Tommy Toes!!!!

[brac]

So I am gonna sit down and eat my first tomatoes of the season, garden is still a long way off, but I picked up a cherry type plant in a container at a local mom and pop nursery! Being from the south I really hate waiting so long.

Also picked up a swarm today, so it's a good day!!!!

[Hambone]

That does sound like a good day. I love me some fresh maters. I've been picking a ton of cucumbers the last few weeks. Cucumbers/Maters/Cottage Cheese ='s pure awesome.

[Beeslave]

With chopped bacon of course. Right?

[Hambone]

That’s right. Crumbled up real fine.

[giant pumpkin peep]

That awesome. We work with alpacas and there a lot of room where we board so we have a garden with our alpaca farmer friend. It seem to be growing in area everytime I go out because he relized we have one more thing to plant or theres more of it or he found it. Anyway he have 60 some tomato plants,60 some pepper plants,30 some squash plants(cukes,zucs,crooked nec etc) Sweet corn (he needs a nusance permit already ), 3 different types of dry beans, grean beans, some cantilope, a little eggplant, cabbage,found some raddish in a bed of weeds that we thought the dogs dug up, and peas will plants in the fall.

So far we have harvested cucs, a couple zucs and crooked neck swuahs will be start to be harvested tomaroww or the next day.

The mater plants need to be staked up , all 60 of em.

And my farmer friend said if things go good this year it will be bigger next year.

[Countryboy]

The mater plants need to be staked up , all 60 of em.

When you plant them, put a cage on them and run a stake through the cage for extra support. You can quickly train (and sucker) the plants to the cage as they get bigger.

Is 60 tomato plants a lot? I have over 130 different varieties of tomatoes this year...not plants, varieties.

The real fun is labeling every plant, and keeping every variety separate.

[brac]

Countryboy, I gotta ask how much area do you have planted with tomatoes ?

[Hambone]

[I]Is 60 tomato plants a lot? I have over 130 different varieties of tomatoes this year...not plants, varieties.

Where I keep a couple hives it's a huge organic garden. Run by 1 man and his wife. His sons come and help on the weekend. He only planted 3 or 4 varieties. He grows for specific customers. He ended up planting close to 600 plants this year. And that's just the tomatoes. Come to think of it, I am not real sure I even plant maters....He gives me all I want.

He dehydrates any that he has left over. I take those and put them in jars with olive oil. Those are awesome!

[giant pumpkin peep]

We didnt have any cgaes or nearly anough stakes on hand to do that cb.

Countryboy...Do you sell your maters or is that all for family use? I think our 60 will provide us plenty now and thru the winter. But like I said, if it works out this year the garden will be much bigger next year.

[NasalSponge]

We have been getting tons of huge maters but our plants look like crap....//shrugs shoulders//

[Countryboy]

Countryboy, I gotta ask how much area do you have planted with tomatoes ?

I put down a sheet of 20 X 100 feet of 6 mil black plastic. 10 plants spaced 2 feet apart in rows, and rows every 4 feet give me 26 rows of 10. I plant 2 plants of every variety in my production patch. (The next patch will be spaced with rows 6 feet apart.) You do have to pay attention to which varieties are open pollinated and keep them isolated elsewhere - most tomatoes have a closed flower though. I start all of my seeds, and the extra plants are given away or get put in other space in the garden, and they take up quite a bit of space too.

He dehydrates any that he has left over. I take those and put them in jars with olive oil. Those are awesome!

I've dehydrated some before, but mainly as a way of storing large amounts of tomatoes in a small space. They work good for tossing into soups. I've never tried the olive oil.

Countryboy...Do you sell your maters or is that all for family use?

Neither. The real money is in the seeds. I averaged over 7.5 cents per seed for last year's crop (S&H included).