Home

Varieties of Early Tomatoes

How To Grow Fast Tomatoes in a Container

2009 Growing Journal: Early Girl Tomato vs. Jetsetter Tomato

2010 Growing Journal Start Page:

- Siberian Tomato vs Stupice Tomato

- Bloody Butcher vs Gregori's Altai Tomato

//----------------------------//

Early Girl vs Jetsetter
Comparison of Two Early Season Varieties

Disclaimer: The following Growing Journal is just one way to grow a Early Season tomato plant. There are many different methods, tips and do's and dont's on growing tomatoes. The following method is right for our climate zone, requirements, and situation. We hope that it will be helpful to readers. Also, tomatoes grown in containers larger than 5 gallons, (10 to 25 gallons) will produce more and larger fruit, but 5 gallon is what we have to work with this year. So,...

( See how it all started if you are entering through this page )

Update: June 29th

Below: Well, if the race was to see which variety (actually, it's a cultivar, but semantics aside) ripened FASTER, then the Jetsetter Tomato on the righ beat out the Early Girl. Each were planted the same days, transplanted the same days and given the same compost/soil and peat mixture. The both received the same amount of Sun and Rainwater, as well as garden hose water. - The Jetsetter won. Out of 4 Early Girls, and 4 Jetsetters, this one orangish-red fruit on a Jetsetter tomato came in first.

First isn't always best: Here's where the Jetsetter disappoints me. Although the tomatoes are perfectly round and a beautiful 6 ot 8 ounce sandwhich size, each plant has only produced TWO fruit. That's it. More will come, I know. But only 2 so far? That's some high quality compost in there that my other tomatoes and vegetables are thriving on.

In comparison, the Early Girl's are great producers. Sure, they are smaller, probably going to be 3 to 6 ounces (I'm guessing at this point), but each plant has 8 to 10 fruit so far. - That's 32 to 40 tomatoes compared to a grand total of 8 from the Jetsetters.

So, you be the judge, fewer but larger, or more tomatoes but smaller? We're still halfway through the season and a lot can happen during that time.

A close-up of my Jetsetter tomato that is going to win the ripe/harvest race.

Here is the Early Girl and Jetsetter we tracked during our last two updates. The Early Girl on the LEFT has 9 tomatoes visible in this photo, while the Jetsetter on the RIGHT has 2 fruit which are larger and perfectly round.

June 29th Update Continued...

A Heat Wave, 3 Birds with Quartz Rock, a Moisture Meter and my Wife's Meat Thermometer

Shortly after my last update on June 15th and for the next 2 weeks, every single day we've had a scorching heat wave with temps 95 to 105 degrees, and a heat index (what it actually feels like) up to 109. Two weeks of that and tomato production is going to crash to a halt. This heat wave that has come in shows no sign of leaving anytime soon and usually doesn't come until July. If it had been more considerate, my tomatoes would have had time to produce more tomatoes before the temps became too much for the blooms. (BTW, I list heat tolerant varities of tomatoes on the Home Page).

To help beat the heat, I decided to solve 3 problems at one time. Since I had some blossom rot show up on some other tomato varities, I poured a cup of garden lime (high in calcium) onto the top of the soil for each of my 32 five gallon tomato containers. Blossom rot is caused by a shortage of calcium being absorbed by the fruit. Ironically, your soil may have enough calcium, but it often goes to the leaves and branches first. Blossom rot may also be caused by too much watering - something I may have accidentally done earlier this month (June) as I tried to beat the heat.

After adding the lime, I scratched it into the top 1 centimeter of soil and spread it around. Second, I used an Army shovel (very handy with container gardening) to shovel in another 2 to 4 inches of top soil for each container. I neglected to account for rain and water compacting the soil downward when I first filled them up with my soil mixture this Spring. This mistake exposed the roots closer to the surface and more warmer temps from the Sun. The growing roots were also in danger of coming out of the top of the soil. The third problem I fixed is the mulch I put down. I made a risky but good decision to use white quartz river rock and layed down enough to cover the soil. It performed better than I expected as proven by my wife's meat thermometer and this Moisture Meter. I chose the white quartz rock as I thought it would reflect the Oklahoma Sun better than anything else. I also needed something heavy that would stay in the buckets and not get washed away. About the same time I was buying the quartz rock, I came across this moisture meter and immediately knew it would tell

The Moisture Meter shows wet although it's 100 degrees out and I watered 20 hours ago. The rock did a great job of keeping heat out, and the moisture in.

me how well my rock mulch was doing, and take some of the guesswork out of watering. If you recall, my plan was to water once a day until July 4th, then water 2x a day when the heatwave came - but it came earlier this year.

In the picture of the moisture meter above, this particular tomato (not an early variety) gives a reading on the low end of "Wet" - although I had watered about 20 hours before, and the temperatures outside at the time the picture taken was 100 degrees. In fact, all my tomatoes, Early and other varities, gave pretty much the same reading. The white quartz river rock really did a great job of keeping the heat out, and the moisture in.

Feeling inspired, I borrowed my wife's meat thermometer to test the soil. In 3 different samples at about 5 inches deep, including one Early variety, the soil temps were 86 to 88 degrees. - Nice! Much cooler than what I was feeling in that 100 degree heat! I believe the temperatures were even cooler deeper into the soil.

Looks like I'll stick to my watering once a day schedule, and may cut back to a 36 hour schedule.

I'll try to update sooner next time. Learn from my mistakes.

<< Back ::: Continued on Next Page >>