Tomato Journal

[William S.]

Thought I would start a thread for very general tomato related thoughts in journal form.

I transplanted a few yesterday into larger and even whole summer pots. Also have a few with green buds formed. Happy to see that.

Cold weather all weekend low tonight of 33 F. Then will warm with average last frost dste Saturday. Might be able to start field planting as early as Tuesday evening.

[Andrew Barney]

Seems All my wild and unwild tomato seedlings are undergoing an unexpected frost tolerance trial!!

Most of the peruvianum hybrids have germinated. Most of the others have not, but some have i think. Very cold, wet, and starting to snow.

Guess we will see what happens. I figure most will survive since seedlings have a higher frost tolerance to adult plants anyway. Will be interesting to see if any exhibit anthocyanin protection.

34 F low tonight

[Garrett Schantz]

I had some peruvianum / big hill seedlings outside the past two weeks. They experienced some very light frosts. Some died, some regrew.

Moved some more seedlings outside today, they are under a bit of cover - a light frost probably won't do much of anything to them.

Older seedlings will be moved outside periodically to harden off pretty soon.

[William S.]

Planted a couple flats out today. 36 predicted tonight. Tried to bury them a little deep in case it dips down and they freeze to the ground tonight. Picked out rejected regular leaf ones of my blue bicolor and some reds I don't really know why I planted. 

[William S.]

https://wischlegel.wixsite.com/my-site/post/direct-seeding-tomatoes-year-five

Just took a stab at a blog post on direct seeding tomatoes.

Also transplanted some more boring red tomatoes into larger pots.

The earliest 2020 XL from the promiscuous project which was delicious and I thought possibly obligate outcrossing based on blossom drop. Also a large blue skinned red from the 2019 huge F2 tomato growout. It was late for a direct seeded but my wife sometimes asks me why we can't have great big tomatoes so it is for her.

[William S.]

Planted a couple flats out today. 36 predicted tonight. Tried to bury them a little deep in case it dips down and they freeze to the ground tonight. Picked out rejected regular leaf ones of my blue bicolor and some reds I don't really know why I planted.

36 turned out to be 32 for hours. Looks like most of that first batch froze to the ground. A few survived and looked pretty good. Kind of nonsensically again. Like one Jagodka in the Earl's strain Jagodka clump. Also one Forest Fire in the Forest Fire clump. The descendents of the Blue Gold survivor of 2017 did not fare well. Micro variation in temperature? Activated epigenetics? I thought one was in a little soil bowl. No more idea now then in 2017 though.

Planted more today including some I really do not want to freeze. Don't think they will but you never know. Forcast looks good though, lows in the 40's.

[Andrew Barney]

sorry to hear that. All the ones of mine that had germinated survived fine. But they are seedlings and don't yet have true leaves. They also have been outside the whole time, so they already were adjusted to the average temps and needed no hardening off. The rest will probably germinate soon.

[William S.]

No germination yet of volunteer or direct seeded tomatoes. Too cold I think, also maybe a little too dry. A one inch rain event (or a good watering) and warm weather tends to help. Germination usually doesn't happen before last frost here. Only in 2017 so far.

[Garrett Schantz]

Got some germination on tomatoes that I planted recently. I moved these outside once they all started germinating.

Wild Currant Tomato From Peru - Pimpinellifolium type that is the parent of the habrochaites cross that I have
Alberto Shatters
Everglades tomato ( type that grows "wild" in HRseeds garden, probably adapted to my state to some extent )
Matt's Wild Cherry
Wild Pink Cherry Tomato Humboldtii - Probably a feral tomato like Matt's Wild Cherry
Fuzzy Wuzzy Tomato - Fuzzy dwarf type, small fruits, could be of interest to some people here
Douchoua Pepper Tomato - Stuffing tomato, thick walled
Banana Currant - Gold Rush Currant x Banana Legs tomato
Sara's Galapagos Tomato
Galapagos Island Tomato
Galapagos Island Tomato #2

No germination on the "true" galapagos types yet - same with pennellii, chmielewsky, neorickii.

My large tray of wilds / crosses - most of them were hit by cold / frost awhile back. Some seeds are now sprouting, some Wildlings / other series survived - they don't look very healthy though.

Moved my wilds outside under a bit of cover today - tested the spot with my other types, light frosts don't hit that area. They are seedlings, will need cycled in and out.

Low of 38 today. Next few days are in the 40F range, slowly creeping into the 50s later into the week.

[William S.]

Gold Pearl and Aztek micro dwarf tomatoes are just barely pushing stems out of the potting mix. Cotyledons shold emerge shortly.

First flower was forming on Mission Mountain Sunrise as I planted it. The stigma looked very visible. I think it has some hope, but maybe just for 3 percent or so outcrossing. Still that could be really useful now that it's potato leaf. I've set aside two for crossing experiments. Really want to cross it with Big Hill. Need a potato leaf with better flowers.

[William S.]

I cleared off my side of the greenhouse today- planted out about 7 1/2 trays. Then I transplanted my two trays of little ones. Of course I have one more tray of the blue bicolor which I doubt I'll need that hasn't even germinated yet.

[Garrett Schantz]

Moved the rest of my trays outside today.

I would have hardened these off before, but it was cloudy / foggy the past few weeks. Too much shock going from those conditions to very hot / sunny conditions.

Got a single chmielewskii sprout so far. Probably keeping the new wilds in pots. I can get them to flower / set seed indoors if needed.

[William S.]

Seeded two more ~70 foot rows of promiscuous project bicolor today. Still have a fat packet left but no bag.

If I have energy, maybe tomorrow I'll seed a mix or something else. Rototilling dependent.

[William S.]

I direct seeded a mix today. Two packets of Big Hill from 2018 and 2019 that were not isolated. The one said it may have crossed with Blue Ambrosia and the other with wild crosses. Then I threw a little bit of exserted tiger in with and the rest of the promiscuous bicolors.

Tomatoes in big pots are doing ok.

[William S.]

Going to get to 33F tonight and 32F tomorrow night. I will be deploying some buckets over tomatoes. Also maybe some frost cloth I've never used. This may truncate my tomato numbers. Also set my big pots back in the greenhouse.