# More Tomato Plants.........



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I've been working overtime on the garden and just when I thought I was about finished and could take a break and get my yard mowed............

I took some leftover leek sets to a friend that has a commercial greenhouse and she asked me if I wanted some tomato plants, said sure and loaded up 6 flats of 18 plants that were about knee high.

She told me to take all I wanted because they were going to be thrown into the compost pile tomorrow.

Now I have around 100+ heirlooms to get in along with the hundred or so hybrids, going to have to till up the back part of the big garden plot that I was letting rest.

This is the most tomatoes I've ever had, will wind up being about 250, year before last I had aroud 150. We usually can at least 200 quarts a year but I may have to buy more jars this year.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Oh my! I guess we know what you'll be doing this summer! Your girls may never want to see another tomato as long as they live after this crop! . Maybe you could sell a bunch?


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Oh my, are you going to be in for a wild ride.

A few years back, we bought our normal 15-20 plants but also planted about 60-80 heirloom from seeds then planted those.

We were overrun with tomatoes. Canned every-other-day and gave away many bushels. Near the end, we let them lay.

Fast forward to the next year. Do the normal rototilling _which scattered those heirloom seeds throughout the garden.

_We bought and planted our normal 15-20 plants.

Well, those heirloom seeds that were in the ground from the previous year's tomatoes started sprouting. Everywhere.

I kept as many as the garden could handle but ended up giving away hundreds of plants.

We were unable to plant anything else in the garden that year unless we killed all the tomatoes (which I didn't have the heart to do).

I now use road cloth in parts of the garden to keep them from growing back up in the rows I want what I planted this year.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

instead of canning everything - look at the alternatives including freezing .... nothing wrong with taking the eazy route for your immediate usage needs ....


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

tsrwivey said:


> Oh my! I guess we know what you'll be doing this summer! Your girls may never want to see another tomato as long as they live after this crop! . Maybe you could sell a bunch?


The good thing is that we never get tired of tomatoes, no matter how many we plant but that may change this year!!! lol



ZoomZoom said:


> Oh my, are you going to be in for a wild ride.
> 
> A few years back, we bought our normal 15-20 plants but also planted about 60-80 heirloom from seeds then planted those.
> 
> ...


We have the same "problem", as the season winds down a lot of the tomatoes get left on the vines and tilled under then next spring..............

Sometimes I just thin out the plants and let them grow and dont have to worry about starting seeds and transplanting.

One year I had a plot that I put several verities of heirlooms in and they all crossed and I wound up with a hybrid that makes pretty good tomatoes so I've been planting them for about 2 or 3 years now. Large ribbed tomatoes that are bi-colored(red and green) that taste pretty good and are blight resistant. I think the dominant parent was an "Aunt Ruby's German Green", I've been calling it a "Red German Green". lol



IlliniWarrior said:


> instead of canning everything - look at the alternatives including freezing .... nothing wrong with taking the eazy route for your immediate usage needs ....


We've tried about everything and decided that brining and canning are what we like best.

We grow a lot of "Porter's", a small oval shaped heirloom that we started brining, use them like green olives, in pasta salads and soups. They fit pretty well into quart and half gallon jars and peel really easy after they've been in the jars for a month or so.


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## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

IlliniWarrior said:


> instead of canning everything - look at the alternatives including freezing .... nothing wrong with taking the eazy route for your immediate usage needs ....


Last year we had so many cherry tomatoes my wife decided to freeze them in separate small sandwich bags placed into gallon freezer bags. Worked great, ate em all winter and gave some away too, might still be a few in there. Think they were Sweet 100's, which should've been called Sweet 1 billion's. They gave me several volunteers this year, just kept a couple.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Well, I got about 75 of the heirlooms planted and then the weather radio started squawking!

We have a string of thunderstorms rolling through with hail and tornados just to the north of us by about 5 miles, luckily I dont think we're going to get anything besides MORE RAIN!!

Guess I'll have to take a drive in a few minutes and see if my parents made it through the squall without damage. They are about a mile from the action so I better go check them out.

At least the tomatoes look like they've dodged the bullet for another day.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

That storm dropped a tornado in a nearby town(Mineral Wells) but it did little damage(downed an old, old abandoned bank building), no hail of flooding either.

Looks like the weather is clear until about 1 or 2 am then maybe more thunderstorms, doesn't look like they'll be too rough.


Hey Andi, what happened to the monthly weather thread?


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

We grow about 25 cherry tomato plants to make tomato sauce. Just wash, throw in blender and simmer down 2/3's and jar. We used to blanch regular tomatoes and peel. I didn't like losing part of the harvest so went to cherrys. The taste is so much better than Roma tomatoes.


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