Making Larger Tomatoes

[LindyAdele]

I have been growing tomatoes in earnest for 4 years now (heirlooms from seed). I have 16 plants, seeds started march 1st which are now 6-7 feet tall each. On most plants, I have 1-2 dozen fruit and at least that many flowers out (more fruit than I can count on the cherries, they are just loaded!). Since I live in Ontario, I've been happy with this, and expect to have ripe fruit by the end of July. Some of my cherries might be ripe by the end of the week.

Here is my problem - my plants have grown taller and produced more fruit than in any year past (I have been building new raised beds, working on my soil and watering schedules, etc.) but each individual fruit is MUCH smaller. For instance, my Black Krim plant has 20 or so green tomatoes that are just a little larger than a ping-pong ball. They have been that size for two weeks or more. The last three years of growing them they were big, ribbed, dark and delicious, but I got much fewer fruit per plant. My other larger tomatoes are all small as well (Ruby's German Green, Marianna's Peace, Amana Orange, White Tomesol, Zapotec, etc. ).

Is there a trick to getting larger tomatoes? Is it the cooler wetter weather we've had this year? Should I reduce the number of tomatoes per cluster so that some of them get to grow larger?

[Cole_Robbie]

How do you fertilize? I'm using a seed company recommendation of alternating calcium nitrate and 4-18-38 through a fertilizer injector into a drip system. Occasionally I will do a watering with other fertilizers that contain iron and magnesium. I also did a lot of soil amendment with the manure from my family's grass-fed cows.

I've been selling a lot of Big Beef that are 1+ pounds, and so far have picked a Dr Wyche's Yellow and Anna Maria's Heart that are over a pound.

[LindyAdele]

I know I need to up my fertilizer game, but I'm just using some stuff from the garden center (GreenEarth for Tomatoes 4-4-8 I think?). I use a tablespoon around the base of each plant, every 2-3 weeks. This has been my system for the last few years too. Same fertilizer for the last 4 yeras. I don't' have a drip irrigation system, but water 2-3 times a week (more often for my 4 in containers) when there hasn't been rain.
I have a lot of compost, new 3-way soil, sheep manure and Gaia's Rock Dust (added per package instructions) into this soil. These are NEW beds, however. That might be my trouble. Not enough nutrients in the soil?

[KarenO]

May well just be the weather if everything else is the same as in previous years. Was this new seed or the same seed you grew before? Whatever you do, Don't go adding a bunch of this and that to your soil at this time without a soil test. Get a soil test to identify any specific deficiencies and then at the end of the season, before winter make the adjustments so that your garden is ready for next season.
You can of course continue to fertilize you plants for this season. I am referring to the addition of any significant additions of amendments, especially those that have the potential to alter the pH of your soil such as sulphur or agricultural lime.
It's early in the season yet, give them some time and they may start growing well for you. I think removing tomatoes from clusters will likely just reduce your overall yield. I would rather have a smaller tomato than none at all.
Karen

[habitat_gardener]

I'd guess it's too many amendments rather than too few. Too much fertilizer can produce lots of leafy growth and fewer fruits, but I'm not sure why the size of the tomatoes has decreased. Maybe the sheep manure is providing too much nitrogen?

The soils in my area tend to have enough phosphorus and potassium, so all I add is homemade compost and some alfalfa pellets in the hole when I plant. Before I used alfalfa, I thought my cool-summer-nights climate was keeping my tomatoes small. Once I started using alfalfa in the hole, I started getting large tomatoes consistently, even during years that other local gardeners said were bad tomato years. I don't buy any fertilizers, though I sometimes make fermented comfrey tea for the plants (and dilute before applying).

[Anthony_Toronto]

How many fruits per truss/per foot of height? Maybe just smaller fruits because more fruits per truss or more fruits per foot of height. Given the sun, heat, and periodic rain that we have had in southern Ontario so far I can't imagine that it has anything to do with the weather this summer. And I did already pull 2 ripe cherry tomatoes, one from a black cherry, one from sunsugar. Also one San Marzano. Nothing else showing any signs of colour though. And many of mine are quite large, but I believe that is because after the fruits on the lower parts of the plants were pollinated, the flower trusses for the next foot or two above them had substantial blossom drop, either due to excess nitro in my new soil or due to heat and humidity that we had for a time, or both. One of my cherokee purple has a huge truss of maybe 10 or more tomatoes, but they are small. The cherokee purple right next to it has a truss of 2 tomatoes at the same height on the plant, and they are large. So maybe that's it?

[LindyAdele]

Anthony, we haven't had nearly the same heat here in London. I don't think it has been warm at all...we have only hit 30 degrees once maybe? This week nights are chilling to ten. I thought we were having an unseasonably cold summer. Normally we would have had a few heat waves already. It is exciting you have ripe tomatoes already!! I have a slowly ripening sungold, but everything else is green. On my sungold, I have 20 trusses in 6 feet of height.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Well a little less heat migh explain why you have had such great pollination! Was looking at my black cherry yesterday and a few trusses are nothing but stumps with maybe one tomato at the end. Maybe its not such a bad thing as I can never even come close to eating everything from the garden. Even my sunsugar probably has only about 10 trusses, but is about 7 or 8 feet tall.

Haven't tasted those ripe ones yet, they just might be some precocious outliers that might have no taste, will see tonight I hope. Maybe some big ones will start turning by the weekend? I still remember years back I had one Paul Robeson tomato get fully ripe on the vine weeks before anything else even started to turn, couldn't beleive it when I saw it, tasted great...but that hasn't happened before or since.

[LindyAdele]

Anthony, I have no problem at all with pollination!! I have loads of bees in my backyard, throughout June and July. Less in August. Four or five different kinds too - but my backyard is full of bushes, flowers, fruit trees, etc. Each tress is fully (9-12 fruit, most varieties). I guess I'll just see how the season plays out. I was just wondering if anyone here suggests a certain soil PH or ammendment makes a difference in the size, or if I am doing something wrong to have such TALL leafy plants, load of fruit, but small fruit.

[Anthony_Toronto]

I'm thinking it might be as simple as very successful pollination resuting in many but smaller (but maybe the same approximate number of pounds of) fruit.

Ate the precocious sunsugar and black cherry last night, both were WOW in terms of flavour and texture, hope that is a sign of things to come.

[LindyAdele]

I have one more day on my first sungold, black cherries are plentiful but not ripening. Enjoy your feast!! I wish you many more to come. Do you save seeds at all? I would be curious to hear what grows well for you, and swap seeds?

[LindyAdele]

I have one more day on my first sungold, black cherries are plentiful but not ripening. Enjoy your feast!! I wish you many more to come. Do you save seeds at all? I would be curious to hear what grows well for you, and swap seeds?

[Keiththibodeaux]

Just like any fruit or vegetable if you want size you have to sacrifice quantity and remove some fruit. It you want champion sized stuff, you have to remove most of the fruit and force the plant to concentrate where you want it.

[Anthony_Toronto]

I have saved seeds from a few unknown and dehybridized plants, I'll let you know how they grow this year.

One has been extremely odd, a mystery, but a delicious one. Stray seed from a black krim about 10 years ago had green shoulders when unripe (just like a black krim) but was solid pink when ripe. I think it was a mix of black krim and arkansas traveler. Saved seeds came back true to mother tomato for about 5 straight years (globe shaped), but then the next year the seeds grew beefsteak shape (same colour/taste), then two more years of globe shaped, and this year they are all beefsteak again. I have not re-saved seeds...there are all from the original batch of saved seeds...quite a mystery.

The others are plants that grew from saved seeds of purple haze. One seems to be a stable potato leaf cherry that looks like black cherry, is about 50% larger, and is much more fruity. The other is a small beefsteak about 1.5 inches across in cherry-like trusses (this year one plant came up PL and the other RL so I grew out both). I'd only done these once before, and they had the colour and flavour of black cherry but as small salad-sized beefsteaks.

Here are pics of the small beefsteak cherries, though these are larger than the ones on the parent plant were. One truss seems to have one beefsteak shape, one pear shape, and one plum shape!

Also here is the first ripe full-sized tomato, Spear's Tennessee Green that I found when crawling around the garden last night...extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper...delicious!

[IronPete]

I'm in Ontario too but out in the east in Cobourg. Our weather has been cold and rainy to say the least! It hasn't affected the sizes so far but nothing seems to want to ripen. Normally in the summer here it is so hot that I spend most of the time in either a sleeveless shirt or no shirt at all. This year I have had to wear a sweater most of the time. Very odd considering on the west side of the country it is unseasonably hot and has been a forest fire hazard!

As far as fertilizers go I use good soil and put in Jobes tomato spikes when I first plant ($2/package at Dollarama). Several weeks later I start using a liquid fertilizer that is 10-15-10 ($2 at Dollarama) and when they started flowering I switched to the GreenEarth 4-6-8 that you mentioned which I mix with the soil. I would love to try that Texas Tomato Food as I hate using the GreenEarth stuff which is a pain if you have lots of plants. Ad I said, everything seems to be bearing some fruit now (the exception is my Virginia Sweets which only just started flowering yesterday and which are both in a big tote). Nothing is particularly big yet as a lot just started producing fruit a couple of weeks ago. My Black Cherries have all got lots of fruitset. My Stupices all have good fruit set. Purple Cherokee is kicking them out old school (to quote my daughter). The super plant is a Pink Oxheart that I got at Canadian Tire (I start almost all my plants but periodically grab something from the store if it appeals to me. I got this one to compare to my Anna Russians). It has 40 + tomatoes on it. None ripe!

Hey British Columbia, send us back our hot weather please!!! ;-)

All good. Its teaching me a little about patience! Pete