How big is your garden and how many tomato plants?

[Daver1963]

We have 30 out.
Eight are Better Boys.
Four are Lemon (Yellow) Boys
Eighteen are volunteer tomatoes from my brother's garden. Don't know what they may produce.
They are all suitably separated to hopefully prevent cross pollination.
Inbetween them all we have colored butter beans, shelly beans, green beans, purple hulls, corn, carrots, onions, and Brussel sprouts.

Do you regularly plant the Lemon Boy tomatoes and how have they worked out for you? We have not had good luck with them.

Last year we bought one by mistake. It cross pollinated with our Better Boys and we had yellow tomatoes on all of them that were close to each other. We had many to eat and put up a few jars.
So this year we bought them on purpose. They are separated from all the other plants. They probably won't do much since we did that, LOL!

 

[DFB]

Do you regularly plant the Lemon Boy tomatoes and how have they worked out for you? We have not had good luck with them.

I grew lemon boys for seasonally for many years...produced well but doesn't keep long before they get over ripened.

Same thing with Pink Girl...but what a great tasting tomato!

 

[sixdogs]

Here is the best variety tomato I grew so far this year. It's the Burpee hybrid I mentioned earlier in the thread and it really is a great tomato. These aren't the biggest I have grown this season but I had my camera when they came inside.






Many are easily six or more inches across and they are the perfect sandwich tomato. In fact, I've had four tomato sandwiches already today. Got to make hay while the sun shines. These beefsteak type varieties aren't full of seeds and such but are really meaty.

 

[bcjmmac]

Tomato bed is 4' x 23' (raised bed). Think there are 16 Roma, 4 Lemon Boy & 4 Saxon. All were grown from seed I saved last year - Saxon & Lemon Boy are hybrids so am keeping my fingers crossed that they will turn out fine//trying to keep seeds from the best (& earliest) plants so that I have plants adapted for my garden/climate. I am on the road for the summer so haven't had any yet.
Wife likes lemon boy to add color to salads - tend to find that the skin cracks &/or can be a bit tough.

 

[Larro Darro]

Tomato bed is 4' x 23' (raised bed). Think there are 16 Roma, 4 Lemon Boy & 4 Saxon. All were grown from seed I saved last year - Saxon & Lemon Boy are hybrids so am keeping my fingers crossed that they will turn out fine//trying to keep seeds from the best (& earliest) plants so that I have plants adapted for my garden/climate. I am on the road for the summer so haven't had any yet.
Wife likes lemon boy to add color to salads - tend to find that the skin cracks &/or can be a bit tough.

Your raised beds are looking great. I planted 2 rows of Roma, 2 rows of beefsteak, 2 rows of cherry and 1 row of Rutgers. Each row was 12-14 plants, all grown from seeds. It was not a good year for me growing tomatoes. We made lots of cherry tomatoes, but not very many of any of the others. They have all just about gave out now. I have planted three more {store bought} plants. 2 Cherokee Purple, which are doing good, and a San Something or Other, which got knocked over by a big thunderstorm and died. The 2 CP's are just starting to bloom.

Larro

 

[bcjmmac]

Your raised beds are looking great.
Larro

Thanks. I add composted horse manure & seaweed to the garden beds every fall (live close to the shoreline) + mulch with seaweed once the weather warms up (wood ashes or lime if a ph test indicates that the bed needs it). Also add epsom salts every couple of weeks. The plants are spaced on 2 foot centers and almost always end up covering the whole bed. The tomatoes follow beans in my rotation schedule so there is sufficient nitrogen for the plants. Soil here is heavy clay but with the raised beds & lots of added organic matter I have been able to loosen the soil up (pretty much loam soil in the raised beds now).
Must be a job trying to keep your carbon/humus levels up in Florida soils - looks very sandy.

 

[Larro Darro]

For those of you who haven't heard about the passing of Jinman, here is the link to the funeral home that is handling his services: Hawkins Funeral Homes | Bridgeport TX, Boyd TX, Decatur TX funeral homes

He was a good gardener and a great man.

Larro

 

[sixdogs]

Not a tomato but here's a photo I forgot about of a carrot from the garden. Our soil is heavy clay but I used a subsoil to rip down about a foot and I keep the ground loose by cultivating in the Spring. It dwarfs an average size carrot. Anyway, here's the biggest carrot I ever grew.

.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Your picture reminded me of a carrot from my garden. I have the best luck growing carrots in home grown compost made from my leaves and grass clippings. If I get the seeds spaced properly so they have room to grow, they do really well. This carrot was growing so intensely the moment I released it from the soil I heard a 'pop' and the carrot cracked! :confused2:

 

[Larro Darro]

Both very large carrots. I have never done very well with carrots. It gets so hot so fast down here, you have to time them just right.