How's Zones 3 & 4 Looking?

[barkeater]

My tomatoes have been in now for 10-12 days now, and got a good up close look last night at first hoeing and spraying with Daconil. I have open flowers on:

Ramapo F1
Bloody Butcher
Manitoba
Silvery Fir Tree
Kimberly

Everything is growing well, with plenty of rain, and now some warmer temps. Only covered them once a few days ago when we had a frost advisory but it only dropped to 38.

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Barkeater,
I just picked about 7 Mano (4 platns) that are growing in pots, yesterday. These are started the middle of January. I have been eating Yellow Canary, Red Robin and Micro Gemma for awhile now.
Outside tomatoes that are flowering:
BWxStupice F6
Kimberley
Native Sun
Sweet Adelaide (but is not very Happy, so far)
In the greenhouse soil, most are setting the second truss of flowers. One or two Momotarous already showing golf ball sized fruit.
In pots in the greenhouse, it varies from Sweet Tumbler a small mass of flowers and green fruit to Orange 1 which is just starting to open up.
After the heavy wet snow at the end of May (cold temps) my plants are starting to look nice and green.....just like our southern friends.
Jeff

[lumierefrere]

My plants have been in for about a week (except for the last 3 I planted yesterday). Some of the nights were really cold and even though I covered them with buckets I've got some real purpling going on with some. My Stupice has flowers as does the Schelkovsky. The top of my Siberia was broken off in high winds one night :-(
The Kasachstan Rubin has taken off which is pleasing since last year it was a real wash-out. Some are green and lovely and others seem to be wimpy wimpy wimpy. It's always interesting to see which ones are already shouting "Me Me Me, I deserve to come back next year!"
I sprayed with Daconil when I planted and will adhere to a 7 day schedule--on Saturdays (hope that's easy enough to remember). Surrounded the plants with DE--I'm going to have a very bad slug/snail problem this year.

[spyfferoni]

I'm more of a zone 5, but I got mine in late this year. Galinas is the only plant with any flowers yet. How big are your plants when you put them in the ground?

Tyff

[akgardengirl]

My tomatoes have been out in containers for a couple of weeks. The first week, I was hauling them in and out and then I just put a row cover over them. We have been overcast and cool but today looks to be a good one. Here is a list of what I am growing. They all are in need of some sun.
Moscvich, Clear Early Pink, Early Siberian, Aurora, Anna Russian, Black from Tula, Kimberly, Sophie's Choice, Noir de Crimee, Orange 1, Citron Compact, many dwarf types from Andrey, and the Grumpy dwarves from the SH/NH experiment. I am forgeting a few. I have duplicates on some.
Jeff, I see you are growing "Native Sun". I had a few old seeds that didn't germinated this year. I will be looking forward to your comments on this one.
Sue

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Sue,
I grew Native Sun a number of years ago and remembered that it was the earliest yellow in the garden. It was also quite tasty- mild sweet flavour to it. I thought I should take a look at it again. I ran out of the seeds and had to trade for a few from a friend at work.(Last year I did the same thing except I misplaced the seeds!)
I won't mind trying the Orange King variety from Peter's one day, too.
Jeff

[barkeater]

I did 2 sowings, starting the earlies and a couple others around March 30, and the rest on April 17. So some were 8 weeks and some 5 weeks when transplanted. I'll be interested to see the difference in days to maturity for the couple plants which were part of each group (Big Zac, Black Cherry, and Ramapo F1).

All those with flowers now are from the 1st group.

Sue and Jeff, have you all grown Orange-1 before? I liked it alot but the stink bugs loved it more It was early and prolific though.

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Barkeater,
First year for Orange-1. I have read some very positive comments about and so I am looking forward to this one; especially since I it went into a holding pattern- too cold resulting in improper nutrient uptake. I have been praying for it to come back and so far so good.

[akgardengirl]

This is my first year growing the Orange 1 also. Will let you know the results later. I don't know if stinkbugs are a problem here. I like this thread since there are so few of us in this zone(s). Most of the time I just can't relate to the "huge" productions on those late season tomatoes!
Sue

[barkeater]

I'm really curious about your BWxStupice F6, Jeff. Is it extra-early like Stupice, with BW flavor? That would almost be the holy grail of northern growers!

[Sherry_AK]

This year I'm growing Azoychka, Balcony, Black Cherry, Black Prince, Bloody Butcher, Campbell 1327, Earl's Faux, Early Girl (sorry!), Eva Purple Ball, Extreme Bush, Golden Bison, Gregori's Altai, Jelly Bean, Kimberly, Lemon Boy, Matina, Mother Russia, Noir de Crimee, Northern Exposure, Paul Robeson, Pinnochio, Polar Baby, Polar Beauty, Polfast, Prairie Fire, Resista Dwarf, Sasha's Altai, Siberia, Siberian, Silvery Fir Tree, Sophie's Choice, Special Turkish, Stupice, Sun Gold, Taxi and Tumbler. Most of these were started from seed on March 6-7. I received Noir de Crimee, Resista Dwarf, Sophie's Choice and Pinnochio from Sue (thanks again!!!). I also received 11 Grumpies from Sue.

I have 26 plants in the greenhouse, in pots. About 15 are in the ground in raised beds. The rest are in pots either in the driveway, on the deck, or in a new small greenhouse.

Most of the tomatoes have open blossoms or fruit. The past couple warm, sunny days have helped things perk up a bit. Of the in-ground plants, only Stupice has fruit so far.

Good luck to all of us!

[obispo45]

I'm about an hour or so southeast of Minneapolis/St.Paul. I wrote it down but can't remember, think our last frost was April 27...usually May 12 give or take. Wanted to start earlier but was hesitant.

Started potting chiles about May15th, majority of tomatoes went in the ground weekend of 18th. Bell peppers, and eggplants few days later. Still potting some chiles as time allows but think I'll be done tommorow.

Its been pretty average in most regards...no unusually high or low temps, daily highs/lows in the average range, precip. right about on course maybe a little behind. BUT...the wind has been ridiculous, think in May we had something like 22 days with sustained winds greater than 30mph, all of last week too!! Hot weather rolled on in yesterday afternoon and looks like it'll be around for week or so.

[montanamato]

Just finished getting the last of my tomatoes and peppers in the ground ....2.5 inches of rain twice in 10 days have slowed progress...
My first plants went in the gound and containers about 12 days ago...
I have small fruit set on Stupice Rane, Kimberly, Aurora, and Siberian Pink .
Blossoms on Clear Pink Early , Witty F2, 6th Avenue, Tasmanian Blushing Yellow, Mano, Extreme Bush, Redskin, Monomakh's Hat, Early Annie, San Fran fog, Sulia's Heart, Black Sea Man, Granny Carville, Canestrino di Lucca, Red Zebra, Eye, Slava, Lime Green Salad, and Dar...
Already had some curly top in the seedlings outside as they were being hardened off, so have been been spraying every few days..We have tons of grasshoppers again, but at least they don't favor the tomatoes when they get to the garden...My seedlings were started mid March and some were quite large...

Jeanne

[greggf]

So far, so good, with a 7 day Daconil schedule.

One Supersweet 100, one Napa Hybrid, one Early Girl, one Good 'n' Early, one Early Pick, one Enchantment, one Celebrity, two Better Boys, three Supersteaks, and three Beefmaster all in. Only Beefmaster is setting fruit so far.

[Ruth_10]

Gregg, I'll be interested to see how you like Enchantment. I planted a couple in 1999 (at another location) after reading Carl Klaus' "My Vegetable Love." He raved about it, but I found it to have low production and nothing special taste-wise. It has a nice, oval-shaped "saladette" style fruit. If others had a better experience with this one, I might go back and try it again.