Tomato Assortment 10/10/21 (Ended)

[lynnee]

After 4 days, the new tomato garden has sprouts. There are two AG Golden Harvest pods in back, one Burpee Red Veranda pod at front left, and one Johnny's Washington Cherry pod at front right. I'm using my oldest Bounty. It has a touchscreen, but no wi-fi.

The Burpee Red Veranda seed did arrive, Sher! It has been planted for only a day and a half.

[Sher]

YAY!!!!!!! That means the seeds are reallly fresh. Mine took 7 or 8 days to germinate because they are older.

[Shawn]

Fast germination, WTG

[lynnee]

Sher, the Red Veranda seed has germinated, too. It will be peeking out of the pod in another day or two.

[Sher]

I am so tickled for you, lynnee. I hope you will love them as much as I do!

[lynnee]

Tomato garden status on 10/18/21.  AG Golden Harvest in back, Burpee Red Veranda left front, Johnny's Washington Cherry left right.  

[lynnee]

The tomatoes have all sprouted, except for a new pod of Veranda Reds, added yesterday. The Washington Cherry is gangly--maybe it's a tall indeterminate--especially compared to the AG Golden Harvests in back. The sprouted Veranda Reds were started a week after the others.

I added one of the little trellises described in the AG vegetables guide to support the Washington Cherry. It is already starting to fall over.

[Sher]

Such a sweet garden!

[Shawn]

I keep bamboo skewers in the house in case I need to prop a plant up or two.  I actually am using one with my peppers.

[lynnee]

The tomato garden is progressing. The two AG Golden Harvest plants were topped a few days ago after the fifth leaves developed. I discarded the Washington Cherry, because it was floppy and looked like it would be too tall to grow with the other varieties.

The Red Veranda that was started a week after the others looks great, and another Red Veranda pod has germinated. The latter pod (hidden by the front left pod) was planted 4-5 days ago.

[Sher]

I wonder what it is about tomatoes that make them so exciting to grow. Peppers are a close second to me.

Yours look wonderful!

[lynnee]

The Golden Harvests needed pruning, because they were producing huge leaves that were shadowing the Veranda Reds at the left. They're doing this even after I topped them--to discourage the heavy canopy of leaves that AG tomatoes always seem to produce!

I'm trying to understand how the dwarf/bush tomatoes grow, so that I can control them with pruning.  I hate the heavy leaf canopies, because they hide the ripe tomatoes.  Sometimes the tomatoes are too ripe to use when I spot them.

I topped the older Veranda Red yesterday. The late VR addition is plugging along, with just one plant remaining in the pod.  (All four seeds sprouted from that pod.)

[Sher]

I think the reason AG peppers and tomatoes generate such heavy canopies is because 100% of their light source comes from above instead of like outdoors where the light is more dissipated.

Just a guess on my part because the tomatoes and peppers I plant outdoors don't do that.

[ERR0R1755]

Nov 3, 2021 15:58:33 GMT -5 lynnee said:

I'm trying to understand how the dwarf/bush tomatoes grow, so that I can control them with pruning.  I hate the heavy leaf canopies, because they hide the ripe tomatoes.  Sometimes the tomatoes are too ripe to use when I spot them.

If they're determinate varieties, the rule of thumb that I've been told (and followed) is that you don't want to prune at all until they've started to form all of the tomatoes. At that point, you can trim back most of the leaves (especially any that look bad) and have a cleaner plant.

[lynnee]

ERR0R1755, I'll try leaving the pruning until the tomatoes form when I plant the next crop. That's a welcome suggestion, because the AG pruning instructions aren't producing GH plants that look like the ad photos.

[airscapes]

why do they want you to remove the leaves which is where photosynthesis takes place??? 

[lynnee]

Nov 4, 2021 17:42:00 GMT -5 airscapes said:

why do they want you to remove the leaves which is where photosynthesis takes place??? 

I guess that the plant is supposed to focus on tomatoes, not leaves, but mine always produce more, or bigger, leaves in response to pruning. The plants are clearly saying, "Leave me alone! I know what I'm doing!"

[airscapes]

that is expected, without leaves the plant can not make food and therefor  tomato's and will die..

[ERR0R1755]

If you remove any leaves that are shaded out by leaves above it, the plant won't waste energy trying to keep those leaves alive.

[lynnee]

My tomato garden looked a bit under the weather today, so I did an R&R a day early. The Veranda Reds are healthy, but haven't been growing much, so I wondered whether the Golden Harvest roots were crowding them out.

Not so at all. The Reds had half the water bowl available for their roots, but each plant had only a few long roots extending from the plug into the bowl.

The GH plants had captured and removed the pump filter, so I trimmed the roots a little. For various reasons (doorbell, arrival of Roomba, etc.), I ended up handling the roots rather roughly. All of the tomatoes may be growing slowly for a while.

I also pruned the GH plants again, to try to eliminate the dense canopy with interior leaves all twisted and tangled together for want of space. Maybe this can't be done, but it's been my objective all along to learn how best to prune tomatoes. 🙂

The GH plants have some blossoms coming soon.