Tomatoes

[Lambsy]

One or two tomato plants should be adequate to provide enough tomato fruit for a family.

The varieties selected are very important. These are the ones that are the big producers. They keep growing to the amount which you feed them.

GROSSE LISSE
MORTGAGE LIFTER
OX HEART
GOLDEN JUBILEE
BLACK RUSSIAN
MONEY MAKER
DAY DREAM

For flavor I'd go for Grosse Lisse, Ox Heart, and Black Russian, but everyone has their favorites.

What you want to produce is about at least 200 Lbs of tomatoes from your two plants. This should be enough to use fresh in season and preserve for out of season. You should easily get 200 Lbs.

These varieties need support cages, made from concrete reenforcement mesh, otherwise they won't hold the weight of the fruit. As the plants grow over two metres you will need to add another cage wired on top.

Feeding your tomatoes.

Make a good layered compost from pea hay, fresh cow and sheep manure, green grass clippings and green mulched bean stalks, charcoal, rockdust. Water it through at each layer, then repeat the layerings. Cover your compost in black plastic, and it will heat up. The moisture and the bacteria will start eating into the cellulose, breaking it down into dark sweet compost. You will see steam rising from your pile, this means the compost has activated.
Turn your compost after three days, and water as you go, if needed. The first soak should be a good one, but successive waterings should just keep the compost damp. If your compost has not become hot, it is because you either did not use fresh cow and sheep manure, or you did not soak the layers well enough with water. You want moist heat to build up in the pile. One old trick is to make a few gallons of black strap mollasas and water and pour that at each layer of compost, this gives the bacteria a sugar nutrient hit that makes them explode in number very quickly.
Keep turning and covering the compost until there is no heat left in the pile, three turns a week for 3 to 4 weeks. Do not let rain fall on the finished compost, it ruins it. Store your compost in 44 gallon drums but don't steal them air tight. This compost has the best natural nitrogen and mineral mix for just about everything, you can even plant seedlings in it. The seedlings won't get burned from acid, because you added charcoal in the compost which sweetened it.

Dig a two foot hole, three feet wide and put your compost in, cover the compost with your existing soil. Then plant your seedling in the middle. Layer the ground around the seedling with compost in a five foot radius, and cover that with thick layers of hay.
Prune the tomato plant so that it is flat not round, you should grow the suckers opposite sides of the stem each above the other alternately. The suckers turn into branches which you will train through the cage, and eventually they will carry the fruit.

Run bamboo stakes through the cage to support the branches as they grow. Make sure you keep consistant water to the plant.

[JIP]

Awesome Lambsy
Thank You...
we have to have greenhouse tomotoes because of the climate..
we have a hydro culture tomato farm here too

[Lambsy]

Awesome Lambsy
Thank You...
we have to have greenhouse tomotoes because of the climate..
we have a hydro culture tomato farm here too

If you are in the tropics JIP, Grosse Lisse is a good one to grow. It makes a reasonable sauce as well.

[JIP]

If you are in the tropics JIP, Grosse Lisse is a good one to grow. It makes a reasonable sauce as well.

I left the olericulture field quite long ago and now am in the floriculture field... i dont know the species you mention even..lost touch Lambsy..

but the best tomatoes are imported anyways
have you ever tried cultivating a potoma?

[Lambsy]

have you ever tried cultivating a potoma?

Sounds illegal.

[Onesiphorus]

Will try this next season thanks Lambsy , keep them coming . Great posts

[JIP]

Sounds illegal.

Not at all mate.
They belong to the same family, Solanaceae..
We can stone graft a tomato onto a potato..
then we get potatoes below the soil surface
and tomato above the soil level
I have done this successfully

[Lambsy]

then we get potatoes below the soil surface
and tomato above the soil level
I have done this successfully

You have created a monster. How do I create a monster of my very own ?

Tell me your secrets Dr. Moreau.

[JIP]

You have created a monster. How do I create a monster of my very own ?

Tell me your secrets Dr. Moreau.

gosh he called me dirty names..

dear lambsy just check this out.. about potomato...
i will just play along and when you are ripe enough
i will then give thee potoma

Common vegetable gardening questions - The Homeowner's Column - University of Illinois Extension

[JIP]

gosh he called me dirty names..

dear lambsy just check this out.. about potomato...
i will just play along and when you are ripe enough
i will then give thee potoma

Common vegetable gardening questions - The Homeowner's Column - University of Illinois Extension

and this please

I volunteer at my child's school. The idea I have for a greenhouse activity is to grow tomatoes and peppers from seed and attempt to cross-pollinate to create a tomato and pepper hybrid. Is this feasible? - eXtension

yikes it has come to 'cry wolf' situation now ah?