The USA Tomato

shadowcast

http://www.gilttaste.com/stories/572-Ba ... Tomatoland

polaris_x

:( :(

it's yet another aspect of the effects of the corporatization of america ... i made a bruschetta last summer using heirloom tomatoes and everyone was saying how great it was ... i said - all i did was use REAL FUCKING tomatoes ...

usamamasan1

growing heirloom toms organic is my bag. Currently have 6 "stupice" about 6.5 ' high. I love them. Problem is, when I am looking at a few ready for harvest and i determine they will be ready "tomorrow" the mice/possum/rats or whatever strolls by has the same idea. I get up in the morning and there are little taste tests dripping from my freshly pentrated toms!

That's why I grow A LOT. Because I like to share.

aerial

I work in a grocery store and agree most tomatoes are tasteless. I grow my own in Florida. I just came home from vacation in the Ga. Mountains and brought back some AWSOME very large tomatoes...the kind that one slice makes a sandwich...had one last night. They were much cheaper than at the grocery store.
I grow three different types but the Heirloom is doing the best and has the largest tomatoes. I had been going to check them every day anticipating the color change. I woke up one day from a nap and my son says to me "Mom I am so sorry about the tomatoes". I looked at him half asleep wondering what he was talking about. Seems while I was sleeping he picks the two largest tomatoes that are still green and cooks himself some fried green tomatoes.
Everyone in the family saw him with the two green tomatoes and told him "you’re in deep shit if those are your Moms Heirloom tomatoes". When I finally realized what he was saying I cried. I could not believe it “Tomato Drama"! Now, it has been a week and I have about six more on the vine but one Blue Ribbon size still green... I am still waiting.

I heard about the tomato pickers protesting out side of grocery stores. They want the stores to pay more for the tomatoes so that their pay would go up. This makes no sense to me. Why not make the employer pay them more. If the grocery stores did not buy them, they would have no job.
I think this guy should have talked to more than one congress member….The only reason the farmers are not punished is because the Good Ole’ Boy system is still very much alive here in Florida.

Tenzing N.

So here's my questions for the tomato growers:

I have five plants growing from seeds that found themselves into the compost bin. Will the tomatos from those plants have the same inferior qualities as the store bought tomatos that the seeds came from or will my home cultivating make them better?

How many plants should I have to provide three to four tomatos per week?

usamamasan1

start with proper seeds or plants from a proper seed. Otherwise, you will not get what you are looking for. Anywhere in the US now, it's probably too late to start fresh from seed if growing outdoor.

I pick my plants up for five years now from her (below), but she is just a few miles away. she does ship though.

most of my garden i start from my own seed, but for my toms, she rules. I prefer the stupice.

they are massive and so fragrant

http://heirloomtomatoplants.com/

aerial

Tenzing N. wrote:

So here's my questions for the tomato growers:

I have five plants growing from seeds that found themselves into the compost bin. Will the tomatos from those plants have the same inferior qualities as the store bought tomatos that the seeds came from or will my home cultivating make them better?

How many plants should I have to provide three to four tomatos per week?

Heirloom tomatoes will produce tomatoes like the mother plant….the genetically engineered seeds are made so that they will NOT reproduce a plant as healthy as the mother plant. This makes the farmer have to buy more seeds from the company. So it all depends on the mother plant.
All you need is one heirloom plant and you will have seeds forever.

Shawshank

Yeah, you definitely want to start with good seeds. Stay away from the corporatized crap. Also, I always had horrible luck with tomatoes for some reason when I first started, so if for some reason it doesn't work out at first, just keep trying. Most of my problem centered around my location. If you are just starting out and want to plant from seeds, then what I've found works best is to really start them off strong indoors. I have a wire rack on wheels that has like 4 shelves on it. I just use one of those 4ft' X 2ft' shallow plastic storage bins from Wal-Mart, and then I put a couple of fluorescent shop lives above each bin. I can plant around 50 peet pots in each of these bins.

I start the peet pots only about half full of dirt. Then when I see the plans sprout and they are about 2 inches above the rim of the peet pot, I'll go ahead and fill the remainder of the pot with dirt. With tomatoes all the little "hairs" you see on the body of the plant will make roots. So by following this method you get a deeper planting because you are filling up the remainder of the pot with dirt and covering those hairs so they make additional roots. You end up with a stronger plant.

When the plant's main stem is about the diameter of a pencil, you can start preparing to move it outdoors. Use caution here, because you have to harden off tomato plants. What I have noticed is, growing them under the fluorescent lights seems to help harden them off very well, but I would maybe only put the bin outdoors for a few hours out of direct sunlight for a couple of days before fully transplanting them into the ground in direct sun.

Also, I've always been told tomato plants don't like a lot of water. Some growers I know never water their plants after they've been moved outside. Well I've been dabbling in Aquaponics, and I have an experimental system setup indoors. It's a constant flow system, with about 20 goldfish in the tank below. I put one of my tomato plants in there, and it took off like a rocket. I mean, you could almost watch this thing grow. So this tomato plant is sitting in about 4 inches of water 24-7, no soil, just river rock as the bed. Every morning it seemed noticeably bigger. It's been going in that system for almost 2 months now, and it looks like it is about to grow through the roof of my house. It has a couple of large tomatoes growing on it now, that actually look better than the tomatoes I have growing outside. It's been a fascinating experiment, especially finding out what can be started from seed.

aerial

Shawshank wrote:

Yeah, you definitely want to start with good seeds. Stay away from the corporatized crap. Also, I always had horrible luck with tomatoes for some reason when I first started, so if for some reason it doesn't work out at first, just keep trying. Most of my problem centered around my location. If you are just starting out and want to plant from seeds, then what I've found works best is to really start them off strong indoors. I have a wire rack on wheels that has like 4 shelves on it. I just use one of those 4ft' X 2ft' shallow plastic storage bins from Wal-Mart, and then I put a couple of fluorescent shop lives above each bin. I can plant around 50 peet pots in each of these bins.

I start the peet pots only about half full of dirt. Then when I see the plans sprout and they are about 2 inches above the rim of the peet pot, I'll go ahead and fill the remainder of the pot with dirt. With tomatoes all the little "hairs" you see on the body of the plant will make roots. So by following this method you get a deeper planting because you are filling up the remainder of the pot with dirt and covering those hairs so they make additional roots. You end up with a stronger plant.

When the plant's main stem is about the diameter of a pencil, you can start preparing to move it outdoors. Use caution here, because you have to harden off tomato plants. What I have noticed is, growing them under the fluorescent lights seems to help harden them off very well, but I would maybe only put the bin outdoors for a few hours out of direct sunlight for a couple of days before fully transplanting them into the ground in direct sun.

Also, I've always been told tomato plants don't like a lot of water. Some growers I know never water their plants after they've been moved outside. Well I've been dabbling in Aquaponics, and I have an experimental system setup indoors. It's a constant flow system, with about 20 goldfish in the tank below. I put one of my tomato plants in there, and it took off like a rocket. I mean, you could almost watch this thing grow. So this tomato plant is sitting in about 4 inches of water 24-7, no soil, just river rock as the bed. Every morning it seemed noticeably bigger. It's been going in that system for almost 2 months now, and it looks like it is about to grow through the roof of my house. It has a couple of large tomatoes growing on it now, that actually look better than the tomatoes I have growing outside. It's been a fascinating experiment, especially finding out what can be started from seed.

Your experiment sounds exciting. You think it is the fish poop that makes the plant grow like that? Do you have a light on it? Here in Florida I have to get the plants out early before the humidity gets high and water mine everyday. I mixed good soil with Black Cow and add more black cow as the plant grows. All the nutrients just wash thru the sandy soil here. So every year I add good soil to all my gardens hoping one day I will not have to continue adding it. Dirt is not cheap.

markin ball

Anyone tried th "little cherubs" you can get at the grocery store? They are about the size of a large bryan or grape tomato but they almost taste like a homegrown beefsteak.

Shawshank

aerial wrote:

Your experiment sounds exciting. You think it is the fish poop that makes the plant grow like that? Do you have a light on it? Here in Florida I have to get the plants out early before the humidity gets high and water mine everyday. I mixed good soil with Black Cow and add more black cow as the plant grows. All the nutrients just wash thru the sandy soil here. So every year I add good soil to all my gardens hoping one day I will not have to continue adding it. Dirt is not cheap.

The fish waste is a big part of it. Actually it's the ammonia in the fish waste that is critical. There are bacteria on the rock that convert that ammonia to nitrates, and the plants LOVE nitrates. The rock then filters the water, and it returns to the fish sparkling clean. I've had this going for 2 months now and the water is still crystal clear without me even having to touch it. That's saying a lot for goldfish.LOL

aerial

Shawshank wrote:

aerial wrote:

Your experiment sounds exciting. You think it is the fish poop that makes the plant grow like that? Do you have a light on it? Here in Florida I have to get the plants out early before the humidity gets high and water mine everyday. I mixed good soil with Black Cow and add more black cow as the plant grows. All the nutrients just wash thru the sandy soil here. So every year I add good soil to all my gardens hoping one day I will not have to continue adding it. Dirt is not cheap.

The fish waste is a big part of it. Actually it's the ammonia in the fish waste that is critical. There are bacteria on the rock that convert that ammonia to nitrates, and the plants LOVE nitrates. The rock then filters the water, and it returns to the fish sparkling clean. I've had this going for 2 months now and the water is still crystal clear without me even having to touch it. That's saying a lot for goldfish.LOL

How cool! Do you have a picture?

Cliffy6745

I heard about this article the other day and just got around to reading it. This is absolutely sickening.

stuckinline

"Perhaps our taste buds are trying to send us a message. Today's industrial tomatoes are as bereft of nutrition as they are of flavor. According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fresh tomatoes today have 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than they did in the 1960s. But the modern tomato does shame its 1960s counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium."

WTF?
Seriously?
So basically, they took out the nutrition and added salt!

mickeyrat

stuckinline wrote:

"Perhaps our taste buds are trying to send us a message. Today's industrial tomatoes are as bereft of nutrition as they are of flavor. According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fresh tomatoes today have 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than they did in the 1960s. But the modern tomato does shame its 1960s counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium."

WTF?
Seriously?
So basically, they took out the nutrition and added salt!

tomatos taste better with salt!!

aerial

mickeyrat wrote:

stuckinline wrote:

"Perhaps our taste buds are trying to send us a message. Today's industrial tomatoes are as bereft of nutrition as they are of flavor. According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fresh tomatoes today have 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than they did in the 1960s. But the modern tomato does shame its 1960s counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium."

WTF?
Seriously?
So basically, they took out the nutrition and added salt!

tomatos taste better with salt!!

and pepper

Jason P

This is a "good" problem to have versus not have enough tomatoes for the populous. The whole Food, Inc. changes to our food have downsides in all the crap that is injected, modified, etc., but without the current system food prices would probably be much higher and scarce.

I was reminded of an "article" by The Onion:

Burundi Beef Council: 'Please Send Beef'



http://www.theonion.com/articles/burundi-beef-council-please-send-beef,329/

shadowcast

Jason P wrote:

This is a "good" problem to have versus not have enough tomatoes for the populous. The whole Food, Inc. changes to our food have downsides in all the crap that is injected, modified, etc., but without the current system food prices would probably be much higher and scarce.

I was reminded of an "article" by The Onion:

Burundi Beef Council: 'Please Send Beef'



http://www.theonion.com/articles/burundi-beef-council-please-send-beef,329/

Youyr right about it being a good problem to have and also about the food prices. You would think that they would find a happy medium where nutrition and taste were not affected.

Jason P

shadowcast wrote:

Youyr right about it being a good problem to have and also about the food prices. You would think that they would find a happy medium where nutrition and taste were not affected.

The happy medium is my garden

Maybe some tax break incentives for those that have their own garden are finally due. With food prices forecasted to go up over the next decade, adding millions of households growing their own gardens may help out. Something to think about.

RW81233

if you want fresh veggies in the coming years you might have to have your own garden considering the damage that's been done to the land currently being farmed.

polaris_x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBEFCiWyW0

Tenzing N.

That was a very cute video. I have thrown both regular potatoes and the sweet variety in my compost bin and within days they are sprouting vines so I'm not sure where she gets hers from. Mine seem to be just fine.