Would spray paint negatively affect the plant's at all? Also how many pounds of fruit could I expect from 4 mature San Marzanos? Also in the case I don't have room on the patio ( I am also growing Cali wonder bell peppers ) my mother in law agreed to let me use some space in their backyard, I would still be using containers.

Don't spray the plants, spray the tubs BEFORE you add the plants. Or wrap them in old sheets - something to make them a light color. Aluminum foil would work.

An average tomato in hot climates averages 20 to 30 pounds. You may get 50 pounds and you may get 10 pounds. It all depends upon the happiness of the plant. Weather, water, sun or shade....

I do agree that making sauce is a waste of time and space. I only did it once and then switched to tomatoes I wanted to eat fresh. My other big crop is hot chili peppers. I make togarashi, much to the delight of my Japanese relatives.

Daisy

outlieramb said:Okay here's a little more information - my plan is to use 20 gallon smart pots or a similar concept. The 20 gallon should be deep enough for a strong root system yet the fabric will allow for air circulation to assist in keeping them cool. The 20 gallon size also allows for the use of cages. I chose the San marzano originally because I plan to make and can saucec. I was looking for a determinate type and the website I had consulted had a misprint where they listed the San marzano as determine instead of indeterminate. I only realized after I'd sowed the seeds so I suppose I'm committed now. Am growing the regular sized San Marzano variety purchased through Seeds of Change. I live in an apartment so in ground planting is not an option.

Well, you have started the seedlings and have your containers so haven't got much to loose by planting and seeing how it goes.

Have you looked into trying any cherry type tomatoes? They are usually tasty for eating fresh plus they are known to be the best for staying productive in extra hot climates.

My favorites are Sun Sugar and Sun Cherry.

The new Indigos taste great and are fun if you like interesting plants - the fruit ripens to red but the plants are purple to almost black and then in an hour green again.

Zebra! Good - fruit is green with ellow stripes.

Yes, I go for the odd ones. Makes my salads so much more fun to have cherry tomatoes of every color.

Daisy

I meant would it leach into the roots soil etc after the paint is dry and the inside is filled with dirt. Perhaps instead of making sauce I could can the whole or diced tomatoes and use those to create sauce / paste as needed?

dyzzypyxxy said:Wow, are you sure about this venture, Amber? How many containers do you have room for outside your apartment?

You need a TON of tomatoes to make enough sauce to can.

My experience (and I had a big garden in Salt Lake when I did this) was that after all the growing, harvesting, peeling and cooking, the small amount of (frozen) sauce I ended up with from about 25 plants was not worth all the effort AND (adding insult to injury) it really didn't taste any better than the store-bought sauce even with my home-grown herbs added. Plus, I'd used my whole garden space on the sauce tomatoes and so we didn't have any fresh tomatoes to eat that summer and everyone was mad at me about that . . .

My advice? Grow tasty tomatoes to eat fresh, because you can't get them at a store and buy a good quality organic sauce (Trader Joe's is wonderful).

I don't think I've ever disagreed with one of Elaine's posts here, but...

Last year I had 16 tomato plants; I normally only grow 12, but I was trying quite a few new-to-me varieties (from a seed swap). A couple of the plants didn't produce anything at all for me, and a couple of others were very small cherry tomatoes that we didn't use for anything but snacking or giving away. From the remainder I made 48 pints of salsa, plus 24 cups of tomato sauce (I "roast" tomatoes in the oven and then run them through a food mill to make the sauce, which I think is a lot less hassle than trying to cook them down on the stove). I also froze a couple of gallon bags of peeled whole tomatoes, and we had more than plenty to eat fresh. All of this in a year that was way less than ideal for growing tomatoes (even relative to my normally less than idea northern climate); we didn't get our first ripe tomatoes until almost the end of August, and they didn't really get going until mid September. Fortunately we had a long autumn, with a late first freeze.

I do definitely agree, however, with growing tomatoes for fresh eating; that has always been my main reason for growing them, the salsa and sauce just evolved over the years as a result of having an over-abundance!

Your harvest is going to be determined by a lot of factors, including the health and vigor of the plants, weather, watering and fertilizing, bug problems, how much sun your patio gets . . etc. It's impossible to say for sure. Plus, as we noted above, you may be starting pretty late as well.

But 4 plants at the very best might give you enough tomatoes for a few meals' worth of sauce unless you use them fresh i.e. dice them into al fresca sauce with other veggies and herbs (which is really good). Do I see you have a child or children, in your avatar picture?

Indeterminate tomatoes keep bearing fruit, but you won't get a whole lot all at once as well, making it again harder to get enough to make sauce.

Thanks for the nice compliment, Sandy. And also WOW at your great harvest last year!

Your roasting and food mill method for sauce sure makes a lot of sense, too. Mm, I'll bet that sauce tastes better than store-bought.

I checked the growth chart and I should be fine, I don't actually live in Santa Barbara, I live in a small town north called Lompoc and it is a couple weeks late but we are supposed to have over 200 days of good growing weather. Yes, I have a one year old son.

Hi, Amber. Welcome to ATP!

outlieramb said:I meant would it leach into the roots soil etc after the paint is dry and the inside is filled with dirt. ...

I think you said something once about "fabric". Smart Pots or EarthBoxes that I've seen have heavy plastic walls and paint would not be able to seep or leach through those walls.

If your Smart Pots somehow have fabric sides, painting fabric might not be an option! In which case you might need to shade the pots (not the plants) from the sun when it gets too hot.

p.s.: Many people think a container needs a soil-less mix, not garden soil. Soil from the ground is usually too heavy, water-retentive and poorly-aerated to work well in containers. Mixes have much more open space ("high porosity", ProMix calls it) . Thus air can always diffuse to the bottom of the container and prevent roots from rotting.

A SmartPot needs to "wick", and soil-less potting mixes usually wick well. Soil dug from a garden may or may not wick well. But the experienced "EBox people" can tell you what they use.

Good luck! I like your idea of growing your own food despite living in an apartment!

You might do some research for next year: does your community have any kind of "allotment" or common garden space where you can sign up for a small plot for one year? Does anyone know a good search term for Goggling?

I did find this:
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/...

Plots are 10ft by 20ft each ... but I see the word "rent".

Three locations:
- E. Yanonali St. at Soledad Street (72 plots)
- Rancheria Street near Montecito Street (45 plots)
- Pilgrim Terrace Drive at Modoc Road (50 plots)

The tomatoes I don't manage to eat fresh, I wipe clean with a damp cloth and put in the freezer in a cardboard box. When my box is full, it's sauce time or soup time or ... . Or I bag them up for fresh tomato soup in the middle of the winter. If the tomatoes are frozen, the peel comes off under cold water. I don't normally worry about the core as my biggest tomatoes are only 4 oz or so.

Daisy

I wonder why I am suddenly craving a fresh garden tomato...

Weedwhacker said:I wonder why I am suddenly craving a fresh garden tomato...

Going to be a while before you can get one.

Rita! you have a mean streak!

Weedwhacker said:Rita! you have a mean streak!

Last year it seemed like you might never get tomatoes it took so long. But when they finally did come on you sure did make up for lost time with your harvests.

You're absolutely right -- it really surprised me how well things turned out last year! (especially after talking to other local gardeners who were saying they had their worst year ever...). But, that's just life in da UP! (and at least I live in the southern north )

I want to start getting tomatoes to eat in mid late July like I did last year. So have some that should be early.

Oh, good -- then you'll be able to tease me with photos of your nice ripe tomatoes...

I just pulled out my fall-planted tomatoes a few days ago, and ate the last of the yellow pear tomatoes. But I have plants with flowers and small fruit on them now too. I'll be seeing the last of mine before you start harvesting yours, Rita.