1. Giant Beef Steak
2. Giant Dotto
3. Cherry Roma
4. Manitoba
5. Tom Thumbs
6. Large Roma
The problem with starting tomatoes too early in the greenhouse is that there is not enough light and the plants will get too leggy or spindly. If one were to add some grow lights to a couple of shelves, the plants in the first three weeks would grow thicker stems.
My seedlings when planted outside were 8 to 12 inches in height.. When transplanting the tomatoes outside be sure to plant them deep into the soil. A good rule of thumb is to plant the tomato up to the first two leaves. A little peat moss around the root ball or some seaweed will help retain the moisture, fertilize and aerate the roots of the young tomato. When planting the tomato outside on the May long weekend, the temperature is still too cool, so one should place a plastic dome over the plant until June 15. I experimented with eight different watering systems and used a fertilizing program to promote vegetative growth with maximum water intake. Providing micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium and iron prevented blossom end rot.
By the end of August, I was harvesting tomatoes from all my tomato plants. I had planted 40 plants.
1. Beefsteak tomatoes---produced four or five tomatoes per plant but they weighed one to two pounds each.
2. The cherry romas grew to a height of 12 feet and produced 40 walnut sized tomatoes per plant.
3. The Manitoba's grew about two feet tall and produced 30 to 40 tomatoes that be the size of a half-cup measuring cup. I found these tomatoes the nicest size for cooking and eating.
4. The small tom thumbs were like little sugar candies , the size of a dime or nickel.
5. The large Romas and Giant Dotto's were the size of my fist and exceptionally juicy
When September arrived and I still had green tomatoes, I pruned off most of the tomato leaves and just left the green tomatoes to photosynthesize and moved the potted tomatoes into my greenhouse where the tomatoes ripened on the vine and I was eating tomatoes well into November.
