So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[Wildcat82]

Go for it karstopography.

I'm still going to hold out until March 1st. So far I've collected six plants. I'm looking for two more (I'm looking for a Carmello and a Cherokee Purple, which surprisingly I have not seen yet) and then I'll be done.

Here are my store-bought plants, which I've potted up,
The styrofoam cups are for those gargantuan jumbo drinks that my husband gets at the convenience store everyday, enjoying natural light on the front porch, although right this very minute it's cloudy. Sunrise Bumblebee, Black Cherry, two Cherokee Carbons, Black Prince, and Black Krim. (In no particular order).

IMG_20230214_171551951.jpg
IMG_20230214_171616437.jpg

Those are some huge seedlings! All the heirloom tomatoes they sell at garden centers here are always puny, maybe 4-5 inches tall. They do have hybrids like Celebrity that are as big as yours.

[SpookyShoe]

I found Carmello and Cherokee Purple yesterday at Maas nursery. I'm finished collecting. Eight plants will go into the ground. If I see an interesting variety in a hanging basket or some kind of small variety I can plant in a large pot, I might pick them up.

The foreseeable future is looking good.

Screenshot_20230220-085342~2.png

[karstopography]

I added 5 more tomatoes to the beds today. Now at 24 planted. The recent additions are true black Brandywine, Carbon, Japanese Black Trifele, Dester, and Snowball.

The wind has been whipping and a few of the remaining tomatoes still in the 4” containers got damaged. One Stump of the world broke off at the base of the stem. Everything in already planted in the garden was less exposed to the wind and came through without issues. It was not even a cold wind, but a warm wind can still batter exposed tomato sets.

[karstopography]

Got spots for three more. Top Contenders are Domingo, Mega Marv, Portuguese Monster, and Beefmaster. Red Penna, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Rosella are longshots. Tomorrow is the day for setting out whatever three it will be.

[karstopography]

C0F61EDD-426C-4D93-A446-A5980F4F3031.jpeg

The line up as of February 24th. Cannot promise there won’t be more additions or subtractions.

[worth1]

My tomato list is easy.
I bought 4 Juliette tomato plants today and two of them were twins so I have 6 tomato sets ready to go in.
If all goes well I'll have enough of these little buggers for a deluxe roasted tomato pizza topping.

[karstopography]

My tomato list is easy.
I bought 4 Juliette tomato plants today and two of them were twins so I have 6 tomato sets ready to go in.
If all goes well I'll have enough of these little buggers for a deluxe roasted tomato pizza topping.

My old neighbor did Juliet last year and it never stopped producing from late in the spring until the freeze. He loved it. I should grow Juliet. Maybe I’ll pick up a plant sometime.

[karstopography]

80E88266-32CD-4D3A-B6ED-74BEAFABB179.jpeg

443A127D-C574-4282-9232-23F0320FAFEA.jpeg

99AD58DD-2BD3-445D-B3BD-003FB63DE262.jpeg

FC23FC37-8C3C-4BA3-9A14-B54CEFF11DFE.jpeg

3E4FBD7E-7B34-405F-913D-0BA1DF4E5A81.jpeg

D01709A9-4A8E-4F0D-A3B6-5AFA030B0670.jpeg

27 tomatoes now planted. I substituted a very robust Kellogg’s Breakfast set for the planned Portuguese Monster as neither of the two PMs I have looked ready for prime time. Still might put in Portuguese Monster in if the one of the sets perks up and gets going. I’ll mulch the ones that aren’t mulched at some not too distant future date. I direct seeded some marigold seeds around the unmulched tomatoes. Everything going extremely well at the moment.

[Wildcat82]

My tomato list is easy.
I bought 4 Juliette tomato plants today and two of them were twins so I have 6 tomato sets ready to go in.
If all goes well I'll have enough of these little buggers for a deluxe roasted tomato pizza topping.

You'll be picking a gallon of tomatoes per day. That's a lot of pizza topping. Two Juliet plants are enough to overwhelm me.

My Juliet plants will be planted 1 May so that by the time my slicers are crapping out due to the heat, the Juliets will take over. At least that's the plan.

[worth1]

My tomato list is easy.
I bought 4 Juliette tomato plants today and two of them were twins so I have 6 tomato sets ready to go in.
If all goes well I'll have enough of these little buggers for a deluxe roasted tomato pizza topping.

You'll be picking a gallon of tomatoes per day. That's a lot of pizza topping. Two Juliet plants are enough to overwhelm me.

My Juliet plants will be planted 1 May so that by the time my slicers are crapping out due to the heat, the Juliets will take over. At least that's the plan.

I hope so.

[worth1]

Planted out the 6 Juliet plants in two containers and liberally spread out some Swiss chard seeds in same containers.
I think I can thin and move the chard later if any comes up.
Weather holding I should be OK.

[karstopography]

I gave all my tomato sets away today except for four. My kemah friend took several and his Friendswood brother took the rest. Both took a number of pepper set plants and a few cucumber sets. I was getting tired of messing with all those little containers. I gave them bags of lettuce, mustard, some escarole, one whole bulb fennel and whole celery for each brother, plus a pile of radishes. I’m trying to get rid of some of the cool weather crops to free up space.

The weather has been outstanding for the tomato plants and they are really growing. I see small buds on a number of them.

[Wildcat82]

IMG_2624.jpg

Here's a couple pics of my potted up palnts. One of my Indian Stripe plants has a couple tomatoes on it already including a golf ball sized one.

IMG_2625.jpg

[karstopography]

004A81A1-9836-4038-A7C3-9574BA482167.jpeg

07C906BF-836F-4407-9DAF-570413862B67.jpeg

D6DBA832-650D-4C2D-8F3D-B9D4C7C40B2E.jpeg

A2D3AC96-F902-49E1-920B-3E9854E79985.jpeg

653697BC-1B19-42B6-BF63-9F0554CF9224.jpeg

Some of my tomatoes are already showing signs of wanting to flower.

Meanwhile, I’ve given away all but 4 tomato set plants and those four look to be going to a happy home on Thursday. So I ended up with 27 plants in the garden, two less than last year and two over my preseason ceiling. Seems like a happy compromise.

[karstopography]

97169D5A-B5E0-4F92-9F4A-AE2D4758E486.jpeg

My friend’s 31” tomato in Kemah. He transplanted February 4th.

Mine are doing amazing. Maybe topping out at 18”, but looking robust and healthy. I gave them a liquid dose of Texas Tomato Food 4/2.5/6. Seems to have given the plants a little boost.

[SpookyShoe]

Things are happening. Some plants are showing buds and flowers. I have a total of eight plants. I'm sure I win the prize for the fewest number of plants on Tomato Junction.


A fused blossom on Cherokee purple:

IMG_20230304_130848700.jpg

Carmello:

IMG_20230304_131134110_HDR.jpg

Sunrise Bumblebee:

IMG_20230304_131339296.jpg

Black Prince:

IMG_20230304_130921356_HDR.jpg

[PlainJane]

@SpookyShoe I think @worth1 put in 4 Juliet so he’s got you beat.

[SpookyShoe]

Darn his hide.

[worth1]

No its 6 Juliet plants.
I bought 4 all together but two containers had two plants in them.

[karstopography]

The First Blossom on Pruden’s Purple dropped off. The other blossoms on Pruden’s don’t look as quite as robust. We had a cool night or two with a lot of radiational cooling that touched 50° or maybe a degree or two cooler right before dawn, likely causing the blossom to drop.

Now, the nights look to be above 55° for a while. Carbon has a good cluster of strong looking blossoms. A few other tomatoes look promising on the robust first flower trusses. It would be nice to get a decent harvest of tomatoes in April, not that I want to grow the early maturity types to get there. Probably have another week or so to set something on the slicer/beefsteak ones to have April tomatoes.

Pink tiger is blooming. Strange wispy foliage almost heart tomato type of foliage on that tomato plant. Don’t know what to expect with pink tiger. Something is eating the foliage on Pink tiger, but I cannot find anything.

I’m trying not to push my fertilizer inputs too heavy on the plants. I think last year I pushed a little too hard too early on the plants I put in first and got a lot of BER on those. This year, I’m experimenting a little in different beds with different inputs. A few are getting a little composted chicken manure. Others got a good dose of worm castings. Some got granular tomato oriented fertilizer. None got set up to likely have all the fertilizer they might need for the entire season so I’ll have to periodically add more as needed.