On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 16:50:01 -0700, (Glenna Rose)
wrote:

Sorry, just be patient. They will ripen. Didn't someone on this group
say a watched tomato doesn't ripen?
------
Two issues; the weather and how to make tomatoes ripen sooner.

The Weather...
In the NY/NJ/PA area I heard it said that the colder & rainy weather
we had this year will have the effect of delaying harvest by a few
weeks on such things as corn an tomatoes. I know my garden in NJ
certainly seems a few weeks behind schedule this year. My first 1"
sized cucumbers and tomatoes finally appeared this past week.
Normally, I'm already picking cucumbers by now and my first
tomatoes come in the second week of July. Definately a few weeks
late this year.

Trick for ripening Tomatoes....
According the the book by Dick Raymond; The Love of Gardening,
you can make your tomatoes ripen faster if you do "root pruning"
when the tomatoes are green. Root pruning is where you take your
spade shovel and cut into the earth in a half circular pattern about
12 inches from the plant. Supposedly, this cuts into the root system
and triggers the plant to ripen the tomatoes. Try it!
Let me know if it works for you.

---pete---

My Early Girls Tom's are about golf ball size. My sweet 100's all
have green stars on the tops of them, so they will be popping any day
now... My broccoli has heads about the size of a softball. I have
one Cucumber about 8 inches long, but the rest onthe plants are only 2
inches or so. My zuccini is loaded with flowers, and a couple
zuccinis are about 4 inches long (not quite time to pick them yet, but
getting close!)

Beans were planted late, so are just starting to take off. Peppers
are doing great. just loaded with chili's about 3 inches long, and
the bells are about 1.5 inches long. the yellow bannana's are about 2
inches long.

The mulberries are about done, as are the black raspberries..was
picking a pint a day of raspberries off of two smaller plants...
can't complain about that...




email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

Noydb wrote:


I got a late start with Mortgage Lifter so I only have flowers at this
point. I have already bought the things I will need next year to get them
off to a proper start. The seeds didn't get planted until the 2nd week of
April so I can't complain to have such nice, stocky tomatoe plants out
there setting a LOT of blooms. Are ML's REALLY that prolific?

Ut oh ... I wrote the above just three days ago. I just checked and I have a
lot of little tomatoes out there about the size of quarters. I'm very glad
I have a _sturdy_ trellis and lots of nomex and pantyhose to tie those
maters up with. Looks like it might be a good year after all!

Well, I'm on my way outside to tend to this happy chore! (By the end of
summer I'll probably be wondering if those darned tomatoes will EVER quit
bearing!)

na-noo, na-noo
Bill
--
I do not post my address to news groups.

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 15:47:18 GMT, "Dave Allyn" (Dave Allyn)
wrote in rec.gardens.edible:

My Early Girls Tom's are about golf ball size. My sweet 100's all
have green stars on the tops of them, so they will be popping any day
now...

How long ago did you plant them outdoors? I planted out the last weekend of
May/first weekend of June. My Early Girls are about #3, probably due to the
rain and cold. Stupice was the first to set fruit and, surprisingly, Lemon Boy
was second. Lemon Boy has since passed Stupice in size. Lemon Boy's largest
tomato is about 3cm across, but Stupice is setting fruit like there is no
tomorrow! Ultra Sweet now has large fruits, as well. Dufresne has set fruit.
All Cherry and Grape tomatoes have set fruit.

Brandywine (both red and pink) and Cherokee Purple have flowers, but have not
yet set fruit (have not checked this morning, however), probably because they
were started slightly later than the others.
--
Gardening Zones
Canada Zone 5a
United States Zone 3a
Near Ottawa, Ontario

On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 10:22:13 -0400, Jim Carter
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 15:47:18 GMT, "Dave Allyn" (Dave Allyn)
wrote in rec.gardens.edible:

How long ago did you plant them outdoors? I planted out the last weekend of
May/first weekend of June. My Early Girls are about #3, probably due to the
rain and cold. Stupice was the first to set fruit and, surprisingly, Lemon Boy
was second. Lemon Boy has since passed Stupice in size. Lemon Boy's largest
tomato is about 3cm across, but Stupice is setting fruit like there is no
tomorrow! Ultra Sweet now has large fruits, as well. Dufresne has set fruit.
All Cherry and Grape tomatoes have set fruit.

Brandywine (both red and pink) and Cherokee Purple have flowers, but have not
yet set fruit (have not checked this morning, however), probably because they
were started slightly later than the others.

We have a red tomato on an Early Girl! Not quite ripe
enough to pick today, but it will be tomorrow. It's about
tennis-ball size.

The Early Girls' timing this year:

Seed Sown - March 24 - in a mini-electric greenhouse
indoors with a steady temp in the mid-70s

First Germination - March 28 - then kept under fluorescent
lights indoors

Planted Out - May 8 - in WalloWaters - our last frost date
is around May 31.

WalloWaters removed - sometime around June 15, so that the
cages could be put on

First Ripe Tomato - July 7

We had a VERY cool, terribly wet spring until around the
last week in June, when it became hot and sunny.

I'm going to try Stupice next year, and will probably grow
Early Girl again. I'll start them a bit earlier than March
24 next year: probably around March 10.

Pat

On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 21:33:15 GMT, (---Pete---) wrote:

Trick for ripening Tomatoes....
According the the book by Dick Raymond; The Love of Gardening,
you can make your tomatoes ripen faster if you do "root pruning"
when the tomatoes are green. Root pruning is where you take your
spade shovel and cut into the earth in a half circular pattern about
12 inches from the plant. Supposedly, this cuts into the root system
and triggers the plant to ripen the tomatoes. Try it!
Let me know if it works for you.

---pete---
------
CORRECTION....
....cut into the earth in a half circular pattern about
6 inches from the plant ( NOT 12 inches).

---pete---

We have a red tomato on an Early Girl! Not quite ripe
enough to pick today, but it will be tomorrow. It's about
tennis-ball size.

My EG's are not that far along... course, they didnt' get into the
ground until the end of may... But My sweet 100's have a couple "red
but not quite ready to pick" on them.....

Planted Out - May 8 - in WalloWaters - our last frost date
is around May 31.

WalloWaters removed - sometime around June 15, so that the
cages could be put on


I have always wondered... I assume you are revering to the "coffee
can's" that are put around baby tom's... what is the purpose for
them? what do they do??

dave
Central IL small garden, but do my best!

email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 00:12:57 GMT, "Dave Allyn"
(Dave Allyn) wrote:


I have always wondered... I assume you are revering to the "coffee
can's" that are put around baby tom's... what is the purpose for
them? what do they do??


No, not 'coffee cans'. See: http://www.wallowater.com -
the pictures are TERRIBLE quality unfortunately. Here's a
better picture of a similar thing:

http://tinyurl.com/gseq

The ones shown above are red, the actual WalloWaters (at
least mine) are green.

Each WoW is a circlet of plastic tubes - you fill the tubes
with water and put the circlet over the plant. The tubes of
water acquire heat in the daytime (from the sun), and
release enough of it at night to keep the plants from
freezing.

In my experience, at least, they really do work. They not
only keep the tomato (or other) plants from freezing, they
give them a warm and sheltered environment. And you can
use them from year-to-year: we're only on our second year
with them, but they look just fine and as if they will last
quite a few more years.

Where we live, the nights get quite cold even in late May
and June, and tomatoes tend to just sit and sulk when the
nights are cold, so these are a real help.

Pat

writes:

No, not 'coffee cans'. See: http://www.wallowater.com -
the pictures are TERRIBLE quality unfortunately. Here's a
better picture of a similar thing:

http://tinyurl.com/gseq

The ones shown above are red, the actual WalloWaters (at
least mine) are green.

Our tomato guru, specializing in heirloom veggies (over 100 varieties of
tomatoes), told us that the red Wall of Waters are best. He gave a
detailed explanation about studies done on the light rays, etc., and said
the results of the research was that the red was more effective than the
green. I didn't bother to remember the reasons, just that it was. I have
total faith in Michael; he's been growing and selling commercially for
years and "knows his stuff" and does thorough research on everything he
does.

However, whichever ones are used will give a tremendous head start to the
grower, or so I'm told by those who know and have used them. Mine have
done so well in past years that I just "rough it" with my freshly mown
grass mulch. :-)

Glenna

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 21:27:29 -0700, (Glenna
Rose) wrote:


However, whichever ones are used will give a tremendous head start to the
grower, or so I'm told by those who know and have used them. Mine have
done so well in past years that I just "rough it" with my freshly mown
grass mulch. :-)


I think their usefulness is mainly in coolish, short-season
places (such as ours).

Our last expected frost date is June 1, but two of the three
years we've lived here we had killing frosts in mid-June.
Then our first frost date is around October 1.

This is a fairly short season for tomatoes, plus the nights
in June stay pretty cool here - sometimes down into the 30s,
often into the 40s.

Pat