| Author | Content |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
August 31, 2009
08:33 PM Post #7010425
| And sow it begins.. the 2010 TOMATER TOURNEY!
Theres biguns, lil uns, and tweeners! Be they tall, be they small! On the vine or in a basket.. show us yer maters! Mater flowers, mater vines!
What can ya do with a mater in an arrangement!
(Yeah, I know its still fall.. but gotta give the guys down under a start too ya know!)
So it begins..
SOoooo, how ya'll starting your seed or whatcha got growing?
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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haighr
Hagerstown, MD
(Zone 6a)
August 31, 2009
08:53 PM Post #7010521
| Well this plant that I started from seed got 42 maters on it so I am sure I will harvest this seed for next year. 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 01, 2009
05:55 PM Post #7014329
| Well, thats some l plant there! Im going for big and large yeild per plant next season. I was at one of my favorite GH's a few days ago and she gave me some whooompas maters.
Check this out.. they grow 12 to 15 feet in the GH and heres have been yeilding almost 2 bushel per PLANT! Now thats a space saver in a container for you.
You grow them in the GH tied to a string. She says lop the branches off and just let thing grow. It will bush out and get lots of bloomers for new maters. I am gonna try them on the hoop house and let them run up the hoops instead of strings and raise them outside to see what happens there! Hopefully them will not be woody like some hothouse maters are or to pink. I want lush red sweet maters and large ones at that.
I plan to fertilize them with chicken poo tea.
I am also gonna do some in hanging baskets for cherry maters. How I did them this year worked just swell!
Well, here is her plants at her GH! They are the tall things towards the back.
To get my seeds from the maters I let them rot in a tray in the GPS for the winter and whalah! Seed mush, goes dry and there ya go. I just plant the mush particles with the seed. I usually broad cast the seed some how, be it in a tray or in the garden and transplant the better starters later to where they will grow off!
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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haighr
Hagerstown, MD
(Zone 6a)
September 01, 2009
08:35 PM Post #7015004
| Sounds like a plan to me BB. I took a pic this evening, it finally toppled to the ground in spite of all the stakes. I have been harvesting from it and still counted 37 maters still on the vine and they are a good size. Like your idea for harvesting the seed, will do the same here only in the garage or basement as I don't have a GH. 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 01, 2009
09:22 PM Post #7015224
| I dont know any other method to really extract the seeds fro the maters... I guess you could try mashing them through a screen.. but rotting them out works. It does smell, but my GH is not heated in the winter and I am not our there as it goes to storage of my containers etc and by the time I do the spring cleanup, I find the mater seeds andits about time to plant. For some reason I alwasy have cherry tomato volunteers so I collect those and dont make to big a deal to start them. I chuck a few cherrys out in the garden and find them when they grow. I figure if its good enough to grow in the garden, then its time to work on really gettign maters going. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 04, 2009
02:19 PM Post #7025703
| Im finished with harvest for 2009...it will be something in 2010...Hmmm need to figure out my planting date for spring! |
Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 10, 2009
11:25 PM Post #7050039
| Can a Zone 9 join this thread? I had a wonderful crop this year! (as opposed to the past two which were pitiful indeed.) Don't want to butt in ... I know there's a difference in the growing seasons. I also save my seeds, and all my tomatoes I start from seed, even the Big Beef. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 11, 2009
07:23 AM Post #7050594
| Any zone is welcome!
Well, I should have said finished with my big beeves harvest. I have cherry maters coming out of my ears!
So, jubilada, whats your plan? |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 11, 2009
01:56 PM Post #7051786
| Heres the last of the cherry mater baskets 2009. This really worked well for me! Beat picken the lil boogers by hands and knees! Iput up about 40 of them off of volunteer seeds that were found in the garden.
I fertilized them with chicken doodoo tea, but regret I started doing that to late in the season!
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 11, 2009
03:52 PM Post #7052174
| You all have some lovely-looking tomato plants.
I've had a 20 x 40 foot plot in one of Palo Alto's community gardens for 21 years. I guess you'd call me an "urban" farmer. I've narrowed my tomato growing down to 10 or 11 plants per year. Tomatoes grown this year: 2 Big Beef, 2 Imur Prior Beta (a Norwegian type, bred for short, cool seasons), 3 Ropreco, 1 Juliette, 1 Great White, 1 Orange Oxheart, and 1 Striped German. The Imur, and German were new to my selection this year, and I can only say they are fabulous. I think the Imur is better than Stupice in flavor: nice and tangy. The Striped German is a huge, meaty, very tasty tomato, and the plant seems to be quite hardy (for an heirloom type). Of course, I swear by all the others, and they are in my garden each year. Since July 1, I have harvested over 240 lbs of tomatoes, and have made and frozen enough tomato sauce to last me and my husband from now until the first ripe tomato next season. In the dead of winter it's like having a spoonful of sunshine!
I save seed from all my heirloom/open pollinated types, and buy seed from a local seed company for the hybrids.
I try to do all my garden planning and planting according to the phases and signs of the moon. Yes, I'm eccentric. There is a very helpful calendar I get every year: Gardening by the Moon. They publish three versions each year, one for short season, one for medium, and one for long.
I start seeds in flats in my "greenhouse" kitchen window in early March, transplanting seedlings twice (once to 4-inch pots, once to 6-inch pots) before putting them in the ground around the first week of May.
Soil prep includes a cover crop of hairy vetch in soil that has been well amended with steer manure and compost. I never plant tomatoes in the same place two years in a row.
Plants go in with doses of vitamin B (for transplant shock), fish meal, and a tablespoon of epsom salts (for trace minerals). After a while the plants get an occasional feeding of fish emulsion.
The thing is, it's hard to believe that tomato season is almost over this year ... seems like I just put the plants in! The Juliette will probably produce through October, the Big Beef has maybe two weeks left, as do the Ropreco. The rest are ready for the compost heap, pretty much. I might get another couple of pounds from the German. It's that time of year, though, where there's starting to be morning dew, the little brown spiders are spinning their webs, and somehow or other tomatoes don't care for that too much.
That's it from here! |
Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 11, 2009
03:54 PM Post #7052180
| July 30, Orange Oxheart, Great White, and some Ropreco. 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 11, 2009
03:56 PM Post #7052190
| August 27, Beautiful Striped German 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 11, 2009
03:57 PM Post #7052194
| August 31, A bowl of Juliettes. 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 13, 2009
11:13 AM Post #7058777
| awesome, thats some competition! LOL!
Keep 'em coming! Lovely pics and hints! |
soilsandup
Sacramento, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 14, 2009
01:40 AM Post #7061828
| Jubilada - nice variety of tomatoes you got there.
I only planted Ace this year, along with some self-seeding cherry tomatoes. My harvest last week of Ace tomatoes for canning. Some small, some big. Apple included for comparison.
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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haighr
Hagerstown, MD
(Zone 6a)
September 14, 2009
07:53 AM Post #7062149
| Now those are good looking crops, looks like you all have shined them up for the table. Guess I better stop making the sauce and take apic of ours before we use them all. I did harvest the seed from several yesterday that were on that hugeous plant that had 40+ maters on it. Hope I get a whopper again next year. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 14, 2009
08:17 AM Post #7062200
| OH oh oh!! SHOW US THE SAUCE!!~~~ |
Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 14, 2009
02:49 PM Post #7063508
| Oh, yes, show us the SAUCE! (I'm about sauced out, quite frankly).
This morning's harvest ... 4 lbs of tomatoes (The Striped German is 1 lb), a few jalapeņos, some chiles de agua, a handful of beans, and some lovely basil. The season is winding down!
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 14, 2009
02:51 PM Post #7063517
| And my Roprecos still have a little life in them ... though the plants are starting to look pretty scraggly! 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 14, 2009
03:34 PM Post #7063700
| One of my favorite and most simple things to do with a big beef mater is to quarter it, and cut the quarters in half again. Then take some Western dressing and put that on them and top with parmasan cheese and green olives. I can make a meal on just that in the summer! YUMMM! |
Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
September 14, 2009
04:01 PM Post #7063816
| Sounds mightly delish, Blossombuddy! Can't go wrong with parmesan and green olives. Maybe mayo instead of the Western dressing.
Anybody ever try making panzanella (Italian bread salad) with their heirloom tomatoes? Pretty darn good too. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
September 30, 2009
11:01 PM Post #7122226
| Fermenting the seed according to P. Allen Smith!
http://www.pallensmith.com/index.php?id=1646&questionid=858 |
Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
October 01, 2009
12:08 AM Post #7122383
| Look, it's so much more simple than all that!
Take a tomato you like (of course from an heirloom or open pollinated sort), cut it open, squish out the seeds with some of the tomato jam into a small container, put in a little water, set in the kitchen window, and wait for one or two days until you see the layer of mold. Remove that layer (real easy), pour the seeds into a fine mesh strainer, rinse them, and then put them on waxed paper to dry out. Make sure you have a plan to identify the seeds you're saving, and then, put them into little envelopes, label them, and remember that they will be viable for at least four years. No mystery there, real easy, and it has worked for me for the past 20 years! Happy seed saving. (It's important for the ecology of the earth.) |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
October 01, 2009
09:01 AM Post #7122996
| I just chuck them in a flat tray or a tin pan in the greenhouse and leave them there until planting time. No fuss no muss! They are dry by then and then just pick out the seeds from the dry matter.
Sometimes I will just chuck that mess into a spot in the garden, wait until they sprout and then trnsplant them. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
October 14, 2009
01:13 PM Post #7168420
| ergo...tin tray with my giant hot house maters.. starting to rot down already...e-yuk! and stinkola! 
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
October 14, 2009
02:50 PM Post #7168764
| Yuk, indeed. Looks like you'll have a mess of tomato seeds for next spring!
My seeds have been saved, dried, stored in envelopes, categorized, and shared with friends. They're at the ready for next season's planting.
Now I'm about beefing up the soil and planting cover crops. Hairy vetch where the tomatoes will go, and fava beans everywhere else. Garlic and onions go in early November. Chard and kale and broccoli already planted. Then I will rest until mid-January, I hope.
Had a very good tomato season, harvesting nearly 300 pounds. Best in about 5 years. Who knows why. The Juliette tomato is still producing, and I'll leave it in until the first frost. The rest, well, they're in the compost pile.
Until the spring ... |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
October 15, 2009
12:40 PM Post #7172071
| You sound very tomato minded! LOL!
Yano, one tomatoe I would realllly like to try is that little guy called a Cherub. Man, I tasted those for the first time and oh yum!
They are like a cherry mater but have a pointy end and are so sweet! Melts right in the mouth they do!
I got cherry tomato seeds up the kazoo... Need to pack those up...they are dried and last years... |
haighr
Hagerstown, MD
(Zone 6a)
October 15, 2009
02:23 PM Post #7172385
| We are having the last of ours this evening as our favorite BLT's. That will be the end of the fresh sliced maters for this season. |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
October 15, 2009
02:31 PM Post #7172407
| Im going to the grocer... I saw them there.. what the hey, will try to extrude them after I eat a few of course...I have not seen seed. Hopoe they still have them and I hope they dont hybridize off weird! They sure are good!
But first its the cafe! |
BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
October 19, 2009
12:02 PM Post #7186229
| Ok, Im back, got some cherubs... I will probably riase them off in hanging baskets in 2010.
The cherries I grew this year worked well in the baskets and so labor saving in picking! Only trouble is, is where I had the baskets hanging.. they dropped maters and I am sure I will have volunteers to clean up on the spring. I may as well do both if that is the case
So my 2010 lineup for maters is gonna be
1) cherubs
2) cherry
3) big beef
4) the giant mater I got from the hothouse that I have no clue as to the name of so for the sake of giving it a reference, will just call it the Jurassic mater.
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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Jubilada
Palo Alto, CA
(Zone 9a)
November 03, 2009
12:19 AM Post #7236117
| Today I planted Hairy Vetch in the locations where I plan to put my tomatoes next year.
This is my tomato lineup for 2010:
2 Big Beef,
2 or 3 Ropreco Paste,
1 Juliette,
1 Norwegian (Imur Beta Prior),
1 Great White,
1 Orange Oxheart,
1 Striped German, and
1 Prudens Purple.
Also put in my fava beans today. Friday will plant garlic (usually around 110 cloves), and onions. The chard, kale and broccoli are growing already. So, my winter garden will be in, and in the meantime, I've got lots and lots of tomato sauce for the winter. Whew! Time for a break!
No frost yet here in California. Some beautiful weather in the Bay Area lately, in the 70s. Of course, we need rain ...
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BLOSSOMBUDDY
(Zone 5a)
November 03, 2009
10:07 AM Post #7236849
| Jubilada, jolly good list there! Looks like you are gonna be busy! |
