Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nice pictures!

Unless someone sees these and thinks otherwise, I'd guess those are nodes that are just further along at sending out root growth.

I'd just spotted the bumps on my wicking bed tomatoes, freaked out and then learned what they're from.
Mine had definitely been overcrowded.
Now, post thinning, I'll keep an eye out and see what happens next.
Good luck with yours!

Looks like a gall to me, but I have never seen a gall on a tomato???

I have taken A number of steps based on the group's feedback. I've thinned out the bottom foot or so of the tomato plants, removing the leaves. I've also added potash (K2O) at the top of the grow bed (Black, tarry looking stuff). I had tried to introduce it in the RFF, but the darn stuff floats!

The more I look at these nodules, the more I am convinced that they are indeed just roots in various stages of emergence.

Oh yeah, you have 'em growing really thick! Thinning will really help.
Looking good!

If I'm to thin out the total number of plants, how far should the remaining plants be from each other? Is thinning the plants more likely to make them fruit more quickly? Or is it a matter of overall health?

I was thinking more along the lines of overall health. Thinning to the point of allowing ventilation throught the plants helps avoid stuff like powdery mildew, and makes it a lot easier to catch things like cabbage loopers before they wreak havoc.

Good question on the effect of thinning on fruit setting...This is the first year I haven't let mine just run wild.

When you thin out all of the Axial branches. The plant can put more of the energy onto fruiting that it is currently putting in growth.

I got a little bit of education on YouTube about pruning tomato plants. Apparently, I let them just do their thing, and the suckers at the crotch of the branches took over. Tomatoes definitely require a lot more work than anything I've grown so far. I just spent the last hour or so trying to prune back what I have, and what's left is not very pretty. I did discover however, that quite a few tomatoes have been growing!

Amazing what can hide under there

The more I look at these nodules, the more I am convinced that they are indeed just roots in various stages of emergence.

By no way an expert,but your right,dirt growers will lay the plant on the ground,pinning it in place the plant will then grow to the light and the piece of stem in contact with the ground will root giving the plant more stability as it grows,i have done this myself in my media beds.

It will work on peppers too. I had a ghost in the AP that got leggy due to some tools that grew too close and it sent out vertical shoots where it was laying down. Now the plant is producing like 3 plants from 1 root stock. I may actually encourage this in the future.

Here's that video I mentioned.

http://youtu.be/ekvuwwneUxs

I think it's a bad idea to let the plants just grow for very long. They seem to require considerable attention and careful pruning after they get more than 30 cm tall.

I can imagine growing one plant laying on its side and letting the roots emerge from that stalk, but I have to think that the vertical shoots will be somewhat irregular. I'm also curious if so much contact with the media won't encourage disease.

Sorry i didn’t type that out very well,you only lay a small portion of the stem on the ground ,dirt growers dig a small trench and lay the plant horizontally then let it grow vertically,this stem will throw out roots giving a larger root ball to support the plant and letting it take up more moisture and nutrients.When i planted mine i just held it in place on the media surface until the roots developed.

google edema tomato

Understood. I see that done with lots of different kinds of plants to good effect. My own plants are sending out plenty of roots now from around the base of the stem. Photo below, plant tasting some potash

Another newbie mistake I'm paying for now is using twine to support the plants initially. I moved on to using a cage but forgot to remove some of the twine, and one plant got cut almost in two. Still growing and flowering, hanging on by about 1/4 of the stalk.

I have a couple of tomatoes with flat, black bottoms. Only these two fruits. Is that normal?