My tomato crop

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BettyC-5
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Location: Idaho panhandle

My tomato crop

#1

Post: # 51606Unread post BettyC-5
Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:29 am

August 1, I decided to count my tomatoes and post how good or bad they grew. quantity of plants, s. small, m. medium, l. large
3 Limbo, I didn't count them as they have quite a few. 2 in garden have long pointed fruits, one on porch has the egg shape.
1 Nefertiti, 12 s
1 King of the Field, Ind. red cherry, taste sweet, tough skin, 38 s to ripe.
1 Make MY Day, 2-1" size
1 Premus, 21 s to ripe, about 1 1/2". Nice little plant, did well in the heat
1 Sherkan, 3 s
1 Perfect Storm, 13 s to 2" red ripe, suppose to be yellow
1 Mushroom Basket, 0
1 First Lady, 6 2" about to ripen.
1 Olive Hill, 0,
1 Eagles Beak, 0
1 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 s, slow to germinate, struggled, planted late.
2 Maiden's Fire, #1-4m, # 2- 15 s to m, some blushing. This one has done well.
2 Babushkin Posteluj, #1-2 s, #2- 8 L, some blushing. I liked these last year.
2 Shedrasliva Tarasenko, #1-3 s, #2- 20 s to L
2 Grandma Oliver's Chocolate, #1- 1 blushing, 1 s,. #2- 5 s
2 Brandywine, #1-1 L, 5 m. #2- 1 s
2 Pink Berkley Tie-Dye, #1-7 s to m, #2- 4 s to m.
3 Copper River, #1- 2 s, #2- 0, #3- 1 s. Was really looking forward to these
2 Bacon, Lettace and This, #1-0, #2- 1 m
2 Swoon, #1- 2 s, #2- 1 s,
2 Miss Scarlet in the Kitchen etc, #1-1 L, 2 s, #2- 0
1 Aunt Eula's Rockhouse, 9 s to m.
I Painted Lady, variegated foliage, bi-color fruit, seed from Wild Boar Farm. 12 s, 2 m
2 Tsarskiy Lyubimets, #1- 1 L, #2-3 s, 2 m
Stakeless, my daughter has it, was doing well until the deer ate all the green tomatoes and top of the plant.
Over all the crop suffered from the dry early heat, (and it is still hot) but I have a few that did well and will probably be planted next year if they taste good. Hoping for normal weather too. If anyone has an idea for tomatoes that do well in the heat I would love to hear about them.
Beans are doing great, but a lot of the bush beans are vining. Going to be a tangled mess.
:)

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bower
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Location: Newfoundland, Canada

Re: My tomato crop

#2

Post: # 51642Unread post bower
Mon Aug 02, 2021 2:05 pm

You should check out Shule's tomatoes - he's in Idaho too and I am amazed at the crazy heat you got this year, and getting tomatoes to set.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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Shule
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Location: SW Idaho, USA

Re: My tomato crop

#3

Post: # 51676Unread post Shule
Tue Aug 03, 2021 3:16 am

[mention]Bower[/mention]
They probably have different and wetter weather up in the panhandle near Canada (imagine Idaho's a frying pan.) My area is more like the left side of the frying pan. I'd be curious to know the gardening weather up there, though. I'm not sure what it's like there in the summer, but I know about four hours north of where I am (which is probably a couple hours from the panhandle, at least) in the mountains. it can get really, really hot in the pine forests during early August where people like to camp (I don't think it stays hot long, though; I mean, you can still find snow in patches when it's hot). It smells and feels so good in super hot pine forests. It's like pine honey mixed with pure happiness. Now I want to go camping. It's really easy to sunburn in the mountains. Yeah, camping there in early August might kill me now, since I've recently become UV-sensitive. I better not go. I wouldn't even camp outside here, now, for that reason. Someone needs to teach the rest of the world how to create that smell, though.

Not all pine trees smell the same, though, apparently. I'd love to know which ones make those smells.

[mention]BettyC-5[/mention]
What's your elevation and weather like? Nice tomato list and harvest!
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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bower
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Re: My tomato crop

#4

Post: # 51681Unread post bower
Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:18 am

[mention]Shule[/mention] off topic but, we have the same thing here with Balsam Fir in the summer heat. The bark forms blisters that are filled with sweet smelling resin... it is heavenly. Best stay in the shade though, to avoid that high UV!
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

BettyC-5
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Location: Idaho panhandle

Re: My tomato crop

#5

Post: # 51690Unread post BettyC-5
Tue Aug 03, 2021 12:14 pm

My elevation is 2139 and the weather is unusually hot. There was normal rain in May, a little rain in mid June, then no more. When there was some rain in southern Idaho recently, I got a few splatters. 50% chance of rain Thursday.
June 27 -30 temperatures were 101 to 108, normally would be in the 80's. July stayed in 80's to mid 90's. Now we are hitting upper 90's to over 100, which is normal for these few weeks of August. It's just the June July weather was so high the tomato blooms just fell off. And I may have not fertilized enough. Last year I had a soil sample done and my soil is low in potassium. I have fed the tomatoes a little bit of potassium nitrate, but maybe not enough. It is disappointing to not have any slicers yet. I have picked a few cherries.
I set out nice peppers with starting fruits end of May, then the sun fried them. I covered the plants, but they still look miserable. First time in years I have had good plants without aphids to set out and the heat did them in. Still hopeful tho.
With some luck I may have 6 weeks before a frost so maybe I will get some tomatoes to can. Years past it would frost late August, so I notice a change in weather pattern. Last year I had a slight freeze mid Sept. and did not get a hard freeze I think was in Oct.

Best smelling pine for me is Grand Fir.
:)

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Tormato
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Re: My tomato crop

#6

Post: # 51700Unread post Tormato
Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:06 pm

I'd float a barge out into Lake Pend Oreille, loaded down with tomato plants. Maybe the lake water would keep the air a bit cooler. I'd have to remember not to drill any drainage holes, though.

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Shule
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Location: SW Idaho, USA

Re: My tomato crop

#7

Post: # 51709Unread post Shule
Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:33 pm

[mention]BettyC-5[/mention]
Ooh--potassium nitrate. I've wanted to try that for a while now. It can be made explosive somehow, though; so, I'd make sure you know about any risks that might be involved.

That's really hot! I didn't expect that in the panhandle, but great to know.

Thanks to you, and [mention]Bower[/mention] for the mentions of specific pine trees for their smell.

Potassium is really important, especially in the heat. It helps with heat-tolerance, insect-tolerance, fruit-size, disease-tolerance, root development, plant and root strength, drought-tolerance, growth (to a point), some kinds of greening, etc. I'm sure adding quite a bit more of it would have helped. You can add loads of potassium nitrate in a foliar spray, anyway, I've read (think up to about 10 tablespoons per gallon--but you'd notice significant potassium effects with much less, like 2 or 3 tablespoons per gallon), but you have to agitate it or something to mix it, and I'm not sure if that super high percentage works for tomatoes. I'm not sure about amending the soil with it. Most pre-mixed fertilizers would have much less potassium than the amount you'd get from 2 or 3 tablespoons per gallon, but you'd want much more than those pre-mixed fertilizers offer.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

BettyC-5
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Location: Idaho panhandle

Re: My tomato crop

#8

Post: # 51714Unread post BettyC-5
Tue Aug 03, 2021 8:16 pm

My grand-daughter gave me some Neptunes Harvest, 2-3-1, which is mixed 1/4 c. per gallon. I mistakenly mixed 1/2 cup. Didn't burn them, but probably should have fed several times more. That was about a month ago.
The potassium in the soil was advised by a guy on GW last year. He recommended potassium nitrate (saltpetre) or potassium sulfate, which I haven't opened yet. What I read, it is a bit hazzardous (breathing dust, etc). I did give them a spoon of the nitrate a few weeks ago. I may try the foliar spray with the nitrate kind, I have a bit left, I just didn't know how much to use or if it would dissolve in water.
I should mix up some spray, max amounts, and try it on the plants that are not producing to see how they do. Don't want to harm the ones that have some fruits.
Haven't spent much time outside because of the smoke, also have a fire several miles from me. It's mostly contained and not huge, under 400 acres.
:)

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Shule
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Re: My tomato crop

#9

Post: # 51717Unread post Shule
Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:34 pm

For potassium sulfate, you want to use 2 or 3 tablespoons per gallon for a foliar spray. Make sure it's pure (some kinds aren't and have visible impurities in them that might clog some sprayers--but the potassium sulfate itself dissolves easily in water, if it's like the kind I've used). I've used potassium sulfate a lot. It's nice.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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