From Beginner to Pro Secrets to Perfect Tomatoes Revealed - AVOID These Mistakes
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2024
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Thank you all so much for watching and Grow BIG! - Навчання та стиль
Even BETTER than determinates? Dwarf indeterminates! Plant stays small and compact, but produces all season long! There's a dwarf tomato project going on and every year new and better varieties are coming out! Some of them are simply fantastic, like Emerald green Giant and Golden Gypsy!
Thank you for these names of tomatoes
Does Luke have some seeds on his site?
Are these big tomatoes?
@@angelaraum1545 The Emerald giants are big. The Gypsies are your average grocery store size. You can get any sizes of tomatoes from dwarf plants. It all depends on the variety! Check out the tomato dwarf project for all of them!
I'm no tomato breeder but I'm thinking of trying to cross one of the dwarfs with an heirloom to see what I can get. Apparently 25% of the seeds are going to be dwarf plants when you cross a dwarf with a normal sized.
Husky Cherry Red is a great dwarf indeterminate, only grows 3-4 ft tall, prolific production, cherry tomatoes on the larger size.
I have 4 right now, disease resistant, great Taste !
🌱🌿🍅🌶️
✝️🇺🇲🚜
Show us how you plan on trellising your tomato plants please.
I didn’t learn anything new today, but I always love watching your videos and supporting the channel!
Same!!
Sometimes you may not learn anything new, but occasionally you need reminders.😂
@@1991macie exactly I'm a small scale farmer myself been growing plants for about 8 years and still need to reference his videos every now and again, but to be honest the reason I am a farmer today is because of Luke, he gave me the confidence and knowledge I needed, I love what I do and I can not thank that man enough, his videos literally changed my life 👍
The young will learn a lot✌️
I LOVE planting a rainbow of tomatoes! I have 14 varieties going this year, 46 plants. Yellow, pink, purple, orange… yum!
I use Jess @ roots and refuge’s method of alternating sides of a cattle panel to grow my indeterminate tomatoes. It’s the cleanest looking system I’ve used
to date.
tomato cages are GREAT, for growing sugar baby watermelon vertically, also Kajari melon, cucumbers, or any sort of squash.
Thanks so much for your videos, luke i am a small scale organic farmer because of you, you were the first person who introduced me to gardening and your videos literally gave me all the confidence and knowledge i needed to get started and for once in my life i can confidently say i absolutely love what i do for a living
Just buy the starter tomato plants if you are starting out. I've failed at tomato seeds in zone 5 but luckily there is enough time to plant a few starter plants from the nursery/plant store/big box store. It's a little more expensive but it's an option for those who didn't successfully get seeds grown or started. And as always a great lesson and lecture by the MIgardener. He's literally sharing love.
I know very very little about gardening. But I’d like to share the one thing that I think I did right growing tomatoes in Michigan.
I have a regular raised garden bed and I take 6-8 of those sign stakes that are 8 ft long and drive them into the ground around the inside edge of my bed. (Evenly spaced)
Then I use twine and I weave it back and forth like a giant spider web. I plant my tomatoes and I pretty much leave them alone all summer. Sometime I’ll tuck a branch back into the web, but for the most part, nothing.
The tomatoes grow as tall as the structure will allow, and yields tons of tomatoes.
This method has proven very fruitful in the 5 years that I’ve been doing it.
I don’t know if it’s the best way, but it’s been great for me.
Thanks for the videos.
T post stakes and did you mean you criss cross it from side to side?
@@lindabower6315 yep. I went all the way around the posts then I criss-crossed. And I did that a couple times, worked my way up higher and higher. On the stakes.
The tomato plants grew up in this massive web that was 8 feet high.
I’m completely redoing my garden beds this year, but when I plant again next year, I’m gonna make it as tall as I can. See how high they’ll go.
That’s called Florida weave. I too did this in between 8 ft T posts. This year doing the trellis to make you jealous method.
For my determinates, I use peony cages. They're substantially more heavy duty. Worth the extra money for me in the long run.
You use 2 tom cages for cherry tom. 1 put in the regular way & the 2nd inverted & zip tied together. They are also great for zucchini.
Pruning my Roma tomatoes this year - biggest mistake I’ve ever made, but best learning experience.
Wooo hooo! It’s a great rainy morning! Happy day to you and yours.
Love your channel, always learning something new. Thanks for sharing.💖
Always good to go over everything from basics to advanced.
Another great video. I wish that I could remember half of what you say. So young but so wise. Keep rock'n! 🎵
Learned a few nrw things. Thank you! 😊
So much great advice! I would love to see more container growing content too. Cheers!
Thank you for your time and information
Love my seeds from MI Gardner! Started getting berry roots and plants recently ❤.
This is an amazing list of great tips. One of the biggest things I have learned is watering. Proper drip lines will prevent most if not all of your blossom end rot and make for a much better yield. I just use a gravity fed system in my raised beds and it is a game changer. I feel bad for the people throwing egg shells, Tums or full eggs (this one is just wild to me) in the hole to prevent something that is not a nutrient issue but a watering issue.
Haven’t left a review yet but put Trifecta under my tomatoes and peppers this year and am impressed by the growth and dark green color!
Thank you for this information, Luke. I learn something new every day. I didn't specifically know about the fertilizer; instead, I trusted my instincts and also followed memories from my childhood of my family growing them.
I'm so excited to see your garden fill in this year! Thanks for doing all this producing and sharing with the world for people to learn gardening. You give great advice that is influencing a lot of people including me. Keep sharing the love.
Never heard that pruning distinction. !! Thanks. !!
Still learning from ya after all these years... Ive been watching since your cottage house garden days.. I absolutly love the empire you guys have created !
I appreciate your comment about tomato cages. I plan to get more of them. Yes, for my peppers, but I also use them to protect new plantings of things like raspberries from deer. Our space is too big to fence off properly from deer, so we have to protect individual spaces, instead.
That's a great idea!
It’s my first year of gardening, and I’m a balcony gardener. I didn’t know the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, and so I sowed a bunch of indeterminate cherry tomato plants…. I now have 36 very healthy very tall tomato seedlings that I cannot plant into my balcony crates lest I end up completely drowning in tall tomato vines lol
Lesson learned!
Wow, your plants look so much better than mine. Just lovely. Thanks for the video, Luke. You're the best. I make my tomato cages out of branches from the woods around the back of my house.
Great information thank you for sharing
Thanks!
The best , strongest tomato plants I’ve ever planted I trimmed off all but the top 4 leaf stems and lates them in a trench Covering g them almost to the top. The stocks by end season were as big as my wrist the got over 5 feet tall and out of the 10 plants picked A bushel and a half of tomatoes.
This year-24- I’ve planted 74 plants 😂. I love canning tomatoes and love love love making salsa, tomato sauce salsa Verde, and I’ve corse plane old tomatoes. That there is no comparison when cooking chili macaroni and tomatoes goulash anything. No tin taste and they actually taste like fresh real tomatoes
Great videos I’ve learned a lot from your videos
Yup. Guilty of overfertilizing, won't do it again Thanks🙂! Growing Abe Lincoln too. Planted Migardener dormant plants: Millennial Asparagus, Double Gold Raspberries, Royalty Purple Raspberries, Jewel Black Raspberries, and Top Hat, Jersey, Darrow, & Blueray Blueberries! Everything has come out of dormancy & thriving, great quality plants!
Disagree with tomato cage comment, at least in my area. We have windy conditions throughout the growing season and my plants are growing close enough together that I actually put twist ties or zip ties to connect them creating a structure to keep them from standing upright. Other than that, I truly appreciate the helpful advice you provided to us in gardening land,,,, thanks so much!!
Thank you!
Luke, I started some of the giant crimson tomatoes that you offered earlier this year(The 80 somthing year old). 3 of the 5 did well after germination and they are huge already. Planted about a foot of stem under the surface and they are already producing really well. They grow far quicker than some of my other varieties but I'm excited to try them.
I bought your Geranium Kiss Tomato seeds last spring and it was one of the best cherry type of tomatoes. I saved some again for this season and they have grown beautiful so far again. A good hardy plant and it’s always fun to give some of my plants to others to try growing. Love your channel and seeds!
Totally correct! Happy healthy plants are stronger against blight and other diseases, last year I fed with compost teas and kept the lower leaves trimmed off and good airflow and had only 2 or 3 leaves with blight which were easy to remove and prevent spreading. Best year ever for my tomatoes 👌
Luke we are planting all the varieties you recommended in a video several months ago. Very excited to see how they do. There are so many varieties I want to try but I don't have nearly enough room! Thanks for all the tips!
I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned in this one video. Pretty much everything I was doing was what I should not have been doing. And as usual I will forward this on to my brother in Oregon. And the next time I do a container tomato I will skip the cage and use the determinant variety. I have an apartment and I live in Colorado. You have been very helpful and your seeds are wonderful!
Thank you Luke
Regarding the single stem method for pruning indeterminate tomatoes, what do you do when the main stem forks into two? Both stems are the same thickness and both are strong. How do I know which one to cut off or do I keep both? I got a late start on my garden this yr and bought a couple Mortgage Lifter starts so I didn’t grow them from seed. Any advice from this community is welcome. 😊
I had that happen last year and ended up keeping both stems. Not sure if that was the best option but I had 3 feet between plants on a trellis and it worked out fine.
Great content
Hey Luke, thx for this video. I learned a lot! Can you show your T stakes (sp?) and how and when… to stake up your tomato plant with them?
I love listening to you & have learned a lot. Awesome for us beginners. ❤❤❤ your topics. 😊
I hope you do not take this the wrong way, but the music at the being is downright irritating. I hope others aren't as irritated as I. It would be better to have no music at all or if you like putting the music in, then something smooth, or easy listening on the👂
I hadn't started tomatoes from seed for many years but was intrigued by the many varieties you offer so bought 5 packets and all grew nicely. Planted them in raised beds with Trifecta and they are doing great. This video really clarified things. Thanks.
Luke- love the vids. You should do one on using garden equipment not how intended. I use my tomato cages for zucchini bushes to help grow vertical where I trim powder mildew leaves out and get some great airflow and easy fruit picking.
I am one of those that probably over fertilized. Plants looked great but took forever to start any fruit I wouldn’t have any ready until mid-September (z5) I did learn that I needed to help the flowers self pollinate and that made a huge difference, but still late to get them to flower. Also good to understand blight.
I use cages for my determinate tomatoes and stakes for my indeterminate. Works great for me.
The blight info is very welcome. I'd learned it from you in a video a year or so ago, Luke, and the reminder is a good thing! Growing bigger... :-)
The fertilizer your putting in the whole, do you do that for other plants as well? Beans etc?
Tomato cages. I have taken up using old scrap gazebos. You know, the kind that you see in the trash constantly because they twist in the wind. I take two of the corner pieces and zip tie them together. This forms a.C shape around three sides of the tomato. I then take a couple of bamboo sticks or old, cheap curtain rods, and zip tie those to the open front side. This helps to support the tomato on the last side while leaving it open enough to prune and pick the tomatoes. I have been doing this now for at least three years and it works wonderfully. Oh, I forgot to say that I put rebar or bamboo sticks up through the base to hold it in the ground. It also looks really pretty.
I do this to support my roses, but with the 1970's carport and aluminum awning supports for covered patios. ❤
You forgot to mention, mulching to stop soil, born fungus from splashing up during rainstorms
Good point. I remove lower leaves and mulch with new, clean straw.
This year is Super Exciting for me: I'm growing EVERYTHING (7 varieties of tomatoes, 8 varieties of peppers, several types of squash, onions, leeks & beans), from MIGARDENER SEEDS!!!
Germination has been nearly 100%.
Jacamas are the only plant that doesn't do well, yearly. This is the second year I've seeded & germinated several plants. After hardening off for 3 weeks, I plant it in my best deep, soft soil bin (potatoes do very well in). And the plants STOP GROWING, slowly shrivel up & die.
I can't figure it out. And I can't find anyone that knows a lot about this mysterious vegetable. BUT I'LL KEEP TRYING!! (BTW, i had bought the seeds 2 years ago from Luke and I still got 98% germination!) I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Like I feel this vegetable needs something & I just have no idea what.
However, I'm super excited & proud of my garden this year! I think I need a huge sign that says:
God provided the perfect world:
We provided the soil.
MiGardener provided the seeds.
I give my tomatoes leftover whey from my cheese making 2 to 3 times a season. Is that bad for fruit production?
Texas Tomato Cages! Have used them for 20 years and going strong.
I purchased trifecta plus for the first time this year. It came in after I planted the tomatoes. Can I top dress them now?
How do you know which varieties you’re planting
Great info, what are your feelings about spraying an aspirin solution every two weeks like I’ve heard?
I tie and add stakes to support tomato cages and have heavy duty cages and have no problem and I have gale force winds all the time on plateau in northern ME
Exactly what I do!
Me too. I grow in containers.
Yep, I do the same thing. I don't single stem more like triple stem and the cages work great for supporting and protecting the young plant for the first month or so and then that's where the stakes come in.
For the last 2 years I've been doing single or double stem with my Betterboy tomatoes. This year I'm not - just an experiment. I do prune some of the sun leaves for space and airflow, but I have them trellised with string and clips. Gonna' see how they do.
This year i am doing an experiment. Some indeterminates i will be single stemming, some i will cage with large homemade ones, with only light pruning and controlled height, some i will let sprawl over thick mulch (i learned a lesson with sprawling several years ago).
I will also cage some determinates, and some will sprawl. I am also succession starting them, so i can have harvest at different times, instead of one huge haul i cant keep up with. I have some in my greenhouse i started in February that are like 3 feet tall and producing tomatoes, a bunch of large seedlings i am getting ready to plant out, and a bunch of tiny ones which will still wait for a bit (though i did start those pretty late).
In addition, i have a couple varieties in a greenstalk: Tiny Tim (a determinate micro dwarf cherry tomato), and Tess' Landrace Currant (indeterminate currant tomato).
I will see how this experiment goes.
Basically, over the past several years, i have gotten sick of spending all day, several days a week, tying and pruning the indeterminates all season long. At one point i had 80+ tomato plants (lesson learned from that too). So, i decided i would do this and see what i preferred with both indeterminate and determinate. I need lower maintenance these days. Tomato size isn't a priority for us, and production can just be whatever. I have quite a bit of space in my garden, as well, so that isn't an issue. Whatever fits, great, whatever doesn't, oh well, i can rehome. Its just the two of us here.
I have also, over the years, decided which types of varieties of tomatoes we prefer. Roma is a staple every year. I dont like working with beefsteak types, and the tomatoes are just too big for us to consume. Plus they take soooo long to produce, grow full size, and ripen. Ace 55 determinate works pretty well, and i like the Rutgers semi-determinate. These will all now be staples. Cherry is also a preference. We like Sweet 100 Cherry, though it can be difficult to get my hands on seeds, so i am working on trying different types of those. Also dwarf and micro dwarf types i am starting experiments on, to see how i like working with them. The fact that we live in the north is significant for these early producers, plus i can potentially grow some indoors throughout the year.
So, yeah, learning lots.
if you like the sweet 100... I recommend sun sugar... they are practically grapes
The tomato cages are.great for peonies too. If you put one in the ground when your peonies first start coming up, they help keep them tidy looking and keep them from flopping on the ground when they get heavy with blooms. Gently coax the branches imside.the cage, as they grow their foliage will cover the cages.
How do I know which tomato plant is a determinate & which is not?
❤
It was mentioned that you only fertilize once in a potting hole and then nothing for the whole season... Does this also apply to container gardening? I have added granular fish blood bone meal to the potting hole but I plan on watering with pepper appropriate liquid fertilizer (for all my peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant) once a week. Is that really an overkill? It doesn't have lots of nitrogen... My containers are quite big but they are located on a glassed balcony.
Can i plant different types of tomatoes in one box?
Here's a question about planting a tomato stem to treat it like it's a whole new plant? Can that happen with a determinate?
Before I started watching (and just before I put three more plants in the ground as I found room) I wondered exactly how many of the mistakes I did NOT avoid this year! Let's watch....
I learned some things new, thank you. I will stop over fertilizing and stop using those useless cages.
Z moich doświadczeń wynika że dobrze dokarmiane pomidory produkują smaczniejsze owoce.
Does equal parts water to hydrogen peroxide spayed on the soil help control blight?
It does help with fungus gnats... good question!
Of all the tomato varieties I'm growing I have had a hard time getting Black Sea Man to germinate. Do you know if it has a low germination rate or is there some trick to it that I don't know of? Also the pineapple tomatillo is not either.
RE tomato cages … it’s getting very common to find the type that are designed wider at the base than the top, which are VERY effective at supporting tomato plants. I plant, fertilize, set the cages, and then never mess with my tomato plants again until it’s time to harvest (except for an occasional watering if it’s dry). No staking, no clips, no tying, no pruning.
Thank you, Luke. GOD BLESS YOU
SE MICHIGAN 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏
Yes, Heed Luke's word of caution!
I tried Trifecta Plus.
I killed my plants. I did, not Trifecta.
Because I was use to grabbing a huge handful or so, sprinkle it into my tomato hole, and then side dresses with more later.
That's waaaay too much!
So, yeah, the"cheap" fertilizer in a large bag, you're going to need to use a lot more.
But, with Trifecta Plus, a little bit goes a long way. (1 Tbls per tomato hole).
I do wish Luke created a liquid, (immediate) fertilizer to use at the time of planting, because I give my plants a booster with a liquid at the time of planting. Hint, hint. Lol
In your estimation, what is the best determinate tomato plant? Been growing Amish tomato but it is hard to keep pruned, it grows so fast!
There's too many variety in existence, you just have to try them and keep growing what performs well for you, save the seeds.
What I learned about determinate tomato plants, is each stem (aka sucker, if it's not the first stem) goes to flower at the tip, and then stops. Thats why you don't prune them. Otherwise you will only get a literal handful of tomatoes. It is meant to be more bushy. Indeterminate grows differently; their flowers grow as their own branch on stems every 2 or 3 nodes, and the stem continues growing. It's more viney.
What about blossom end rot? It’s the name of my tomatoes.
I used Mel’s original (1980) mix recipe and didn’t have enough compost- so I used manure. Oops! Talk about over-fertilizing. They were so dark green, & they shot up like a rocket. Eventually I did get some tomatoes.
My worst mistake. Since I'd run out of potting soil and space on my grow shelf, I sowed my tomato seeds in the same pot instead of individual cells. This would have been fine if I'd transplanted them soon after they sprouted, but I was too busy with other things. They quickly grew to over a foot tall and tangled up in each other. You can separate tomatoes when they're younger, but not so easily when they get this tall.
Since the determinate tomato only gets so big is that one that we would still take the leaves off the bottom and bury deep like the intermediate tomatoes?
how to know which is determinate or indeterminate tomatoes?
When flowering and fruiting occur, the tomato plant needs extra fertilizers, specifically potassium. Add calcium if the fruit shows Blackened ends symptoms.
Suckers are less likely to produce fruit, especially on determinate varieties, unless you're looking for number instead of quality. It is better to remove them so that the plant uses its resources in flowering and fruiting. The same applies to pepper plants.
They should call them cucumber cages
I save my eggshells and crumple them up in hole when I plant them does this help the tomato plants ?
I was wondering that too.
Eggshells does have calcium but it takes take to break down for the plants to intake the available calcium. If you ground it up then mix it with vinegar then dilute in water then it will be more beneficial to the plants. Coarse eggshells could take 2 or more years to break down
I notice you dont tease the roots when planting. I always hear to tease them so I'd love to know more.
I hate tomato cages! I use T-posts since I have a lot of them. :)
Last year I had an issue with my tomatoes, in raised beds and grow bags, in a plastic greenhouse, being mealy. Does anyone have any ideas? I could still use them for canning but they were not good for fresh eating. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for the informative videos as usual.
Perhaps heat stress or irregular watering? Also, if you had beautiful green foliage and low numbers on your meally tomatoes then that's too much nitrogen which can cause these issues.
@@jeas4980 I had a regular irrigation system going so I did wonder about too much water. I think I only fertilized a couple of times but I will watch the nitrogen. Thanks
I watched the whole video twice, but have no idea how to figure out if I have determinate or indeterminate tomato plants from the store, re pruning suckers
Do you know what kind they are?
If you know the name of the tomato you can just Google it and the info provided will usually say if it's a determinate or indeterminate plant.
The moment I transplanted my very healthy cherry tomato plant it slumped over and became limp. I was shocked and sad. What did I do wrong?
I think that you are still confusing the "Abe Lincoln" tomato, one thats been sold since 1923, and the 150 year old tomato seeds recovered from a privy on Abe Lincoln property and grown into tomatoes (story was published in 2007).
Nevertheless, good advice all around for tomatoes. I would grow more tomatoes myself, but I a already struggle with processsing what I already grow.
How can I salvage an indeterminate when the main stem breaks?
By not adhering to the single stemming dogma.
You can root the main stem in water and replant it. Or if you still have the plant with growth, let the side shoot grow out to encourage a new “main” stem
VOLES this year!!!
Does anyone have any solutions for voles in the garden feeding on strawberries and the base of sugar snap peas? Theyre pretty shameless because they're eating away while I'm gardening. 😔😔😔Desperately need help.
NEED HELP I just planted my tomato plants and something is eating them already. I planted marigolds, and other plants to keep pests away but they are still very small. What can I do quickly????
Mine were munched on by pill bugs! They were eating up my marigolds too! Try going out at night with a flashlight. You can usually figure out what's eating on them. I had to treat my beds with Sluggo Plus to get the pill bug population down.
how can you tell if your tomato is determinate or indeterminate?
You have to know the variety name and look it up online.
The other day didnt you plant tomatoes sideways?
Planting tomatoes sideways is in many ways better for you plants than planting them deep. Whether or not you plant them deep or shallow really all depends on your soil type and temperature. You want your root zone to be between 60°F-85°F for optimal growth. Depending on the time of year, soil type, whether or not you mulch, If you plant deep it could be too cold for your roots and stunt the growth. Plus your roots may not have as much access to nutrients, water and oxygen if planted really deep. It’s true you will get adventitious roots along the stem of your plants and they will help keep your plant sturdy and help your plant have more access to nutrients and water to uptake, but it takes time for those to grow and this really slows down the growth of your plants after transplant. It’s better if you can to plant your plants at the same height they would grow if you just popped a seed in the ground and it sprouted. The two cotyledons an inch or so above the ground and all your fibrous roots and tap root below the ground. Also mulch to help with water retention, help prevent water evaporation and also help prevent soil born diseases from splashing up onto your lower leaves (like blight). So if your plants are tall and lanky, it most likely better to plant them sideways under the top few inches of soil as compared to planting them deep. Also if your ground is cold, watering your plants with Luke warm water is beneficial as well.
6:00- disagree with the fertlising.
you can and should fertlise regulary, but only for a short part of the growing season( usually stop at the end of june) once the flowers appears, then you stop fertlising..
Biodiversity of tomatoes is great, only problem is that if you have heirlooms, then you need to keep far away from each other because they will cross, otherwise saving seed is pointless( unless you go into heavy effort to isolate certain flowers from insect pollination)
My tomatoes have persistently developed some sort of wilt. Healthy and gorgeous one day; droopy and wilted the next. Have tried hydrogen peroxide solution on the plants and soil with no results. Here we are again - new season. Any suggestions? We garden organically
You over-fertilized when you started, while I under-fertilized. I hade this idea 13 years ago when I started gardening that I could grow without spending a penny- save seeds, make my own compost, use the compost for all the nutrients the plants need, etc. Once I learned more about fertilizing, it made a good impact on how well my garden produced.