[Omega]

This is my first attempt at gardening this year and the thing is beautiful. The wife and I followed the seed packet directions but still have things too close. That being said I have huge squash plants, and giant tomato plants, I am talking 5ft tall since Easter. BUT no fruit. I have beefsteaks, and brandywines, and I just read that I should be pruning them? I water with a sprinkler for about 15min per day and the plants seem to be doing well, but read on the webs that it may be too much for the tomatoes? My peppers aren't there yet either Any suggestions would be welcome. I am quite the novice in this area.

 

[10Gauge]

tag.

my stuff isnt doing too well :sad:

 

[BigAL]

Soil may not be balanced.

 

[hotel triple nickle]

oh my gosh where do you live? I live in the somewhat temperate willamette valley in Oregon and we've had so much rain we're way behind in planting. we just got the last of the stuff in today (we plant a large garden). the ground's been too wet to do much but rot stuff thisyear.

 

[Omega]

I am in the northeast area of DFW, it is drying out around here. I used good cow poo dirt, real black land soil in some raised beds. The squash in the same box is rocking and rolling.

 

[hotel triple nickle]

ah, that would help a lot (drying out). I test our soil every few years and adding whatever seems indicated has been a big help. some years it's minerals and when I finally realized what I needed to do it took a whole year to get the soil tests back where they needed to be. we'd used the same garden spot for almost 20 years.

 

[Rotdorn]

Proper Ph balance is necessary. Might want to add some garden lime.

 

[Woodsman]

My tomatoe and pepper crop is going well. I used a one gallon mixture of Miracle Grow Super start and water along with 1 vitamin tablet ( I am old so I use Centrim Silver) disolved in the water and Miracle Grow. I water each plant three time per week. Good luck.

 

[Hatch]

I have 8 tomato plants.
6 are in a above ground planter and two are in seperate large plastic pots.

Mix potting soil and 'MOOMOO' (cow manure) 75/25
Mine have been planted 6 weeks and I have little tomatoes growing.
I am looking to purchase a tiller so next year I can have a real garden.

 

[BadBrad]

I've done tomatos before, never prunned them back, I think if you prunned them not knowing what you are doing you might cut off all your potential fruit.

Only thing I can really offer is be sure the plants are well supported as the fruit will weight them down and try to keep the bugs away..lol

Don't know were you are at but I am in central Indiana and it is still to early here to expect fruit on Tomato plants unless they had a heck of a hothouse head start on growing.

You may be rushing things a bit.....I know when mine came on I had tomatos to spare, made salsa, ate tomatos till I was sick of them and everyone I knew was sick of them..lol. Planted watermelon....ate watermelon every night for a couple of weeks till a thought of watermelon or tomatos made me want to uke: .......be careful how much you plant was my lesson learned...lol

 

[Omega]

My tomatoe and pepper crop is going well. I used a one gallon mixture of Miracle Grow Super start and water along with 1 vitamin tablet ( I am old so I use Centrim Silver) disolved in the water and Miracle Grow. I water each plant three time per week. Good luck.

What types of each do you have, and by doing well do you mean producing edibles?

 

[will36]

You will want to tie them to a wooden stake. Also where the plants seperate off like a Y you want to break of any sucker branches coming off the Y . make sense? You should have small tomatoes 2 weeks after the blooms fall off. They also make a wire basket that you can set the plant in.

 

[dead_eye]

Mine don't hit 5 foot tall until July, but by then they are producing.

You did not mention fertilizer, but if you are applying fertilizer that could be your problem. Fertilizer high in nitrogen will cause the plants to grow like giants but with NO fruit! That's why you never use miracle grow on vegtable plants.

To stop your plans from drying out mulch them. I use grass clippings that I let dry out for a few days in the sun, it works better than straw. You can also use other junk like straw or newspaper. Just make sure you don't put any wood products in your garden dirt like wood mulch.

 

[Omega]

You will want to tie them to a wooden stake. Also where the plants seperate off like a Y you want to break of any sucker branches coming off the Y . make sense? You should have small tomatoes 2 weeks after the blooms fall off. They also make a wire basket that you can set the plant in.

I have them in cages, but haven't staked them. I will try to get some pics up. I haven't fertilized, just good black land soil with old cow poo and straw mixed up in it naturally over time.

 

[tangotag]

We cut back "the suckers" to force all nutrients into the fruit on a religious basis. My plants do look quite thin and sickly when done right.
We mulch around the tomato plants and run a buried soaker hose for watering. Use straw or coca bean husk mulch to keep any soil from splashing up on the plants. Once soil splashes up on the plant you risk the chance of having infected the plant with mosaic virus that is present in the soil. At that point your plants leaves and fruit will have a scars and scab like lesions.

In my current garden I had 34 "Better Boy" plants my first year that I started from seed inside. We had 5 large wheel barrels full of tomatoes to give away at the end of the season, that was with no pruning too. Now we run only a handful of pruned plants that produces more than we need.

Some guidelines:
Soil Requirements
Tomatoes can be grown on many different soil types, but a deep, loamy soil, well-drained and supplied with organic matter and nutrients is most suitable. As with most garden vegetables, tomatoes grow best in a slightly acid soil with a pH of 6.2 to 6.8.
Fertilizer
Tomatoes respond well to fertilizer applications, especially phosphorus. Excess nitrogen fertilizer can result in plants with extremely vigorous vine growth but little fruit production. Apply 2-1/2 to 3 pounds of a complete fertilizer, such as 5-10-10, 5-20-20, or 8-16-16 per 100 square feet of garden area. Work the fertilizer into the soil about 2 weeks before planting. An additional sidedressing of a nitrogen fertilizer may be desirable after the first cluster of flowers have set fruit.
Video on pruning.
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/vid ... atoes.aspx

My garden is more compost than anything after the years. I started with 20 cubic yards of black dirt but have added and created so much compost over the years the whole thing is an elevated compost pile. At this point just about everything I try growing is much larger than normal. Soil is the key to success in gardening. We don't fertilize our plants the compost provides most nutrient need we just keep thing watered as needed.

 

[Omega]

Thanks for the insight. Here is a pic:



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After watching the video it seems like I am doing it all wrong.

 

[wrinkles]

Just put 20 maters in the ground. We use a fertilizer designed for maters. Also, they like calcium and potassium so we put a banana peel and three tums tablets in each hole. Works well.

 

[f2]

don't laugh. i'm thinking of trying one of those upside down planters.

 

[tangotag]

Just put 20 maters in the ground. We use a fertilizer designed for maters. Also, they like calcium and potassium so we put a banana peel and three tums tablets in each hole. Works well.

In looking into creating Vermicomposting (Worm Farm in a Box) I found this about Bananas.
Bananas imported into the U.S. are sprayed with a preservative chemical that is harmful to worms. Vermicomposters in the U.S. should only use organically grown bananas.
You might be adding unwanted chemicals to your garden. Worms are benificial in that they help break down the soil to a useable state for plants and aerate the soil to help air reach the roots.

 

[zoff12]

I have about 60 plants starting to flower. Roma, german johnsons, beefsteak, cherry, beefmaster, and a few other hybrids. We can all we don't eat right away. Here's a little demon :twisted: from last year's batch...