davood's tomatoes and peppers 2023

[davood]

"narrow down the selection for next year." (famous last words for most of us). "I don't understand the meaning of that" (most of us don't understand the meaning of it either !!!). Every year we say we will cut back but most of us don't. "Can someone help me here ?" ( Most of us have "the disease of never enough") Most likely we will just enable you to grow more plants . It's so so sad !!


Dan

I learned so much about the different varieties of tomatoes and ways to grow them from this forum and from its predecessor, so y'all have already enabled me

[MissS]

BER is usually caused when the fruits set in cool weather. When the plants are cold they are unable to process calcium and it is the lack of calcium that is causing BER. You have adequate calcium as most people do so do not add more. There really isn't much that you can do to prevent BER. Some varieties are more susceptible than others, so you can play with that. You can also wait and put your plants out a week later than you did last year so that the soil is warmer or your can remove the early fruit that set so that the plant will put it's energy into the fruits that set later when temps have warmed up.

[Tormahto]

"narrow down the selection for next year."
Can someone help me, here? I don't understand the meaning of that.

Welcome to the forum, davood.

Thanks. Next year I want to grow fewer tomatoes, so will eliminate the varieties performing worse this year.

There are lots of variables surrounding the ups and downs in tomato production. One of them is tomato varieties. Are you doing anything with other variables?

Great question. After last season I had the soil tested. It's low in phosphorus. Index value 17. Have some triple superphosphate that I will apply per the recommendations. I think it will help increase fruit set and yield.

Magnesium and Calcium were a bit excessive in the soil, but I don't think there's much I can do about that except to avoid applying any more.

I didn't really have too much disease pressure last year aside from BER. But I have some Surround WP (recommended by edible landscaping) and anticipate applying it as a preventative measure.

It would likely be best to exceed the recommendations. Apply a little bit less than required, and make sure there is no run-off.

[davood]

BER is usually caused when the fruits set in cool weather. When the plants are cold they are unable to process calcium and it is the lack of calcium that is causing BER. You have adequate calcium as most people do so do not add more. There really isn't much that you can do to prevent BER. Some varieties are more susceptible than others, so you can play with that. You can also wait and put your plants out a week later than you did last year so that the soil is warmer or your can remove the early fruit that set so that the plant will put it's energy into the fruits that set later when temps have warmed up.

In my case, BER on the Pomodoro seemed to start affecting tomato fruits around August and continued until the plants died in late September. The Purple Zebras did not suffer from BER. I read that paste type tomatoes like Pomodoro are supposed to be more susceptible to BER, so that may be why.

[MissS]

I myself have pretty much given up on pastes due to BER. I got tired of throwing all of my tomatoes away. LOL. I now mostly grow Ox-hearts and hearts for sauce. They have few seeds, no BER and are quite meaty with great flavor too. So next time around you may want to try the hearts and see how you like them.

[davood]

I myself have pretty much given up on pastes due to BER. I got tired of throwing all of my tomatoes away. LOL. I now mostly grow Ox-hearts and hearts for sauce. They have few seeds, no BER and are quite meaty with great flavor too. So next time around you may want to try the hearts and see how you like them.

Never grown Oxheart tomatoes before; this year I'm growing a few Fish Lake Oxhearts and will see how they do. Have seed for a few other varieties to try in the future: Kosovo, Anna Russian, Brad's Black Heart, Wes.

[MissS]

@davood those are all very good ones. I really like Wes for sauce.

[AKgardener]

I have never had BER so far or any other disease thus far I’ve only been growing for 4 years but nothing yet !!

[davood]

Trying out tomato rootstock, DR0141TX. Ordered a 50 seed packet from Paramount Seeds and sowed approx half of them. Unfortunately it looks like the whole batch has edema or something. I'll try grafting five or so to see if they take. None of the non-rootstock tomato seedlings have edema. Anyone know if it's more common with rootstock?

edit: photo!

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[bower]

Some varieties are more susceptible to edema than others, and they can be badly affected under LED or another light setup which doesn't include the full spectrum including UV and far red light. The cure is to get them into daylight as soon as possible. Also be careful about the watering regime, not to overwater and not to let them dry out too much. If the growing media is difficult to keep at ideal moisture content, that can make it worse.

[davood]

Some varieties are more susceptible to edema than others, and they can be badly affected under LED or another light setup which doesn't include the full spectrum including UV and far red light. The cure is to get them into daylight as soon as possible. Also be careful about the watering regime, not to overwater and not to let them dry out too much. If the growing media is difficult to keep at ideal moisture content, that can make it worse.

Hm. I will experiment. Don't have UV light, my light boards have white and red but not UV. Could also be the peat pellets holding too much water. We'll see how they do in a few days after some adjustments

[davood]

Some updates.

About 12 grafted tomatoes are under humidity dome now. Almost all look ok, except one which is flopping. I threw out the rest of the rootstock as it didn't look too healthy. Next year I'll try different lights and maybe soil for the rootstock.

Of the planted seeds a few notes:

Earl of Edgecombe had lowest germination rates, about 25%
Fish Lake Oxheart and Girl Girl's Weird Thing tied for perfect germination and fastest initial seedling growth
Rebel Yell had high but not perfect germination, initial growth was like other seedlings but once transplanted, it has significantly outpaced everything else in growth
Matt's Wild are by far the smallest plants
Everything else germinated pretty well and are growing at similar rates

So far 63 plants including the 12 grafted so we'll see how the grafted plants do then start to give away plants until I hit the magic number.

[davood]

Photos of seedling progress. Tomatoes and pepper seedlings shown here

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[davood]

More progress. So far the tomatoes look nice and stocky. The peppers are slower to grow, but it’s only about 70f where they are.

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[davood]

Mixed results with the grafted tomatoes. About half didn't make it... I suspect poor union between scion and rootstock. Might invest in a pruning tool for next year.

Survivors:
2 GGWT
1 Earl of Edgecombe
1 KBXPL
1 ARGG
1 Rebel Yell

[davood]

Got warm enough to transplant outside about two weeks ago. Most of the tomatoes are doing pretty well. Vorlon's growing smaller than expected. Here's a photo of my local "Tomato Junction":

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[davood]

Another update. Tomatoes and peppers are getting big quickly. They seemed to thrive on the filtered sky from the Canada fires?

Been picking off fruits and tying up the plants, and it’s about time to stop doing that and let the fruit come.

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[davood]

Plentiful and piquant, these peppers fill my raised bed:

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[davood]

First fruits— on ISPL.

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[davood]

Seeing a lot of bees around the tomatoes so I’m not sure I’ll save seed. Maybe from a few plants but I’m gonna have to see if they come true to type. Even got stung once while tying up tomatoes-ouch. Here are some updates—

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Tommy Toes are doing great, plenty of fruit. Matt’s wild barely has any fruit yet!

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GGWT has a lot of fruit. Not as much as ISPL which is going crazy:

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Fish Lake Oxheart plants are so wispy and have such big fruits (not too many of them though):

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Earl of Edgecombe is absolutely the smallest plant in the tomato garden— they’re in the front here with everything else towering over them.

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KBX is a beast and over 6’ tall already. Nothing else comes close. Big fruits too.

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