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Post by reed on Jan 5, 2018 14:56:53 GMT -5
Here is something else that works pretty good to make individual plant cages. www.homedepot.com/p/JM-eagle-3-4-in-x-10-ft-480-PSI-Schedule-40-PVC-Plain-End-Pipe-57471/202280935 You need three, 5' sections per plant so at $1.93 each (buying ten or more) and you need 22.5 for three each for 15 plants so round to 23 comes to about $43 plus tax. Cut the into 5 foot lengths , cut at a sharp angle to have a sharp end to drive in the ground and a flat end to pound on at top. It is too slick to tie too so drill holes all the way through at about 6 - 8 inch spacing. Tie strings in little loops through the holes. Drive in the ground in triangles with tops slanting outward and tie more continuous strings between the three using the little strings to attach it to the posts. You get a five foot high triangular cage. It works pretty good, easy to work with, easy to move and store and lasts a good long time. The cattle panels I use now are not available that I know of except at farm stores, they are way to rigid to be rolled up, instead they are shipped flat in stacks. I like them cause laying on their side at 4' high they work for tomatoes, cucumbers and the like. Stood on end at 8' for pole beans. They last a long long time. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 5, 2018 17:51:30 GMT -5
Last time I picked Solanum pimpinelifolium tomatoes, I treated them like beans: Cut the plant off just above the roots. Shook the berries off onto a tarp. Winnowed. Yes! I winnowed tomatoes after harvest. Took me a few minutes to harvest a few thousand tomatoes.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 5, 2018 17:56:53 GMT -5
I can totally see how if you're planting tons of tomatoes, letting them sprawl is the only logical solution, since staking and tying up hundreds of plants couldn't be unfeasible I'd imagine. I am curious how that works out for you in terms of tomato varieties though: do some work better as little self supporting bushes than others? Big fruit vs. little fruit, all that. I have been saving seeds from promiscuously pollinating tomatoes as sprawlers for 9 years. And some of the varieties that I started with have been grown as sprawlers for many decades in my area. So yes, inadvertent selection happened for vine architecture that keeps the fruits up off the ground. Also I pick fruits at first blush, and store them in a shed. That helps a lot. |
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Post by reed on Jan 5, 2018 18:58:24 GMT -5
One of my favorite tomatoes from one of Joseph's mixed that I named Utah Heart survived it's first season here with no staking, no weeding, no care at all. One thing I think that helped it stand out was it held it's self up above the weeds.
I have lots of phenotypes of pimpinelifolium x unknown domestic. Most clusters ripen pretty evenly except for a couple on the end. Occasionally I cut a sack full to give away but mostly I don't even pick them except for a salad or snacking while working in the garden. They do fine on the fence or just in a heap on the ground. Millions come up each spring to be weeded out, transplanted or sometimes left alone. Often they come up and grow fine outside the mowed yard. Once they get up above the other weeds they spread out and smother everything else.
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Post by walt on Jan 6, 2018 13:56:38 GMT -5
Day. 4,000 isn't so much when each tomato is 3/4 gram. OK. it comes to 3 kilo, which is a lot for one picking of one plant. But that accession holds its ripe fruit for some time, and that was the only harvest from that plant.
And one other thing about LA 0722. It has OK flavor when weather is warm or hot, but in cooler weather late in season, it is quite bitter.
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Day
gardener
When in doubt, grow it out.
Posts: 171
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Post by Day on Jan 6, 2018 19:11:29 GMT -5
reed - that's a pretty cool idea. I'm growing 15 varities (18 I've now realized) but I'd like to grow at least two of each type, maybe three for certain ones. So it'll probably end up more like 30-45 plants, but even then aprox $2.80 per plant isn't too shabby, especially since they'd be completely reusable. I'll definitely think on it! walt - you mentioned temperature being a factor in taste - Is eating quality/flavor of pimpinelifolium dramatically effected by fruit color also? Like how black tomatoes are said to be 'smokey', oranges less acidic, etc. I've never grown currants, nor eaten one. I almost bought seeds for a few types this year to also in the Tomato Hunger Games, but decided just to stick with just lycopersicum lycopersicon.... which I love saying/typing. It sounds wizard's curse
"Lycopersicum lycopersicon!" - and poof, they transformed into tomatoes. ....but I digress.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 6, 2018 23:45:27 GMT -5
I grew some pimpinelifolium or red currant tomatoes for the first time this past season. I thought they were the most bland tasting tomato I've ever had. Perhaps it's my soil. No idea. I just know they were far from the "bursting with flavor" that their claim to fame says they have.
I found the little yellow galapagos hybrid tomato to be very tasty and prolific. For a small cherry tomato it is my favorite. And easy to save seed for. I grew some true galapagos tomatoes and they were smaller and tasted different so i know it is not a pure galapagos tomato even though i think i bought it in a package claiming it was.
My favorite tomato right now is one called 'Anazasi' i got from a Boulder, CO nursery. It's a black tomato or dark purple-ish or whatever you call it. It also has the green-shoulder gene and it has a much more complex flavor than your standard bland cardboard pale-red store tomato. The mice even loved it two summers ago.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 7, 2018 0:37:02 GMT -5
I grow red and yellow pimpinelifolium tomatoes. I find the taste to be unremarkable. I concur with what keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said: definitely not living up to the seed catalog hype. |
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Post by templeton on Jan 7, 2018 3:48:32 GMT -5
Hi Day. I now use 2 methods - weldmesh 100mm X 100 mm grid in 1.2 m X 2 m panels cheap chinese A$20, last for years, stack flat. Smash in steel starposts (T post in USese?), and either lay landscape for short plants, portrait for tall plants. I use it for beans, cukes, peas, toms. Conical tomato cages generally useless for toms but good for peppers & eggplants. As a sexy and stabilising feature, stand panel on end, use light wire to pull into a bow shape on end - 3 bits of wire, top, middle and bottom. almost self supporting, and very interesting in the garden. shorter stakes needed to hold it up. remove tension wire for flat packing. !00mm X 100mm so you can easily get your hand through it to harvest, and thread plants in and out. My beds are 1 metre wide with 600mm paths, with a panel at the front of each bed, i can rig a curved panel over the top as an archway for beans to grow on - they hang down for easy harvest. I wish I could be bothered to post a pic  As a cheap alternative, I purchased a roll of 1.8 metre thin wire grid (150mmX100mm grids) used for holding down fiber insulation batts in roof spaces. Quite thin wire, easy to manipulate, not sure how many years I'll get out of it, needs good posts to hold in up. buybuildingsupplies.com.au/300x150mm-roof-safety-mesh-2mm-wire-p-3705.htmlI need to trellis my toms to reduce leaf mass, increase air for fungal diseases. I have done Florida Weave, with string and posts, but found it sagged as the plants grew, and needed re-tensioning every few weeks. |
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Post by richardw on Jan 7, 2018 13:17:34 GMT -5
What i'm trying this summer is growing one lateral per plant laying flat on top of fence netting tied to the tops of 1m tall bamboo stakes, i'm thinking the tomatoes should just hang below the netting so that the black birds cant get them, but, if that doesn't work and they are able to reach them i'll poke in taller 1.5m bamboo stakes, glass bottles down over the ends and biff a net over, the height of the net above the horizontal tomato vines means birds wont be a problem.  |
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Post by walt on Jan 7, 2018 15:42:19 GMT -5
reed - that's a pretty cool idea. I'm growing 15 varities (18 I've now realized) but I'd like to grow at least two of each type, maybe three for certain ones. So it'll probably end up more like 30-45 plants, but even then aprox $2.80 per plant isn't too shabby, especially since they'd be completely reusable. I'll definitely think on it! walt - you mentioned temperature being a factor in taste - Is eating quality/flavor of pimpinelifolium dramatically effected by fruit color also? Like how black tomatoes are said to be 'smokey', oranges less acidic, etc. I've never grown currants, nor eaten one. I almost bought seeds for a few types this year to also in the Tomato Hunger Games, but decided just to stick with just lycopersicum lycopersicon.... which I love saying/typing. It sounds wizard's curse
"Lycopersicum lycopersicon!" - and poof, they transformed into tomatoes. ....but I digress. Lycopersicum actually is Latin for Wolf Peach. A good name. Maybe more of a blessing than a curse. I have never grown any S. (L.) pimpinellifolium except this one accession, but what I have read both in the amature and professional litterature (which I concider similar in quality) is that other S. pimpinellifolium do not have this change in flavor. I don't know first hand. Many people write of how good one or another currant tomatoes taste. And many people talk of how sweet they are. Mine aren't. |
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Post by reed on Jan 7, 2018 17:33:42 GMT -5
My Solanum pimpinelifolium got crossed up with some other tomato and ended up with lots of different kinds. Some still like they used to be, tiny yellow things. Now though they range from that size to about size of ping pong balls and range from yellow to red. Some are pear shape. I still call them pimpinelifolium because foliage and growth still looks like it. They are all good and quite sweet except for the pear shaped yellow that showed up this year, they were awful.
Like I said earlier I don't pay them much attention but I have noticed they can be can be bonsaied. That is if grown in even very small pots the vines stay small but still produce lots of flowers and fruits.
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Post by walt on Jan 8, 2018 12:40:50 GMT -5
I've grown chiltipine peppers as bonsai. Very nice bonsai and I love the peppers flavor. Never thought of bonsai tomatoes.
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Day
gardener
When in doubt, grow it out.
Posts: 171
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Post by Day on Jan 8, 2018 13:13:01 GMT -5
richardw - now see, bamboo stakes are something I have a lot of... and I like how your method is like the scaled down version of the method toomanyirons mentioned (which sounds amazing, but that probably wouldn't be feasible in my small garden). A modified version though could very well be something I try to employ this season. I could use taller stakes and continue to tie up the main leader as it grows, and sling a wide spaced nylon net or cheap chicken between the stakes down the row. Possibly pruning off suckers (which I hate doing, but whatever) that fall away from the center, toward the paths, and allow those the grow inward to simply 'spill' onto each other and the netting. Might even help self support. Since our humidity is so low here, my disease risk is lower for such crowding than most people. However, it may just turn into one giant, multilevel, luxury spider mite motel... Much to think on! Not entirely out of the question, and may work with some tweaking. andrew Joseph Lofthouse Lofthouse - I'm really glad I passed on buying them then - thanks for letting me learn from your experiences! Andrew, regarding the Galapagos tomato, that was another I really considered trying this year. I forget where I saw it... maybe Baker Creek? Where did you get yours? I'm curious about the possible hybridization you mentioned. Would it be crossed with pimp or lyco? I'm not that familiar with the Solanum family and possible wide crosses within them. templeton - I'm trying very hard to visualize this, but I'm struggling. Mainly this bit has me thrown: If the fancy does strike you to post a pic, I'd love to see it!  walt - I took latin for two years in college, I swear; annnnd one of my majors was actually classical civ. I have no excuse for not knowing that xD "Lycopersicanthropy: the curse of the tomato moon" - my new bestseller, claim to author fame idea. Nobody steal it m'kay xD reed - the bonsai concept is really neat... have you tried it with any of them/do you have any pictures? I'd be crazy interested to see ~
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 8, 2018 13:45:50 GMT -5
Andrew, regarding the Galapagos tomato, that was another I really considered trying this year. I forget where I saw it... maybe Baker Creek? Where did you get yours? I'm curious about the possible hybridization you mentioned. Would it be crossed with pimp or lyco? I'm not that familiar with the Solanum family and possible wide crosses within them. I can't find the seed packet. I'd know it if i saw it though! I suspect this is the one i bought: store.underwoodgardens.com/Wild-Galapagos-Tomato-Solanum-cheesmaniae/productinfo/V1182/Not a true Solanum cheesmaniae as the true Solanum-cheesmaniae i got from TGRC were about the size of my pinky nail. a tiny bit bigger than the red pimpinelifolium, but not by much. These ones are much larger, like a small cherry tomato. Still, they are super delicious and massively productive! Still worth trying! If you get them, show me the seed packet and i'll let you know if i think that's them. I imagine it is a cross with some domestic form of tomato. not sure. |
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