Comment

Comment by Jim Troyer on February 19, 2014 at 11:23am

They call me "Jim Scissor Hands" in my family.  I'll be over with my loppers in a little bit!

@ Bob Rowe:  how did your grapes over winter?

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on February 18, 2014 at 9:21pm

Jim, I'm going to hire you to come over and help trim this thing 

Comment by Jim Troyer on February 18, 2014 at 8:38pm

sounds like a jungle Matt!

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on February 18, 2014 at 5:42pm

Kim,  yep I'm keeping the brown leaves on from the freeze we had (even though I did take a lot of it off before my wife told me to stop).  I go out every day and take off the suckers, as that is a split of the vine if you let it grow (I can get suckers growing more than an inch a day).  My yellow pear tomato plant has bushed out and taken over, right now it's a game that I seem to be losing.  as the vines have grown up to the top of my green house (which is 12 feet high) and now I'm running the vines down the top "spine" of the greenhouse.

Comment by Kim Romen on February 18, 2014 at 2:38pm

Matt, i forgot u had told me that.  i haven't been using my electric heater, either, for the past month at least.  u have some amazing produce there!  i keep wanting to buy organic cherry tomatoes and walk by them at the store each week waiting for mine to get there.  did u also tell me that you stopped picking the browns off your plants but u do pick off the suckers?  i'm acquiring so much info i can't keep it all in my head!  thx

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on February 18, 2014 at 10:08am

Hey kim we have srp average our electric usage through the year so we have the same bill each month. For the past few weeks I havent been using the space heater, I believe I will only use it if we have another freeze, otherwise the makeshift greenhouse seems to be enough.

Comment by Kim Romen on February 18, 2014 at 9:45am

John, that's helpful.  thx!!

Comment by John Malone on February 18, 2014 at 9:36am

@Kim : I'm still a beginner with tomatoes, but I do have a couple of seasons experience now, so I'll tell what I know.

Most of my tomatoes got hit hard with the frost in December.  I kept them until I picked the usable fruit and then pulled them out.  I've still got a couple that are limping along, but will pull them shortly.

Yes, indeterminate tomatoes are a vine that will grow for years in the right climate. Frosts are not the right climate, as I found.  Phoenix summers are not great for tomatoes either.   Sure, they'll survive, but once the temperature hits 100F tomatoes don't set fruit, so for several months they'll sit there, taking up space and not doing too much.

Personally, tomatoes grow so quickly and vigorously, that my current plan is to grow new plants each season (Spring and Fall) and during the winter and summer use the growing space for something else, such as cabbage, lettuce, etc, etc.

Other gardeners will provide shelter for the tomatoes and keep them alive and fruiting through winter.  It looks like Matt has had some great success doing this.

It all comes down to personal choice, and with aquaponics and greenhouses the choices are even greater.

I was musing the other day that there are very few young Master Gardeners.  It takes years and years of trial, error and learning to become an expert.  I've got a couple of decades to go...

Comment by Kim Romen on February 18, 2014 at 9:13am

John and Matt, thx for your comments!  Do you both leave tomato plants (or any plants) in for more than a season?  some of my tomato transplants have be struggling from the beginning and now starting to look nicer while others have been pretty nice from the beginning but starting to have a lot more parts on them that are browning.  they also have some tomatoes.  do i pull them after i harvest?  I thought that Matt told me indeterminant means they will continue to fruit season after season?

Matt, how was your electric bill with the space heater this year? 

thx, :)

 

Comment by John Malone on February 17, 2014 at 11:53am

Transplant Day

They looked a lot bigger in the seedling tray.  I'm a bit worried for the little 'uns, but this is aquaponics, so they'll be fine, right?  Right!

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