Hi Sammy,

I grew my tomatoes in five gallon buckets, drilled holes at the bottom for drainage, we also used a potting mix for veggies and flowers, I wasn't real crazy about adding some clay but the buckets seemed light so HD threw a shovel of clay in and I mixed it up. It worked out great for us. We had great tomatoes until frost.

We perfer roma tomatoes, they are a meaty variety and have a great flavor. They don't get really big but they make up for it in taste. Also the romas don't split open like beef steak tomatoes do. I have found that larger variety tomatoes tend to split which attracks bugs.

Next spring I want to try growing other veggies in five gallon buckets. The clay is so hard and just a few inches under the clay is shell(not sure how that is spelled>, it looks like tiny slivers of rock.

This seems to be the best solution for us. I sure hope I was able to answer some of your questions.
Good luck,
teresa

Teresa, you are certainly in oil country if you have shale that close to the surface! LOL My dad was a driller and he used to bring home core samples all the time.

Sammy, many of us here grow heirloom tomatoes. Dawn has a huge list that she grew this year. I grew Cherokee Purple, Nebraska Wedding, Kelloggs Breakfast, Striped German, Watermelon Beefsteak, Martino's Roma, and Mule Team. We had huge amounts of rain and so some of the varieties never even fruited. I liked the Kelloggs Breakfast the best, they were huge, yellow-orange and delicious. I've not decided yet what I will grow next year but I think I will not grow Roma tomatoes. They are dryer because they are a paste tomato and I just don't find them to be as flavorful. You will find tomatoes to be a very individual thing -- everyone will have a different favorite. Sometimes I think the soil they are grown in makes a difference in the flavor.

I highly recommend that you go back and read some of the posts on this forum starting with early spring of this year. There's a lot of good information here. Dawn had a few comprehensive tomato-growing tips posts that are very informative. There's also a forum devoted just to tomato growing that you could visit if you have the time to read.

My garden is all done for the year except for some cabbage and lettuce I have planted at the end of one of my raised beds. For now, I just have bags of leaves set around them so when the nights are freezing I can throw a blanket over all of it, and then a tarp. I intend, before the weather gets too much colder, to do a little better job of building up the sides and to lay some old shower doors that I bought at a thrift shop across the top so that I can keep the cabbage going till it heads up and so that we can pick lettuce into the winter. I planted a variety of salad greens last spring, and Butter Crunch and Romaine were my favorites, so that's what I planted for the fall.

--Ilene

Sammy,

TOMATO PLANTS:

I can help a little, but it is hard for me to tell you what you might see in stores because I raise all my plants from seed, and have for many years. Thus, I really haven't kept up with the types of tomatoes offered by many retailers. Generally, though, stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. offer mostly hybrid varieties that have been bred primarily for shape (red and round), disease-resistance (interestingly, though, most disease-resistant tomatoes still get diseases although maybe slightly fewer of them), and shipping/keeping quality or shelf life. Unfortunately, most hybrids are not bred for flavor. There are, though, a few exceptions.

These are some of the hybrid tomatoes that (1) you're likely to see in a big box store in the springtime, and (2) have better flavor than the average hybrid tomato. They are Better Boy, Big Boy, Big Beef, Supersonic, Jubilee or Golden Jubilee (an heirloom hybrid), Mule Team, Sweet 100 (cherry), Sweet Million (cherry), Early Girl (tastes great to some people, but not to all), Viva Italia Roma, San Marzano Roma, Grape (cherry-sized, but oblong), and Juliet (a grape type), and Brandy Boy (a hybrid descendent of the famed Brandywine).

These are some of the heirloom tomatoes that you sometimes find in big box stores, and in nurseries as well: Brandywine (universally regarded as best-flavored tomato of all time but often a poor producer in our hot climate), Bradley Pink, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Pruden's Purple, Arkansas Traveler, Sioux or Super Sioux, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Boxcar Willie and Mule Team.

My two all-time favorite cherry tomatoes have the most amazing flavor and, if I could only have two plants, these are the two I'd plant: SunGold and Black Cherry. I always raise my own plants and have never seen either of these two cherry tomatoes in big box stores here in southern OK, but I think that some people in Oklahoma have found them in garden centers or stores in other parts of Oklahoma.

If you are in the Tulsa area, you can get the best tomato plants in the world from a local tomato grower called The Tomato Man and Daughter. Darrell Merrell, the famous Tomato Man, passed away earlier this year, but his daughter, Lisa, carries on the business and sells tomato plants each spring. Every heirloom tomato variety sold by The Tomato Man and Daughter does well in Oklahoma, has great flavor and is worth planting. Some of these tomato varieties were saved from extinction by The Tomato Man and are now grown all over the USA.

If you do a search on this forum, you'll find probably hundreds of past threads on tomatoes. (Might be good reading on a cold, yucky winter day or night when you're stuck inside the house, have some spare time, and are bored.)

Finally, we already have been discussing a spring plant swap, and I am sure that some of us who raise our own heirloom and hybrid tomato plants from seed will bring some of our extra plants.

RAISING TOMATO PLANTS IN CONTAINERS:

Blossom-end rot (BER) is a vexing problem. In general, it is related to uneven watering which leads to problems in calcium uptake and utilization. Thus, to avoid it, the most important thing you can do is keep the soil in your containers evenly moist. Fluctuating moisture levels contribute greatly to BER, so it is more common in tomato plants grown in containers because they tend to get 'too dry' more often than plants in the ground.

I grow some tomatoes in containers and I have to water them every morning and every evening during the summer if rain is not falling. You can simplify this process by putting in a small drip irrigation system on a timer. Such a system is very simple to set up....you can buy them in the spring at big box stores and they simplify your tomato growing and life.

Having the right mix of ingredients in a growing medium is very important, and it is an issue I have struggled with for years. I finally have a mix that works for me. The perfect soil mix for growing veggies needs to be very well-draining because wet roots lead to all kinds of disease problems. Soil that stays too wet also gives you veggies with reduced flavor. Later today, I'll find a previous discussion on making a great soilless mix for container gardening and link it for you. It may give you some ideas.

To mulch plants in a container successfully, make sure the soil level stops a minimum of 6" or 7" below the top of the container. Plant your plants in the container. Lay down a barrier layer.....you can use several layers of newspaper or you can use a piece of cloth mulch like the weed block fabric used in gardens. On top of the barrier layer, put down an inch or two of mulch as soon as the plants are planted. As the plants gain a little height, add more mulch until the mulch is just an inch or two below the top of the pot. The mulch will help keep the growth medium in the container from drying out too quickly and that, in itself, will help reduce blossom end rot.

Alternatively, you can plant a living mulch. I always use both hardwood bark mulch and living mulch to my container-grown tomatoes. Usually, I'll have a single tomato plant in the center of the container, and then arrange several plants around that plant. For companion plants, I chose plants that will still smallish and not outcompete the tomato for water and nutrition. Some of the living mulch plants I use include marigolds, wild petunias, shorter forms of celosias, dusty miller, smaller types of ornamental peppers and basils, parsley, sage and nasturtiums.

Hope this info was helpful.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to The Tomato Man and Daughter

Hi Sammy,

When we first started gardening 20+ years ago one of the things we did was attend the OSU Ag veggie garden open house out at Bixby. The dates are usually announced on Oklahoma Gardening and I believe they continue to hold it every year or so. Anyway, while we were listening to Sue Gray tell us about growing tomatoes, an old codger in bibs began berating her for promoting hybrid tomatoes instead of the heirloom varieties. She was very patient and explained about disease and such, but he continued to insist that none of them hybrids had any taste. She countered with the name Jet Star. He had to agree with her that Jet Star was mighty tasty, but insisted that she could not come up with anymore names. We were all silently chuckling by now (including Sue) as it was obvious that this guy was not going to be outdone. You probably didn't need to hear this story, but it always makes me smile when I think of Mr. Bibs and his tomato passion. And I have to thank him too. Had it not been for him I probably wouldn't have remembered the name of the Jet Star after we left the premises. You can get Jet Star at non-specialty box stores, or at Conrad Farms and I think that you will be pleased with its taste.

Thank you so much for your replies. My work has totally overwhelmed me, and I will respond very soon. I really appreciate what you have written.

Sammy

Ilene,

I don't live in oil country but I'm from oil country. We moved here almost three years ago from New Mexico (southeast corner near Midland Tx.) DH hauled oil for twenty eight years in that area, so when he called it shell I took his word for it. LOL

We now live in Sallisaw, and I LOVE IT HERE. No sand storms with winds gusting at 50 to 60 miles a hour. We don't miss it at all. We love to fish and we had to drive a couple of hours away to do that. Here thare is Kerr lake about three mins. from my home. I ride my four wheeler to the creek and sometime fish all day.

DH made a great living in New Mexico and we raised three kids there (2 of which still remain), and I do miss them and the grandkids. They all come here every 4th of July and we have a great time camping and fishing.

Well I have rambeled on and on. I'm going to try cooking fresh pumpkin today. It's a first for me. My neighbor gave me two yesterday so I have my day cut out for me. Pardon the pun.

Have a great day,
Teresa

THanks Teresa, I think our washbuckets are very large, and as I recall we put three tomato plants in them. I need to do a better job with the soil and the mulch.

Ilene, I am pretty good with the Search button, and that is exactly what I should do. I remember well some of those posts where she described in detail the different varieties.

Dawn, I put your post in my clippings, and would like to find that man. I don't get out of school until the end of May, and by that time most of the work is finished. It will be awhile before I ever attempt to do anything inside by seed.

Maryl, I have made a note of Jet Star. I will look for it, and we are very familiar with Conrad Farms.

Teresa, I would like to live near a lake someday. It is so interesting to hear you, and others talk about your lives.

We have those three tubs for the tomatoes, and are going to clear out more room for other vegetables. I will post in another thread, but am looking for what I saw on Victory Gardens. They showed a chef on a roof top growing salad greens. He grew them in cedar boxes that he could cover if he needed to. We intend to make the boxes, put them on cement blocks, and grow greens.

If any of you are reading, I would love to see something like that that you are doing.

Sammy