Tomatoe Questions

[rd200]

So i have a few questions on tomatoes...

First- Any suggestions for good producers for northern climates? I live in WI.

Second- I usually plant seedlings that i purchased around the end of May here. I was thinking of starting them in my cold frame this year from seed and seeing how i do. Any suggestions?? When to start and does it work to start them in a cold frame and then transplant to where their place is in the garden??

Third- my tomatoes were a total flop last year( I got busy, had a 6 month old baby, and just plain didnt take care of them properly...) anyways, this year i want to can 10 quarts of tomatoe sauce, 15 pints of Spaghetti sauce, 30 quarts of pure tomatoe juice(not Veggie juice) and probably about 20 pints of salsa. And if i have time and tomatoes, Ill do more... but that is my goal for this year.
So how many plants am i going to need to accomplish this??? I was thinking like 15 plants??? Is that enough??

Fourth- What do you recommend with trellising, caging, letting sprawl??? I was thinking i would cage them as the last few years i have let them sprawl and they have massive slugs, and dont seem to do as well. What do you do??

Thanks for the advice. Im getting so excited to get going on my garden. And it doesnt help that we have had weeks of above normal temps. makes me think i need to get out there and start planting!!!

 

[hwillm1977]

We usually grow a paste tomato (plain old Roma), a large short season tomato (Scotia usually, but it works great for our area... eastern Canada), and cherry tomatoes (Sweet Million) for eating in salads. Scotia produces really well for us, they are a determinate variety and we use tomato cages to keep them standing and in one spot. Determinate tend to ripen all their fruit at the same time so if you are looking to can everything it might work better to get one of those. I don't can them, so I don't know how many plants you would need for all that sauce/juice/etc. I'd love to can mine this year so I'm looking forward to other's answers.

I start the seeds inside under a light about 6 weeks before last frost. After the last frost I spend a week or two hardening them off to be put outside, then transfer them to the garden once I know the soil is nice and warm. I've never started them in the cold frames so I don't know how well that would work.

I've only been gardening for a couple years, so I'm sure there will be others with much more experience who can give you a lot more help than I can

 

[ORChick]

Tomatoes are interesting plants in that they actually do better when transplanted fairly often. They will form roots on buried stem, which many (if not most) plants will not. So, start your tomatoes in a flat or small pots, and transplant to somewhat bigger pots, burying them up to the first set of leaves. Later on, transplant into bigger pots, again burying them somewhat deeper (remove any leaves that would be buried). I usually take them up to gallon pot size, and, when they go in the garden, I will dig the hole kind of deep, but also wide, and sort of lay the root ball in there with part of the stem horizontal, and then bending gently up to the vertical. The plants will form roots along the buried stem, giving good support on windy days, as well as providing lots of roots for taking up nutrients. Do not get carried away, and start believing that all the members of this family enjoy this treatment - peppers and eggplants will just rot if you bury the stem.

 

[moolie]

We do the plant and transplant over and over thing as well. It really does make for sturdy well-grown thick vines.

I'm in a zone 3-4 and plant my tomato seeds indoors at the end of March for an August harvest on determinate vines, with my indeterminate vines producing fruit into October. I can't plant them out till late May/early June and need to cover when frost threatens. This year we have our hoop house that we built last fall so will put a few out earlier and see how that goes.

We use tomato spirals and since slugs can climb we spread sharp play sand around the base of each plant to keep them away. We also added crushed egg shells for calcium in the bottom of each planting hole to guard against blossom end rot. I'm a big believer in companion planting, and always plant my tomatoes with carrots, onions, and italian herbs--the combo seems to keep all the bugs away, particularly the onion keeps away the carrot maggot flies that eat black tunnels into carrots during their larval stage, and the combo also seems to assure good growth in all varieties

Last year we did Roma (paste variety, determinate), Sheboygan (paste variety, indeterminate), Yellow Pear (large grape, indeterminate) and this year we will add Sweet Million (cherry, indeterminate I think). These were grown with spring and bulb onions, Chantenay and Nantes variety carrots, and Greek oregano, two types of basil, marjoram, and I know there was something else in there but I can't remember what the other herb was

I canned tons of sauce last year in small batches and found that 5-ish lbs of tomatoes made into plain sauce filled 2 quarts or 3 "pasta sauce" sized jars (recycled by a friend of mine who gave me her store bought pasta sauce jars. I did more of the "pasta sauce" sized jars than quarts, so I'm not totally certain on the amount those hold.)

Hope that helps a bit!

 

[Corn Woman]

I always start mine early in flats and transplant once before they go into the garden. Just make sure to plant them deep even if you have to pinch off a couple of leaves at the bottom. You might want to try a variety called Oregon Spring for your area is's a good one for short season and a determinate variety so you can use a stake rather than a cage to keep it upright when it fruits. It's very jucy with excellent flavor and few seeds. I also love Martinos Roma for a paste type because you get loads of them and the tomatos have a high pectin content making them perfect for sauce, in fact I mix them with other non paste types because they thicken the salsas and sauces without extended cooking time. I also like Champion and Celebrity for canning and eating, both have excellent productivity.

I would probably plant about 20 to 25 plants just in case you have a problem with blight in your area and some of the plants don't make it. I usually put in about 300 plants, 125 plus varieties and all started form seed (yes I have an addiction when it comes to tomatos) and can expect to loose about 12 to 15 due to blight.

Happy Gardening!

 

[The Mama Chicken]

Hi everyone, I'm new here but I thought I'd add my 2 worth. My tomatoes go out much earlier than yours would (in fact they've been in the garden for nearly 3 weeks here in zone 8a) but I start mine indoors, under lights, about 6 weeks before my last freeze date. I use newspaper pots, filled with finished compost and plant one seed per pot. Once the ground is warm enough I pull off the lower leaves and I plant the whole pot deep enough so that only the upper leaves are showing. I grew about 75 seedlings this way this year and they are doing great. The only ones that didn't make it got trampled by the dogs...I guess I really need to get working on the fence.
As for support, I like cages. Every time I've let mine sprawl I've had major bug problems.
This will be my first year canning but I'm hoping that the 60 plants I put in will be enough for our family of 6. I have Roma, Beefsteak, Large Red Cherry, Small Red Cherry, and Aunt Ruby's German Green.

 

[me&thegals]

My absolute all-around favorite is Amish Paste. Then, Green Zebra for fresh eating, Aunt Ruby's German Green (huge and sweet) for all around, Gold Medal (orange), Powers (yellow), Oregon Spring (early), Oxheart and many more.

 

[rd200]

thank you for all the replies....

Is it too late to start tomato plants from seed????

I usually plant them in the garden memorial day weekend.

Is there still time??

I dont have anything to grow them in the house, i would have to go buy stuff. Ive heard that you can grow plants under LED lights??? Im wondering if that is true. I need to get my butt in gear if I want to start from seed yet huh??

 

[Denim Deb]

Depends on where you live as to whether or not it's too late. I'll have a ton of volunteers come up after the weather warms up for good here. And, I'll try to find places for them in the garden. They might bear a bit later, but that's OK.

 

[hwillm1977]

Our last frost is the first of June here... so I start my seeds next weekend, which is 6 weeks before the last frost for me.

I have one LED grow light and it really didn't work that well, it only covered one square foot and had to be ridiculously close to the plants... but that's just my experience, now I fill a 10x12 room with all the plants I'm putting out and hang a 400W grow light from the ceiling on a timer. I also have a flourescent light that I start some flowers under too, they work great and it was less than $20 at the hardware store.