AK 2013 greenhouse, smart pots

[AKmark]

I have 49 varieties this year, grown in 10-20 gallon pots. All in all I am very happy, although some problems have materialized, cracks on some varieties BER on others, some are picture perfect. I have a few strains that are simply monster yielders, 1884, Caspian Pink, Brandyboy, Early Girl, Mrs Maxwell's, and many others are doing well too, but within normal parameters of my world.
The Caspian in the left pic is a giant plant growing on top of my water tank and spreads out over 8ft, 1884 is about 12ft tall, both may yield over 25lbs of fruit maybe much more. The first 8 tomatoes off of Caspian added up over 10 lbs and it has about 30 more already set. Another Caspian plant yielded me an 2.975lbs tomato last month, not bad for a northern climate. 1884 is also out of control, huge fruit, and they are loading up on the entire plant which is to the top of the greenhouse, so I have been training it to go horizontially up high.

[AKmark]

Here is one of my Early Girls in a 20 gallon smart pot, not the biggest EG in my greenhouse, but she is pretty and has over a hundred tomatoes set, not my favorite variety, but I grow them every year for canning mush, very reliable in AK even during lackluster summers.

[mdvpc]

Very nice! What are your temps now outside, and also in the greenhouse?

[AKmark]

Michael, temps are about 60 outside, a few degrees warmer in the GH.
I started my seeds indoors under a 400 watt high pressure sodium from Feb. 15 to April 2nd. I intially heated my water, which is in a insulated 300 gallon tank, with a wood furnace that blows hot air through duct work, so I branched duct-work off of the main stem and went under the tank with the hot air. Not only saved a fortune in natural gas heat but I got nice 70 degree water every night from 42 out of the well.
The hot weather we had was much more of a challenge, I had plants drying out too much, it was over 90 in the greenhouse for weeks. I tried watering more often with less amounts, then came some fruit cracks, instead of BER, a small percentage damaged, but mood dampening indeed. I am buying a shade cloth in case that event ever returns to AK.
I use Flora Nova, in pro-mix, some pots has compost mixed in to compare results, as well as taste.

[AKmark]

These are almost hilarious to look at, my son told me this plant has 75 tomatoes at 3 ft or so, good container plant in compact spaces. My Dad loves this variety.

[AKmark]

This is an Ildi, I tried to keep count but I don't have the discipline to just walk by the plant without munching, my son is worse, so the attempt was hopeless.

[AKmark]

This particular Mrs Maxwell's grew into this giant plant, with broomstick size stalks, that looked more like something a crow would perch on, than a plant that produces good tomatoes. At about 8-9ft the plant had 5 tomatoes and about 2 dozen empty trusses, many, many flowers broke. I tried cal-mag, watering correction, thought about excess nitrogen possibilities, and finally chopped the tops with hope of diverting growth to flowers instead of more collagen fibers. It worked like a charm and she set about 60 tomatoes within a couple weeks. I have also began training two suckers toward the bottom to take over as new tops, even though they're 6ft below the real tops. This plant has set hundreds, several hundred flowers, acts like an untamed beast, finally broken to provide. The plant actually only has two main stems and an assortment of these weird truss, vine flower, now tomato, arrangements. The few earlies that set I tried and they proved to be real delights, I may have to wrestle this beast again next year.

[Redbaron]

All in all everything looks fantastic! If that's the worst problem plant you have, I wouldn't complain.

[AKmark]

The PP has set loads of fruit now. I also reposted a pic of 1884, minus the first harvested truss you see in one of my first pics, with the bottom of the large pink beefsteak showing. It is huge and loaded

[AKmark]

The Northern Lights is on a water tank and fell over, so I grew it like a giant topsy turvy. The plant with the flagging tape is Vintage Wine, it loaded up so much that I got some mold on two tomatoes that grew so tight together they bruised then rotted, a redo in my garden, taste good and are beautiful like a gala apples but bigger.

[AKmark]

The short plants on the higher bench is a row of my determinates, Celebrity, (semi determinate), Bush Early Girl, and Grushvoka. Celebrity, an old reliable, gave me a tussle with BER, but still was well within acceptable parameters, lots of good tomatoes other than those affected. Bush Early Girl, flawless, Grushvoka some cracking. All set lots of tomatoes, and continue to do so.
The inderterminates in the pic are in what I call my back room, and were the first started/ February 15. Sudduth's, BW Heirloom,(My favs), others are Choc. Stripes, 1884, Cerokee Purple, Blk Krim, Brandyboy, Early Girl, Mrs Maxwell's Big Italian, Julia Child's.
A couple have reached the top of the GH so I am training them back towards the ground forming an S looking modern art piece.

[AKmark]

This is looking from the back room to the frontof the rest of GH. A pic of the bottom of an Early Girl in the pic., first plant, and its top in the other pic.

[mdvpc]

Great job! You using grow or bloom or combo in a schedule?

[AKmark]

I only use bloom, never grow,( Flora Nova), and feel there is a touch too much nitrogen in the bloom anyway, for some plants that is. I use it every day I water, which unless it's cold and rainy outside, is every day for some plants. On hot sunny days I may water up to 4 times a day, I only fertilize once on these days.
As far as varieties, no flops yet, a wrestling match or two, but thats ok in the big picture too. The fert. is expensive, and I almost switched back to cheaper ferts, but... I chickened out.

[AKmark]

At 3ft these plants are amazing, they produce nice looking tomatoes too, pretty good taste. Picked us a few Hillbilly too, mmmmm.