my webpages on tomato culture

[Fusion_power]

I have some webpages on tomato growing that are worth reviewing. Several of these are updated with new info so if you see typos or glaring inaccuracies, please let me know!

You may have to hit the 'reload' button on your browser to get current copies of these pages if you have visited my website recently.

http://www.selectedplants.com/seedlings.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/culture.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/mulch.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/Fertilizing.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/pest.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/seedsaving.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/xing.htm
http://www.selectedplants.com/Trees.htm


Darrel Jones

[newatthiskat]

Thanks for posting the links I have enjoyed reading through them.
Kat

[Vince]

"Threee cotyledon leaves, Is that unusual? (its not a missprint(>:-)> Another common malformation is 1 or 2 cotyledon leaves with no growing point. Eventually this type plant dies because it cannot produce any new leaves."

Fusion, I have had seedlings like this that eventually throw a growing shoot out of no where, so from my experience they don't AlWAYS die from this condition. I am not sure if you have ever observed this before.

[Fusion_power]

You are correct that bullheads will grow a spontaneous bud under some conditions and I have seen it quite a few times. The variety German was sent to me by Craig LeHoullier several years ago as some very old seed that produced only two vigorous bullheads. I was able to get them to produce a sprout and eventually grow normal plants that produced a ton of seed. In that case, a bullhead saved a variety from oblivion.

I fixed this on the 'growing seedlings' link. You will have to reload the page once you get it open to see the changes.
DarJones

[Ruth_10]

Here is a Kimberly seedling that eventually went on to give a full sized, producing plant.

DSC_6121 Kimberly tomato.jpg

[oc tony]

Would it be possible to get a sticky for this as I would like to refer back to it often?

[Lee]

Fusion,

I saw where you talked about Sharpie's not being permanent for seedling labels.
This has been my experience as well until last season.
Here's a link to a Sharpie that is permanent, very permanent as opposed to the
normal permanent makers!
http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Product/...nt_Marker.html

I used one of these industrial markers last year for the first time with excellent
results. 6 months of heat and direct sunlight had little effect on fading.

Lee

P.S. Very nice collection of information! Thanks for sharing.

[dice]

From a quick search, it looks like Office Depot, Staples, and
Costco should have the Sharpie Industrial markers.

[Fusion_power]

Nice tip Lee. I'll look for the industrial markers for next season.

[Wi-sunflower]

A few comments.

I have also had what you call "bullheads" and I call "blind" plants eventually grow a sprout. Usually if you can keep them at a somewhat higher temp and humidity than you would normally keep the plant, you might get it to sprout.

On the German seed, if you are talking about the red beefsteak that used to be offered by Johnney's, I also have seed I've been saving for several years, so it isn't totally gone yet.

About the markers, I too have had mixed results with so called "permanent" markers washing off plastic labels. I even had some of my index card markers fade out this year. I have found that for the plastic labels in the greenhouse, writting with just a plain old PENCIL works the best. You can write on the label even if it's wet. Generally chemicals in your water or that are sprayed on, won't wash off the pencil. About the only thing is you don't want to rub on the label, especially if it's wet. If you need to wipe off dirt to see what the label reads, carefully use a damp cloth.

The nice thing about pencil is that you can erase it or rub it off (or put in a dishwasher) and you can use them again.

[dice]

(I read this whole site a year ago last spring. Thanks for
the info.)

Top of first page:

Is it time to start my seed, How do I start from seed, Whats the best system, What about jiffy pots?

I would just rewrite this as sentences, and leave out the
contraction ("Whats, should be "What's", and I think
"What is" would be more instantly comprehensible for English
as a Second Language readers).

So I would rewrite that as:

Is it time to start my seed? How do I start from seed? What is the best system? What about jiffy pots?

(It is all in bold type, so it still stands out as a heading.)

When I remember, I try to avoid contractions in general in
text that I expect may be read by people for whom English
is not their native language, because the expanded form is
more instantly comprehensible for them. So, "its, don't, won't,
hasn't" become "it is, do not, will not, has not". Using
contractions can be a hard habit to break, because people
who grew up speaking English tend to use them in personal
email and conversation automatically without being aware
of it.

[Fusion_power]

Lol, my grammer (sic) is not always up to speed.

I fixed several of the run on sentences and also clarified the information in quite a few of the topics in the seedling link. I now have the info about the Industrial sharpies included in the page.

DarJones

[remy]

I think it is wonderful that you have put together so much info! I'm going to link your site to my blog that I started.
For all you wrote, I only found two things that could be changed..
One confusing section because of how it is written... "There is a potato leaf faux Red Brandywine and a yellow that is being called Lillian’s but is not. The potato leaf Red Brandywine is reported to be an excellent tomato and at least one good report is on the net about the faux Lillian. I personally don’t want the impostors, I bought seed of a specific variety and if its not that variety, then I want the real thing. "
Maybe it should read something like "For example, there is a potato leaf faux Red Brandywine and a yellow that is being called Lillian’s but it is not Lillian's Yellow Heirloom. There are reports of these impostors tasting good, but you never know with incorrect varieties. They sometimes taste mediocre at best. I personally don’t want the impostors. I bought seed of a specific variety; I want the real thing. I don't have time or room to grow unknown varieties."

Also, you have don't the info about petting tomatoes on the seedling page. I think that info is better suited there. It is one thing I always tell new seed starters to do.

You've done a great job!
Remy