Rant Commercial Tomatoes

[gonefishin]

Thanks for sharing KYH. I've got a small backyard and some vegetables and herbs mixed into the landscaping. The tomatoes that I'm growing are in pots and doing fairly decent...with exception of the fact I'm battling blossom-end rot I'm using a spray (end-rot I think)...it seems to have helped but I need to reapply about every five to six days or they start rotting again.


Partially because of this thread I started to search outside of my farmers markets for good produce (including tomatoes). I went to localharvest.org and entered in my zip code. The last link on the list looks to be promising for some good tomatoes. We'll see Audi's Acres Tomatoes

Good news on the tomato front? My first tomato is starting to turn from green to red


dan

[shel]

Originally Posted by gonefishin

The last link on the list looks to be promising for some good tomatoes. We'll see Audi's Acres Tomatoes

You might want to check the URL for Audi's Acres. There's an error that prevents the page from opening.

shel

[gonefishin]

Link fixed.

thanks

[KYHeirloomer]

I don't want to threadjack this discussion, GoneFishin. If you want we can move it to the gardening forum.

But, while the causes of BER are not fully underestood we do know it's associated with a calcium deficiency. Usually effects early fruits only, because the soil is cool, and calcium won't go into a form the plant can use.

Container growing has it's own problems, all of them having to do with moisture and nutrition. And that might be your problem. For a quick fix, spread a circle of powdered milk around the plant before you water, and let it work itself down into the soil. That should help.

[teamfat]

I'm considering some container gardening so that I can move plants into the warmer, well-lit back porch when the weather starts turning cooler and get a decent harvest as the winter approaches. I'll have to keep the powdered milk idea in memory.

As someone else mentioned, tomatoes are not the only example of home-grown being a major improvement over store bought. I did some grilled, stuffed zucchini tonight with a mushroom, bell pepper, green onion, cheese and garlic filling. I used a bit of home grown garlic from the garden. That little clove of garlic, no bigger than a lima bean, had so much more, uh, garlicosity than an entire head of a fat, firm, voluptuos specimen from MegaStuffMart.

mjb.

PS: I got a small wedge of a real Roquefort blue that was intended to be added to the zucchini - it didn't happen. One taste, another little bite, just a sample, well, gosh, that was quick, where did it all go? Burp.

Garlicosity?? Who said that?

[MaryB]

Can't beat fresh from the garden. I had a salad today with 4 leaf lettuces, cucumber, green pepper, and peas that were picked an hour before supper. Tomorrow is beet greens with ham hock, potato salad with new potatoes, and roasted beets. All picked fresh today.

[KYHeirloomer]

Teamfat, it's not just the calcium you have to worry about.

Because containers are elevated into the air they dry out faster. Which means you water more often (in some places, that means twice a day). This in turn means that you are leaching out nutrients at a relatively fast rate.

Thus, you have to feed container plants much more often than you would the same plants if they were in the ground. Whether using organic or synthetic fertilizers, you usually have to feed container plants on the average of every two weeks.

The nice thing about tomatoes is that they tell you---usually with the color or condition of the leaves---if they're missing anything.