Homegrown tomatoes

[JSD]

Jaymes, that's very interesting about the root temperature.  I never knew that.  But growing in pots is also difficult because the plants can dry out and die so quickly.  I would recommend some kind of watering system if possible.  Plants in the ground had a lot more moisture available to them.  If growing tomatoes in pots is your only alternative, then I'd go ahead and try anyway, because the rewards can be so great.  Good luck.

[jess mebane]

So, I went out and got five cheap big (the largest size available) white styrofoam coolers, jabbed holes in the bottoms, turned the tops upside down to make drain saucers, and planted my tomatoes, one per cooler, with lots of mulch on top to help keep them cool.  

that's pure genius.  I plan to steal your idea for next year so I can gift people with the overflow seedlings. I concur with JSD about getting enough moisture to the roots in this manner; would mini French drain systems installed in each cooler with rocks and PVC ameliorate this problem?  Perhaps at that point you'd have an over-engineered mess....

[Jaymes]

Jaymes, that's very interesting about the root temperature.  I never knew that.  But growing in pots is also difficult because the plants can dry out and die so quickly.  I would recommend some kind of watering system if possible.  Plants in the ground had a lot more moisture available to them.  If growing tomatoes in pots is your only alternative, then I'd go ahead and try anyway, because the rewards can be so great.  Good luck.

Growing things in pots IS difficult, especially tomatoes.  But all I have access to is a very small, west-facing deck, so pots are my only option.

And, frankly, putzing around on my lush little overgrown deck is one of my greatest pleasures, so setting up an irrigation system, which is probably beyond my ability to do easily, would also make me obsolete!

[Jaymes]

Jaymes, that's very interesting about the root temperature.  I never knew that.  

Well, the friend who told me is a Master Gardener who wins all kinds of prizes, so I am just assuming that he knows of what he speaks.  

He had brought me some tomatoes several summers back, and I said that mine had stopped setting.  He told me the thing about the roots, and said that one easy solution was to mulch heavily and water very deeply, so that the roots sink down low where they are less likely to absorb the heat of the day.  And that's what I'd do if I had a regular garden where I could plant the tomatoes in the ground.

Of course, on my hot little sunny deck, in my containers, that was not possible.  That's when I came up with the "cooler" idea.  I've done it for several years now, and it works great!

[Rachel Perlow]

Checked in the garden yesterday, I'm starting to get little green tomatoes. Yeah!

[JSD]

Lucky you!!  We only have blossoms, but this weekend it was quite cold, and we're lucky the plants didn't give up the ghost.

[Priscilla]

Have been able to begin harvesting Sun Golds.

I think their many supporters are probably 100% correct--they just may be the best-tasting tomatoes ever!

[Jim Dixon]

I've been picking a few Early Girls for the last week. They're not an 'heirloom' variety, but they are dependable, heavy bearers, quick to ripen, and very tasty. My Sungolds are also just starting to ripen, but the Green Zebras have a couple of weeks yet.

On another thread Stellabella mentioned 'backyard tomato sandwiches' of tomatoes, mayo, and bread eaten over the sink. I've been making a sort of deconstructed version by lightly toasting the bread (Grand Central como), tearing it into pieces roughly the size of a tomato slice, smearing on a dollop of mayo, adding the tomato (sprinkled with good salt), then popping it all into my mouth at once. Good, and you don't need the sink.

Jim

[tsquare]

More than 12 dozen tomatoes harvested this weekend! Pasta and fresh tomato sauce, tomato sandwiches, tomato salsa, sliced tomatoes with salt, tomatoes popped into the mouth, gifts of tomatoes...

[vega]

My Husband was talking to a Master Gardener at the Califonia State fair and got invited to join the picking process at the tomato garden in Fair Oaks. He came home with Brandywine (which are very good) and about nine other heirloom varieties from Bulgaria to I don't know where.

The tomato tasting took place and the overwhelming winner was the Ace

(not an heirloom) my husband grew in our backyard.

It amuses me to hear that people are paying $7.00 a pound at the Napa farmers market for "heirloom" tomatoes when my tasting proved a good old backyard tomato can be far better.

[Rail Paul]

I had a huge and overflowing crop of Carnello (French thin wall tomato) harvest last year in NJ. This year (drought) is very limited. Stuff bruises when you touch it.

Basil up the kazoo in 2002. Fifty pounds of it. Freeze, pack it in oil, whatever....

[snowangel]

Anyone expecting a frost in the next few weeks should ruthlessly prune plants -- any blossoms should be removed, as should all of the branches that point downward. Here in Minnesota, come late August, I wack the heck out of my plants so that all of the energy goes into ripening the tomatos, not sustaining greenery.

And, if you have too many of the ripe ones to take care of immediately, and intend to use for canning and sauces, freeze them whole. Don't cut the core out, and try to keep the skin as intact as possible. When it's time to use them, run under hot water and the skins will slip right off. Put in pot, and when they are thawed, it's pretty easy to pop the cores out.