Hi All,

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life This
years' regular plant actually had a tomato on it.
(It was on half price close out). So I thought,
Yippee! this one is going to fruit a lot.
But NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! It was the one and only
fruit. And it did not grow any bigger than a golf
ball. The love of my life teases me about the $2.50
tomato.

What the #&Y^* !!! ???

-T

T wrote:

Hi All,

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life This
years' regular plant actually had a tomato on it.
(It was on half price close out). So I thought,
Yippee! this one is going to fruit a lot.
But NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! It was the one and only
fruit. And it did not grow any bigger than a golf
ball. The love of my life teases me about the $2.50
tomato.

What the #&Y^* !!! ???

i dunno, around here we do well but it takes a long
time to get a large tomato from the time i put the plant
in the ground until we can harvest.

did it start out growing well and stop or has it
always been growing?

we plant the end of May and we do not get harvested
tomatoes until mid-to-late August. so that's 75 days
of plenty of water, sunlight and proper temperatures
for pollination.

i suggest you step up gradually as you develop
your topsoil. i.e. get the next size up from cherry
tomatoes in the plants you select and see if those
will work, but of course, never use just them and
keep some cherry tomatoes as at least then you know
those work.

did you ever see more flowers?

my guess is that the temperatures get way too hot
in the mid-summer and your subsoil is very tough.
with those temperatures and aridity those plants are
going to be sucking up large amounts of water just
to stay standing upright. you may need partial mid-
day shading, you most likely will need several cubic
feet per plant of relatively decent soil and that
plenty of water... did i mention a wind-break?
you probably could use that and plenty of mulch
(not touching the stem, but otherwise enough to
keep the soil from getting too dried out.


songbird

On 09/17/2017 06:58 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:

Hi All,

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life This
years' regular plant actually had a tomato on it.
(It was on half price close out). So I thought,
Yippee! this one is going to fruit a lot.
But NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! It was the one and only
fruit. And it did not grow any bigger than a golf
ball. The love of my life teases me about the $2.50
tomato.

What the #&Y^* !!! ???

i dunno, around here we do well but it takes a long
time to get a large tomato from the time i put the plant
in the ground until we can harvest.

It had a tomato on it when I bought it!

did it start out growing well and stop or has it
always been growing?

Oh it is loving all the pampering!


we plant the end of May and we do not get harvested
tomatoes until mid-to-late August. so that's 75 days
of plenty of water, sunlight and proper temperatures
for pollination.

i suggest you step up gradually as you develop
your topsoil. i.e. get the next size up from cherry
tomatoes in the plants you select and see if those
will work, but of course, never use just them and
keep some cherry tomatoes as at least then you know
those work.

did you ever see more flowers?

yes

my guess is that the temperatures get way too hot
in the mid-summer and your subsoil is very tough.

You can work the soil with your bare hand.

with those temperatures and aridity those plants are
going to be sucking up large amounts of water just
to stay standing upright. you may need partial mid-
day shading, you most likely will need several cubic
feet per plant of relatively decent soil and that
plenty of water... did i mention a wind-break?
you probably could use that and plenty of mulch
(not touching the stem, but otherwise enough to
keep the soil from getting too dried out.


songbird


By and change should they be seperated from the cherries?
Maybe the cherries put out something that inhibits them?

Maybe cherries like a different kind of soil and they are telling
me what it wrong and I am not hearing them.

On the bright side, the cherries show no sign of stopping.
There are about 900 unripe ones to go! More cherries than
leaves!

T wrote:
songbird wrote:
T wrote:

Hi All,

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life This
years' regular plant actually had a tomato on it.
(It was on half price close out). So I thought,
Yippee! this one is going to fruit a lot.
But NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! It was the one and only
fruit. And it did not grow any bigger than a golf
ball. The love of my life teases me about the $2.50
tomato.

What the #&Y^* !!! ???

i dunno, around here we do well but it takes a long
time to get a large tomato from the time i put the plant
in the ground until we can harvest.

It had a tomato on it when I bought it!

transplant shock followed by different conditions
than it was used to.

also, what variety was it? some are determinant.


did it start out growing well and stop or has it
always been growing?

Oh it is loving all the pampering!


we plant the end of May and we do not get harvested
tomatoes until mid-to-late August. so that's 75 days
of plenty of water, sunlight and proper temperatures
for pollination.

i suggest you step up gradually as you develop
your topsoil. i.e. get the next size up from cherry
tomatoes in the plants you select and see if those
will work, but of course, never use just them and
keep some cherry tomatoes as at least then you know
those work.

did you ever see more flowers?

yes

maybe too hot too pollinate or lack of pollinators.
did you ding some of the flowers?


my guess is that the temperatures get way too hot
in the mid-summer and your subsoil is very tough.

You can work the soil with your bare hand.

several cubic feet per plant?


with those temperatures and aridity those plants are
going to be sucking up large amounts of water just
to stay standing upright. you may need partial mid-
day shading, you most likely will need several cubic
feet per plant of relatively decent soil and that
plenty of water... did i mention a wind-break?
you probably could use that and plenty of mulch
(not touching the stem, but otherwise enough to
keep the soil from getting too dried out.
....
By and change should they be seperated from the cherries?

no, i just meant getting a different variety a
little larger than the cherry tomatoes.


Maybe the cherries put out something that inhibits them?

no, not too likely.


Maybe cherries like a different kind of soil and they are telling
me what it wrong and I am not hearing them.

not sure, could have simply been the variety
or a pollination issue (some do better when crossed
during pollination), but the cherry tomato plants
would have likely been different enough so i kinda
doubt that was it.


On the bright side, the cherries show no sign of stopping.
There are about 900 unripe ones to go! More cherries than
leaves!




songbird

In article , T wrote:

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life

I switched to all cherries years ago. I don't even trial anything bigger
than "plum" any more - too much wastage, not enough yield. If you have
Sancho Panza to aid you and want huge tomatoes, go on dreaming the
impossible dream. I'll be eating cherry tomatoes. When a cherry cracks
and becomes a slimy mess, it's a small fraction of the overall crop.
When that happens to a 2 lb. tomato, it might be a third of the crop on
that plant. I don't even want to try anymore - the windmills kept
bending my lance, and Sancho wasn't around to help, anyway.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 12:25:01 -0400, Ecnerwal
wrote:

If you have
Sancho Panza to aid you and want huge tomatoes, go on dreaming the
impossible dream.

I'm at 1400 feet elevation in upstate NY, and if I get my own heirloom
plants in on time (mid-may, Goddess willing) I get lots of medium to
large tomatos late July-frost.
Of course, I save my own seed from the best of last season, and don't
go near the big box stores for free imported blight.


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

On 09/18/2017 05:08 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
songbird wrote:
T wrote:

Hi All,

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life This
years' regular plant actually had a tomato on it.
(It was on half price close out). So I thought,
Yippee! this one is going to fruit a lot.
But NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! It was the one and only
fruit. And it did not grow any bigger than a golf
ball. The love of my life teases me about the $2.50
tomato.

What the #&Y^* !!! ???

i dunno, around here we do well but it takes a long
time to get a large tomato from the time i put the plant
in the ground until we can harvest.

It had a tomato on it when I bought it!

transplant shock followed by different conditions
than it was used to.

also, what variety was it? some are determinant.


did it start out growing well and stop or has it
always been growing?

Oh it is loving all the pampering!


we plant the end of May and we do not get harvested
tomatoes until mid-to-late August. so that's 75 days
of plenty of water, sunlight and proper temperatures
for pollination.

i suggest you step up gradually as you develop
your topsoil. i.e. get the next size up from cherry
tomatoes in the plants you select and see if those
will work, but of course, never use just them and
keep some cherry tomatoes as at least then you know
those work.

did you ever see more flowers?

yes

maybe too hot too pollinate or lack of pollinators.
did you ding some of the flowers?


my guess is that the temperatures get way too hot
in the mid-summer and your subsoil is very tough.

You can work the soil with your bare hand.

several cubic feet per plant?


with those temperatures and aridity those plants are
going to be sucking up large amounts of water just
to stay standing upright. you may need partial mid-
day shading, you most likely will need several cubic
feet per plant of relatively decent soil and that
plenty of water... did i mention a wind-break?
you probably could use that and plenty of mulch
(not touching the stem, but otherwise enough to
keep the soil from getting too dried out.
...
By and change should they be seperated from the cherries?

no, i just meant getting a different variety a
little larger than the cherry tomatoes.


Maybe the cherries put out something that inhibits them?

no, not too likely.


Maybe cherries like a different kind of soil and they are telling
me what it wrong and I am not hearing them.

not sure, could have simply been the variety
or a pollination issue (some do better when crossed
during pollination), but the cherry tomato plants
would have likely been different enough so i kinda
doubt that was it.


On the bright side, the cherries show no sign of stopping.
There are about 900 unripe ones to go! More cherries than
leaves!




songbird


I saved the tag in the pot next to the plant and now
can not find it.

Okay. Makes more sense now. It explains why it was
on close out. Everyone else figure out they did not
do well around these parts.

I looked closely at the plant yesterday, and it has three
little cherry sized green tomatoes.

The guy probably did not care at all for the pot
transfer shock.

Thank you for all the help!

On 09/19/2017 09:25 AM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article , T wrote:

I have seven cherry tomato plants. For the
forth week in a row now, I have harvested what
I estimate to be 100 cherries (each time).
My legs are actually sore from stooping!
(I would say "make it stop!", but I'd
be lying.)

But I can't grow a regular tomato for my life

I switched to all cherries years ago. I don't even trial anything bigger
than "plum" any more - too much wastage, not enough yield. If you have
Sancho Panza to aid you and want huge tomatoes, go on dreaming the
impossible dream. I'll be eating cherry tomatoes. When a cherry cracks
and becomes a slimy mess, it's a small fraction of the overall crop.
When that happens to a 2 lb. tomato, it might be a third of the crop on
that plant. I don't even want to try anymore - the windmills kept
bending my lance, and Sancho wasn't around to help, anyway.


Me thinks I will just stay with cherries. They go
nuts here.

And when I pick them and they rip, I just eat them!

:-)

-T

Gary Woods wrote:
....
I'm at 1400 feet elevation in upstate NY, and if I get my own heirloom
plants in on time (mid-may, Goddess willing) I get lots of medium to
large tomatos late July-frost.
Of course, I save my own seed from the best of last season, and don't
go near the big box stores for free imported blight.

Mom is stuck on her favorite variety and won't budge.
beefsteaks. we do well with them, but they look rather
sickly from late blight from mid-august onwards. as
they keep producing well enough i never have cared to
fight it or spray. i do crop rotate and that is it.

average fruit per plant per season is 20-30lbs. this
year was less.

still we've put up 86 quarts of tomatoes from 14
plants and given some tomatoes away or eaten them
fresh.

if it were just me here i'd not grow them at all
since i can no longer eat them, but they have been an
important crop for us for a long time. one year we
managed over 300 quarts.

we down scaled this year on tomatoes and so i
could plant more dry beans.


songbird

T wrote:
....
Thank you for all the help!

y.w. cherries are excellent so imo
no loss in growing them only. the nice thing
about growing larger tomatoes is if you are
canning them and want actual tomato chunks
to use.


songbird