Opinions on which varieties I should put in containers
 

I hope to get some opinions on which varieties will do better in a container or in a raised bed. Somehow:roll:, I have more tomato seedlings than I have room for and I plan to use 11 containers of varying sizes. I have six 15 gallon and five 7 gallon containers.

Here are my plans:

Stump of the World - 15 gal
Neves Azorean Red - 15 gal
Orlov Yellow - 15 gal

Green Doctor's - 7 gal
Rideau Sweet Cherry - 7 gal
Gold Rush Currant - 7 gal
Brad's Black Heart - 7 gal
Red Brandywine Heart - 7 gal

So would any of the following perform better in a 15 gal containers than in a raised bed?


Grub's Mystery Green
Indian Stripe
1884 Purple
Gary O' Sena
Cherokee Chocolate
Dora
Terhune
Brandywine Sudduth
Chapman
Magnum Beefsteak
Red Brandywine

Those that I don't put in the containers will go into my raised bed and I plan to try the weave style trellis and trim back to two or three leaders per plant. The outside rows are already planted and will be caged. I want the inside row (still not planted) to not be so overgrown so I plan to prune pretty well to keep the center of the bed manageable - so I can get in to find ripe fruit.

Thanks,
Joe

I think you will be cramping Brad's Black Heart and Red Brandywine
Heart in a 7-gallon container. 15-gallon is ok for these big-fruited
mid-season varieties as long as they have enough calcium and consistent
water levels (BER is a potential problem).

We had a slow start to the summer, and I got about 3 fruit from
Brandywine Sudduth last year in an overall cold, rainy summer,
growing it in an 18-gallon self-watering container (so about 15
gallons of root space). Brandywine and Stump will have a difficult
time ripening fruit in a short summer, even if the temperatures
drastically improve.

This is our problem:
[url]http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/WEATHER/ddconcepts.html[/url]

We need exceptionally warm summers for those big-fruited, mid-season
tomatoes to do well. Since we already lost a month to weather off of the
North Pacific, it will take a miraculous change in the weather for the rest
of the summer to provide enough growing degree days for them to
set and ripen fruit.

Grub's Mystery Green is perhaps the earliest plant in that list, aside from
the cherry tomatoes, so it should still produce regardless of the short
summer (so maybe leave it in the raised bed or a 15-gallon container
and give it a spot with good sun).

PS: Grub's Mystery Green is a compact indeterminate. Usually it does
not get over 5' for me, so I would not put it in the middle row of the
raised bed where larger plants can overshadow it. (In contrast to
Gary'O Sena, likely the second earliest of those big ones, which grows
a large plant like Brandywine.)

Amideutch grows some larger fruited plants in 7-gal containers and
gets nice fruit, so it can be done, with careful watering and feeding.
Not many of us accomplish it, though.

Thanks Dice,

I certainly appreciate the advice even if not the ray of sunshine I was hoping for.

I knew some of the longer season ones (Brandywine Sudduth and Stump) were a stretch for me but I had no idea that we could have a horrible, cloudy, cold spring two years in a row.

I'll take your advice and move the two hearts into 15 gallon pots. I've heard enough not-so-great about Brad's Black but I really wanted to try the Red BW heart since it supposed to be earlier than regular Red Brandywine. I have to try them both because an accidental tumble from the windowsill mixed up these two and I don't know which is which....so have to grow both just to get Red BW Heart. Ironically it was not my small children that knocked the seedling tray over. It was their adult aunt. Go figure.

I am really hoping to get some fruit from Grubs, 1884 Purple, Gary O' Sena, and Indian Stripe. These seem to be well liked by most here on T-ville and get good reviews on Tatiana's Tomatobase.

Hoping this spring/summer turns around.

[quote=JoeP]I knew some of the longer season ones (Brandywine Sudduth and Stump) were a stretch for me but I had no idea that we could have a horrible, cloudy, cold spring two years in a row.[/quote]

The sun is broken.

[quote]I'll take your advice and move the two hearts into 15 gallon pots. I've heard enough not-so-great about Brad's Black but I really wanted to try the Red BW heart since it supposed to be earlier than regular Red Brandywine.[/quote]

The weather does not always cooperate, but Brad's Black Heart
has been a great tomato when it gets enough heat, and it
has been at least good even I only get a few in a cool summer.
Big, dense, meaty tomato with good to great flavor.

[quote]I have to try them both because an accidental tumble from the windowsill mixed up these two and I don't know which is which....so have to grow both just to get Red BW Heart. Ironically it was not my small children that knocked the seedling tray over. It was their adult aunt. Go figure.[/quote]

Don't ask me about the time when I was fermenting, only
had about 6 seeds from one hand-crossed fruit, and decided
that they needed some more juice to ferment. (Now they are
mixed in with about 30 seeds from another cultivar, as I
started thinking about something else in mid-task and forgot
to squeeze the other fruit from a common cultivar into
the strainer.)

[quote]I am really hoping to get some fruit from Grubs, 1884 Purple, Gary O' Sena, and Indian Stripe. These seem to be well liked by most here on T-ville and get good reviews on Tatiana's Tomatobase.[/quote]

I did get several fruit off of Indian Stripe last year and
Gary'O Sena in 2008, which was cold overall but we had
4 weeks of sun in September. Fingers crossed for a change
in the weather.

I have a number of early plants planted, so I should still get
plenty of fruit either way. (I would like to have more than one
fruit from Guido, Indiana Red, Kosovo, Cherokee Green, and so
on though.)

Dice,

Guido looks like a good tomato. I put Indiana Red on my "maybe" for next year's growout. I hope to hear from you after the season to hear how these performed for your. I have seeds for Kosovo for next year as well. It's funny how my first tomato for this year is more than a month away but I am already dreaming for next year.

The weather looks to be picking up by the weekend. One site has Olympia at 80 on Sat! Woo Hoo! I haven't plante my corn, winter squash, or melons. I know. Melons here? I might be a Polyanna.

I've actually grown Grubs Mystery Green in 3 gallon containers with some success. The plant did not get as large as the one I now have in the garden but the fruit is about the same size, just with less on the plant. I think a 7 gallon container would be plenty big enough.

b54red,

I planted the Grubs Mystery Green in a 15 gallon pot a couple of days ago. I still have two pots not planted. Actually it is a large grow bag I bought last year but never used. It is a long rectangle that has two compartments that appear to hold at 15 gallons each with a fabric divider.

I plan to put Indian Stripe on one side and still undecided about the other side. Leaning towards Fireworks II but may have an open spot in the garden so I could put something else in the grow bag.

You can grow Fireworks II in 7-gal pot. It typically will not get as big as
in the ground, has more susceptibility to BER (moisture levels need to
stay fairly consistent, besides having calcium in the soil in soluble form),
but it will not overgrow a pot that size.

It is just a lot of work monitoring water levels in those small pots. I do not
mind when I am growing out F-{2,3,4,5} hybrids, because BER is not such
a big issue. If I get a couple of fruit to taste and an idea of how many
the plant produces, how it grows, etc, the non-collapsed part of BER fruit
can still be used for seed-saving if necessary to propagate a good
selection.

They are ok for smaller determinates that only get to 2-3' height, or
tree-type dwarves, and similar, too. A big indeterminate uses a lot of
water, though, fertilizer leaches out of the container mix faster, etc.

A tomato plant in the ground fills a 3'x3'x3' volume with roots. That is
my benchmark.