I have a couple in self watering pots that are just starting to wake up again and one has several marble size fruit and the other has one large green tomato, but the plants look awful. Too much fog and not enough sun.

Had that fog/no sun problem at the beginning of the season last year. It finally got warm and sunny, and the tomatoes recovered.

I have one tomato plant from last year that is covered in thrips and aphis, it wasn't like that before my vacation. But I'm leaving it along. Something will come along to eat them.

Should have taken a pic of my tomato plant. I think it might be getting flowers. Not sure how I feel about that. I might cut the flowers off to let the plant grow more. It's in a coffee can and there's no support for it yet, but I'm thinking I might run some twine from a hook in the ceiling to the pot and train the plant to jump through hoops or climb the twine whichever is easier. But that might result in it being an indoor plant which I suppose it always will be because by the time May comes, this plant could be a monster.

The volunteer mater plant which I have no clue what variety it is, I'm growing hydroponically. It must have doubled in size in three days. I think I need to move these two guys in place and get twine going. But.. I'm gonna need light.....

Read a lot of info on tomatoes that says yes to removing tomato blossoms when the plants are pretty small. The plant then puts its energy into growing, stronger. Also recommends this for purchased tomato plants when you bring them home and plant them. They will re bloom.

Yeah... when I used to buy plants, I would buy the tallest lankiest plants I could find. If it had blossoms, those would come off, and all but the top four leaves on the plant. Then I plant the tomato plant horizontally in a trench. Roots emerge from the stem and makes for a much stronger plant long term. Doesn't take long for the plant to overtake plants that were not treated this way and there's no comparing the roote structure at the end of the season, but these days I leave the soil untouched and cut the plant off at ground level.

I have started all of my tomato seeds.

Cherokee Purple
Dad's Sunset
Lucky Tiger
Pantano Romanesco
Green Giant
White Tomesol
Black Beauty
Brandywine
Thorburn's Terra-cotta
Costuluto Genovese
Amish Paste
Anana's Noire
Hillbilly Potato Leaf

Heat mat with thermostat set at 76f.

A good list!

This year I should have a very large area of full sun so hopefully that helps, I just need to do what I can to work with the super sandy/loamy soil here that doesn't hold nutrients well, I might see if I can scrounge craigslist for someone to deliver a cheap or possibly free load of manure.

repentantslide said:
Heat mat with thermostat set at 76f.

Do you happen to know which brand? I bought a couple last year and they didn't last a month.

Repentantslide, see if you can find someone with a hog operation. Now, I wouldn't personally use hog manure, but there is a farmer here who composts his hog manure and then sells it to local gardeners. All the people I have spoken to that have bought it say it works very well. I use my own compost to add to my soil, which has chicken litter incorporated into it.

thommesM said:

Do you happen to know which brand? I bought a couple last year and they didn't last a month.

MET from Amazon

I have two heat mats; bought them from Lowe's last year. Still working just fine.

I think it's hit or miss, it helps to choose a retailer with a good return policy. Amazon has the 30 day automatic refund thing, but I bet even if you contact them within 2 months and explain the situation and are polite they'll accept a return. But the heat mats are definitely hit or miss, you see a lot of reviews of pretty much any brand saying it was DOA or died shortly after arrival, I think that's maybe just the nature of heat mats, it's probably hard for them to test it rigorously from the factory without increasing the price significantly.

@repentantslide, I grow Celebrity which I think is called determinate, and it seems keep on bearing, stays reasonable size not climbing all over everything like an indeterminate.

I grew Celebrity for a friend who had no garden space but grew it himself when he did garden. Disaster! He wanted lots to can so it was a ten plant section. In the same patch of ground, treated the same way as my other thirty plants, Celebrity was quickly exhibiting disease and while they did produce some fruits, most were small, round, red, tough skinned tomatoes that looked a lot like grocery store tomatoes. Flavor was non-existent. The guy came and looked at the crop and was ecstatic. He said they looked great, better than he ever did and he didn't care what they tasted like because canned tomatoes never needed flavor to be used in soups and stews.

I sent him home with a boxful of the other tomatoes from the garden and he never wanted Celebrity again but loved what I grew. Sadly my friend passed away a couple of years ago but before he went, another real tomato fan was born.

I tried one of those hybrid high heat resistant varieties last year, a determinate. Don't remember the name. Dry, tasteless, thick skin, and the plant not at all resistant to diseases. Thank you very much, but I'll keep growing my heirlooms. I do grow better boy and best boy, the only hybrids I have found that have taste and are suitable for my climate. Oh, I do grow Brad Gates tomatoes, which are technically hybrids, but one of the parents is an heirloom.

sallyg said:@repentantslide, I grow Celebrity which I think is called determinate, and it seems keep on bearing, stays reasonable size not climbing all over everything like an indeterminate.

Yeah I have a feeling that the "traditional" wisdom that determinates bear all of their fruit at once and then "just die" is due more to people not preventing blight and other late-season diseases than anything. Regardless, determinates and indeterminates definitely both have their place.

As the saying goes, 'your mileage may vary' So even if I only do 8 plants, I feel I must mix them. Hedge your bets?
I got a Southern Exposure seed catalog yesterday. It has a nice tribute to Carolyn Male.

Sally, I like your philosophy about planting tomatoes, I do that, too. Plus I like the different tastes of different tomatoes. I like to try at least one new variety a year to see if they are good for my hot and humid climate. I now have a list of tomatoes that have become standards for me. I grow 2 to 4 of these every near, and then the rest new ones. I am guilty of growing up to 15 plants a year, I am cutting back this year because I want to use some of the pots for other things, such as onion sets, potatoes, squash, and some new peppers. My son has talked me into growing a habanero pepper this year.