My dream, homemade Ketchup

[Getback]

Might come true this year. Picked 9 lbs of tomatoes out of the garden tonight and it looks like there might be about a 100 more individual tomatoes out there on 10 plants. I need a minimum of 25lbs, 16 lbs to go. Freezing these tomorrow. Well except for 2, ate one tonight and will have another tomorrow.

[Denholm]

We can't seem to get them to grow right here. The plant either withers or strangely loses it leaves. And the few times tomatoes do grow, they always seem to chap.


It.... It's...... IT'S NOT FAIR!

[Getback]

We can't seem to get them to grow right here. The plant either withers or strangely loses it leaves. And the few times tomatoes do grow, they always seem to chap.


It.... It's...... IT'S NOT FAIR!

My garden looks awful, but only in the fact the tomatoes over grew it. I staked them but they fell over from the weight of the tomatoes. I'll post a pic later today.

[batch]

never tried ketchup before........ we always make salsa with all of ours and can it...... usually have so much we cant give it all away........ hope the ketchup works out good for you.... could make some interesting variants with it

[Getback]

never tried ketchup before........ we always make salsa with all of ours and can it...... usually have so much we cant give it all away........ hope the ketchup works out good for you.... could make some interesting variants with it

I have some freezing to do today. I plan on trying something different with the spicing but not sure what.

[mbailey]

My garden looks awful, but only in the fact the tomatoes over grew it. I staked them but they fell over from the weight of the tomatoes. I'll post a pic later today.

Have you tried tomato cages, i use them and have no issues with the plants collapsing under the weight of the tomato. ( not sure what area you are in or if you even know what im talking about) but they are easy to make) Go to Lowes or home depot, get some fencing wire and make a cone around the plant. The fencing holes support the branches of the plant.

I grow tomatos every year and would love your recipie for ketchup if ya have a sec to pass it along

[Getback]

Have you tried tomato cages, i use them and have no issues with the plants collapsing under the weight of the tomato. ( not sure what area you are in or if you even know what im talking about) but they are easy to make) Go to Lowes or home depot, get some fencing wire and make a cone around the plant. The fencing holes support the branches of the plant.

I grow tomatos every year and would love your recipie for ketchup if ya have a sec to pass it along

Yeah, next year tomato cages.

I don't have a recipe. Never made it before. I found a bunch on the internet. Quite a bit of work from what I can tell.

[druski85]

We can't seem to get them to grow right here. The plant either withers or strangely loses it leaves. And the few times tomatoes do grow, they always seem to chap.

It.... It's...... IT'S NOT FAIR!

You done any soil testing?  I may suggest building a simple raised bed and popping in some fresh top soil if you don't want to go through the steps of figuring out current soil composition and PH (6-6.5 is preferred) levels.  Also get some good nitrogen-rich fertilizer for early plant growth, then switch over to a more balanced load (20-20-20 works well) as the plant matures. 

If they are chapping it generally means they are getting too much water.  Cut the amount getting to the plant, if possible.  Also, what kind of climate and soil (clay, loam, sandy, etc) are you working with?  If you want to provide me some more details I'll see if I can't help ya out a bit more. 

[TracerX]

Made salsa with store bought tomatoes, and it was nothing to brag about.  Used the same recipe to make salsa with my home grown tomatoes a couple months later, and it was fantastic!  The tangy, zesty, vibrant flavor of the home grown tomatoes made the salsa come alive.  I am now becoming a home-grown tomato enthusiast.  I would be interested in any tomato growing tips.  My biggest problem here in Arizona is water and soil temperature.  I am looking into some shading or better ground cover for next year.  I might try to squeeze some tomatoes in this fall too.

[druski85]

Tracer I haven't dealt with soil that is too warm...generally stuff that is too cold.  I grew up in western NY after all

That being said, one method that regulates soil temperate, keeps weeds down, and increases water efficiency exponentially is getting some agriculture cover material.  Again I don't have experience with it in extreme heat, but it may help keep things a little more cool.  It would also minimize any loss of moisture to evaporation.  Just make sure you are leaving a good 30 inches of space between the holes you cut in the material for the plants.  Edit: Sorry the spacing is dependent on what kind of plants you have, and how much space



This picture depicts a good use of the white plastic, which would I think be preferred in your climate.  You can also see how they staked right down the middle of the plastic.  In my experience we staked down either side of it and had double rows...but that is up to the grower. 

Also if you are going for water efficiency I'd look into a gravity-fed drip irrigation system.  They are pretty cheap and easy to make...the only downside is you have to regularly check the lines for any clogs.  These will become immediately noticeable when one plant is 4 feet shorter than all it's neighbors.     However, the time it takes to check the lines negates time that would usually be spent watering by hand. 

Feel free to PM me if you like some more information, I'd love to help.

[maddafinga]

Might come true this year. Picked 9 lbs of tomatoes out of the garden tonight and it looks like there might be about a 100 more individual tomatoes out there on 10 plants. I need a minimum of 25lbs, 16 lbs to go. Freezing these tomorrow. Well except for 2, ate one tonight and will have another tomorrow.

Well you're going to be sure to make Fancy ketchup right??

It would be  shame to put all that work into it and not have the finished product be Fancy. 

[Denholm]

You done any soil testing?  I may suggest building a simple raised bed and popping in some fresh top soil if you don't want to go through the steps of figuring out current soil composition and PH (6-6.5 is preferred) levels.  Also get some good nitrogen-rich fertilizer for early plant growth, then switch over to a more balanced load (20-20-20 works well) as the plant matures. 

If they are chapping it generally means they are getting too much water.  Cut the amount getting to the plant, if possible.  Also, what kind of climate and soil (clay, loam, sandy, etc) are you working with?  If you want to provide me some more details I'll see if I can't help ya out a bit more. 

Well, last year we tried them in the soil located in the backyard (That's when we encountered chapping issues), this year we placed them in pots. Last year we think the reason they weren't successful was because we planted them underneath an Oak tree. Based on something I was told, Tomatoes don't fare well underneath Oak trees. Anyways, this year started out great. The plants shot right up (in the pots) and just kept growing. Then one day we walked outside and the leaves started withering from the bottom up. We figured perhaps some bugs were eating away at it and used a general garden pesticide. Apparently that was not the source of the problem as we lost two of our four tomato plants (we don't plant many due to a bad history with the plant on or around our property).

The soil, well... I haven't ever tested it, all I can say is that's it's Texas soil, Dallas to be exact. Soil about the first foot and then it starts to go toward a limestone/soil mixture.

[PFactorDave]

So...  Just curious how much ketchup you can make with 25lbs of tomatoes?

[ROX]

It's actually cheaper to buy catsup than make your own.  However, there's nothing that says you can't either make your own catsup or to make catsup to your very own tastes, which I often do.

It's EASY!

GARLIC CATSUP:

Take one standard 36 oz bottle of catsup and empty it into a large sauce pan.  Take a garlic press and press 4 large garlic cloves into the pan and stir over medium heat.  After the mixture begins to bubble, stir with a whisk and set aside to cool.  Using a funnel, return the mixture to the original bottle and then refridgerate.


SPICY HOT CATSUP:

Take one standard 36 oz bottle of catsup and empty into a large sauce pan.  Add 3 even (not heaping) tablespoons of cayenne powder into the catsup and stir in whith a whisk over meduim heat.  As the mixture begisn to bubble, stir briskly and set aside to cool.  Using a kitchen funnel, return the mixture to the original bottle and refridgerate.  PLEASE use a sharpie amd mark it "SPICY HOT" so kids and unsuspecting family wont use if if they can't handle the heat.



ROX

[wrongwayric]

Grow your tomatoes in hanging baskets, i've even seen them being grown from upside down hanging baskets, pick em when ripe. If they get over ripe there own weight causes them to fall off the vine by themselves.

I know i thought it was a joke until my sister tried it and it actually works.

You can also put the old square fencing up and loop your cucumber plants on it and train them to climb as they grow. This gives you almost perfect pickle sized cucumbers with even coloring.