Foo - Ermh... Guys... we have a Tomato Problem

My daughter came in couple of months ago with this baby tomato plant from school. We put it on a bigger "dirt-holder-thingy" in the porch. But the thing doesn't stop growing!

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn53/RubenX_Longwood/Other/093012083943_zps1dae9d6a.jpg

Is almost up the the ceiling and yet no tomato. I don't wanna put it outside on the ground because this being a rented place, we could move. My questions at this point are:

1) Is this tomato plant gonna keep growing up forever?

2) When I'm gonna get some tomatoes?

First of all, the pot is way too small for the tomato, an 18" pot is better to permit the roots to expand. The plant should be potted fairly deeply because the nubs and fuzzy hairs on the stem become roots when they are under ground. Second, if an older seed was planted, you may never get tomatoes. The likelihood of the plant flowering and producing tomatoes diminishes significantly depending on the age of the seed. Maybe you should start fresh with a newer tomato seed that is packaged for the 2012 season. Perhaps a patio tomato plant would suit you better as they don't grow as large and produce wonderful tasty fruit. There are patio tomato plants that grow cherry style tomatoes or sized ones. The plant you have is ready for the compost pile. Sorry.

Edit: if you have flowers on the plant, then it needs a larger pot and exposure to bees. If there are no flowers, consider composting it.

Bees? I need bees? The porch is screened. Is that a problem?

Better switch to a cash crop.

Better switch to a cash crop.

Lol, yeah...I "hear" MJ grows well among tomatoes.

Lol, yeah...I "hear" MJ grows well among tomatoes.

You guys... this is an elementary school project... not a high school one.

If it came from a seed, as was already said it needs to go outside to be pollinated. The comments about the pot are also correct, 15 gallon+ and a tomato cage on top would be best.

You guys... this is an elementary school project... not a high school one.


Think of the untapped resource there.

The comments about the pot are also correct

That's what we are trying to tell him. :)

That's what we are trying to tell him. :)
Stop trying to drag me down to foo level >.<

You need sun/heat to make it flower. You can pollenate with a cotton swab (that's what it bee like). Too late in the season to put out. Better get some grow lights and maybe go hydroponic.

Feed me!

http://content8.flixster.com/question/45/61/89/4561890_std.png

Plants sometimes need a bit of stress to produce flowers. I'd suggest cutting it, albeit it carefully, down to the soil level. Make sure all leaves and stalk are removed. Should start producing shortly after.

You guys seem to assume I know what I'm doing. Now I need to google all these terms just to understand what you are saying:

* Plant Stress
* stalk (no idea, probably a part of the plant)
* Q-Tip Pollination (kinda like ms-turbate the plant I guess)
* Grow lights
* Hydrophonics
* tomato cage

Man... all I know is that my daughter came with it and I put water on it. Cuz that's what I learned from this guy:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn53/RubenX_Longwood/Other/idiocracy_soil_zps2fc9d880.gif

"You put water on it and it grows"

Put the plant in a bigger pot and move it to an area where it will get the most sun during the day. A tomato cage is a wire support that holds up the branches (stalks) of the plant when it gets bigger. You can get them at Home Depot for about $2.

http://www.tomatoguy.com/cages.jpg

You will also need to watch out for nasty tomato worms. If you start to see black droppings under the plant or the leaves start getting chewed, you've probably got them.

Stop feeding it. Water it once a week. Or when it rains.
Give more dramatic light-cycles. Sunlight during the day and darkness at night

I don't think that's a tomato.

Stop feeding it. Water it once a week. Or when it rains.
Give more dramatic light-cycles. Sunlight during the day and darkness at night

Take it to Canada.

Ruben, it's much easier to just go to the store and get tomatoes.

If nothing else, it looks like it could be a tree/shrubbery outside your daughter's playhouse. Unless you're planning on moving in the next couple of months, what's the problem with planting it? At least most people I know treat tomatoes like annuals not perennials.

It's not getting enough sun to fruit.

My daughter came in couple of months ago with this baby tomato plant from school. We put it on a bigger "dirt-holder-thingy" in the porch. But the thing doesn't stop growing!

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn53/RubenX_Longwood/Other/093012083943_zps1dae9d6a.jpg

Is almost up the the ceiling and yet no tomato. I don't wanna put it outside on the ground because this being a rented place, we could move. My questions at this point are:

1) Is this tomato plant gonna keep growing up forever?

2) When I'm gonna get some tomatoes?


So....who crossed a tomatoe with cannabis?

Ruben, it's much easier to just go to the store and get tomatoes.

I don't even eat tomatoes... is all my girl and her projects.

If nothing else, it looks like it could be a tree/shrubbery outside your daughter's playhouse. Unless you're planning on moving in the next couple of months, what's the problem with planting it? At least most people I know treat tomatoes like annuals not perennials.

U mean it's gonna die before the year?

U mean it's gonna die before the year?
He mean's most people take them out at the end of the season. I've had one in my greenhouse the last 6 years that still produces though.

Huh, didn't know they lasted that long. I've always planted them outside, and they tend to die off each fall. Of course, up here where we have seasons, that might be because it's starting to cool off (they're usually all dead before first frost though, so it's not the frost that does them in).

Generally tomato plants will die off each year. What happens is the seeds that are dropped (when fruit falls to the ground) will germinate and you get new plants.

If you are getting flowers but no fruit, you need a "pollinator" - bee, moth, butterly, flies, something to move pollen around. If no flowers, then tip back some of the stalks to where there is a double leaf... that sometimes causes flower stalks to grow. You can actually grow tomatoes in fairly small pots, I do each year.

Now its actually really late in the year for tomatoes... you should be getting fruit like in June, July and August. If nothing yet, most likely the plant won't set flowers this year. ANd not all seeds will produce fruit... it depends where your girl (or her teacher) got the seeds from.

Huh, didn't know they lasted that long. I've always planted them outside, and they tend to die off each fall. Of course, up here where we have seasons, that might be because it's starting to cool off (they're usually all dead before first frost though, so it's not the frost that does them in).
We have "mild" winters usually, sometimes brutally wet ones. Usually what happens is the vines drop onto the concrete planter sill/concrete floor of the greenhouse that absorbs warmth from the sun all day, then it never usually gets cold enough in there for frost.

Ruben, it's much easier to just go to the store and get tomatoes.

Sure, but home grown tomatoes are far far tastier. And you can get quite a few varieties... especially if you go with heirloom tomatoes.

I saw a Discovery or Science channel show on commercial tomatoes, and I could not believe the size of the plants they used. They were growing hydroponically (using a water solution in a growing medium) and the tomatoes were growing a couple of feet a week. They would string the plants up and keep moving the bases so they had plants that were 16-20 feet long, but fruit only grew near the top, which due to their system was always about head high.

Light is usually the key to flowering... tomatoes like long days to flower.

As far as the plant dying off each year... I have a 3 year old plant that produces golden "cherry" tomatoes... the plant looks a bit scraggly in the winter, but come spring, all sorts of new growth erupts and by about June, flowers show, and then the fruit appears. I have to admit this is an odd plant as the rest of my tomatoes tend to look pretty poor around October and I usually slash them at that point.