Tomato Report

15 years ago

First of all I want to thank all the members of the forum who have been so patient and helpful in sharing their knowledge on the subject of growing tomatoes. At the risk of leaving someone out I am talking about beople like Al, Lou, bambbo rabbit, Amber, and especially Silvia, the acknowledged tomato queen of the forum. Thanks to their help I had, by my standards, a successful crop.

To anyone wanting to grow tomatos my first advice would be to lurk around this forum and hang on every word that these people say.

So what is successful(by my standards)? I only had 8 plants: 3 Early Wonders; 1 Giant Belgium; 2 Solar Sets; and 2 Bella Rosas. To date I have harvested approx 15 dozen tomatoes totaling somewhere around 60 pounds. The plants seemed get a second wind, perhaps due to the few cool days we had at the end of May so there are about 5 dozen tomatoes still on the plants but they are not looking so good. They are smaller, want to crack and are showing some of the uneven ripening associated with TYLCV/whitefly infestation. I don't see any downside so I'm just going to let them grow on out. Should be good for geeen fried anyway. The best tasting were the EW. The rest were all a little too sweet for my taste. I am going to try and pick more acidic varieties next go round.

QUESTION: Is there anyway to influence the acidity in the way you grow them?

I am looking forward to learning even more about growing tomatoes, perhaps how to better control whitflies, and I can't wait to try some of the varities that Tom mentioned in one of his posts.

Again, thanks to all for their feeely given advice.

Papa Jim

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Comments (9)

whgille
15 years ago
Hi Papa Jim

That is great! It is so good to know that you had a successful tomato season.
I did many tastings for people and got the feedback, most people were in love with the beefsteaks and I had a lot of varieties and colors and they were equally liked.

About the acidity of the tomatoes, I would recommend that you read the descriptions on them, they usually tell about acidity. I am including a website that I find it reliable on the descriptions and I have tried some of the tomatoes listed and I agree.

Here is a picture of my tomatoes early in the season.

And today we had another very tasty tomato/pasta salad to go with lunch.

Papa Jim, I am looking forward to your future very successful tomato seasons!

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: acidic tomatoes
gardengimp
15 years ago
Congrats Papa Jim!

With our sudden deluge of rain, all but a very few of my tomatoes left on the bushes cracked. I went out and picked all the cracked and unhappy ones and popped them in a crockpot and cooked them down for tomato sauce. You can mix a few green ones in there also. I mixed some other stuff from the garden in for flavor. Let it cool, then froze it.

~dianne
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amberroses
15 years ago
Papa Jim, what a successful season you had! There is a special kind of pride that come from growing your own tomatoes and all the more so in a difficult area like Florida. As Silvia said, the variety you choose will best determine how acidic the tomatoes taste. You could also try to reduce the watering of the plant right before they ripen, but good luck with that in our weather. I am not great at tomato tasting, but I can tell you that Pink Berkeley Tie Dye had a sour taste to me last season. Large pink heirloom beefstakes are usually but not always more mild tasting.
loufloralcityz9
15 years ago
Has anybody tried growing the Green Sausage Tomato? They have the shape of a large dill pickle.

Lou
sumala
15 years ago
I have never tried a Green Sausage Tomato but I have made a green tomato sauce. It is good and you use it like a regular sauce. Looks different, taste is different but the taste is great.
reallyrandy
15 years ago
Glad to hear about your successful season!
This was the first year I tried to grow tomatoes and it was OK, I guess. I had 6 plants that yielded about 10 tomatoes each. My faves were the German Queens. I also Had Taladega, Big Boy, Better Boy, and Atkinson. I discovered tomato plants are very fragile, one wrong move and they die. I'm surprised the species survived this long!
I'll have another go at it next season. For now, I pulled up all my plants and recycled the bark/moss mixture into a 4' x 8' raised bed for summer squash.
gardengimp
15 years ago
Lou - did you read this about the green sausage tom? http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=978

~dianne
loufloralcityz9
15 years ago
I'm growing the green sausage tomato in my earthbox with the earthbox trellis so the limpness of the plant is not a problem. I like the ability to slice the tomato end to end rather than across to fit into my sandwiches much better than the round slices of a regular tomato. I crisscross the bacon & tomato slices and the BLT holds together better and it's not as sloppy to eat IMO.

I don't have any bug problems as most of my tomatoes are grown inside the screened in area.(the currant tomatoes are grown outdoors) This is my first year growing this tomato and wondered if there were other opinions about it.

Lou
leelee_2008
15 years ago
60lbs wow!! I must have only reached a 3rd of that and I considered my attempt this year successful, lol

just pulled out the last of my tomato plants, only yellow pear and husky cherry were still producing, but on very sad looking plants. Celebrity, Early Girl, Better Boy, and Mortgage Lifter were my best producers, but were done by May. Will try those again along with a few other varieties for fall.