I have green tomatoes woohoo. I just saw them to day and there are several of them. I am so please!!!! It worked!!!!! You can definitely tell I am a beginner gardener right? lol. That's ok I just wanted to do my happy dance. And let everyone know that all their teaching has worked. Wow I am so excited.
You might want to try frying those green tomatoes.
Paula\'s Fried Green Tomato and Egg Hollandaise Fried Green Tomatoe's are good.
That sounds like a wonderful idea. The area is too shady for them to ripen anyway. I was just so suprised to see them.
tkhooper,
Don't listen to Amigatec, LOL! Fried green tomatoes should be reserved for the END of your season, not the beginning, when you're starved for a tomato that doesn't taste like cardboard! Patience, Grasshopper, let em ripen ;o)
Cheers,
Julianna
hey TK!! I am happy also, This tomato growing wasn't as easy as everyone said!! LOL, but I do have dozens of green tomato's growing, and two of them are as big as my FISTS!!! I wonder how long before they start ripening??????
Ninni
Tomatoes will continue to ripen off of the vine. Sit them in a sunny window. But, not where they can scorch.
I don't think mine are big enough to pick yet. But there are five of them as of this morning. I think the roma don't get real big but a little bigger than now. Now they would fit in the palm of my hand comfortably that seems still a little small. Can someone help me with that?
Sun but not scorch is hard to comeby in Virginia lol. How about a northwest facing window?
I have had 3 requests for green tomatoes already.
The wife wants some fried as well. If you have never tried them they are wonderful!!!
Should I water my tomato plants more now that they are forming tomatoes or should I keep with the same amount of water? Also should I still give them tomato food? First time tomato grower here-can you tell?
Thanks.
WyoMom, be careful with the water. Inconsistent watering can cause blossom end rot.
Dianna
I soak my tomatoes(irrigation style) real good on Friday and Tuesday because of the hot dry weather we have been having. We had 109 last Saturday and than 105 just yesterday. Otherwise I was just watering on Friday. I use Miracle-gro on them once a week. I have a tomato jungle. My Early Girl have green tomatoes. I was so excited I just had to show my neighbor. Poor guy probably thinks I have lost it. I planted Borage with my tomatoes because I read somewhere that Borage repels tomato worm. Plus it is supposed to have pretty purple flowers. I love purple flowers. I haven't seen any bugs, yet. I also planted Basil supposed to repel mosquitos-seems to be working. Any other plants I should consider putting in with my tomatoes next year? This Forum is so fun. I have so many ideas for next year that I can hardly wait.
Nepeta cataria 'catmint' is the best mosquito repellent.
I used to grow it in WV, because the skeeters were thick there. The oils in the plant are 10x stronger than DEET, which is in most commecial repellents.
How to use...
Pull off some fresh leaves & crush/roll them in your hands. Rub the oils onto exposed areas.
I always did my feet & neck & arms.
I find that less fertilizer works better than more when it comes to nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos).
Having said that, I fertilize 3 times during the entire growing cycle: 1) when initially transplanting tomato seedlings from peat pellets into 16 oz cups (first true leaf stage), 2) when transplanting 9" seedlings into the ground or permanent containers, and 3) at fruit set when you've got tons of blossoms and tiny fruit. That's IT.
I water when the plants need it, when they're showing signs of stress, looking droopy. Over-watering, especially overhead or sprinkler watering can contribute to the spread of foliar diseases like blight which will cause the lower leaves to yellow and fall off and progress up the plant and eventually kill it.
So there ya go. Sometimes the best thing you can do for nightshades is to back away from them and find another distraction for a while, LOL.
Buona fortuna,
Julianna
Ok cat mint is going to the top of my seed exchange list. I want tons of it. I got eaten up this year.
Sorellina thank you for the advice; I will follow it. I don't have yellow leaves yet so I don't think I have done any damage, fhew. My eggplants started blooming today-very pretty flowers they have. I am with TK on the cat mint; we have a few too many mosquitos for me. Anything that will make them move is going in my garden.
Had ticks to but they seem to have moved on. My son says that female mosquitos eat juices from plants like strawberries and the males eat blood. Maybe its the other way around but I thought that was weird. Might not hold any truth he is only 10.
WyoMom,
You can also grow citronella, the same stuff used in outdoor Tiki Torches, but the botanical plant. My Italian neighbour (that's redundant, we're all Italian in this neighbourhood, lol) has a few plants he keeps out on his patio during the summer and takes them in during the winter. He's in bigtime denial about living in Toronto, even had a fig tree at his old house that he "trenched" in winter to keep it from freezing to death in the snow, lol @ Tony, what a nutbar.
oh and PS: if you find a hornworm and you have a small curious child, you may want to invest in a dollar store bug jar and see if you can get the critter to the pupa stage by feeding it pruned tomato leaves from the bottom of your plant. They emerge as sphynx moths and can be quite beautiful. Almost free summer fun..and educational.
Cheers,
Julianna
Wyomom,
your son has it backwards I think, I am in Delaware coastal region, serious mosquito numbers here too and I've always been told that the males don't bite, while the females do. I seem to remember being told that the males don't really eat anything and lead short, hungry lives!
Dunno about male ticks, though tick season here has pretty much passed. In late spring /early summer you can't walk through the pine forests with out a picking up a few (dozen)! I picked over a dozen dying ones off the dog (with Frontline on him)in June after a long walk.
Drew
I love tomatoes!
photobucket
I couldn't see anything Maryann!!!
Don't listen to Amigatec, LOL! Fried green tomatoes should be reserved for the END of your season, not the beginning, when you're starved for a tomato that doesn't taste like cardboard! Patience, Grasshopper, let em ripen ;o)
Cheers,
Julianna
I second this advice. Be patient. They will ripen when they are mature. As long as the plant is green and alive, the tomatoes are getting bigger and will ripen. My problem is I prune too aggressively as my tomatoes get so big. Sometime, I'm going to put them on an 8' trellis and let them grow. My Romas are loaded and the olive and grape varities producing. All the rest are about baseball size and getting bigger. I only have about 30 plants this year.
I agree about the excessive fertilizer, too. Too much feritlizer, even diluted well, causes excessive growth, not necessarily more fruit. One veteran mater guy told me to use diluted rose food fertilizer on tomatoes for big yields after the fruits are set. He also clips off new blossoms once he gets what he feels are "enough" set fruits on a plant. Result: larger fruit. I imagine it works the same as growing big pumpkins by removing some of the fruits.
I have one remaining tomato plant outta the 4 I planted (thanks to the neighbors great dane who seemed to think they were great chew toys) by the way he also thinks my bucket full fo petunias on my front porch is a great chair for him. :rolleyes: The last tomato is a yellow pear type of bush. The tag said it was a brandywine. Someone at the store apparently changed tags on all the tomatoes this year, I was told by a store associate. I have had a ton of nice little tiny yellow pear shaped tomatoes. They have been yellowing nicely and I made a wonderful salad with them lastnight and tonight they are going to be in a pasta salad for dinner. They taste good rather meaty though. I just wonder if they should be bigger before they ripen. Its kinda like a rather large kinda the size of a 50 cent peice pear shaped tomato.
I asked my son again and he said females suck blood not males so I had it wrong. He gets those Discovery Kids books and you should hear some of the interesting things he comes up with.
Is Citronella a good plant to have in the house around a curious 2 year old? I have the citronella candles and such but they don't seem to make a difference. The extreme heat we have been having seems to have killed off a bunch of the mosquitos.
My husbands friend had the tag switch done on him too. Instead of big tomatoes he has little cherry tomatoes. He was upset because he wanted to make salsa.
Sorellina,
I have changed my watering tactics and my tomatoes are setting on more fruit. Do I understand this right: Miracle-Gro helps with growth but not with fruit production? What do I give my tomatoes, if anything, to help with fruit production?
Thanks for all the help.
Nancy
Woohoo I harvested my first ripe tomato today. And it tasted great. They are small for romas but then I didn't pick off any of the buds but let them all fruit so I didn't expect them to get to large. I was just so glad to have one get to harvest without something happening to it.
Nancy,
Best thing you can do really is water only when they really need it, mulch heavily to retain moisture if you're in a hot/dry climate, and not micro-manage.
Buona fortuna,
Julianna
How are the tomatoes doing? We have a lot of tomatoes on 5 plants. The other day my husband brought in 50. I only fertilized at the beginning and one other time right when they started producing. I think you get too much foliage if you fertilize too much. I had a problem with end rot and used epsom salts. It totally stopped at one end of the garden but the other end still produces a few with the problem.
I couldn't bring up that link for fried green tomatoes. Can someone post it again?
I wanted to post a picture of my tomatoes but I can't get my camera to work. :p
My tomatoes are about 4-5 feet tall and I think they look real healthy. I think I gave them too much Miracle-gro because they got all bushy and not a lot of fruits. Now I have lots of green tomatoes just waiting patiently for some red ones. Patience is a virtue I need to practice.
All in all I am proud of my garden. I have learned a lot and have made plans for improvement for next year.
Paula\'s Fried Green Tomato and Egg Hollandaise You can leave off the Hollandaise sauce if you want to.
Karrie,
Just got back to my computer this morning for the first time this week and returned to this thread to see your post about the yellow pear tomato. The fruit seem to be on the large side if it's the same variety I've grown, but I have gotten a few that size if I can remember how big an American 50 cent piece is, lol. Anyhow, if it's the same variety I'm familiar with, I hope you love them because that plant can grow up to 10' high in the right conditions and produce enough to justify buying a dehydrator, lol. From one plant last year, we dried 2 packed-to-the-gills liter-sized freezer bags, 6 250ml jars of tomato marmalade, and 5 500ml jars of salsa. Plus, enough to stuff a 5 yr old full of snacks from the garden.
Buon appetito,
Julianna