SETTFest 2009?

[feldon30]

While Suze and I do appreciate whatever tomatoes people bring, we have had an abundance in the last 2 years.

Don't let the fact that you might not have ripe tomatoes, or not have time to organize and label them prevent you from attending. Even if the only thing you bring to SETTFest is yourself, that is more than enough! We want everyone who can, to come and enjoy the event.

[snappybob]

I hope everybody elses tomatoes are doing better than mine. Everything is being very slow to come in and I have been having some wilting disease problems. This is the first year that I may be faced with the possibility of having no tomatoes to bring if things don't start to ripen up pretty quick. Well if all else fails I'll bring a cheese log and some dip.

[feldon30]

Things are going very slow here as well. Normally, I am swamped with tomatoes at this point.

I hope folks are telling everyone they can and trying to get lots of folks to show up. As long as they aren't allergic to tomatoes, bring em.

[Worth1]

My larger tomatoes are not doing well but I knew that from the get go that this year would be bad.

I wish all of you guys a good time this year at the gathering.

Worth

[snappybob]

I wonder how Suze is doing with her crop this year. She usually brings the lions share of tomatoes.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by snappybob

I wonder how Suze is doing with her crop this year. She usually brings the lions share of tomatoes.

It could be better, as fruit set numbers per plant are (on avg) lower than usual, and the plants in the first five beds I planted look horrible for some reason - I've already had to pull some of them. But I'll still have plenty of tomatoes to bring.

[snappybob]

I pruned off a whole milk carton full of yellow foliage again today. I wonder why everyones tomatoes seem to be off this year? Worth says he knew it would be a bad year. How'd you know that Worth? Is the drought throwing everything off even if your plants get enough water?

[Worth1]

Snappy I talked to Suze some time ago on the phone and we both complained about the wind we had here.
It was horrible it gusted 40 50 mph some times and it was all winter and into the spring.
To top that off my schedule changed due to leap year or something and I had a choice plant seeds in the middle of December or plant seeds in the middle of February
The former would have put the plants way too big to take care of with me at work and the whole year was just messed up
Then there was the late freeze, I had to stack hay all over my plants to protect them and then of all things I had to remove it the day before I left to go back to Alaska.
BUT!!!!! With this all said I still have a good-not great but good crop coming on with my strategy of planting small fruited tomatoes and early ones because of the hurtles I had this year to contend with.
My peppers are simply marvelous I planted mostly New Mexico types and a few jalapeños/ poblanos nothing special, just good peppers.

As for knowing it would be a bad year I really can’t tell you how I know I just feel these things and go with it.

Worth

[Plantersville]

It has been a weird year for growing tomatoes. I planted on March 1st and shoulda been eating maters on May 1st but didnt get to eat my first one til after May 15th and even then it wasnt as good as I've had in years past. I'm wondering if I've come to expect to much of my maters.

[snappybob]

I had a lot of extra seedlings this year. Instead of giving them away I decided to offer them for sale. I sold them out of my office for $1 each to mostly beginner tomato growers. Just my luck to do something like this on a bad tomato year. Someone on a daily basis will come into my office wanting to know what is wrong with their tomato plants. Why aren't they loaded with tomatoes? I just have to tell them to keep them healthy and hope for the best, it's just a bad year. Welcome to farming.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by snappybob

I pruned off a whole milk carton full of yellow foliage again today. I wonder why everyones tomatoes seem to be off this year? Worth says he knew it would be a bad year. How'd you know that Worth? Is the drought throwing everything off even if your plants get enough water?

Maybe I am just a new fangled kind of guy, but I've always felt I can deal with lack of water just fine with a hose. A drought has never scared me tomato-wise, then again there has never been water rationing in Houston.

It is the early cool temps, wind, torrential rains, and then unbelievable heat wave of the first 3 weeks of May which have set my tomatoes back.

I have all these beefsteak tomatoes setting, a dozen each on Levino, Brandywine, Fritz Ackerman, etc. 5 feet off the ground which will be difficult or impossible to support and I probably will never get to taste as they will not mature until early July.

[Plantersville]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Maybe I am just a new fangled kind of guy, but I've always felt I can deal with lack of water just fine with a hose. A drought has never scared me tomato-wise, then again there has never been water rationing in Houston.

It is the early cool temps, wind, torrential rains, and then unbelievable heat wave of the first 3 weeks of May which have set my tomatoes back.

I have all these beefsteak tomatoes setting, a dozen each on Levino, Brandywine, Fritz Ackerman, etc. 5 feet off the ground which will be difficult or impossible to support and I probably will never get to taste as they will not mature until early July.

Feldon, you hit the nail on the head. was you standing in my mater patch when you wrote the above decription? I have been using T-Posts with rope to hold up these plants that are so tall and putting out maters up high. Another problem I'm having is some maters that have ripened are half hollow in the inside....

[feldon30]

Haven't had the half-hollow problem. And so far I've only had 1 tomato with just a little of what Suze calls internal BER. Just a tiny section inside that's black. But I cut it out and the tomato still tastes pretty good.

Yeah, I need to go out with twine and try to do something to support all these branches. I do have that green velcro garden tape so I might use that.

[newgardener_tx]

I think I had a better year than last year. I have probably 50lbs of tomatoes on my counter now. But I won't be able to go to the fest due to the schedule conflict. But if anybody who is going from Austin I would be happy to provide some tomatoes for the fest. Please send me a message if you can bring my tomatoes. So I will save the good looking ones and label them Otherwise I will give them away and most people don't care what names they are. People just want fresh tomatoes.

[foolcontrol]

I moved to Ohio. I am going to attend Choptag. Look forward to meeting Earl. Johnny Rocks moved to San Diego.