Homegrown Tomatoes

Posts Tagged ‘The Great Tomato Experiment’

I’ve had a bit of a setback on The Great Tomato Experiement; I ran into a stretch of bad weather, followed by what I think was possibly an overdose of potassium.  As a result, all three plants are in sad, sad shape.  In fact, so sad that I am starting over!

What Will I Do Differently?

First, is that I have come across some nice 17-gallon containers, and I’ll use them instead of the 10-gallons I had been using.  I’ll sterilize and re-use the 10-gallons for some other tomatoes I have coming up for the summer (including two mystery tomatoes).

I’m going to add sphagnum peat moss and perlite to each of the containers.  I’ve found the original mixture I used compacted a bit too much for my liking.

I’m going to add the main dose of fertilizer to the soil before planting, then mix it in well.  I found with my raised bed tomatoes that when I did this, the plants grew more vigorously compared to the ones where I added the fertilizer as a side-dressing in the beginning.

Finally, I am using a different tomato variety.  For some reason, Pineapple doesn’t seem to like my growing conditions (I have a 4th plant that I am growing in the ground in another part of the garden).  It’s growing fairly well and putting forth tomatoes, but it’s not as vigorous as I would hope.

And the New Tomato Variety Is…

I have chosen Big Raspberry as the new tomato variety for The Great Tomato Experiment for the following reasons:

• Big Rasperry is a potato-leafed plant, and I find that tomato plants with potato leaves generally fare better in my garden.
• The tomatoes don’t generally  get large (maybe 9 ounces), so if I can get a tomato of this variety over 1 lb using the giant tomato techniques, it will be an accomplishment.
• The plant is productive, but not necessarily tall.  So if I can get the plant over 6 feet using the world record tomato techniques, it will be a visible  accomplishment.  Especially since I am growing it in a container!
• Finally, I’m choosing Big Raspberry because it’s an earlier tomato compared to Pineapple.  Since it’s already April, I need to play catch-up before the worst of the South Florida summer heat arrives.

If you’re still wanting to experiment along with me and can’t locate Big Raspberry, a good second choice might be Prudens Purple.  In fact, I would have used Pruden’s Purple as my first choice for this test if I hadn’t already had some growing in the garden.  My other choice would be Caspian Pink.

So, I planted my seeds today.  I planted 5 so I could choose the best 3 for the experiement.  The other two…well, I’m sure I can find someone in my neighborhood who might like a couple of plants!

So, while the first part of the experiment failed, I still have an opportunity to continue.  Onward!

The heirlooms in the garden are growing strong!  With 2 days of gentle rain, the plants are rocketing skyward.  Who said hybrids were the only ones to grow fast?

I mentioned in my post for the last heirloom tomato report that I’d post some photos.  I just walked out to the garden, camera in hand, so here they are!

How Fast Have They Grown?

On this past Sunday (March 15th), I decided that I’d go around with my Sharpie permanent marker and mark how high the plants were.  That way, by Sunday the 22nd, I could tell how fast they had grown. 

I decided to wander out with my camera today and Brandywine has declared its intentions to make a run to the top of the 6-foor pole.   See the red arrow?  That’s pointing to where I marked its height on Sunday.  And blossoms?  The photo doesn’t show it, but there are lots and lots on the plant.

But Kellogg’s Breakfast isn’t far behind!  Nor are my Pinapple tomatoes, for The Great Tomato Experiment.

Truth be told, every tomato plant is showing marked growth since Sunday.  The plants that have gained the least height are my Loxahatchee plants.  On the other hand, they have apparently decided that large, dark green leaves and flower buds are more important, and they are truly lovely plants.

Here’s a photo showing Loxahatchee (foreground) and Kellogg’s Breakfast (background).  And speaking of Kellogg’s Breakfast, it’s also gotten a lot wider, as well as a fair amount taller.

(By the way, you can click on the photos to see a larger image.)

Black Sea Man and Druzba have grown, but not quite as spectacularly.  Then again, they are both much younger plants, being in the main garden for not even 2 weeks yet.  Actually, I kind of take that back — Black Sea Man has grown some huge, long leaves, and gotten quite wide.  It’s just only grown an inch taller in height (which isn’t as exciting as Brandywine growing 5 inches).

The others are also doing well; White Bush is blossoming, and I can’t wait to see the ripe tomatoes on it (getting ahead of myself, though).  Eva Purple Ball and Pruden’s Purple are about a week away from being transplanted into their final spots.

Oh, you may be wondering who won the blossom contest (i.e. which heirloom had the first open blossoms).  The winner was…Pineapple, closely followed by White Bush.  Brandywine followed and all the older plants (those that have been in the ground for at least 3 weeks) all have buds.

So that’s it for today.  And if you’re womdering if I grow any hybrids, the answer is yes…and those photos are reports are coming up shortly!