My local Los Angeles, Calif and San Fernando Valley nursery says is OK now to plant Brandwine and other similar variety tomatoes. Other internet sources indicate that night temperatures are not at least
55 F so is too early. They indicate planting tomatoes in too cool soil sets back the tomato plants. They indicate better to plant late April or early May.
For Los Angeles, Calif and San Fernando Valley Can someone indicate when is OK to plant my 4 inch pot 75 day maturing tomatoes in ground?
Here on the North Coast, if we were to wait for 55°F evenings, we wouldn't plant until mid-July. If you are past your last frost and have
8 hr. of sunshine, go for it. It would probably help to put some clear plastic sheeting down, to help warm the soil, along one side of a row of tomatoes, or a semi-circle for a single plant. Completely surrounding the plant with plastic sheeting risks burning the plant, if it touches the plastic during mid-day, and it makes it difficult to water.
Yes, plant as soon as the danger of frost is past. Actually, your area has been know to get frost as late as 1 April.
However, frost highly unlikely, especially after the weather we're having right now. I'm just 6 miles west of the Valley along US101. In the last 24 hours, the temperatures ranged from 64F to 79F. Temperatures haven't dipped down to 55F since Monday morning.
The 55F temperature is really a criterion for tomato plants setting fruit, not for the plants to establish themselves. If the nighttime temperatures go below 55F, the tomato flowers will not create tomatoes unless artificially tweaked with a specific plant hormone.
On the other hand, the flowers will also fail to create tomatoes if the daytime temperatures exceed 100F, which they surely will do in your area this summer. There is no hormone treatment that will negate the problem of high temperatures. Fortunately, small green tomatoes will continue to grow, mature, and ripen with excessive heat even if no new tomatoes are formed.
Dave_s wrote in news:wwqon.88500$K81.22966 @newsfe18.iad:
Plant them now and cross your fingers. Tomatoes can take cold temps quite well so long as you don't get a hard frost. Peppers and eggplants are another story - I would not rush to put them out, but toms will do just fine.
We had a hard frost again last night. We have two months to go before last frost date, I haven't even planted toms/eggplants/peppers inside yet. I'm going to get a few started now in bigger pots, but the bulk of my crop I won't plant for another two weeks.
Thank for info about conditions so near to my home in Panorama City.
Ok, I'm going to buy some tomato plants tomorrow. Probably start with Brandwine and Glacier. Are there any tomatoes varieties which grow well in your US101 local that might also do well in my location? I usually grow tomatoes both in pots and some in the ground also. Prefer full size rather than Cherry size tomato.
I stopped growing tomatoes years ago, so I don't remember the varieties.
My next-door neighbor always plants more than he needs. He gives me his surplus, and I give him peaches. This weekend, I'll ask him what variety he plants. I'll also ask him if he would like some lemons.
My "crops" that are not surplus are asparagus, artichokes, and oranges. We eat all of them.
Besides peaches and lemons, my surpluses include pineapple guavas, loquats, rosemary, and kumquats. In the summer, I have excess dill. I had to replant my grapes, so I'm not getting any fruit from them yet. My old vines produced a great surplus until the raccoons discovered them.
For personal reasons, I cannot produce COMPOST on my residential property. Can you or your neighbor recommend any COMPOST I can buy locally. Can I trust the FREE partially composted MULCH distributed by LA CITY? Want this COMPOST for improving my garden, side dressing, placing in hole as I plant new vegies and flowers, etc.
Be very careful with city compost. Depending on its source, it might not be suitable for use on edibles. Compost derived from sewage sludge might contain toxic heavy metals. Compost derived from pruning street trees and mowing park lawns might contain traces of herbicides or insecticides; it might also contain spores of plant diseases.
I don't mean to scare you away from using city compost. What you need to do is inquire about its source and whether it is suitable for a vegetable garden.
I wouldn't trust it. You have no idea if it contains plant residues that were treated with weed killer, insect poison, etc. It might be OK to use for mulching shrubs or trees, but I wouldn't use it on food crops.
For home gardens, you want an indeterminate variety. That means the tomatoes don't ripen all at once. For efficient farming, commercial varieties are usually determinate, ripening all at the same time.
Since you may not have access to "safe" compost, consider using worm castings. I use them all the time, esp. when planting or transplanting. As you probably know, worm castings are the result of "stuff" passing through our friends, the earth worms. The castings are odorless, fine textured soil modification.
Also, if you are a member of a co=3Dop, or have access to a bulletin board in a co-op or similar, why not post an ad offering to buy organic compost. Couldn't hurt, and you might get a reply.
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