How many tomato plants do I need?

[PrettyPaisley]

I want to net 300 pounds of tomatoes. It doesn't have to be all at once (lord knows I would fall out if I had that many at once to can) but I want regular old tomatoes that I can use all year long for cooking.

Any ideas? I don't want to be short and I don't want to have to buy any.

Thanks!

[Paquebot]

Much depends upon variety and growing conditions. There some varieties which may churn out 25# without hardly trying while others struggle to produce 10#. For a figure off the wall, and using the common Better Boy and Early Girl as an example, they should average 15# easily. If so, 20 plants would do 300#. But, late blight is almost automatic in NC and that knocks most varieties down just as they get going. Then you're talking 10# salvageable fruit and the number is up to 30 plants. I'd go with that number since it's better to be looking at extras than looking for them.

Martin

[PrettyPaisley]

Perfect! Thanks Martin!

[twospirit]

I agree with Martin nearly to the letter here. I'm a bit tomato-obsessed (I even write for a website that is solely on the topic of tomatoes) and his yield estimates are spot on for the sake of averages.

That said, I strongly recommend the Early Girl for home growers in North Carolina. They are quite disease-resistant and generally produce better than expected in decent conditions.

Sorry, whenever I see "tomato" I have to throw in my $.02

Michael
Two Spirit Farm

[NickieL]

early girl rocks, it performs always consistantly no matter the weather around here. Some years are bad tomato years so I always make sure I plant at least one or two of the early girls.

[PrettyPaisley]

Okay-I'll grab some more Early Girl. I already have about 20 Amish paste (thanks for the seeds, Martin!) and several other heirloom types, but I got some cherry tomatoes from the hardware store that seem to have early blight. I keep pulling the infected stems off but each day there are more. I think I should just trash those plants all together. Luckily the ones with blight are far from the paste plants.

I plan to dig up more space for more tomatoes so I'll add the EGs. I think I'll go with a few more than 30 just incase. I really want a huge stash of canned tomatoes this year. I canned some a couple of years ago and didn't have the guts to eat them. A friend came over, popped them open and said they were some of the best she'd ever had. And she lived! So I fed them to the family and they were a hit. We finished them up in no time and I'm just hoping 100 quarts will last until next year.

[twospirit]

Why wouldn't you eat them? Were you new to canning tomatoes at the time?

[PrettyPaisley]

I was new to canning. It was the first thing I'd ever canned and I showed them to my mom (who had canned a million times in her earlier days) and she shook her head in disgust and refused to try them. Seems I didn't pack the fruit in tight enough and there was about an inch of liquid at the bottom. Come to find out that's normal but my mom is weird when it comes to food safety. She is really weird; she won't eat the eggs from my chickens because they aren't refridgerated. As if store bought eggs come from refridgerated chickens. (They came to see us this weekend and would come see the new chicks or the new meat rabbits. We're talking about a "boneless, skinless white breast" kinda woman who's never cut up a whole chicken in her life. -->So I'm working hard to be a homesteader with no recent family history of it!<--)

Anyhow, they sat in the cupboard for over 2 years, made up of my garden bounty of pickles and relishes, hot peppers, salsa, dilly beans, all kinds of easy waterbath stuff until about 2 months ago. Again, since my brave friend jumped all over those tomatoes without getting sick, we're chowing down! Thank heavens for her. Otherwise who knows-I might have thrown it all out!

[twospirit]

What a great story

I remember my first canning attempts quite well, so you gave me a little laugh today.

I think Ace55, which I got last year at the dollar store for 20 cents a pack(of about 200 seeds) is an excellent canner. It seems to be resistant to most fungal disorders, too. And kept putting out til frost.