My TOMATOES are outside in zone 8a

I have transplanted my tomatoes outside Friday 18th (respecting the Maria Thun gardening by the moon calendar date).
I have dig a large hole because some of my tomatoes were really tall. So I laied down the plant, like a "L" shape.
I removed the bottom leaves under grown, so roots could grow from the nodes.
I have planted more tomatoes than I needed .. and maybe too close ... oh well ... I couldn't suicide the extra ones.
In the hole I have put: egg shales, azomite, DE, worms casting and filled the rest with Cottonburr compost.
I have built a hoop house around my tomatoes and covered with a clear plastic that has holes of 1/2" every 6". In this way the plants will not cook under the plastic if the sun is too hot.
My major problem right now is the wind. Today it was almost 30 mph.
It seems that my hoop house really protected the plants.
Now I have to keep my finger crossed for no snow or really hard freeze.
Wish me luck !!


I plan to add the RED PLASTIC MULCH a little bit later in the season.
Just in case I will need to dig the plants out if we have a bad freeze.
I hope not !!

This message was edited Feb 20, 2011 6:56 PM

now this is a picture of the hoop house covered with plastic.

My tomatoes trought the plastic

My tomato plants before planting. Some of them were really tall.
So I had to berry them more. I think in this way they are going to have a larger root system.

Looks like you are off and running. Good job!

I have zone envy.

Paul

jealous as all ^&%#*^ of u guys/gals down south.. i lived in north houston may centurys ago.. i grew up in the midwest..and
mostly june was time to put tomatoes out there..when i was in houston..planting in feb was a mind blower for me..:)
here in utah..i still plant my tomatoes in june.. they are huge by that time..and do great..
again..jealous of ya all for your semi tropical weather..
we have snow here again..and just dreaming of spring/summer..
i have my tomatoes up now..(from seed)... mostly heirlooms.. thinking i'll plant 100+ of them..
let neighbor boys who help me garden(mostly weeding).. sell tomatoes this summer/fall..
i cant believe the $ on tomatoes in stores.. whew..

drthor, those look great! I debated with myself all weekend about planting out the tomatoes. But the wind talked me into waiting just another week or two!

LOL! I was out working in the yard most of the day on Saturday after driving into Tyler to pick up my rose order. I came into the house to start supper and DH asked about my "new" hair style. I looked in the mirror and some of my hair was sticking straight out at a 90 degree angle from my head! Kind of cool looking in a weird way, but I don't think the tomato plants would be happy with that style! I think I have an idea for wind blocks for the tomato beds, but I'll need to set it up to see if it will work for me.

Terri,

This is how I deal with the wind...my cages are wrapped with movers wrap (the thin plastic that sticks to itself). I start at the bottom, wrap a couple of thicknesses, then stretch it diagonally to work my way up. At the top, I wrap a full layer around, then tuck the end of the plastic under and around one of the wires. It does a great job protecting from spring winds and provides a little protection from light frost. A 15"-wide roll (1000 feet) costs $15 at the U-Haul store. That's enough for me to use for several years (40 cages).

I have wall-o-water/season starters on some plants, which protect from wind and even a fairly cold (but short) freeze. I will have about 18 plants in the season starters--all the others will be facing a chance of frost.

David

Thanks David. We have that wrap here at work. I've been looking at the Univ. of VA's ag website. They have some interesting ideas, too. I'll have this worked out by this weekend!

terri_emory........I used to do the same thing w/ hoop tunnels except I would use plastic w/out holes. If a freeze was on the way I would close up the ends, and insert warm water jugs, and light bulbs..........I do things a little different now.....much the same as Dave from Hutto. This picture is from last year when we had a light freeze.........all survived......

LOL! Thanks for the photo, hornstrider! I'll have to raid DH's closet for t-shirts and sweat shirts. Come to think of it, #2 son has some "borderline inapropriate" t-shirts from his rebellious stage. I kept "loosing them in the wash". He kept finding them. Those would be perfect! Some even have rips for venting. HA! Finally found a productive result for living with a rebellious red-headed teen =)! Just hope those things don't turn out to be "vintage" collectors items in years to come.....

terri_emory......I am in the business....I own a screen printing/embroidery business.....we sometimes make mistakes, and those mistakes keep my maters warm.......

=D!

Whats going on with your tomatoes. How cold did it this morning get at your place?

I had planned to plant out a few more of my tomato plants last Sunday, but have been tied up working on a chicken house. I set yesterday aside to plant out but it rained in the am and just didn't get-r-done in the pm. So today is the day.

This message was edited Feb 25, 2011 9:16 AM

Last night it went down to 40 degrees.
I did covered the hoop house with blankets. Now it is 45 degrees and warming up quickly.
I must go outside to remove the blanket.
Yesterday we must had 100 mhp wind and surprinsly the hoop house is still in the ground (I think it might be because of the holes in the plastic: the wind goes in and it goes out)
The Tomatoes plants are looking really good. They are growing and have fantastic green leaves.
Keep y'all fingers crossed !!

How are your tomatoes?

The tomatoes I planted last week are doing great! The temperature here was cool, but barely below 40 and no frost. I have some more tomatoes to plant today as well. My final batch will be in 2-3 weeks, when I plant at the traditional time. This is a photo of one of the Supersweet 100 plants, this morning. They have grown noticeably since they were planted on Monday.

David

That's great.
I am curious to find out if you will harvest more tomatoes from the plants you transplanted outside earlier too.
I just home that the weather will be ok. This is TX after all !!

dreaves-what a beautiful photo- the plant is perfect and I love the frame of the support. By the way, the Phoenix tomato seeds you sent haven't sprouted yet, but some of the others are slow too. I hope they will show soon! I am beginning to pot up the early birds into little 5oz cups.

Hey All,

I'm behind by one week on my target plant out date.... But tomorrow -- the press is on!

I'll be sifting pine bark all night for Tapla's 5:1:1 container mix for the eBuckets. I bought and additional 80 lbs of dolomitic lime, too. The container mix is waaaaay different than I'm used to in the eBuckets. I've only used the straight MG potting mix or MG plus some Black Kow Composted manure. Adding the pine bark fines and perlite to the MG, makes a seemingly dryer mix, that actually reconfigures (for lack of a better word) the water intake. And, the dry recipe is so light, I can shake an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub-full up and down to mix it all together!

The one tiny Bull's Heart seedling I planted Monday is doing really well. Just a little hard for me to determine how wet the mix is, since the pine bark feels much dryer than I'm used to. But, there's water in there, and I can tell it's working!

Hope to post plant out progress pics by Sunday evening. Will be picking up some tubs from a DG farmer. 22" deep by 24" across. Short and squatty -- perfect for the big indeterminate root systems to drop and spread! This is gonna be a really interesting growing season!

P.S. Drthor,
You used a hole punch to put all those holes in that plastic yourself?

Jo.

I sprouted my Phoenix seeds on a heat mat and they were still slower than some of the the others. I did get a decent number of seedlings.

But back on topic--I have more than half my total tomato crop planted after this morning! I still have another 16 plants to go...unless I decide to make another row. I'm hoping that there are no more serious cold spells. If this planting isn't damaged, I should have "Ultimate Opener" and Supersweet 100 cherries by late April. There will be several reds due by early May, then bi-color, yellow, and black by mid-month. I am planting different bi-colors, some more reds, and more cherries in 3-4 weeks. Those should start ripening in late May and early June.

David

Gymgirl you are funny ... no I didn't punch all those holes.
The plastic came like that. I bought it from Territorial Seeds

Ggirl I'm a week late myself. The three Phoenix I planted last week have taken hold and are coming right along. Today I planted 10:
Black Krim
Black Zebra
Chappy X/L Red
Henderson's "Pink Ponderosa"
Indian Stripe
JD's Special
Mule Team
Muriel
Top Gun
Violet Jasper

Tomorrow:
Pamella
Purple Haze
Purple Russian
Rambling Red Stripe
San Marzano
San Marzano Gigante 3
Southern Night

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Forgot the camera today when me and the pup when over to the garden. Will try to get pics tomorrow.

Here is what got done today:

Planted one of my seedling Brandy Sweet Plumb tomatoes, and a Bhut Jolokia pepper I got from Darrel Jones, owner of SelectedPlants.com. DR. Carolyn Male made reference to Darrel having a good selection of plants so I checked his website out and ended up buying a few plants.

Potted up to qt cottage cheese containers:

From Darrel:

3-Bhut Jolokia peppers
4-Lemnes Italian peppers
1-Mystery Freebie Tomato
1-Big Beef X Eva Purple Ball F3 tomato
4-Purple Haze tomatoes
1-Lucky Cross tomato
1-Cherokee Purple Jumbo tomato

and 3- store bought Phoenix tomatoes

Now I'm in for the day enjoying a large bowl of boiled cabbage and ham hock. Yes, the cabbage is fresh from the garden.:)

So what did y'all do today take the day off?

Here are my tomatoes. So far so food.
If you live in the Dallas area, the tomatoes arrived at North Haven Garden (www.nhg.com) today. The plants look amazing.
This was the first year I didn't buy any of them ... the one I started look just like the one from the store.

They seem to be taking off under the plastic and they are so green. Looking good!

Yeh, my seedlings are as good as store bought too.

I have some seedlings left in 3-1/2 inch pots that are going to need to be potted up, I guess to 1 gallon pots. Either that or I need to find someone that wants to plant them right away. These are the ones left from my early planting. I started these as seeds on January 15th, So they are just barely six weeks old and already 10-12 inches tall, as big around as a pre-school pencil. I've had good luck with Jiffy Pellets and my six-bulb light system.

David

Wouldn't it be nice if we could buy plants at the nurseries that look as nice as yours?

I planted Jan 19. My goal is to have then all in the ground over the next two weeks. I'll have a few give-a-ways. Funny thing is when the economy was starting the down turn neighbors were eager for the give-a-ways but now I guess they have come to the realization that for them gardening is just too much work. They don't seem to be too interested anymore. :)

You are so brave. It was 37* here Friday AM. I think I have region envy.

Lisa, that's why I'm using the season starters. I think my last frost IS a couple of weeks earlier than your area.

texasrockgarden - After all my neighbors had there fill of maters and started running and hiding when they saw me coming, I started taking them to a couple of local assisted living facilities. They were very appreciative. One other place I went was to the local VA clinic. Backed up in front of the main door, thru open the hatchback and put up a little sign for free heirloom tomatoes----150 lbs went pretty darn quick.

David
Liberty Hills last AVERAGE frost date is March 23 but Im 5 miles North in a very rural area so I have many mornings when I wake up and it's way colder (below freezing) then I realized it was supposed to be. I've lost too many tomato plants over the years to bother with it anymore. It's just easier for me to put my tomatoes and peppers out at about the same time since I have no reliable way of knowing how cold it's going to get until it's too late. I do enjoy reading about your adventures tho.

yes, wish me luck !
Tomorrow night it is suppose to be below 40s.
I hope weather man is wrong ... but I will be ready.
The picture below is from last year. We had snow on March 21st, 2010.
I covered my tomato plants with glass vases !!
UNBELIVABLE! Not only they survived, but they produce a lot more.
The good thing about the weather here is that the next day it will be 70 degree.
Anyway, y'all keep your fingers crossed.

Well, I have the answer to my experiment comparing the wall-o-waters to plastic wrapped cages. The plastic alone is not enough to protect the plants from a frost.

I lost half of the early plantings...all the ones protected only by plastic. We had a pretty cold night...I don't know what the official low was, but it looks like I hit at least 30F. Every one of the plants in plastic only had a coat of frost this morning. Now that it is later in the day, they are all wilted and black.

The plants in the wall-o-waters, on the other hand all seem to be fine. I know the temperature was enough below freezing to make a very thin skin of ice on the top of the water tubes. I have extras for most of the plants, except the Phoenix. I shared seeds from that one, so I don't have but one of those left to replant. I'll be able to get a few at a local nursery, though. Live and learn, I guess. I have some cardboard boxes that I've used to protect plants in past years that fit inside the cages. I should have put them out yesterday.

Sorry to hear about your loss.
Maybe the movers wrap was just to thin and it will be worth to invest on a heavy row cover for next year.
I covered my hoop house with movers blanket last night (we went 38F) and in the morning the plants were fantastic.
We were supposed to go down to 32, but we didn't.
I watered my tomatoes really well yesterday and I put the blankets on around 4pm. The sun was shining and it was around 60F for a couple of more hours.
I think that the water evaporated inside the hoop house and a green house effect developed. When I removed the blanket in the morning I could see the little droplet of steam on the plastic.
Anyway ... y'all keep your finger crossed

I just looked at the map where Hutto is. I couldn't believe that you are so south of Dallas and still you had such a bad freeze last night ... it should be the opposite ... it really might be the thin plastic.

This message was edited Mar 6, 2011 5:46 PM

dreaves, tough break on the maters but you have time to recover. If you lived close to me I have three xtra Phoenix plants you could have.

It got down to 30 for a short time here. The 20 Kozy Coats did their job well. I covered plants in qt pots with white heavy weight row covers folded to four layers. I have a piece 12' x 40' that I folded end to end twice making a 10' x 12' four layer cover. I had two volunteer squash plants that I did not cover and they froze.

TRG,

Thanks for the offer! I should have done something extra to protect the plants not in a wall-o-waters. By the time I drove down, I would spend more on gas than it would cost to buy plants in Austin, though.

I have learned that if I want early plants I need to use the water shields!

I planted out 3 Black Krims in 13 gal containers in Tapla's 3:1:1 container mix. It was so chilly out I pulled out the Kozy Coats for overnite protection.

NOTE TO SELF: Putting filled Kozy Coats ovr newly planted seedlings is very tricky, and may damage the plants!

Not sure what went wrong, but something sure did. My seedlings just totally flopped over and went all soft & limp in the stem. They were crisp when I planted them.

Cud be transplant shock, maybe? A combination of factors like: a new planting medium; a hit of fertilizer and lime in the new medium; planting into cold wet soil on a cold day; mashing the leaves while trying to situate the Kozy Coat...

P.S. Can you fill the Kozy Coat with warm vs. cold water?

Guess I'll be replanting seedlings. Blessed to have extras.

Linda,

Were the tops of the Cozy-coats mostly closed? If not, frost could have still settled down into the inside, though it would still be warmer than otherwise. I didn't have any sign of transplant shock for the plants I put into the garden with Wall-o-waters. I didn't have fertilizer on them, though. Give them a couple of days to see if they can recover. If they froze, you will know it by tomorrow because the plants will pretty well turn black and wilt down...as mine did today.

For putting the Cozy-coats on filled, turn a 5-gallon bucket upside-down over your plants (one without much of a rim works best). Slip the Cozy-coat over the bucket, then slide the bucket out. Volia!

David

Thanks, D.
Problem iS there's not much room in the 13 gallon container. But I'll try the bucKet next time.