Indeterminate tomatoes in 2 gallon grow bags - progress to date

[bower]

Craig,
Nice video, I'm really interested in the small pot technique, and hope to try it in future for an F2 growout.

I like your staking and pruning system, very tidy!
Do you top them only after they have set fruit, or do you top at a height limit as long as they have flowers?

[Master_Gardener]

Craig:

Thanks for sharing. I'm jealous that you have so many different varieties. How do you keep the sun from bleaching out the markings on your tags?

Russel

[tlintx]

I'm so glad you started this thread! (And this experiment!)

I was reading a book from the 1900s a few days ago about vegetable growing, and the author describes how growers in GA would plant acres of tomatoes (June Pink), stake with a 5' stake, prune to one stem, and top. The plants were spaced pretty far apart, but I had wondered if the same technique would work for my much more closely planted sq ft beds and, more importantly, for the leftover seedlings that won't fit in the ground.

This gives me confidence that it's worth the effort to get them into pots!

[WVTomatoMan]

Craig - Interesting approach. I admire your adventurous spirit, but you know what they say about putting all your eggs in one basket, er I mean all of your tomatoes in one cluster. haha. Glad you're doing it though - I'm too da... uh darned lazy.

Travis - Except for exerted stigma varieties I don't really have much of an issue with bumble bees. Its the sweat bees that concern me (refer to attached pic). I've seen them force their way into an unopened blossom, ruh-roh cross city. BTW, the attached pic was serendipity - I had actually come out to photograph a lace wing munching on the aphids. The bee flew up and the lace wing flew away so I made the best of the situation.

Randy

[nctomatoman]

here's the latest - did a bit of relocation work!

http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/1/post...ideo-clip.html

[recruiterg]

Hey Craig, what is the rationale for the Miracle Grow fertilizer when the plants produce fruit? Just curious...

[nctomatoman]

Just keeping them growing vigorously - with so little growing medium, I find that the plants look tired more quickly. Just trying things to push them along, keep blossoms forming, keep the plants healthy.

[travis]

I agree with Craig's post-fruit set fertilizer booster dose. It's a commonly recommended practice when growing determinates, and for all practical purposes, Craig is growing indeterminates in a mode similar to them being determinate vines. Also, hoophouse growers continuously fertigate indeterminates in 5-gallon grow bags with a high dose fertilizer throughout the growing season to keep the vines vital. A fellow I know grows 2 vines per bag and injects once every 6 hours.

Right now I have a couple dozen determinate and indeterminate vines in 1-gallon pots. I'm holding them to harvest pollen, and to select a few to pot up for seed collection. Several have set fruit. I noticed immediately after fruit set, they lost a bit of their fully verdant foliage color, indicating transfer of some nitrogen from the older leaves to the growing tip and possibly the fruit itself. (Nitrogen is mobile within a tomato vine.) This confirms to me the rational for the nitrogen boost recommendation commonly offered by extension services and professional growers.

[nctomatoman]

The two biggest challenges to this method are keeping them upright, and preventing BER on first set fruit.

A method I may try next year for the first issue - using quick set cement, fix some rebar into a few heavy cinderblocks that can be used to anchor either end of rows; suspend a strong chain or wire across the top, then secure the stake in each grow bag to the top wire.

The second is due to the inevitable dry spells between watering and would be remedied by drip irrigation.

So my trial this year is very much improvised and reacting to issues...still, fruit set is fine and I will get full sized fruit for tasting and seed saving from most of the plants, if not all....depends upon continued plant health.

[sprtsguy76]

Very nice video Craig! Your garden is kind of reminiscent of mine but not as big as far as the amount of grow bags. Like I've said in the past I like to grow and sample varieties the way you do. By the way the RL Captain Lucky you have there, I'm wondering if it will be similar to the PL version or not? There is a RL version of CL named First Mate, which I have seed of but haven't grown it out yet. I was told by Millard that the RL version wasn't as good as the PL version.

Damon

[nctomatoman]

Not sure about the RL Captain Lucky - I got the seed from Neil Lockhart and that was the sole germinator. I suspect it isn't what it should be, since the fruit look like they will be quite small.

[Salsacharley]

Craig,

You mentioned in your video that you experienced some foliage damage from heat and not being able to get water to the plant soon enough.

I am dealing with temps between 93 and 100 every day now, and I've been using a moisture meter to determine how wet or dry my plants might be. Often my meter says my plants are not "wet" but they aren't dry either. I will usually wait until the meter indicates "dry' before I water, but this heat does concern me and I have experienced blossom drop. My plants don't look droopy, but the whole area looks pretty parched even when the meter indicates there is moisture in the ground under the plants.

Do you think I should add water regardless of what the meter says if it gets over 95 degrees?

Thanks much,

Charley

[nctomatoman]

Charley, I let the plants tell me what they need - my plants begin to visibly wilt after a full day of temps even in the mid 80s, so they get a good deep drink each mid morning - and sometimes late afternoon.

[Salsacharley]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Charley, I let the plants tell me what they need - my plants begin to visibly wilt after a full day of temps even in the mid 80s, so they get a good deep drink each mid morning - and sometimes late afternoon.

Thanks much,

Charley