When we was at Lowe's on Wednesday they had four paks of tomato plants on sale. So, I bought two of them, a total of 8 tomatoes. Today, dr dug 8 holes and I filled the holes with good dirt and we planted them. Then, we lay down newspapers all around the tomatoes and area and watered them good. I really tried not to drown the tomatoes in that process. Then, we covered the newspapers with two or three inches of mulch. I watered it good, too. Hopefully if I keep it watered the tomatoes won't suffer too much in the heat. It's in the mid-90's now. It may get back into low 100's but hopefully not for six weeks this time. I know it's not the time of year to be planting stuff but they were cheap and that deer ate the tomatoes we had growing in the front yard. Maybe he won't find these. dooley
I hope the deer stay away from your new plants Dooley. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the heat doesn't do them any damage either. My tomatoes are growing well this year and the fruits are getting bigger by the day. I hope our weather holds until they ripen.
They were standing tall this morning and didn't flop this afternoon so I gave them some more water this evening. I hope they do well and that deer doesn't find them. dooley
Good to hear that you have planted some toms. It is so strange to me to be planting them now as the season is on the downside. You are lucky to have such weather...hot as it is. Do ya have some piccies of those new toms in the ground?
I took a couple pictures this morning but the sun wasn't right for taking pictures. That mulch is really black and rich looking. I have 8 tomatoes but seem to have only gotten 6 in the pictures. tomatoes planted on Friday ( photo / image / picture from dooley's Garden ) a different picture, same tomatoes ( photo / image / picture from dooley's Garden ) I watered them a bit this morning, too. dooley
Thanks for the foto's Dooley. It looks like your tom bed is getting off to a great start. The mulch looks quite good. What can you tell me about these toms? Did they have a name on them?
The ones at the bottom of the pictures are called "Early Girl" and are supposed to produce in 60 days. I've never had them do that but I've never planted them for fall. The ones at the top of the picture are "Celebrity." Both are red tomatoes. I just saw them in Lowe's and decided to try them. They were a dollar and seventy eight cents for four of them. My spring tomatoes didn't do too well and the deer came and ate all the tomatoes even before they got ripe. They were in the front beds. The back beds are better protected. dooley
Tomatoes seem to be extra popular this year. I have seen a number of people discussing them and sharing pictures. No wonder they are so popular, they are fairly easy to grow if the conditions are right and they taste great! I do hope the deer stay away Dooley and I look forward to seeing how your tomatoes grow and how they look when they are ready to eat!
I sure hope you get tomatoes. I put out some cuttings the first week of August. They look okay but I've never planted tomatoes this late. Like you I'm worried about the heat. I have them under the mesquite trees. We'll see. This has been a poor tomato year for me too. I only put out six plants under wall-o-water tents around March 20th. So, I wasn't expecting a huge harvest. But, those plants got beat up in an early June "freak" hail storm. Two plants didn't recover. The tomatoes I got were nice but I've had a few days this summer with no tomatoes for the table and I don't much care for that. As usual in June I had volunteer tomatoes come up. The hail storm took out all but one of those.
I put a little water on mine every morning. So far, they are still standing straight. Are they growing? I can't see that they are but they haven't been there long enough to tell for sure. dooley
Dooley, you're a brave soul to put out tomatoes so late, but Texas may have very different growing seasons. I hear lots of tales of woe regarding tomatoes this year. We have a large family produce market here. Their tomatoes aren't really worth buying. Fortunately our's are doing really well. We put out several type. Celebrity, Rutgers, Ultra sweet, some I grew from seed and the names washed off the tags leaving me with unknown, but tasty tomatoes. Also 4 new types, some Polish. I'll post the names when I'm outside. A daughter in law has a problem with nice red tomatoes being mushy. Would that be a disease?
I would like to find grape one to grow inside for the winter. Freezing tomatoes today. Got to buy freezing sealing bags. We have given away so many. Cut down one of the cherry type. It was the one mislabeled. Will dry some of the cherry type I pick off that plant.
"A daughter in law has a problem with nice red tomatoes being mushy. Would that be a disease? " Growingpains, have you heard of the Drosophila spotted wing fly? http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74158.html They are very destructive to all fruit crops. I have seen them in the tomatoes, but they have destroyed our raspberry crop so far this Fall. I am not sure that her problem is actually the fly since there isn't much information to the question, but have her look closely at the fruit for the larvae in the flesh.
Carolyn, thanks for the info. She pulled the plants out, so no chance of checking for the larve. I will give her the URL and she can research.
