Fall Tomato Planting.....

Here is a pic of the blooms that I am really hoping will set fruit. I was bored tonight and yes I was taking a pic of a Black Cherry blossom. he he

Here is a pic of two of the plants I picked up at the nursery to fill my other EB's that I did not have any seedlings for. The one with all of the blossoms is labeled Grape and the other is a Celebrity.

m_m - you're really gonna like those Black Cherrys. They're one of the best tasting cherrys around. Your plants look very nice. :-)
Flip

Well we went away for a few days and I came home to monsters! the plants have grown like crazy. I can see thwe Swee Million is gonna be a trouble maker as it's HUGE but I'll forgive it since it's already setting fruit. I'll take a few pictures tonight.

Saint

My fall tomatoes planted around May 20th are coming in now. It is so good to have fresh "new blood" out there...the quality is so good.

Nice pictures Merea!! Your plants look so healthy. Hoping for rain. That darn cold front looks like it stalled out just north of us! UGH. Downtown got a little rain yesterday, but nothing up here in N. Austin. boohiss. At least it is not suppose to be 100 today. Whew.

So I found white flies on my seedlings yesterday. Evil things. I have not seen white flies around our area except a golden hibiscus I had 3 years ago. I looked under EACH leaf and smooshed some white eggs that were on all my seedlings leaf undersides. The eggs were not in bunches, but individual. Are these the white fly eggs? I managed to smoosh the white flies that I could. I need to go out this morning and check to see if there are any new eggs.

Saint, let's see your pictures friend. Did you have fun in Big D? Did you make it to the Kimball in Ft Worth?

Flip, I shared some of my black cherry maters with Merae and so she is hooked now I think! They are very prolific, hu? Tastey! How are your seedlings coming along?

Indy, you all in zone 5 do a Fall garden? Impressive! Where are your pictures? ;)

Michelle

well we got busy yesterday and didn't spray so doing it this morning, and restaking for now (he fininishes the tomatoe bed this year I'll die of shock) and these suckers are taking over so pictures will be today. Found several plants with little tiny maters so guess I am setting fruit even in this weather. Amazing!

ok here aare the newest pictures

didn't have a ruler handy so used the DH

Next week or so these will be moved to another spot and the staking system will be in place...or so I'm told...*LOL* we move slow on projects around here.

Saint,
those are nice looking mater plants. So green and tall! I guess I won't post any pictures of my pewny plants. My Creole is still really small and barely hanging in there. Not sure why he has been such a problem child since germination day. The Aunt Ruby's German Green and the Brandywine are the largest so far. Not sure what to do about the white fly invasion. I went out and went thru every leaf and smooshed any that I could and saw a few more eggs on the undersides of the leaves that I smooshed. I have heard that you can put sticky yellow paper down and they are attracked to that and will stick to the paper. Not sure where to find such sticky yellow paper. Apparently it is common in Arizona, but hard to find here.

I woke up to hear rain this morning...thank the good Lord!

Michelle

I'll check my farmers merc for you might have some. I hope you get rain, ya'll need it.

Hey guys thanks for the compliments! Flip I did get to taste the Black Cherries and they are wonderful! Michelle is very generous with her seeds and she let me have some to try! I have been very excited about the Black Cherry and Black from Tula that she shared with me since the day they germinated. I can't wait to see those babies set fruit!! Saint, your plants are monsters, aren't they! They look awesome. Michelle, I am sorry about the whitefly issue. I don't even know what they are, so I don't have any advice for you...sorry. :-(

This week I will need to get some stakes around my plants. I had thought that I would try to let them sprawl, but I am just not sure how to do that and keep my dog off of the maters and/or vines. Then I thought I would stake them up to about 3' and then let them sprawl. I am still not sure what to do, but gotta figure something out. Has anyone put a tomato cage inside of an EB before?

Hi y'all ... I haven't posted here in a while but wanted to ~ at everyone and tell you what beautiful plants y'all have. :-) I didn't start a fall crop and could now kick myself in the behind. All this talk about maters has me wondering if I could do one and put it in my little GH the DH got me, but I'm not sure I'd have room. *sigh* Good luck, and I hope you get rid of your white flies, Michelle. Saint, great job on yours. That's one heck of a project y'all started.
~Elaine~

YAY we got rain yesterday! The weather was very nice the last couple of days and did not get to be a scorching 100. Going outside this morning and it was nice also, it was cool and breezy, felt great! I went out this morning and saw my Black Cherry was lying on its side. I couldn't believe my eyes. I sprayed Messenger on the plants on the last time I showed pics on Sept 2nd and here it is the 6th and the thing has really gotten bigger. If you look at the pic I posted on the 2nd, the blossoms are at the tallest part of the plant. Today there is a whole new grouping of leaves above those blossoms. They aren't tiny little leaves either. I was shocked to say the least. I contribute it to the combination of the Messenger, the rain, and the cooler weather. I am still hoping those blossoms turn into fruit. This EB has a Black Cherry and a Black from Tula. The BFT has blossoms today, but they are tiny, tiny.

IO1 - it is nice to see you post. I haven't talked with you before, but Michelle has had very nice things to say about you. How has your weather been in GA? Do you think fall is coming soon?

Hi Merae ... Wow am I glad I went back and spelled your name, cause I'd sure spelled it wrong! LOL

Yes, we're finally beginning to cool off just a bit here in south GA. We got rain yesterday, and it was the first we've had in a while. I thought we'd get some with that last storm, but it turned and went up the coast, so no go and haven't had any since before then. It's only 78 here so far and it's 10:45. What a welcomed change! LOL Well, I'm not sure what Michelle has been saying, but she's a sweetheart for sure. Hope your maters and weather cooperate with each other so you have a wonderful fall crop. My summer ones sure were good. Can't figure out what possessed me not to plant a fall garden except I needed a break. I had 23 plants and with the heat and dry weather I was a bit frazzled I'm afraid. :-)

No worries IO1, Michelle, was just sharing with me that she had met some really cool people on DG and you were one of them. She explained to me what your moniker IO1 stood for and that really stood out to me and so I remembered what she said when you posted. I think that is a very cool DG name! Yes, my DG name is my real name and it is very very unusual. You pronounce it like Hooray, but replace the H with an M. So Muhrae would probably be a better spelling, but hey, my mom didn't ask for my opinion. haha. All in all, I do like having a name no one else has, but gee I do get wierd looks sometimes.

So out of all your maters, which one did you like best?

Hmmm, lets see ... my sweet 100's and roma sure did produce well. I also liked my husky cherry, Stupice and 4th of July were probably some of my favs with Celebrity, Parks Wopper and Homestead coming in next. :-) I don't care for the Sund Gold or purple varieties ... I know I know ... you can throw a rotten mater at me. LOL I seem to be in a minority. :-) I like a tomato with a nice acid bite to it and grow in 5 gal buckets, so they can't be tooo large. Hopefully one day I'll have an EB but for now my buckets are working out ok.
~Elaine~

Hey, my ears were burning! haha. Y'all are both sweethearts!

Merae, your Black Cherry looks great. It is a monster!

Elaine, no fall maters? oh my! I'm doing half the plants I did for spring. Like you, I get a bit worn out by this time of year tending to them. But I knew I had to try some fall plants. Last year I was up to my eyeballs in adoption paperwork so I didn't have time to do the Fall plants. Ah, see you like the acid bite. I like the sweet or big flavor. I wonder if you would like Green Zebra? It is suppose to be a tangy acid taste. I am growing one now so I'll let you know how I like it.

Looks like Saint is way ahead of me in the fall mater planting! she needs to take a trip to Austin and share her crop with me. hehe.

Michelle

I'll do my best if I can stop having to go to Dallas with DH. We have the wedding at the end of the month and then straight to the big D again. I'm trying to figure out a way out of it but so far not luck.

Well, I think she needs to pop on over to Ga and bring them maters on over with her. LOL Sounds to me as if she's bitten off more than she can chew? hahaha After all ... isn't that what friends are for? :-)

Here is a shot of tomato in a 5 gal self watering container in my greenhouse. Hope to have tomatoes this winter.

well DH found 3 little maters on my Sweet Million tonight while watering...so now I have something to watch. Those poor things will go nuts with me checking on them 20 times a day.

bensen - I like your pic. My DH and I were talking about how easy it would be to do a homemade self-watering bucket/planter. We pretty much talked about what you have done there. If you don't mind me asking, what did you use in the bottom of your bucket to form your reservoir? Also, you are more clever than I, I did not think about running pvc up the bucket to stake your plant....pretty good thinking there, :-) I bet the pvc works nicely. Can you start to feel fall in NH yet? Is Walpole closer to VT, ME or MA?

araness - congrats on getting some maters on your Sweet Million. Have you grown that variety before?

Woohoo Saint! I'm drooling just thinking bout them maters! LOL

ms_merae, I have a thread on container gardening where I am explaining how I built my containers. Have pictures too. Walpole NH is next to VT border about 25 miles north of the MA border. We have been getting some nights in the low 40's up here. Could see a frost by the end of this month then we'll have a little warm spell before it turns cold again.

I potted up a Zaryanka tomato seedling I got this past week. Anyone else tried these? They are supposed to be especially good for fall planting.

know nothing about them can you give us more info? Sounds neat...

I have summer tomato plants that have revived and producing for the Fall. Even had two maters for breakfast this morning. Other than that I only started two new Brandywine for the Fall. Well, I didn't sow them on purpose---they were self sown-and germinated---I just transplanted when they were about 4 weeks old. They have tiny tomatoes on them now. Been so busy building a sunroom and building concrete planters in the floor that I forgot to sow my Siberian tomato seeds. Wonder if its too late.&*$%^&#@$?
I cut down alot of tomatoes during our summer heat drought and several have put out new shoots--blooming and have small tiny maters. Just waiting to see what they do. They look healthy so far.
One of the old mater plants is a Sweet Million. Hoping to get a few off that before frost. Another summer plant that I cutt down was the Pineapple tomato . It has put out new growth and blooming. Maybe I will have a nice Fall selection after all.
The plan is to let the Brandywine produce as long as possible then bring it into the new sunroom when it gets too cool.

The Brandywine:

Brandywines Winter Haven:
and a few other maters that i can squeeze in there.

Yes-----Rubber Duckie Yellow Sunroom. It sticks out like a sore thumb---and makes me smile everytime i look at it. Wow---so yellow.

Under-Construction.

OK, i'M A NEWBIE, SO YA'LL BOW... TEE HEE....

I'm in Zone 9a (Houston) and want to grow veggies for next season in EBs. I'm going to make the Rubbermaid ones, and I want to grow beefsteak tomatoes, yellow squash, bell peppers and okra. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated!

tHANKS! P.S. Someone sent me all sorts of Heirloom tomatoe seeds, and Ms. Merae already told me to wait until January to plant them. Araness, did you start from seeds already? Are we in the same Zone?

Cricket -- I LOVE yellow and I love your sunroom! :-)

Gymgirl - many people on here use the homemade rubbermaid EB's and they look just as good as the real thing. Good luck on your project. Lucky you that someone sent you heirloom seeds! That is fantastic. Which varieties did you get? Tplant just started a thread for starting seeds, so do check that out as I know I will benefit from it.

My black cherry plant has tiny little tomatoes on it! I am so excited.

Welcome Gymgirl! I don't post often, but I *do* love my maters! :-)
~Elaine~

I started from seed... humm when did I start from seed? Several months ago and the plants are already 6ft tall...thed Julia Child is gonna be a tall one. I bought a stainless steel rack this year that I could put my lights on and it made my seedling starting much easier.

Merae, your black cherry already had maters on it? I'm sooooo jealous!!

And Saint, you have maters on your sweet million? I don't have any maters yet. Lots of open blooms on the Cher Purp, Black Krim and just seeing some small blooms on the sweet million, aunt ruby's green, julia child and green zebra. My suspicion is that they are not getting enough sun. I did not take into account the lower sun with my fence. live and learn I guess.

gymgirl, what variety are your heirloom seeds?

Elaine, you will have to live vicariously thru our successes and failures this fall! I'm not having very good success so far. :(

Michelle

Checked today and I've got several Black Plums, one Black Prince and of course my Sweet Millions. Can't wait...soon as we get them moved I'll take pictures.

*looks around for Tplant* Ok think the coast is clear...I'm gonna sneak this in for IO1 and Chelle...here's the new car, this is when it lived at the dealership

Woohoo!!! Now you can bring me some of them maters girl! hehehe

Nice set of wheels you got there Saint!

How 'bout some pics of those little maters growing? As I told you yesterday...I ain't got none yet! :(

humm what did I set the camera at last time to get clear pictures...do we remember?