Just showing off.

[CarolynPhillips]

Thank You Suze.

I am having so much fun with my plants. I spent a few hours today pruning a few suckers and twining the vines up. The "Tommy Toes", some "Brandywines", and "Giant Tree" have reached their maximum trellis height. So sad. That means I have to cut their heads off.
Would love to see just how big they could grow if they had more head space= but even so= I have to remove the entire crop in 8 weeks so I can grow a Fall crop.

[CarolynPhillips]

The aroma of these plants are so addictive.

big fruits everywhere. and I think I misscalculated ripe dates= I am a week off.
I had a few hail damaged fruits and fried a few for lunch the other day and they had
a tinge of pink inside.

[CarolynPhillips]

one more pic====i could show pics all day. But in the end= they all look like tomato plants.

[chalstonsc]

Carolyn,
What varieties are in the 4 gallon pots? Great looking plants/fruit!

[CarolynPhillips]

Big Beef, OP Big Beef, Brandywine, Giant Tree, Trip-L-Crop, Tommy Toe, Black Prince, Better Boy.
The last two pictures were Big Beef

[chalstonsc]

Carolyn,
Thanks very much

[dice]

dcarch supports clusters of large tomatoes with ties made
from plastic grocery bags cut into strips. He ties off to the
horizontal nylon strings in his trellis system, but you could
probably tie them off to a main stem by pinching the tip
on a side-shoot coming out from a leaf petiole, too, to make
a fork strong enough to support the plastic tie.

You can see pictures here:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...hlight=plastic

(Nice plants. It would be unfortunate to let of any of those
tomatoes go to waste for lack of an easy way to support
a truss.)

[CarolynPhillips]

that was interesting dice. Thank you.

My puter has been in the shop for a week but my camera has been by my side.

Sadly= this will be the heaviest tomato this season. Only 3 1/2 pounds.
Brandywine= grown in 4 gal pot with a sub soil below.
The fruit grew around the stem and it was hard to detach it. I cracked the fruit open
trying to get it off the stem.

[zipcode]

Only 3 1/2 pounds.
Yeah, disappointing, I know.

I'm not sure I understood, but are the plants growing just in the 4 gal containers, or are they open at the end? Because the plants seem ridiculously big and producing for just 4 gal.

I myself am growing on balcony this year, 2 plants in 10 gal pots (with only 4h of sun however) and I'd like to have a reference, a sort of goal of what I should get if I do everything right.

[DogsandDirt]

Those are amazing plants and fruits! What do you do for pest and disease control?

[Duh_Vinci]

Originally Posted by zipcode

Only 3 1/2 pounds.
Yeah, disappointing, I know...

Amazing work, and many thanks for sharing your techniques/recipes for fertilizing!

Regards,
D

[CarolynPhillips]

So far this year I have not used pest control on the plants==none= zippo. But I have spotted a few hornworms today so I guess it's time to break out the artillery. Liquid Seven dust.
I have good luck with pest NOT showing up early because I spray the growing area heavily before I plant. It keeps the bugs at bay for a long while.

Yes the plants are only growing in a 4 gallon pot. Yes the pots still have their bottoms but some roots find their way out the drain holes. Even when I do not loosen the soil below the pots, the roots still find their way out. My plants have always grown this big in 4 and 5 gallon pots but the plants are also pruned from 1 to 4 vines per plant. The plants with 4 vines are shorter. Plants with 1 vine are taller. Except those Tommy Toe plants. They have about 6 vines on each plant but are the tallest in the greenhouse right now which are about 9 feet tall .

If you cannot get fertilizer like i mix it= you can use Miracle Grow Bloom Booster. For large plants like these= I would use 2 tbs per week. And I cheat by just dumping a table spoon in the pot and watering right away about a gallon.



Thanks Dogs and Duh

[fortyonenorth]

Carolyn,

The website/organization you referenced earlier in this thread is very interesting. Dr. Mittleider advocates the same general approach (based on mineral balancing) as Drs. Carey Reams and Wm. Albrecht. The irony is that, despite proven success at all levels - from home gardening to large scale farm production - this approach is spurned by many of the agricultural academics at land grant colleges. They position it as "fringe" thinking. I concocted my own custom fertilizer based on Dr. Albrecht's percentages, using virtually the same ingredients that are listed on the Food For Everyone website. I'll be interested to see how close my proportions are to theirs. The one significant change I would suggest is to use Potassium sulfate (0-0-50) instead of Potassium chloride (0-0-60). A bit more expensive per pound of K02, but generally much kinder on the soil life.

Thanks for the great info.

[attml]

Hi Carolyn,

Amazing job on your tomatoes!

I have a couple of questions about how you set your containers up if you don't mind?

1. Do you use 100% ProMix BX as your soil in your pots or do you use a mixture of it and oter potting soil?

2. What brand of 13-13-13 are you using?

3. Where do you get yout Calcium Nitrate from / what brand is it? Not to sound stupid but does calcium nitrate have a more common off the shelf name?

4. I know you said you water daily -can you please give me an idea of how much per plant?

5. What do you do for bug control / disease control?

Thank you very much!!

Mark

[lakelady]

Carolyn, I am in awe of your greenhouse and tomato plants, good for you! I really enjoyed looking at your photos too, so please continue to share with us!

Thanks also for sharing your methods that helped you get such beautiful big plants! Keep doing the great work!