Tom the Beefsteak Tomato
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We have our first sprout at 10 days, looks like there might be another sprout coming in as well!
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@pg13 How are Tom's tomatoes looking (and tasting) lately?!
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WOW those look amazing!
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It has been a busy couple weeks for Tom. We have harvested almost 30 tomatoes in two weeks. As time has gone on the tomatoes have started to get smaller and more regular in size. Tom is still producing a couple of tomatoes per day and is continuing to grow upwards.
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Looking good!
I have experienced the same thing about the 'water flow alert.' Both times I've had it the water level inside the nutrient reservoir was at the level with the mixing pump. The alert stopped coming after I filled my reservoir with water again.
I bet Tom drinks A LOT of water!
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Tom had gotten bushier and some leaves were growing into each other so he got an extensive haircut this morning. We are a week away from our first tomato being ripe enough to harvest. I also had a mixing pump error on the bloom this morning. However all errors were fixed once I added some water (the water was at the pump level).
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Tom has grown quite impressively over the last two weeks, we are now close 50+ tomatoes with the first ones starting to shows signs of ripening. The introduction of more calcium seems to have stopped the BER and give Tom a push to get bigger.
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Glad to see he's doing better!
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Great update PG!
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My newer tomatoes are not showing any signs of blossom end rot(BER). I also increased my nutrients when I changed my nutrient ratios and Tom seems to have taken off at a little quicker pace since then. The tomatoes with the BER have started to look better and the BER has slowed, if not stopped on those tomatoes.
When it comes to the lights, here is the hour view of the temperature. It has not reached over 72 degrees in awhile.
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@pg13 Thanks for sharing your experience and it sounds like the additional Micro should help. Have any new tomatoes grown in and are you seeing any changes with added calcium?
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Hey @pg13. It is really looking good in there. Thanks for your help in dialing in the nutrients. Calcium is present in the "micro" (purple)(B) nutrients we use. Boosting that should eliminate the blossom end rot. I also am going to hypothesize that your new tomatoes don't show signs of this. First fruit set can often show signs of BER, which disappear as the plants mature. We may want to adjust our recipes to introduce more Micro earlier in the grow. We'll keep testing!
Re the heat, are your lights at 100%? Advanced Settings/Lights Power. With a target of 76, as plants mature, you may find your temperatue hovering right at 74, with infrequent dips to 73, but it should not drop lower than that. Can you post an hourly view?
Finally, awesome pruning! It's looking great.
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Over the past couple days Toms early tomatoes started to develop Blossom End Rot. Having never experienced this before, I spent some time researching why this happens. This happens when the plant does not have enough calcium. After talking to @JT I decided to change my nutrients ration from 1.5 : 2 : 1.25 to 1.5 : 2.5 : 1.25 to help introduce more calcium. I completed a water change and moved Tom onto a new stage with the new nutriment ratios. Despite this Tom is continuing to produce more fruit and grows bigger every day.
Another problem that I have noticed is that the Bloom is struggling to heat to the required level in the day. My target is 76 and the Bloom only appears to get to 72 or 73.
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Tom has grown quite a bit and we have over 10 tomatoes now growing, with the first getting quite big now. I have been working on trimming larger leaves that block new growth and pruning suckers
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Looking great! Stay aggressive on the pruning!
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Tom keeps on getting bigger and bigger, it appears that there are more than 10 tomatoes growing now. I keep trimming any dead leaves or suckers that we don't want.
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Wow does that look better. Great job @pg13!!! And congrats on your baby tomato.
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Thank you for the wonderful advice @JT and @I_like_plants. I went through a removed several branches to make it so I have 5 main branches and I freed up room for new growth. I also removed many suckers as well. We also have our first signs of fruit coming in as well. Thanks for all the amazing help!
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Thanks for that great picture. Unlike some plants, you can take suckers and even main branches off a tomato at any time, and in fact you have to. Tomatoes are a vine that will literally try to grow hundreds of feet long if conditions are right, with a new branch appearing in between every leaf/stem intersection. So PG 13, I would 1) identify the 5 main branches/vines you want to keep (that are well spaced within the Bloom, not growing into the door, etc) and get rid of everything else. You can't hurt this plant, it will grow like crazy no matter what you do to it. After you have gotten rid of the "extra" vines, we can give it a day or two break and then go back in and trim out the leaves that aren't benefitting it.
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Your plant may be too far along in the growth process to be pruning suckers off now. It is best to pinch them off before they are larger then 3". If left to grow with all the suckers on they will become mature branches leaving you with a tangled, unruley plant. This technique is common when growing tomatoes and will be important to do in a limited space.
Try and keep up with this starting early on. This will allow you to train your main branches better for a healthier plant and final product.
For now keep pruning weaker growth off, allowing the strongest branches to receive more attention. Good luck!
