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Old November 12th, 2012 #1
Karl LaForce
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Default #1 Tomatoes Thread: Compost heap tomato plants

I left town for 2 weeks. When I came back I had 6 very healthy looking tomato plants growing along the ground from my compost heap.

I moved 5 of them to a big concrete planter, and one to a plastic storage container. I tried with varying degrees of success not to disturb the root bundle. After one hour they look real bad.

Anybody have any advise on whether or not they will live?
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Old November 12th, 2012 #2
Steven L. Akins
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl LaForce View Post
I left town for 2 weeks. When I came back I had 6 very healthy looking tomato plants growing along the ground from my compost heap.

I moved 5 of them to a big concrete planter, and one to a plastic storage container. I tried with varying degrees of success not to disturb the root bundle. After one hour they look real bad.

Anybody have any advise on whether or not they will live?
Are you in the Southern Hemisphere?

It's rather late for tomato plants on the up side of the globe.
 
Old November 12th, 2012 #3
Karl LaForce
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Default Those plants are in the tropics

SA "Are you in the Southern Hemisphere?"

Those plants are in the tropics, as am I at the moment. The tomato season is year round where those are (were?) growing.
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Old November 12th, 2012 #4
Anthony Lynch
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If they began wilting after only 1 hr, its a pretty fast decline. Perhaps they will make a recovery with some TLC.

Do you know what variety the seeds were
 
Old November 12th, 2012 #5
Steven L. Akins
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SA "Are you in the Southern Hemisphere?"

Those plants are in the tropics, as am I at the moment. The tomato season is year round where those are (were?) growing.
Big plants like those are harder to transplant successfully. We used to raise tomato plants by the thousands, start them from seed in a cold frame, then transplant them when they get about 10"-12" tall in the spring. By summer they would be loaded with fruit. Being that this is the middle of November, I wouldn't know what to tell you. If you are in the tropics, eat pineapples.
 
Old November 12th, 2012 #6
ericthered
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Default Water

Put them each in a pot about like what you have and keep them well watered for a few days and they should be ok.

Don't know what kind of soil you have in the pots but the compost you got them out of would work real well.
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Old November 13th, 2012 #7
Crowe
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A guy down the road from me raises chickens and grows a fairly large tomato crop every year. He puts the chicken shit scooped from the stalls onto the tomato plants. Most of his plants were around 5 feet tall.

Another thing is the soil around here is not that good, there is too much clay, and he tilled up the soil and removed most of the clay down to a certain depth, and brought in some soil from near a creek bed. Soil with too much clay will stunt the growth of tomatoes because the roots don't have any more room to expand. I can go in my backyard and dig down with a shovel, and its 80-90% clay, all the way down to bedrock, with maybe a 2" layer of top soil on the top. That is not good for tomatoes. That is the reason most people's tomato plants only grow waist high.
 
Old November 15th, 2012 #8
Donnie in Ohio
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Big plants like those are harder to transplant successfully. We used to raise tomato plants by the thousands, start them from seed in a cold frame, then transplant them when they get about 10"-12" tall in the spring.
You want a job?
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Old November 15th, 2012 #9
Steven L. Akins
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You want a job?
Not one that requires physical labor. I learned along time ago that I don't enjoy that sort of thing.
 
Old November 15th, 2012 #10
Donnie in Ohio
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Not one that requires physical labor.
Fair enough.

Quote:
I learned along time ago that I don't enjoy that sort of thing.
Who does, Steve my man, who does?
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Old November 15th, 2012 #11
Steven L. Akins
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Fair enough.

Who does, Steve my man, who does?
Christians?
 
Old November 15th, 2012 #12
Donnie in Ohio
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Christians?
Well, Jesus was a carpenter, you know.

I'm guessing he was union. Just a hunch.
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Old November 15th, 2012 #13
Steven L. Akins
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Well, Jesus was a carpenter, you know.

I'm guessing he was union. Just a hunch.
I dunno, man. I've never seen any wooden frame construction houses over there in Jerusalem. I'm thinking carpenters in Israel are about as rare as Jewish pig-farmers.
 
Old November 15th, 2012 #14
Karl LaForce
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Default i think they will pull through

I really had my doubts, but after a few days of TLC about 50% of the leaves have died, but about 20% of the leaves have recovered, and 30% are still not looking well but I think it is too soon to tell.

I'll try to get a photo this afternoon.

I have no idea about the seeds. They litterally started growing out of the compost heap. We eat lots of tomatos so they could be almost any type.
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Old May 14th, 2013 #16
Brenna Wolf
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I have worm beds beneath my rabbit cages. Worm/casting-rabbit/manure rich soil is like gold, although in my experience you have to worry more about fungi in the garden.

Also, when you transplant tomatoes you do not place them at the same level. You bury them with only a few leaves above the ground. You need to prune all the suckers too. They do not produce tomatoes and suck up too much water and nutrients.

Raising Worms With Rabbits> http://www.happydranch.com/articles/...th_Rabbits.htm

Best Organic Compost: Worms Eat My Bunny Poop!
The Best Compost in the World
> http://voices.yahoo.com/best-organic...15.html?cat=32

Last edited by Brenna Wolf; May 14th, 2013 at 01:56 PM.
 
Old May 14th, 2013 #17
Sam Reeves
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Transplanting tomatoes is tricky and usually not worth the payout. They have a shitty root system that does not like to be disturbed. For a plant twelve inches tall you would want to dig a hole about twelve inches in diameter and about a foot deep to save as much of the root as possible. So now you have this big hole to contend with for the sake of a few dollars worth of tomatoes.

It is best to plant tomatoes when they are about four to six inches tall and space them out at least sixteen inches apart.
 
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