Tomatoes 2012.

What are you planting this year?

I started buying plants for the garden. I thought I would try more of the Wild Boar Farms crosses and then the old standbys. Thus far, I have the following:

Indigo Apple (a very new and rare cross)
Berkeley Tie Dye
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Large Barred Boar
Black and Brown Boar
Solar Flare
Purple Cherokee
Black Pineapple
Hillbillie
Black Cherry

Of the WBF crosses, I am repeating Pink Berkely Tie Dye, Black and Brown Boar.
I have space for one more but I have not decided what to plant. Depending on the weather, I will probably plant in a week or two.

Words of warning for Sacratomato. Capitol Nursery lost their heirloom source, so you may not be able to get your favorite plants from them.

Enjoy

I started with 7 carbon tomatoes from seed that I got from tomatoes 3 or 4 years ago…
Then bought a black prince from home depot.
Then bought japanese black trifele and yellow pear from yamagami nursery in cupertino.
BTW, yamagami has a lot of fruits and vegetables in stock!

My trifele and black prince are doing well, I have them out on my front porch (house faces west and no where do I have full day sun [cry.gif] ) in terracotta pots.
The rest are still inside (too small) and supplement morning sun with CFL at night.

My black prince did start blooming, but I pinched it off since it’s still kind of small (1 foot tall?)

This weekend (Apr 14-15) is the Tomatomania heirloom seedling sale at Cornerstone Sonoma and that’s where we’ll be kicking off our growing season. Our garden is already looking great and we’re ready for some Tomatoes!

This event nicely coincides with the Bedrock pickup day - double reason to head to Sonoma!
Not affilicated etc. etc. but I’ll be at both events this coming Saturday [thumbs-up.gif]

I’m still kind of new to this growing tomato scene.
looks like my black prince is flowering again. Should I pinch off or let it grow?
I live in Mountain View (south bay), not quite as hot as, say, San Jose.

10 Tomatoes to Grow in Your Container Garden
While it’s true that you can plant any tomato in a container, some work better than others. Here are some recommendations for tomatoes to grow in your container garden.

Tips for Growing Tomatoes in Containers:

The bigger the container, the better. Tomatoes have large root systems, and you want to plant them deeply at planting time. A large container will prevent the soil from drying out too quickly during the heat of summer as well. Something 12 to 18 inches deep is a good size.

Water regularly. Containers dry out more quickly than regular garden beds, and tomatoes are more likely to develop issues such as blossom end rot if they get uneven watering. A self-watering container is a great option.

Fertilize with compost tea or manure tea monthly during the growing season.

First ripe tomato today. A golden/yellow cherry sized tomato. First medium sized tomatoes probably end of next week.

[rofl.gif]

We’re probably a month away from putting the plants in the ground.

Yep, took a big risk and started planting in early-ish March. Squash is blooming well right now, first blueberries are about a week or less out. Figs about 3 weeks. Cucumbers are a little slow it seems. We should have a good crop of sweet potatoes this year and may make two crops a spring and a fall. Corn is about 3 inches high, first time to grow it here so don’t know what to expect. Once again didn’t plant enough eggplant. Trying to pick some more plants up this weekend, but the better varieties aren’t showing up this year for some reason. Planted a LOT of tomatillos, about 3 times what we planted last year.

For some reason the cat loves the fennel and keeps digging it up. We’ve had to put up bird netting to keep her out of it.

I’ll probably plant tomorrow as the weather finally turned.

Having problems here in Sacramento finding a nursery that sell heirlooms. Can’t find Black Pineapple or Hillbillie because of the financial troubles of my favorite nursery.

Planetd about March 20 this year. Never prior to May 1 in the past. Knew I was risking it, and 4 of my 8 got some frost burn 2 weeks back. I planted 4 new along side. If the burned ones die, I’m still good. If they live, they can all fight it out. Mostly hybrids since my past luck with heirlooms has been so hit and miss, though I prefer the ability to get more acidity and less of that white core from hybrids.

Has anyone ever tried to can or preserve whole cherry tomatoes? Last year we had so many that we actually had some go bad on us before we could eat them.

I picked up a Kellogg’s Breakfast and a dwarf yellow by Wild Boar Farms to complete this years. All plants are in the ground. Let the fun begin.

Indigo Apple (a very new and rare cross)
Berkeley Tie Dye
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Large Barred Boar
Black and Brown Boar
Solar Flare
Purple Cherokee
Black Cherry
Kellogg Breakfast
Yellow Dwarf (wild boar)

We picked up 16 plants at the farmers market today. Five each Beefsteak and Black Prince (Siberian heirloom), four San Marzano, and two Sweet 100s. Twelve days behind last year, I will plant them tomorrow afternoon once the cloud cover starts to roll in from the ocean.

We had about 17 plants last year and they all ripened at once or so it seems. One farmer sells a container for $3 no matter how many seedlings are in it…usually five! The other farmer sells individual plants for $2.50. First guy gives a bargain, but selection is limited. Photos to follow. (if I can figure out the link to PhotoBucket!)

Growing Perfect Tomatoes 101
By: Networx.com | Green

Ours are in. Sorry the pic isn’t better but this is the best angle on our garden and the grapes have sprouted so far in the past few days you can’t really see the beds that well anymore. We’re experimenting with growing tomatoes on a trellis instead of cages this year. You can see the trellis to the left in the pic.

For tomatoes, we put in:
Celebrity
Annanas Noir
4th of July
Copia
Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo
Jet Setter
Black Giant
Pineapple
Cherokee Purple
Italian Tree
Oragn & Green Zebra
Black & Brown Boar
Carneros Pink
Chocolate Stripes
Brandywine
Solar Flare

Wow, Larry. How many plants of each tomato type? Are you making wine or growing table grapes? Looks like lot of fun in the garden,

Hi Nancy,

The Annanas Noir we have 3 plants, 3 for Black & Brown Boar, 2 Carneros Pink, the rest are single plants. The grapes we use as table grapes but we have some vinifera including Merlot and Muscat.

The garden is a lot of work but we love it, especially for the tomatoes. At this point we don’t even eat tomatoes from the store/in the off months.

Anyone else growing blues this year?
I have a variety of blue toms from Tom Wagner and also OSU blue. Last year I grew a few blue cherries and they were fun to grow and good tasting.

Starting to get fruit set a week or so ago on my yellow pear and black prince. black prince has lots of blossoms.
carbon is probably a few days away.
black japanese trifele has blossoms but no fruit. I think it’s a later maturing plant.
I’m in the South Bay. Anyone else in the bay area getting fruit set?

Our first tomatoes showing a sign of ripeness…Super Sweet 100s…