A Heart to Heart

[BigVanVader]

Speaking of containers with wheels old crates work well and can be found for free. Just need casters.

[Deborah]

That's a very sweet face.

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Star, I'm reading/learning about hearts right along with you. I wish I could offer advice, but I've only grown a couple hearts.

I even had a laugh along the way, when Cole wrote, "If it is a trash can meant to sit outside..." I thought, go to a tire service place and ask for old worn out tires... and plant in them. Then the Sanford and Son theme song played in my head.

Great! We can't get any better help than asking and learning from the Tv folks. They've already gone through the ups and downs. They will save us alot of heartache and disappointment for sure.

Go for them tires. See alot of them used for flower beds. Some folks will spray paint white and some just leave as is. They good for growing TPS in. Now you gonna have me singing that song too.

Originally Posted by PaulF

Star: After the first repot after growing at least two true leaves I will give the seedlings some regular plant food at less than half rate just to keep them going. I would not begin the bloom booster until your seedlings are outside in the containers and you are replenishing the fertility lost through watering and flushing out the food.

Inside with the fan; it is kept at maybe 6-8 feet away and on low and oscillate setting. Seems to help, but maybe that is up for discussion.

Appreciate the advice! Don't want to starve the little guys, but didn't want to wait to long to give them the BB.

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Some of the hearts I've grown in containers (buckets): Zolotoy Korol, FishLake Oxheart and Kosovo, all very tasty.. FLO and Kosovo were a bit stingy perhaps, and suffered from occasional BER. I am not sure that any bigger container would have helped. All my tom plants grow in similar conditions (good organic soil, some fert pellets and composted horsemanure) and they tend to get large enough with enough trouble to try to keep them from falling over.

Thanks for chiming in! Think I have seed for all those and now have an idea of what to expect. Sure glad they tasty!

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Speaking of containers with wheels old crates work well and can be found for free. Just need casters.

Neat idea! Thanks and awwwwwwww cute fur baby.

[FILMNET]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Besides my orange colored tomatoes, my main focus this year is on heirloom heart and paste tomatoes. I've only ever grown Anna Russian and a Brad's Black Heart. I didn't know about Tomato Tone when I grew them and I only got a couple of tomatoes and at the time didn't have the best looking plants either, but I sure did love the flavor of the few I got.

Last year, thanks to TV folks, I had the best crop of tomatoes I ever had. Mainly grew all cherry types. Now I'm ready to step up a tomato size.

I need some advice about growing hearts and pastes. I'm not sure if they need more ferts, care, or whatever than what the cherries did. Also I'm not sure what size containers to use. My biggest containers are a 3 gallon. 3 gallons I can easily pick up and move if I have to as weather conditions change.

On average too, about how many tomatoes does a heart plant produce? I'm hoping to get more than two or three tomatoes off a plant, but not sure if they produce only a few tomatoes per plant and if I need to sow more seeds and have more plants to get a decent crop.

Do heart plants normally get tall. Do I have to do any prunning?

Also, are their any special diseases or other things I need to keep an eye out for and worry about with the hearts?

I'm excited for this year, but also a bit nervous. Got my wish of some hearts from the MMMM swap and need to grow to pass on too, but just don't know anything about their growth habits and culture. Just know I enjoy eating them.

So, would appreciate you sharing any knowledge you have about your hearts, so I can try and grow some pretty and tasteful hearts this year. I'm all ears and ready to learn and try different methods to hopefully find the perfect method for my conditions down here.

I grew brads bh in Ma, now in S.C. not. This yrs i and grow onty cherry here, To hot for Bran's plants my wife and me loves Bran's seeds/plants