So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[MissS]

@karstopography Your soil is beautiful.

[TomatoNut95]

Ladies and gentlemen, I've declared war. And it won't be pretty. Last night a horrid mouse dug up and ate all my seed. We'd stopped putting traps out because they don't work, so now it's time to resort to stronger measures.
Now I'm going to go replant everything I lost but this time I'm going to replant in the house.

[TomatoNut95]

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This is what happened. My Nicky Crain, one of my pride and joys for 2024!! I'll replant but not in the greenhouse. I've now got some ammonia, traps, peppermint scented baggy things for mice and cinnamon and I mixed up hot pepper water. The backyard will smell pretty bad to both man and beast tonight but I'm going to have the last laugh in this battle.

[MissS]

That's so sad. We work so hard and spend our dollars too, then along comes a critter and wipes us out. It gets so frustrating sometimes. I'm glad that you have some back-up seeds to plant.

[GVGardens]

@TomatoNut95 That's so frustrating! When I'm starting things outdoors, I cover the bench with hardware cloth or a roll of window screen so critters can't come up from the bottom. I put the seedling trays on top of the hardware cloth. Then, if they're really small seedlings, I'll cover the trays with an upside down perforated/web tray on top. I weight it down with a rock. If the seedlings are bigger, I'll stick chopsticks in the cells/pots and cover the plants with insect netting/remay/tulle from the craft store. Or make mini low tunnel-style hoops on the bench with some pex tubing nailed to the edges of the benches. I clamp the edges of the fabric to the greenhouse benches. It won't stop a hungry, determined rodent but it has made a substantial difference.

Maybe a screech owl house as a longer term solution?

[TomatoNut95]

I'm beginning to suspect my culprit may not be mice but those rotten, stinking flying squirrels. They're gonna go if I have to make stew out of them all.

[karstopography]

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Principe Borghese and A’Grappoli D’Inverno are the ones with the blossoming.

Sart Roloise and Pruden’s Purple getting close.

[karstopography]

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My sad and homeless collection of spare tomato starts. I’ll keep them going a while longer just in case, but it doesn’t appear there’s a home for them.

[TomatoNut95]

@karstopography I've had that happen SSSSOOOO many times!!!! I ended up throwing away a good many because leggy tomatoes that are turning yellow usually don't do.

[TomatoNut95]

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I bought some of this hoping it would help correct my BER issues. Anybody have any experience with this stuff?

[karstopography]

viewtopic.php?p=108314&hilit=Calcium#p108314

@Uncle_Feist talked about using CaNO3 for tomatoes on post #9 in topic link above.

Try using the search feature in Tomato Talk sub forum typing in the word Calcium or the word Nitrate. I have CaNO3, but have next to zero experience using it on tomatoes.

[SpookyShoe]

Well, I purchased my tomato starts this year about the middle of February. I was planning to p plant out on March 1st. However, the weather was very nice before that date so I put the plants in the tomato bed. Things are happening fast.

Flowers on Pigletwillie's French Black, and flowers plus a small baby tomato on Chocolate Cherry.

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[karstopography]

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My daughter the nurse took the remaining tomato starts. She kept four and planted those and gave the rest to her MIL. I had four 15 gallon grow bags I gave her and she gave two to her MIL and kept two. Daughter planted A’Grappoli D’Inverno, Dr. Wyche’s, Carbon, and Japanese Black Trifele. She’s recently gotten into cooking with herbs and the whole garden to table idea.

[TomatoNut95]

Is there a difference between German Queen, German Pink and German Johnson?

[karstopography]

@TomatoNut95 I don’t know. Tatiana’s tomato base has separate listings for all three. https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/German_Queen.

I’ve yet to grow out any of those three. My BIL in Southlake, TX likes German Queen.

[TomatoNut95]

Apparently a lot of Texans like it; I picked up a German Queen plant today and most of them were already grabbed up. I was lucky, I guess.

[karstopography]

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The first tomatoes of the season are, not surprisingly, the smaller fruited Principe Borghese and A’Grappoli D’Inverno.

The large tomatoes take a while to ramp up the necessary energy to set fruit. I might get a few fruit from these first flower trusses. Sart Roloise has the strongest first truss so far. I thought Pruden’s purple was going to set a tomato, but that blossom fell off yesterday.

Most all of them are about to or already having the first truss bloom. Second trusses aren’t always that strong either. The third trusses are usually strong and solid and certain to set if the weather is cooperative. Timing looks like in the later half of March and that means early in May ripe fruit.

I haven’t yet added any additional fertilizer. Everything is growing pretty well, don’t want to push it too hard.

[Wildcat82]

There's an old Texas saying: Big hat, no cattle.

Normally when I stop by one of the nurseries I end up chatting to some of the nice people I meet there. But today I talked to this one older lady that ticked me off. She said she always grows beefsteak tomatoes all summer long here in San Antonio. I asked her how she fared last year in our horrible heat wave. She said she kept picking large beefsteaks til the end of August and stopped only because she had so many tomatoes coming out of her ears. I didn't argue but I call BS.

There's always one "Hero"in every crowd. She's probably the same type of person who tells everyone she bought Bitcoin at $1/coin. Why do people spout such utterly unbelievable nonsense? How dumb do they think I am? Do they think their line of BS impresses me?

[GVGardens]

There's an old Texas saying: Big hat, no cattle.

When I meet someone like that, I say "Oh wow! You must have a really special variety! Would you mind sharing seeds?" I HAVE scored some really great okra seeds, flower seeds, and fig cuttings that way. Old locals do occasionally have good stuff. But 90% of the time, it just serves to call their bluff and makes me feel better.

At my old community garden, there was gardener who consistently grew things no one else could. I think he was a) extremely diligent about timing; b) only grew flavorless, heat/disease resistant hybrids from Home Depot and Walmart. Note that the woman you talked to didn't say the beefsteaks tasted good!

Alternate theory: She has an air conditioned greenhouse.

[karstopography]

Yes, I would certainly want to know how anyone that has been spouting off about cracking the code did it exactly. But, then it sometimes isn’t worth the asking if it only serves to boost an already overinflated ego.

My wife works with a topper. If you did it, she did it five times better than you did. Doesn’t matter what you did, what matters is that she did it better.