Tomato Casual

Reader Questions: Plants Growing Upward, Watering Tomatoes

tomatocasual.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:58:57 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

David in Kansas:

“How do you keep a tomato plant from growing up in an upside down tomato?”

Another reader asks:

“I am trying out the upside down tomato planters for the first time. Both of my plants (Mountain Pride) are yellowing and curling upwards towards the root. Any advice?”

Hi. This is likely due to a phenomenon called tropism. A tropism is a factor in plants where they move or grow in response to the environment around them. Phototropism occurs when plants move towards a light source.

When tomato plants are first planted upside down, the planter is often in the way of the direct sunlight. The plant will start growing upwards to reach towards the light, so it can still photosynthesize.

There’s also another tropism in effect: gravitropism. Plants respond to gravity in that the roots grow downwards (toward gravity) and stems grow upwards (away from gravity). They may hang down more as the tomatoes form on the plants.

In short - there’s not much you can do yourself to keep them from growing up. It’s a natural response in the plants.

As for the yellow leaves, we also have another question along those lines…

Grace:

“I have yellow leaves at the base of my tomato plant. I have a feeling i’m under watering or over watering. How often should I water my tomato plant? I do not see any bugs or anything on the leave so I do not think it is bugs. I use Miracle Grow so it should be sufficient in nutrients.”

First, make sure you aren’t getting the leaves wet when you water, as this could bring diseases.

You need to be watering your tomatoes regularly. Uneven watering can cause fruit problems, as well as yellow leaves. Give your tomatoes a deep watering every few days, instead of light waterings daily. This will help the plant develop deeper roots that will help during times with less moisture.

As for containers, you first need to make sure that you have enough holes for drainage. Your container grown tomatoes could be developing yellow leaves from too much water. It could also be underwatering, since plants in containers should be watered daily.

Check out “Recognizing Tomato Problems” to rule out other causes of yellow leaves.

Hope they get green and healthy soon!

Source

Reader Question: Growing Tomatoes and More Indoors

tomatocasual.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:51:30 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

From Patt, Oregon:

“I have a quick question. I haven’t heard of anyone doing this, so there must be a reason. But maybe I don’t know.

We have a daylight basement with lots of southern-facing windows. I would like to grow fresh “garden” food down there in the winter. We live in eastern Oregon (the dry side of the state.) Winter daylight is as little as 8-10 hours in the dead of winter

Does anyone know if one can be successful growing tomatoes in this kind of an inside garden in the winter? If this is possible, are there other fresh-type fruits or vegetables that would be successful for winter indoor-gardening as well?

Thanks!”

Hi Patt! Growing vegetables like you describe can be done…though you would likely need to add in some additional grow lights to the room, as well as make sure the room was kept warm enough.

To understand why, we need to first look at the amount of light inside a house versus outdoors. Light intensity is measured in footcandles. In the outdoor garden on a sunny day, the average amount is 10,000 footcandles of light. However, once you go inside, this can drop drastically.

As the University of Kentucky explains, you may be able to get up to 1000 foodcandles right next to your south-sacing windows. Move the plants 10 feet away from the window, and it can drop down to 100 footcandles.

Tomatoes require about 500-1000 footcandles of light for proper flowering and fruit set. However, the problem of winter needs to be considered. Tomatoes are also warm season plants. It could certainly get too cold for them in winter if they were near the windows, as required for their full amount of light.

I would suggest setting up some additional grow lights in the room to make up the difference in footcandles. I would also suggest making sure to heat the room to at least 60 degrees + for your warm season vegetables. With these conditions, you should be able to still enjoy your own garden food in your basement. Read the article from the University of Kentucky for more details about plant lighting.

Good luck!

Take a Tomato Quiz

tomatocasual.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:18:28 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

I’m addicted to knowledge.

I often watch shows like Jeopardy, so I can rack my brain for all the random facts I have gathered in my years as a voracious bookworm.

I’ve found some tomato quizzes to test out your knowledge of all things to do with Lycopersicon esculentum.

Good luck!

Take the Organic Tomato Quiz!

This is a quick 7 question quiz about growing tomatoes organically. I knew several right off, but had to think about a couple. For example, do you know whether or not smokers need to be extra careful around tomatoes?

Ripe or Wrong: The Tomato Knowledge Quiz

This cute website proclaims that “Veggie Love is in the Air!”. I learned some new facts in this quiz, including the country that produces the most tomatoes and who created salsa first.

Hybrid Seed Production in Tomato

See how much you know about hybrid tomatoes. They have other quizzes about our favorite vegetable…no, fruit!

Test Your Knowledge of: Bob the Tomato

If you have kids, you may be familiar with Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales. I don’t have kids, and I still do! Answer some true and false questions to see how well you know Bob.

Do You Like Tomatoes?

Ok, this quiz is rather silly. For example, my first answer was “YES! I AM IN LOVE WITH TOMATOES! I WANT TO MARRY A TOMATO! I WANT MY KID TO BE NAMES TOMATO!!!” Evidently my answers (I deliberately chose the grandiose ones) mean I’m obsessed with tomatoes.

How did you do?

Tomatoes: Good For Your Heart!

tomatocasual.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:12:30 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

One complaint from people about why they don’t eat healthier is that it’s cheaper to eat convenience and fast foods.

Depending on your area, this may be true on the surface.

However, over a lifetime, choosing fresh foods and their derivatives will likely be much cheaper.

One example comes from the recent debut of a new dietary supplement. These pills contain a concentrated dose of the superstar lycopene. As we’ve chronicled here before, lycopene has many health benefits, including fighting cancer, wrinkles, endometriosis, usage as a sunscreen, potentially lowering cholesterol, and so much more.

As an article from UK’s Daily Mail Online explains , “The pills, named Ateronon, contain lycopene, which has been found to reduce the damage inflicted by ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol by 90 per cent in just two months.

Peter Kirkpatrick, neurovascular surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, who researched the supplement, says this effect is enough to protect the arteries, heart and brain from the risks of heart disease and stroke.”

As I’ve wondered in the previous articles - is there really anything that tomatoes can’t do?

Lycopene is usually stronger and more effective in cooked tomato products. With this new concentrated pill, people with high cholesterol can take extra steps to help lower the damage and risk of heart disease.

Although it can be hereditary, high cholesterol is often caused by a poor diet including convenience and fast foods. These foods may be cheaper to start, but ailments like heart disease are not inexpensive to treat and will likely shorten your life. It would be far better to spend a little extra to eat tomatoes and use these new tomato pills as needed to control your cholesterol levels before it’s too late.

TC Reader Questions: Saving Tomato Seeds, Broken Upside Down Planter

tomatocasual.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:10:07 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

Jorge writes:

“Hi. I am interested in storing seed long term (more than 5 years) Could you point me in the right direction? Thanks!”

Hello Jorge. Tomato seeds can generally be stored up to 10 years and still keep a germination rate of 50%. Victory Seeds says that the typical length that they will keep is 4-7 years.

They have a great picture tutorial on how to save your tomato seeds.

You start by fermenting the seeds for a few days in water to remove the outer coating. Afterwards, you drain the water and set them out to dry. They store their tomato seeds in glass jars. I have also heard of people vacuum packing seeds in bags.

I hope you have a bounty of tomatoes so you can collect lots of seeds.

Nancy says:

“What do you think of the upside down planters? I tried one I bought locally and it was so heavy that the shephard’s pole fell over and the plant died! Thanks!”

Hi Nancy. I am so sorry to hear that your poor plant fell and died! This is the first year that I’ve really heard much about the upside down planters. My parents put one up on a hook screwed into their deck, and so far it has held up.

I just saw a message on Twitter that this same problem happened to a colleague of mine. From the way shepherd’s hooks are designed, I am beginning to think that they should be avoided if possible for such a heavy planter like this, unless the pole can be somehow secured better, like in concrete.

I would suggest that the best way would be to find somewhere sturdy, like a stud or a patio beam, and screw in a hook that is rated to hold at least 50 pounds.

I hope your next upside down tomato adventure has a happier conclusion.

Kumato - The Tomato That’s Always Ripe

tomatocasual.com — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:30:46 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

One of the hardest parts of growing tomatoes is waiting for them to ripen.

Of course, you can use green tomatoes in some recipes, a la “Fried Green Tomatoes”, but most recipes call for juicy, ripe tomatoes.

As I was zipping around Google, I came across a tomato variety called the Kumato.

Its claim to fame is that it is able to be picked and used at any stage of development.

As Hellomagazine.com explains, “The Kumato…starts with a dark green skin and a mild flavor. It then turns dark brown with a sweet and spicy aroma, before finally becoming a dark red hue which is sweet and juicy. It is available in two sizes, a standard golf ball size and a mini version.”

The tomato was produced by Syngenta through standard breeding methods (no genetic engineering in THIS tomato!) which crossed our standard tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) with wild tomato types. One species from the Galapagos Islands, Lycopersicon cheesmaniae, may have been used in the breeding process. This fascinating tomato evidently has to be digested by turtles before the seeds can germinate.

The website for Kumato growers offers recipes and more. For now, the tomato appears to only be sold in Europe. We should start a petition to get Syngenta to grow the Kumato here, or at least sell the seeds. I’m very intrigued.

Have you had the pleasure of eating a Kumato? What was it like?

Grow a Tomato Cousin - the Tomatillo

tomatocasual.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:18:44 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

As a Southern California native, I’ve long known about the existence of the tomatillo.

This tomato relative is used in Mexican cooking a lot.

If you’ve ever had Chile Verde or Salsa Verde, you’ve eaten the tomatillo.

Other name for the tomatillo include ground cherries, toma verde, and husk tomato. The last comes because the fruit is covered with a papery husk. The most common color you will see is green (verde in Spanish), but there are also varieties that are yellow and purple.

If you already know how to grow tomatoes, you’re in luck - tomatoes are grown the same way. They’re a warm season vegetable that you should start inside about 6-8 weeks before your average last frost date. If you don’t know your date, you can locate it through the National Climactic Data Center.

About 1-2 weeks before your frost date, start hardening off your seedlings by taking them outside in the shade, starting with 1/2 hour and increasing the time and amount of sun daily until it’s time to plant. Place them in a spot that is tilled with compost added.

Slugs and snails like tomatillos, so staking will help protect the fruits. They are also subject to cutworms, as well as fungi and blights.

In 90-100 days, you can harvest the tomatillos when the husks become brown and they start splitting open.There is evidently an oily substance on the surface, so be sure to wipe that off before cooking.

Have you grown tomatillos? What’s your favorite recipe?

Source

TC Reader Questions: Corn Near Tomatoes, Sweet Seedless

tomatocasual.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:16:07 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

Susan W. writes:

“In order to enable success with tomatoes, do I have to give up planting corn all together or is there a distance between the two crops that will give me the best of both crops?”

Hello Susan. The main reason that advocates of companion planting list tomato and corn as enemies is because they are prone to attack from the same nasty insect. Helicoverpa zea is known as the corn earworm, the tomato fruitworm and the cotton bollworm.

Their favorite meal is corn. When they are fully grown they are a moth, so if the tomatoes and corn are anywhere near each other, it’s quite likely they would decide to lay eggs near both kinds of plants.

If you do want to plant corn still, you would have to watch for signs of eggs and larvae. You can use a spray, or an organic pesticide like BT. The worms will bury themselves into the corn or tomato, so you must make sure to catch them before they do so. There are also some beneficial insects that prey on the tomato fruitworm.

Here’s a link with more information. Good luck!

Georgette C says:

“Would you know where I can get these “sweet seedless” tomatoes, in Essex County area in Ontario Canada?”

Hi Georgette. The “Sweet Seedless” is a brand new hybrid this year from Burpee Seeds. They say that is an exclusive, and I have only been able to find it for sale from their site. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to ship outside of the United States. I even checked on eBay for sellers there with the “Sweet Seedless”, but they also only worked with US addresses.

If you know someone here in the States, perhaps you could work with them to purchase the seeds to be sent to them, then they can mail it to you? Sorry that they don’t have them available to Canada yet.

Space Tomato More Drought Tolerant

tomatocasual.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:09:22 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

It was a part of a science experiment to study plant growth in space.

While they didn’t last long - they died soon after germination - a new tomato showed that it was especially tolerant to drought.

A steady supply of water is important to tomatoes.

Problems like cracking and blossom-end rot can develop when most tomatoes are finally given water after a drought.

The space plants were contained in special chambers designed by BioServe Space Technologies, a non-profit NASA-sponsored research center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The chambers contained a solution of nutrients that would feed the plants as long as there was moisture present.

As MSNBC explains, “While the space experiment was a bust, the transgenic seeds blossomed on Earth, producing plants that could survive severe drought.

“Three weeks without water will kill most tomato plants. The transgencis came back, which is really cool and has huge implications for Earth agriculture,”

Later, the scientist who developed the space tomato (Mariya Khodakovskaya of North Carolina State University) created a tomato that incorporated high levels of lycopene in addition to the drought resistance.

It’s discoveries like these that make me waver a bit about genetics. I still think natural breeding is better for many reasons, but when faced with the realities like drought in the West, it’s hard to pass up a variety like this space tomato. Hopefully they can find heirlooms with a similar drought tolerance.

What do you think about the drought tolerant space tomato?

Reader Questions: Problems With Yellow Leaves on Tomatoes

tomatocasual.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:48:35 +0000

By Vanessa Richins

As tomato season gets into full swing, problems start to crop up.

This week we have 2 questions dealing with yellow leaves.

From Kerrie in Utah:

“Hi, I planted my tomatoes & tomatillo’s about two weeks ago. I added compost and coffee grounds when I dug the holes. I have given them deep water a few times and it also rained a bit.

They plants were really healthy and I can’t see any evidence of bugs. I did get all the plants accept for one at the same nursery. I am worried they may have something I can’t fix, and need to know what it is in case I need new plants. Thanks.”

Hi Kerrie. First, it would be good to know how many times exactly you watered and how many days it has rained. From what I have heard, it hasn’t been too warm in Utah yet, so you shouldn’t need to water daily yet.

Yellow leaves can be caused by underwatering and overwatering. Tomatoes should be watered every 2-3 days for now, so if your watering schedule is different, that may be the cause.

Another possibility is nutrient deficiency, though perhaps not as likely since you added compost and coffee grounds. Nitrogen and iron deficiency may cause yellow leaves.

Since you don’t see any evidence of insects, that isn’t as likely of a cause. It could be a disease, but that would need pictures to diagnose.

From Renee:

“The center of my tomato leaves are green, but the outside is yellow and started to curl. They are not producing now. What is it? It has now traveled to other vegetable plants I have potted near them.”

One possibility is psyllids. Do you see any signs of insects? Sulfur is used in the control of psyllids. Here’s a page about the.

Another possibility is Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus. Do you live in a warm region or have a greenhouse? This virus is spread by a whitefly. What other vegetable plants do you have nearby?

If neither of these fit, write us back with pictures or more details so we can help.

Good luck Kerrie and Renee!