Hello,

It is my first year to grow tomato. It is beefsteak and I plant one in
a 20" planter. I used "Whiteney Farm" organic all purpose plant food.
I read that using organic fertilizer I don't have to worry about
overfertilize because it is regulated by the microbes or sth machnism
like that. I bought a tomato cage from HD which has 4 rings and 3
stalks. Now, the tomato plant grows to almost the tallest ring but I
haven't got any flower not saying fruit. I'm wondering whether I
should prune the plant, ie cut some tips? When, where and how? My
plant may only get 4 hours afternoon sun. It is the best I can do with
my location. How bad will this affect the flowering and production?

Really anxious. Some tomato plants on HD shelf start to bear green
tomatos. I guess their living condition may not be as good as my
tomato. It is much crowded there and the plant is much shorter. Though
the finding is encouraging, it also makes me wonder whether I miss sth
in growing my tomato.

Thanks for your advice!

Frank

Four hours of sun is way too short.

"Frank" wrote in message
om...
Hello,

It is my first year to grow tomato. It is beefsteak and I plant one in
a 20" planter. I used "Whiteney Farm" organic all purpose plant food.
I read that using organic fertilizer I don't have to worry about
overfertilize because it is regulated by the microbes or sth machnism
like that. I bought a tomato cage from HD which has 4 rings and 3
stalks. Now, the tomato plant grows to almost the tallest ring but I
haven't got any flower not saying fruit. I'm wondering whether I
should prune the plant, ie cut some tips? When, where and how? My
plant may only get 4 hours afternoon sun. It is the best I can do with
my location. How bad will this affect the flowering and production?

Really anxious. Some tomato plants on HD shelf start to bear green
tomatos. I guess their living condition may not be as good as my
tomato. It is much crowded there and the plant is much shorter. Though
the finding is encouraging, it also makes me wonder whether I miss sth
in growing my tomato.

Thanks for your advice!

Frank

On Mon, 17 May 2004 23:50:48 GMT, "FDR"
wrote:

===Four hours of sun is way too short.
===
==="Frank" wrote in message
ogle.com...
=== Hello,
===
=== It is my first year to grow tomato. It is beefsteak and I plant one in
=== a 20" planter. I used "Whiteney Farm" organic all purpose plant food.
=== I read that using organic fertilizer I don't have to worry about
=== overfertilize because it is regulated by the microbes or sth machnism
=== like that. I bought a tomato cage from HD which has 4 rings and 3
=== stalks. Now, the tomato plant grows to almost the tallest ring but I
=== haven't got any flower not saying fruit. I'm wondering whether I
=== should prune the plant, ie cut some tips? When, where and how? My
=== plant may only get 4 hours afternoon sun. It is the best I can do with
=== my location. How bad will this affect the flowering and production?
===
=== Really anxious. Some tomato plants on HD shelf start to bear green
=== tomatos. I guess their living condition may not be as good as my
=== tomato. It is much crowded there and the plant is much shorter. Though
=== the finding is encouraging, it also makes me wonder whether I miss sth
=== in growing my tomato.
===
=== Thanks for your advice!
===
=== Frank
===

Yep about half the sunlight the plant should really be getting.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Frank wrote:

Hello,

It is my first year to grow tomato. It is beefsteak and I plant one in
a 20" planter. I used "Whiteney Farm" organic all purpose plant food.
I read that using organic fertilizer I don't have to worry about
overfertilize because it is regulated by the microbes or sth machnism
like that. I bought a tomato cage from HD which has 4 rings and 3
stalks. Now, the tomato plant grows to almost the tallest ring but I
haven't got any flower not saying fruit. I'm wondering whether I
should prune the plant, ie cut some tips? When, where and how? My
plant may only get 4 hours afternoon sun. It is the best I can do with
my location. How bad will this affect the flowering and production?

Really anxious. Some tomato plants on HD shelf start to bear green
tomatos. I guess their living condition may not be as good as my
tomato. It is much crowded there and the plant is much shorter. Though
the finding is encouraging, it also makes me wonder whether I miss sth
in growing my tomato.

Thanks for your advice!

Frank

Many growers recommend pinching out the suckers that grow between the
main stem and larger branches to put more energy into the viable portions.

I grow tomatoes on the west side of my garage where they get 4 - 6 hours
of full sun daily.*** They don't do as well as the plants that get more,
but
i get plenty of tomatoes every year anyway.
Be patient about the blossom thing.

Dorothy
*
*
*
*

il Mon, 17 May 2004 23:50:48 GMT, "FDR" ha scritto:

Four hours of sun is way too short.

Yeah, tomatoes are definitely day duration dependendent. How about
rigging up some mirrors to shine into the shady area? It does work
but even better if one could get them to track the sun. :-)

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Pruning tomato bushes is a tradeoff. If you prune the later fruit
(flower) clusters the earlier clusters will ripen sooner. However, the
total yield from the plant will be reduced. If you have several plants,
you might prune one or two and leave the rest for production. Pruning
will not initiate flowering or fruit production.

When pruning, you don't cut the tips of the vines. Look for the main
stem. It will branch out occasionally. At the branch, a leaf will form
between the branch and the main stem. This leaf will eventually turn
into another vine which will bear fruit. However, the point at which it
joins the stem is weaker than the main branches and these vines are
subject to breaking off. These vines are the ones to prune. The easiest
way is to just break off the leaf that forms at the junction. They are
generally brittle enough that you can just bend it enough to break it
off, and you don't need pruners.

If you do enough work in your tomatoes your fingers will turn black. It
will wash off, but even when your fingers look clean, washing your hands
will turn the soap yellow or green for a couple of hours. It's just a
thing that tomatoes do, and doesn't really hurt your hands or the plant.

The best way to choose tomato plants at a garden center is to look for
good color and no wilting and the thickest stems, not the tallest
plants. Tall skinny tomato plants have probably been crowded together in
their growing area. They will recover once set out, but it will take
them a bit more time to bear fruit (possibly a week or two depending on
how crowded they were).

More sun is better, but the plants will produce with 4 hours of sunlight.

Frank wrote:
...the tomato plant grows to almost the tallest ring but I
haven't got any flower not saying fruit. I'm wondering whether I
should prune the plant, ie cut some tips? When, where and how? My
plant may only get 4 hours afternoon sun. It is the best I can do with
my location. How bad will this affect the flowering and production?...

dps wrote:


The best way to choose tomato plants at a garden center is to look for
good color and no wilting and the thickest stems, not the tallest
plants. Tall skinny tomato plants have probably been crowded together in
their growing area. They will recover once set out, but it will take
them a bit more time to bear fruit (possibly a week or two depending on
how crowded they were).

Allow me to offer a contrary thought. When shopping for tomato plants I
specifically look for the spindly ones about to be thrown away.

I do this because I intend to plant extra deep, allowing roots to form over
the entire buried length. No matter how tall my plants are the day I buy
them, they are about 2 leaves tall the day I plant them. By planting extra
deep, roots form along the entire length of the buried vine. This gives the
plant a large quantity of roots buried deeply enough to ride out all but
the worst of droughts. With such deep roots and so many of them, the
'buried to their necks' plants take off on a growth spurt and soon catch up
and surpass their taller cousins.

I used to use a posthole digger to make the hole to plant them but one of
those 3" diameter soil augers sold for use with electric drill motors works
just fine for me in my current beds. It is also possible to simply lay them
horizontally in a shallower hole but that gives you only half the
advantage. You get a lot of roots, but none of them are particularly deep.

YMMV but this is what I have found to work for me.

Bill