato ever introduced, bar none. it produces tons of meaty tastey tomatoes and is desease resistant. the brandywine is a fine heirloom tomato. as is the mr lincoln, german pink, black crim, old fashoined yellow, and mortgage lifter. the heirlooms are making a strong comeback in the last 10 years or so as people discover that they taste so much better than most of the hybrids, they just aint as pretty and don't keep as well.

[Ky mustang]

I started mine Febuary 10 . This is the earliest date I have started , I usually start feb 22 for my early crop. I put my early plants outside in cages and cover them with clear plastic in Mid march. I have a sheet of plastic on top that I can vent on warm days to keep them from getting to hot on warm days. I heat them with light bulb put inside an old metal coffee can (to keep the light from effecting growth direction at night)just laying on the ground next to them. I have never had a fruit set problem , I usually pick ripe tomatoes in late may from this method.

I like to transplant and bury the small plants all the way to the first leaf before setting out , this gives the plant a stronger root system. Pruning is very important also lots of different methods. I like Brandywine,German pink, Mountain spring, Mountain pride, Early girl, and Jetstar.

Dusters advice is dead on, if you don't have manure you can get good results with calcuim nitrate,potassuim nitrate, or some other water soluable fertilizers. I also like to make "horse manure tea" to water mine with. If you can get some manure, put it in an old burlap bag drop in a bucket (I use a 50 plastic drum) of water, add liquid fish fertilizer and molasses. Use an fish bubbler or compressed air to bubble and brew the tea for about 2 days and then feed it to the plants.

I got some giant pkin and watermelon seed if anyone is intersted they are really fun to grow. Here are some pics of my brandy wine maters . Thats a 2 liter sprite bottle.
http://www.hunt101.com/img/475545.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/475548.jpg

[pentail]

[quote=Ky mustang;383343]I started mine Febuary 10 . This is the earliest date I have started , I usually start feb 22 for my early crop. I put my early plants outside in cages and cover them with clear plastic in Mid march. I have a sheet of plastic on top that I can vent on warm days to keep them from getting to hot on warm days. I heat them with light bulb put inside an old metal coffee can (to keep the light from effecting growth direction at night)just laying on the ground next to them. I have never had a fruit set problem , I usually pick ripe tomatoes in late may from this method.


man, you are ate up with early:D ;) :D reminds me of a good buddy of mine in lexington that helped pay for his neighbor to close in their in ground pool with a glass enclosure( even though all of their children where grown and had moved away and no one swam in the pool anymore) just so they would have a "greenhouse" to get an early start on the tomato crop. they used to get the first fruit in late may early june.

[Ky mustang]

man, you are ate up with early:D ;) :D reminds me of a good buddy of mine in lexington that helped pay for his neighbor to close in their in ground pool with a glass enclosure( even though all of their children where grown and had moved away and no one swam in the pool anymore) just so they would have a "greenhouse" to get an early start on the tomato crop. they used to get the first fruit in late may early june.




Kinda like your signature line "bacon tastes good" .... it taste better with a fresh tomato , :D

[Foam Steak]

Thanks for all the advice. I have alot of work to do as I do not even have a garden spot picked out yet! Still debating that with the warden. With all the house improvements and selling and moving and stuff I have not had a garden for 2 years. Man I am looking forward to a serving of itty bitty summer squash and fresh salad!

As far as Horse Manure goes. I have more than I could ever hope to use. If anyone needs any, let me know. The only problem with it is the horses are bedded on wood shavings, so there are alot of wood shavings soaked in horse pee included with the manure. Not sure if that is a problem or not.

Thanks Again!

[GSP]

Don't start all your plants at the same time. Stagger them a couple of weeks. That way you don't have getting ripe at once.

[Ky mustang]

Thanks for all the advice. I have alot of work to do as I do not even have a garden spot picked out yet! Still debating that with the warden. With all the house improvements and selling and moving and stuff I have not had a garden for 2 years. Man I am looking forward to a serving of itty bitty summer squash and fresh salad!

As far as Horse Manure goes. I have more than I could ever hope to use. If anyone needs any, let me know. The only problem with it is the horses are bedded on wood shavings, so there are alot of wood shavings soaked in horse pee included with the manure. Not sure if that is a problem or not.

Thanks Again!
The wood shavings will not hurt anything, the problem is when they start to decompose . The bacteria that cause the break down process "feed" on the available nitrogen and will hog it all up and take it away from your garden plants. If you plan on using fresh manure you wont need that much for each tomato plant. Just follow the horse around with a 5 gallon bucket to get it :D.

A thing to keep in mind about fresh manure is it will get "hot" when it starts breaking down 140* - 160*. If you have a bunch buried under your plants it will burn the roots. I can remember watching my grandpa go down his row of tomatoes when they got about 1' tall and buring 1 horse pellet about 4" - 6" from each plant.

I keep a compost pile going and throw my kitchen scraps, grass clippings, etc in the pile. It is best if the pile is turned about 2 times a week to let in oxygen and keep it hot. It is also good to keep your pile where it will not rain on it and leach out your nutrients.

[quackrstackr]

You're just a regular Mr. Greenjeans, Mustang. :D

What the heck do you guys do with all of those tomatoes? A couple of my neighbors only go at it half heartedly and wind up with enough of the things to feed the neighborhood 10 times over.

[Ky mustang]

I eat all I can :D . I sell a few here and there. We can a few, make juice, give them away. I just enjoy gardening and usually go a little overboard :D

[GSP]

A lot of good advice posted here. One thing I do that seems to help is cover the ground with black plastic. I controlls all the weeds and helps hold the moisture. Also I prune all limbs up to the main fork on the plant. I keep pruning through the summer.
My aunt has a produce farm and I get my plants from her, I like a Beefsteak she grows. These things get HUGE and taste great. Here is one I grew in backyard. It was hard to hold ruler and take pix. It measured 11". I have seen bigger ones.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/GSP/IM000323.jpg

[Rat]

You can't beat Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. They are the best Cherry tomatoes I have ever eaten. I was able to pick about 40 tomatoes off of each plant every day last August.
Jet Stars are really good too.

I like to can the tomatoes when I pick off more than I can eat. I still have 10 pints left from last summer.

Good luck. I have to start my crop soon.

[Ky mustang]

Nice mater Gsp ;) . I like to use straw for mulch. The plastic works good and I have used it also I just dont like having to mess with picking it up. If you plant on a raised row and use the black plastic it will get the root zone warm and really speed growth.

I have been wanting to try the hydroponic method, but have not yet this may be the year.
Here is a few good links
http://www.avrdc.org/LC/tomato/hybrid/08emasc.html

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/bobweb/bobweb.html

Here is a photo of hydroponic tomato garden using 5 gallon buckets
http://www.alabamahydroponics.com/GH/gardens/george%202004/album/slides/03.html

[aceoky]

I eat all I can :D . I sell a few here and there. We can a few, make juice, give them away. I just enjoy gardening and usually go a little overboard :D

Same here, I garden for them, other things are just a "bonus" :D

Also at least once make your own sauces, nothing like them home made from fresh really great tasting maters ;)

[Duster]

We make a lot of salsa and juice plus can several jars for soup and chile out of the tomatos we grow and still have more than enough to share with anyone who wants some.

Last year was the first year for this garden spot and everything grew like crazy. Kinda getting ready to turn it over and get ready for this year.