Message Board - BigPumpkins.com

Southeastern Illinois

Just curious as to how to tell when you have a decent size tomato growing. Are there benchmark sizes for various days after pollination to sort of tell you where you are? I am familiar with normal tomatoes but first time dealing with giant class thx.

1/10/2018 5:35:33 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

I am no expert but I think it depends on your environment. Lower temperatures will give you less growth per day but more days to grow. Higher temps will give more growth per day but less days to ripening. I think about 80 degrees during the day is considered about optimum. It is really hard to compare a tomato growing at 85-90 degrees during the day vs a 70-75 tomato. The warmer tomato will grow faster but might only have 30 days of growth as compared to 45-50 days. I somewhat compare sets to the other sets that i have at the same time to determine which plant is showing the best potential.

1/10/2018 6:01:33 PM

Southeastern Illinois

That helps my temps are normally 75-80 day time 63-65 night so I should expect a medium range ripening if I am understanding you correctly.

1/10/2018 6:14:21 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

Next year I might start tracking Growing Degree Days and charting cc measurements based on the GDD numbers. It is probably an area that we can improve upon. I just did a quick search, finding different numbers for GDD for ripening tomatoes. We all know I need more things to think about in growing :)

1/10/2018 6:14:47 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

With those temps, I would expect 40+ days of a growth. My grow room runs so hot, that I tend to be under 40. My suggestion would be for you to track your measurements and DAP and use that as a reference for future years. Your outside measurements-temperature will be different..it is so much easier to grow outside. By the way...I am liking the picture of one of your sets. I would cut the smaller one off and concentrate on the bigger. Plant looks healthy..I think you could have a competitive entry.

1/10/2018 6:26:02 PM

Wixom MI.

I agree with bnots assessment. Often people wont post their tomatoes untill its around 20+" so its sometimes hard to make bench marks.for me i like to have a tomato arunnd 12"-15" by day 10 and 20" by day 20 after that a tomato can slow down quite a d bit. And these numbers are for a 6 lb tomato or more ! I can't say that i tracked numbers for a tomato 4 lbs or less.

1/10/2018 6:31:24 PM

Wixom MI.

Bnot i think that smaller tomato on virtual veggies plant is his crossed tomato ! It good to practice because it is much harder to get these to work. I would sugest cross pollinating tomatoes with different verieties. Crossing two big zacs together like you did probably wont give you any noticeable changes.

1/10/2018 6:42:22 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

I am not finding what the 4.86 is...if it is actually the 4.88 (which is a domingo) x 7.07 BigZac that would be a similar cross to the wixom slammer.If it is a 4.63..then it is a cross with mother-daughter. Not much to gain. Your numbers for DAP chris are really for outdoor, i think you need better growth between day 20 and day 45 :). Indoor numbers are somewhat different. Grow it as big as you can Virtual Veggies...Indoors, it doesn't take a a huge weight to get on the list of biggest.

1/10/2018 6:52:55 PM

Southeastern Illinois

Thx guys I was practicing crosses mainly. The reason I thought to do it was that the 7.07 didn't give me any multi blooms on the first or second truss levels. The 4.86 threw a double on the first truss and has a large maybe multi forming on the 2nd truss.

You will have to check with Qtip but I have a picture of the seed pack he sent in last years journal. He has it labeled 4.86.... 2.45 May x open. The plant has a smaller stature and sort of different type leaves. I figured my 7.07 set would not amount to much since it wasn't a mega bloom but just a normal looking single to me. So was going to experiment with that plant. Might be better to use it to do DAP measurements as it grows and log them for future reference as you suggested bnot. The pollen may not set and make my decision for me lol.

1/10/2018 7:26:43 PM

Wixom MI.

http://bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=232576

Virtual how do you collect your pollon for cross pollinating ? Here is a post i made on how i do it !!!

1/10/2018 7:49:15 PM

Southeastern Illinois

I basically vibrate it out and catch it on a sunglass lens them rub the critters nose in it lol. I gently slide the stigma across the surface of the pollen covered sunglass lens. You can see little scratch lines in the pollen after you slide the stigma across it. I try to rotate and tilt the lens to cover all portions of the tip of the stigma. My old eyes and hands aren't the best at doing it your way and I wasn't sure when the pollen was ready that way.

1/10/2018 8:06:58 PM

Southeastern Illinois

Did a quick measurement and the set tomato is around 5/8 inch long and I had the best pollen dust cloud on Jan 4 so would say it was pollinated for sure then or before possibly one day. That would make it DAP 6 or 7 today.

1/10/2018 8:20:44 PM

Wixom MI.

Ya i get it my eyes are not the best anymore.. I was always afraid that i wasn't going to get enough pollen on the pistal your way but only time and practice will tell. Good luck.

1/10/2018 8:20:53 PM