2012 Tomato Plants Journal.

ruffrider · May 25, 2012

Hey there guys. Just figured id start the journal since the seeds have been in soil for 3 days and first signs of growth should be starting soon!

Alright so heres the details.
I got 5 coco fiber pots and placed 3 seeds in each pot to give me the best chance at succeeding. I then placed the pots with the seeds into a mini greenhouse which should give the seeds a nice warm, moist environment for them to thrive. I keep them in the shade during the hottest part of the day once it cools down I place them in to direct sunlight.

Pics:
Mini Greenhouse Side. Mini Greenhouse Top. Pots Shot #1 Pots Shot #2
View attachment 2184014 View attachment 2184030

Total Head · May 25, 2012

what type of tomatoes are you growing?

ruffrider · May 26, 2012

Im growing Heirloom tomatoes picked the seeds up at homedepot the other day. There made by the Burpee company there suppose to have very uniform vine growth and high yield of large globe shaped tomatoes. I wish they would hurry up and sprout tho!

RyanTheRhino · May 26, 2012

ruffrider said:
Im growing Heirloom tomatoes picked the seeds up at homedepot the other day. There made by the Burpee company there suppose to have very uniform vine growth and high yield of large globe shaped tomatoes. I wish they would hurry up and sprout tho!

burpee is owned by monsanto. I cant believe they have the right to copyright DNA. But not much you can do about it they are the monopoly of the seed world with that said i have bought some of their seeds too.

good luck with your grow

ruffrider · May 26, 2012

RyanTheRhino said:
burpee is owned by monsanto. I cant believe they have the right to copyright DNA. But not much you can do about it they are the monopoly of the seed world with that said i have bought some of their seeds too.

good luck with your grow

Oh I didn't know that, they really are a monopoly eh. Makes my kind of scared to see what would happen if weed was legalized and marijuana seeds were in the hands of those companys.

What kind of Burpee vegetable seeds did you pick up Rhino?

ruffrider · May 26, 2012

Update: I have an idea of doing a side by side comparison of the plants. Planting 2 of them directly into the ground and the other 2 I will plant in pots. Each plant will get the same amount of nutrients, light, water etc, to see which yields more, has greater colour etc. Now im left with the 5th odd plant out to this plant I will be experimenting with some kinds of low strength training and/or topping I've never seen it done on a tomato plant so I figure ill give it a whirl.

TexRx · May 26, 2012

^^^ My guess is that the ones in the ground will yield more - especially if it's hot where you are. It's so hot here during the summer that a plant in a pot has to be heat and drought tolerant or just get watered all the time to survive. In the ground, it survives better - especially after the roots get established

....But it really depends on what conditions you have

RyanTheRhino · May 27, 2012

ruffrider said:
Oh I didn't know that, they really are a monopoly eh. Makes my kind of scared to see what would happen if weed was legalized and marijuana seeds were in the hands of those companys.

What kind of Burpee vegetable seeds did you pick up Rhino?

I have some Rutgers they are about 1.5- 2 ft tall now about 2 feet wide

RyanTheRhino · May 27, 2012

ruffrider said:
Update: I have an idea of doing a side by side comparison of the plants. Planting 2 of them directly into the ground and the other 2 I will plant in pots. Each plant will get the same amount of nutrients, light, water etc, to see which yields more, has greater colour etc. Now im left with the 5th odd plant out to this plant I will be experimenting with some kinds of low strength training and/or topping I've never seen it done on a tomato plant so I figure ill give it a whirl.

if you have space let the monster sprawl out. tomatoes are very vigorous growers ,and anywhere a stem touches dirt will grow roots. so instead of having 1 tall vine with one root. you will have a huge mat with multiple root spots to take up nutrients. When you train it just keep pulling of the suckers that form on the upper branches to encourage the bottom suckers to branch out. This will give you a wide short bush inestead of 1 tall vine. Plus it will have multiple root spots .

Total Head · May 27, 2012

i like tomato grows. this year i had to buy plants because i completely forgot to start my seeds in time. last year i grew organic brandywines, and they were the absolute best tomatoes any of us had ever eaten. i forget the brand but i got 'em from worm's way and they don't list them on their site. little bit of a pain in the ass, but well worth it.

scroglodyte · May 27, 2012

i highly recommend "Botanical Interests" organic heirloom seeds. ima growin' brandywine, borghese, and sun gold.

7 tomatoes here, and 7 more at my sister-in-law's. i make sun-dried tomatoes, and give them to friends. 100% og

ruffrider · May 27, 2012

@RyanTheRhino, I heard that about tomato plants ill have to give that try this year, Im assuming the more places you let it root the more of a monster it would be come because how much more nutrients and water it could suck up compared to a plant with just one shot of roots. Not 100% on it but it makes sense to me

@TotalHead, Aw that sucks man I almost forgot about mine, luckily when I was out at the store I seen the packages of em which reminded I needed some myself.

@Scorlodyte, Its to late for me to start them this year unfortunately but next year ill have to give them a shot, this is my first year with tomatoes.

ruffrider · May 27, 2012

Update: So I went to check on them today to see if anything sprouted, to my disbelief one of them actually sprouted already the one in the taller round cup. I was gonna snap a picture to post but I figure I'll wait till it matures a little and theres actually something to look at. 1 Down 4 To Go

ruffrider · May 30, 2012

Update- So my seeds that I planted seem not to be germinating -.- . Anyways I was at the grocery store yesterday which happened to have a garden center so I picked up 2 tomato plants just in case nothing happens with the seedlings. One of them is Early Girl and I forgot the name of the other haha i'll be sure to check it and post it for you guys. I plan on transplanting them later today since they were root bound when I bought them, I plan on taking pictures before and after the transplant. I'll have them posted by tonight, tomorrow at the latest

!

ruffrider · May 30, 2012

Update - So I just transplanted the tomatoes I picked up yesterday, the one I forgot its strain turns out to be a BrandyWine and the other is an Early Girl. Where I live the soils actually pretty good so, I just dug a hole about a foot deep and foot wide then back filled it with a mixture of homemade compost, topsoil, blood & bone meal & Canadian peat moss. Hit them with some water and proceed to let them soak up the sun!

Heres some pictures-
BrandyWine. BrandyWine. BrandyWine. EarlyGirl Before. EarlyGirl Before.

EarlyGirl After. EarlyGirl After. Brandy Wine & Early Girl (Pictures of them together.)

The Mantis · May 31, 2012

It's my first year to grow tomatoes too.

Scroglodyte - nice garden, i really like those (hemp) sacks. do they work fine for pots too? like a smartpot?

I'll def be watching. All mine were store bought. My gf picked out a Opalka heirloom and I' got a Black Krim heirloom. I put her Opalka in a 7 gallon smartpot and my BK in a ~17 gallon earthbox. I'm can't wait to chomp down on one.

ruffrider · Jun 2, 2012

The Mantis said:
It's my first year to grow tomatoes too.

Scroglodyte - nice garden, i really like those (hemp) sacks. do they work fine for pots too? like a smartpot?

I'll def be watching. All mine were store bought. My gf picked out a Opalka heirloom and I' got a Black Krim heirloom. I put her Opalka in a 7 gallon smartpot and my BK in a ~17 gallon earthbox. I'm can't wait to chomp down on one.

Right on Mantis those both sound great perhaps you could snap a few pictures i'd love to see em in the smart pot and earth box. , I ended just going with store bought since I couldn't get my seeds to sprout -_- . I posted some pictures of them above ^^^^ there brandy wine and early girl .

ruffrider · Jun 2, 2012

Update - So I've been checking on my tomatoes daily like most and I discovered yesterday that something had eaten one of the branches off my earlygirl perhaps a raccoon? :???:

. Today I found something has been chopping down on some of the leaves on my brandywine. So I improvised with what I had laying around to make some sort of barrier for what ever animal is doing this. Basically I just took 6 post stuck them in the ground then ran a wire around them 3 times to make a wire fence pretty much. Ill have pics posted soon

The Mantis · Jun 3, 2012

ruffrider said:
Right on Mantis those both sound great perhaps you could snap a few pictures i'd love to see em in the smart pot and earth box. , I ended just going with store bought since I couldn't get my seeds to sprout -_- . I posted some pictures of them above ^^^^ there brandy wine and early girl .

Looking good ruffrider. Brandywines' are supposed to be really good and juicy. Are you going to keep the seeds of the best fruit to replant next year?

Here's those pics. They are both less than a week in their pots so they are still getting acclimated. I wish I could do ground like you but my dirt is really rocky and the animals around here (chickens/dogs) would wreck shop on the tomatoes. I put them in my greenhouse locked up from the critters.

Black Krim in earthbox

Opalka in smartpot

bell pepper from seed growing in back

Here's to good luck for all of us this summer. Cheers

ruffrider · Jun 3, 2012

@TheMantis
Indeed I plan on keep the seeds from the best fruit and try my luck again next year with seeds haha

. That Black Krim looks amazing almost similar to my EarlyGirl just larger! Sucks to hear about the soil but oh well im sure those smart pots work just fine, gotta work with what ya got right.

anyways like you said cheers to good luck for all of us this summer!

2012 Tomato Plants Journal.

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