140 tomato plants and counting....:D

[Goose and Fig]

I've had better luck with seed when I start them outside. I buy started plants and plant seeds at the same time- so I get a staggered harvest. And we always have tons of "volunteers" coming up in the strangest places. I had a really hard time finding Romas last year. My dad had to bring me down a bunch from Ohio.

I had one of the beds of tomatoes not fenced last year. The plants were huge & in cages. The chickens would dig around them & sleep in their shade. They ended up looking like bonsai tomato plants

 

[applefalls]

We're going crazy this year with tomato plants, hot pepper plants, and practically every other thing that'll grow in our area. This is our first year starting so many things from seed, but since we're not raising chicks this spring, we had to put *something* under the heat lamp in the craft room!

 

[biddyboo]

Last summer I canned tomatoes, onions, and green peppers together in pint jars, cooked down some, but not to the point of sauce thickness. I use this as a base for lots of winter cooking: chili, beef stew, gumbo, and so on. Jalapenos could be used, but we're not strong about hot spice in everything. My favorite use of this base is for tomato soup. I pulse it in the Cuisinart, adding one can of tomato juice, some Ro-Tel if I have part of a can left over, and about a cup of milk. Heat, adjust seasoning to taste, and serve hot with garlic bread and herbed cheese. Wonderful on a cold winter night and a reminder of all those tomato plants I'll soon be covered up with again this spring. ~G

 

[StupidBird]

I feel I need to start tilling my entire yard under as of yesterday just to have room for all the starts! I know I have to wait until the soil is dry enough...I don't think I can till when its below freezing either, huh? I keep buying more seed. DH said I had all vegetables, why don't I get some flowers too? I'd better get started digging

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Oh man!! I hope so!!!! I'd love love love to get that many!!!! As much as we eat....I NEED that many! We make everything from scratch.

 

[Lunachick]

Anyone have rotten luck with tomatoes last year? Maybe it was only on the east coast, but there was some kind of disease blowing in the wind and everyone's tomatoes sucked. I hope it's better this year. I think I've planted my tomatoes too many times in the same plot. I think I better rotate this year, actually I bought those black grow bags for my plants this year. I'm only going to grow six toms and baby them.

But I'm going cosmos crazy this year. I bought about twelve seed packs of different kinds of cosmos. I'll plant them in the old tomato garden.

 

[b.hromada]

Wow, best of luck in your tomato raising! You certainly have lots of energy! Take some pics, love to see them!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

b.hromada :

Wow, best of luck in your tomato raising! You certainly have lots of energy! Take some pics, love to see them!

Haha! Will do!! The kids and DH are helping a lot or I would NOT attempt so many!! We do everything like that TOGETHER or it's just too much. I don't think one normal person could handle that many. Although there is an 80 year old man down the road that tends about that many every year, and makes me green with envy when I see his plants and all those tomatoes!!! GRRRRR, why does he have to make me look bad?!?!?

Lunachick~ We all had ugly plants last year I think. EXCEPT that old man down the road!!!! He had gorgeous plants loaded with fruit....makes me wanna cry

I hope I can have pretty ones like his this year!!

Interesting thing I keep hearing around the grapevine...a lot of older folks keep saying because of the hard winter and all the rain, this is the BEST time to get ambitious in the garden. So...I am

Maybe I can put up enough for a couple years of food.

Anybody ever heard of a "blackberry summer?"​

 

[TerriLaChicks]

I just started 64 last weekend--we love tomatoes too! & I put up a lot of them also. Basically I do what Fasbendera said to do. When I plant them, I put protective covers around the base---I got a bunch of those 1 gallon liners that shrubs come in & cut the bottoms out & stick them deep into the ground around the newly planted tomatoes. If we get high winds they are protected and also the tomato worms can't get to them that way, and when you water them it channels the water towards the roots more. A lot of tomato viruses are spread by rain splashing up on the leaves of the plants, so this also helps prevent that. I leave the liner protectors on them the entire life of the plant.

We rotate our garden spots every 2 years & I never plant the tomatoes on the same row 2 years in a row. That does a lot towards keeping the spotted wilt virus & fusarium wilts & so on from spreading like wildfire. It is a constant battle here with our heat & humidity.

Good luck with your garden!

O & I never heard of a blackberry summer; hope somebody chimes in & explains it!

 

[applefalls]

We had a horrible year with our tomato plants last year, which is why we're hoping to have better luck by starting them all from seed this year.

StupidBird: my family thought the same thing... since we're going crazy with veggie seedlings, let's try five or six kinds of flowers from seed, too!