sixdogs
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2007
- Messages
- 13,608
- Location
- Ohio
- Tractor
- Kubota M7040, Kubota MX5100, Deere 790 TLB, Farmall Super C
We're down to just 12 tomato plants and enough Delectable sweet corn to eat and freeze. The tomatoes I like are Steak House from Burpee and then a couple of Juliette smaller tomatoes. We have had the best luck with them and they respond well to our climate and diseases.
I rotate the crop every year and rip out the old plants and dump far away from the house. I think that has kept or disease situation down.
We started tomatoes yesterday and will gradually acclimate to outside when they are just a few inches tall. You have to be careful to keep out of the wind and up against the house till they get stronger. A little at a time.
We plant in mid May when they are about a foot tall and maybe a little leggy. I snip all the leaves off except the last inch or two and dig a hole deep enough so just the top part sticks out. That whole stem will root and you barely be able to rip it out of the ground in fall.
We had a cover crop last fall and the ground is fertile so no fertilizer, especially nitrogen. I have 18" x 60" welded wire cages I made and place over tomato and zip tie to a metal post driven in the ground. I snip off the bottom branches that touch the ground to keep diseases down. Until the cages go up, I cover with a 5 gallon bucket at night to stop the rabbits and frost. Now, we wait.
Usually no fertilizer at all. The plants will go to 6' on their own and the ground is already fertile from last year. Last year we planted 12 or 13 plants and got 460 lbs of tomatoes. The Steak House can be 2 or even 3 lbs each so that helps the weight.
Come late fall just before the freeze or frost we pick what's left and store in the garage. Most will ripen. Very disturbing about last year and again this year was that our seeds, even though from Burpee, came from China. Nothing against that but it's not what I paid top dollar for and don't want it. I'm going with USA standard varieties next year.
I rotate the crop every year and rip out the old plants and dump far away from the house. I think that has kept or disease situation down.
We started tomatoes yesterday and will gradually acclimate to outside when they are just a few inches tall. You have to be careful to keep out of the wind and up against the house till they get stronger. A little at a time.
We plant in mid May when they are about a foot tall and maybe a little leggy. I snip all the leaves off except the last inch or two and dig a hole deep enough so just the top part sticks out. That whole stem will root and you barely be able to rip it out of the ground in fall.
We had a cover crop last fall and the ground is fertile so no fertilizer, especially nitrogen. I have 18" x 60" welded wire cages I made and place over tomato and zip tie to a metal post driven in the ground. I snip off the bottom branches that touch the ground to keep diseases down. Until the cages go up, I cover with a 5 gallon bucket at night to stop the rabbits and frost. Now, we wait.
Usually no fertilizer at all. The plants will go to 6' on their own and the ground is already fertile from last year. Last year we planted 12 or 13 plants and got 460 lbs of tomatoes. The Steak House can be 2 or even 3 lbs each so that helps the weight.
Come late fall just before the freeze or frost we pick what's left and store in the garage. Most will ripen. Very disturbing about last year and again this year was that our seeds, even though from Burpee, came from China. Nothing against that but it's not what I paid top dollar for and don't want it. I'm going with USA standard varieties next year.
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