tomatoes Archives - Page 3 of 4

Beige-white patches on tomatoes means sun scald.

Ask Gardenerd: Tomatoes with Heat Damage

Temperatures hit 116° F in some Southern California gardens this week, causing heat damage to many crops. This question from Mary is timely: "My tomatoes are getting heat stroke! I'm wondering if it's too late to save all of them. I've installed a 50% sunblock shade, and I've thrown out any that have bleached. I wish I had picked them before this insane weekend, but now I'm worried that any of them with dime-sized white spots are goners. This is…

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 10, 2018
Post category:Blog Sage Advice
Post comments:3 Comments

Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato

I Want Those “Heirloom” Tomatoes

When I ask clients "What type of tomatoes do you want to grow?" the answer I expect to hear is "cherry", "plum", "paste", "slicing" or "beefsteak". Instead, most often the response is, "Oh, I want to grow those heirloom kind." To which I reply, "Which one?" There are more than 400 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. There are cherry, plum, paste, grape, salad-sized, and beefsteak heirloom tomatoes that come in every color of the rainbow. So before we go any further,…

Post author:Christy
Post published:January 30, 2018
Post category:Blog
Post comments:0 Comments

Green and partly green tomatoes can be ripened easily.

Ripening Green Tomatoes

When a client mentioned that she still has a ton of green tomatoes on her plants, but needs to pull them to make room for fall crops, it occurred to me that not everyone knows the old newspaper trick for ripening tomatoes. So here it is: Ripening Green Tomatoes Take a sheet from any black and white printed newspaper section that you don't read. Place a single tomato (or a small group) on the newspaper. Wrap the tomato (or group…

Post author:Christy
Post published:October 11, 2017
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:1 Comment

Droppings and munching are a clear sign you have tomato hornworms.

Tomato Worms, Flies, and Flower Drop – Oh, My!

Several questions came in all at once from David this week. He asks, "How do I get rid of flies that like to hang around in my back yard and bask in the sunlight? Also, why would my tomato plants not produce any fruit? The flowers just shrivel up and die. AND, what can I do to prevent the worms from eating my tomato's and apples? Thank you." Those are all great questions, David, with varied answers. Let's start with…

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 12, 2017
Post category:Blog Sage Advice
Post comments:5 Comments

A volunteer tomato sprouted from under our compost storage tub.

Ask Gardenerd: How to Get More Volunteer Tomatoes

I do believe my favorite question to date just came in to Ask Gardenerd from Jeff Bremer: "Hi Christy, How do I encourage volunteers? Over the years in my tomato garden, a few volunteers would appear each season. Last year, in hopes of getting a lot of volunteers (for this year) whenever a tomato was damaged or half-eaten by some critter, I buried it in the soil. However, this year, not one volunteer arose. Is there anything I can do…

Post author:Christy
Post published:October 12, 2016
Post category:Blog Sage Advice
Post comments:12 Comments

Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato

Ask Gardenerd: Pruning Tomatoes

Summer is the perfect time for this question from Jeff Bremer: "Hi Christy, What's your opinion on pinching-off the "branches" that sprout out of tomato plants? Some of my friends don't pinch at all, but my neighbor pinches his plants back so he has only one "stem." Thx, Jeff " Ah yes, to pinch or not to pinch, that is the question. What are we pinching? Side shoots and suckers. Side shoots are additional vines that grow from the base…

Post author:Christy
Post published:June 22, 2016
Post category:Blog Sage Advice
Post comments:2 Comments

Young tomatoes in cages - Rule #1: give them proper support

Pruning Tomatoes

Today we have a guest post from James White, a self-described kombucha tea-sipping blogger who focuses on green building and sustainable living via his family blog Homey Improvements. He's offering advice on how to prune tomatoes for those who are pruning-averse. Take it away James! How to Prune Tomatoes The first year I planted tomatoes they all died. Year after year, I’ve made every mistake you possibly can when it comes to tomatoes but I’ve learned so much that now I…

Post author:Christy
Post published:August 4, 2015
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:2 Comments

San Marzano tomatoes, fresh parsley, fresh oregano, and homegrown garlic and onions.

Recipe: Homemade Tomato Sauce

Italians believe that San Marzano tomatoes are the only tomatoes for making sauce. I'm Italian, and I've made sauce with just about any tomato I can get my hands on, but this year we grew San Marzano tomatoes for the first time. So there will be sauce. I grew up watching my mother make my grandmother's recipe for tomato sauce. It took no less than 3-5 hours. She often used canned tomatoes, one of the few canned products we bought.…

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 16, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:8 Comments

Kelloggs Breakfast

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

It's harvest time for tomatoes, whether they be determinate or indeterminate. These orbs of delight are the quintessential summer fruit and we're picking them daily. We planted early this year (quite possibly a mistake since we now have blight...but then again, we get blight every year, so I give up). We grew 18 different varieties this year, all heirlooms, all gorgeous. Here's a little tomato parade for 2014: Our first time growing these successfully. Can't wait to make sauce. Jaune…

Post author:Christy
Post published:July 9, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:18 Comments

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YouTube: How to Plant Tomatoes

It's tomato season, and we've got ours in the ground already. It may be early for some, but we're experiencing 80 degree days this week, so we took a chance and were so bold as to plant tomatoes (18 of them). Crossing our fingers to avoid early blight (and late blight...and rats, etc.) Maybe this will be a great tomato year. For those who missed the recent newsletter with step by step instructions for planting tomatoes, or for those who…

Post author:Christy
Post published:April 9, 2014
Post category:Blog What's Growin' On
Post comments:0 Comments