Planting 70 degrees time to plant maters. What do you do to increase yield?
- Thread starter marsh
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Illini Warrior
Illini Warrior
what's been key to me with tomatoes has been their planting - been using a bulb planter to bore a 4-5 inch down for the entire stalk - back fill with a rich enhanced compost .... last few years been enhancing once a week with a water soluble nutrient ...
Vicki
Girls With Guns Member
You could try putting some epson salts in the holes before planting as that can give them a quick boost. I also find chicken manure works really well for maters. It's still in the 40's and 30's at night here but I've started some seeds. More to do tomorrow.
30th - 31st
Fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. First day is an excellent time for planting corn, beans, peppers, and other aboveground crops where climate permits. Second day is a favorable day for planting root crops.
30th - 31st
Fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. First day is an excellent time for planting corn, beans, peppers, and other aboveground crops where climate permits. Second day is a favorable day for planting root crops.
If you tend to have hot, dry summers, remove all but the top cluster (Or top two clusters) of leaves, and bury the stem (leaving just enough length so the leaves aren't touching the soil) straight up and down.
If your weather tends to be on the cooler side, remove the extra leaf clusters as above, but bury the stem in a horizontal trench. Either way, the plant will put out roots along the whole length of stem.
Mulching with RED mulch (in cooler areas, use red plastic) increases yields in tomatoes.
But *don't* add lots of extra nitrogen, in the form of fertilizer or manure. You end up with large, lush, green plants, but often few blossoms or fruit. The exception is if your season is very long... production will be delayed and late, but you may get huge yields. However, that lush foliage tends to be more prone to insect damage and disease.
Caging has been the most practical way for us to support large plants (I grow almost all indeterminate heirlooms, and they can get BIG) , keep foliage and fruit mostly off the ground, and allow us to pick the highest percentage of blemish free fruit.
Removing suckers can help in letting sunlight into the interior of the plant, allow more airflow, speeding ripening and helping slow the spread of diseases, but it's never been time efficient for us.
Deep watering, providing approximately 1-2 inches per week (higher amounts in hot, dry weather) is best. Overwateting, or simply a wet year will cause fruit to crack just before fully ripe. Cherry tomatoes are the worst... thick skinned paste types the most resistant. Some varieties say they are especially crack resistant.. if you live in a wet climate, plant those!
And if late blight has EVER been a problem in your area, start spraying with antifungal sprays early, and spray as directed for the entire season! Nothing sucks like having 200, 6' tall, lush tomato plants loaded with green and just-starting-to-ripen fruit, and watch them die completely of late blight within a week.
We use a copper based spray, and while it won't do much if used after symptoms appear, it works very well as preventing infection.
Above all, pray! LOL!
Summerthyme
If your weather tends to be on the cooler side, remove the extra leaf clusters as above, but bury the stem in a horizontal trench. Either way, the plant will put out roots along the whole length of stem.
Mulching with RED mulch (in cooler areas, use red plastic) increases yields in tomatoes.
But *don't* add lots of extra nitrogen, in the form of fertilizer or manure. You end up with large, lush, green plants, but often few blossoms or fruit. The exception is if your season is very long... production will be delayed and late, but you may get huge yields. However, that lush foliage tends to be more prone to insect damage and disease.
Caging has been the most practical way for us to support large plants (I grow almost all indeterminate heirlooms, and they can get BIG) , keep foliage and fruit mostly off the ground, and allow us to pick the highest percentage of blemish free fruit.
Removing suckers can help in letting sunlight into the interior of the plant, allow more airflow, speeding ripening and helping slow the spread of diseases, but it's never been time efficient for us.
Deep watering, providing approximately 1-2 inches per week (higher amounts in hot, dry weather) is best. Overwateting, or simply a wet year will cause fruit to crack just before fully ripe. Cherry tomatoes are the worst... thick skinned paste types the most resistant. Some varieties say they are especially crack resistant.. if you live in a wet climate, plant those!
And if late blight has EVER been a problem in your area, start spraying with antifungal sprays early, and spray as directed for the entire season! Nothing sucks like having 200, 6' tall, lush tomato plants loaded with green and just-starting-to-ripen fruit, and watch them die completely of late blight within a week.
We use a copper based spray, and while it won't do much if used after symptoms appear, it works very well as preventing infection.
Above all, pray! LOL!
Summerthyme
imaginative
keep your eye on the ball
Good advice above. I also add a pinch of egg or oyster shells to each hole before I plant. This gives more calcium uptake and prevent 'blossom end rot'.
Txkstew
Veteran Member
Here is some pics of my garden taken yesterday. I was having problems with my tomatoes setting blooms earlier this month, but I applied some Super Phosphate 0-40-0 fertilizer. Now there are lots of blooms, but I have no bees pollinating, thus not a lot of fruit forming. It's been getting down into the 50's at night, so that might have something to do with it.
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TxStew... tomatoes don't require bees to pollinate them. Your chillier evening temps probably have a lot more to do with it than a lack of pollinators. You could help them by tapping the stems/branches of the plant (people growing them indoors often use an electric toothbrush placed against the stem to "vibrate" the plant, with excellent results)
But a bit warmer weather will probably solve it.
Oh, and one proven (university tests) way to increase yields on healthy tomato plants by up to 30%... use red plastic mulch! Somehow the wavelength of light reflected off red colored materials up through the plant increases yields signficantly. They actually sell red plastic at garden supply catalogs for this purpose.
Summerthyme
But a bit warmer weather will probably solve it.
Oh, and one proven (university tests) way to increase yields on healthy tomato plants by up to 30%... use red plastic mulch! Somehow the wavelength of light reflected off red colored materials up through the plant increases yields signficantly. They actually sell red plastic at garden supply catalogs for this purpose.
Summerthyme
Txkstew
Veteran Member
Summerthyme, I've been doing the thumping of the flower clusters on my tomatoes. There are quit a few green tomatoes starting to form. My brother used to grow hot house tomatoes back in the late 70's and he had to use the electric tooth brush method of pollinating his vines. We still are having night time temps in the 50's, so you're probably right about that. My squash is producing little bitty fruit, but they stop growing at around 2 inches long and just stop growing and get hard. Peppers are starting to set fruit, but the plants look puny. I did see a honey bee this morning working the plants, so that's a good thing.
naturallysweet
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Delete _ because i posted this in another thread
Not sure how it got here.
Not sure how it got here.
imaginative
keep your eye on the ball
My favorite tomato (by far) is the Brandywine. The only drawback to the Brandywine is that it takes an awfully long time to mature. To increase the yield of these I surround a "Early Girl" or a "4th of July" tomato with my Brandywines. The EG or 4th will start expelling ethylene gases much earlier and will cause my BWs to start ripening much earlier than they normally would. That really works well
greenhart
Veteran Member
Today I transplanted 31 tomato plants, 16 different varieties. This is what I did, in each hole I placed an egg and a heaping spoonful of Epson Salts before setting the plant. The eggshell is to help prevent Blossom End Rot, the egg itself is like a fertilizer and the Epson Salts is suppose to make the plant bushier and more healthy.
Txkstew
Veteran Member
Well as we figured, the cool nights we were having, moderated and now temps are more seasonable for this area. Everything is starting to produce, but seems to be delayed. My pepper plants are looking more normal, but the cool looks to have made them kinda ugly. They are producing as well. Squash is taking off like crazy, and soon I'll have way too much yellows. Zucchini not so much. Egg plants are just now setting blooms.
TerriHaute
Hoosier Gardener
I throw a couple of tablespoons of dried milk powder along with a dusting of epsom salts into the hole first when planting the tomatoes. Blossom end rot is never a problem. I also make up a spray of a tablespoon of epsom salts mixed into a gallon of water. Walmart has an inexpensive pump sprayer for $7-$8, found in their garden center, that holds two quarts of liquid. I use that to spray the epsom salts mix as a foliar spray on both tomato and pepper plants when they first start blossoming. The plants love the magnesium in epsom salts and spraying it directly on the leaves allows the plants to absorb the magnesium quickly. Peppers especially go nuts in producing fruit when doing this and tomatoes like it too.
Vicki
Girls With Guns Member
Very nice. Thanks.
Thanks to you too Terri, that's good information. I'll start doing that.
TerriHaute
Hoosier Gardener
Two or three times during the growing season is enough. I do the spray when plants have been in the ground for about two weeks to give them a boost during their first growth spurt and then again when they start blossoming. If we have a lot of rain, I spray again before they blossom. Too much water and not enough essential minerals (calcium, magnesium) are what causes blossom end rot. This is especially common with tomatoes grown in containers. Some varieties of tomato, particularly heirlooms, take longer to blossom, so don't be discouraged.
But DO NOT try to give them a boost with a nitrogen containing fertilizer! Huge, lush, beautiful plants with few blossoms or fruit is the classic sign of too much nitrogen. They can usually outgrow it, and eventually produce fruit, but up here in the frozen North, generally not before frost ends the season.
Summerthyme
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
We use a 5 10 10 fertilizer, 6-8oz once every two weeks on 32 ft sq of garden of peppers. We also use a table spoon of epson salt once every two weeks. Resulted in lot and lots of peppers. Granted we are using a above ground planter.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I like this idea. We have been using a bucket, mixing the epson salts and pouring it into the ground around the plants.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
Once every 2 weeks in our case.