16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
They look grape shaped to me and I've grown both Santa F1 and various generations of the hybrid which looked the same.
The F1 and the OP version taste the same to me which is a very good taste, but I'm not committed to a particular shape for a cherry sized fruited variety and there are others that I've grown that are not grape shaped that I like much better.
Santa F1 got the reputation it did b'c it was the first grape shaped one that was made available to the public although there were others before Santa that were also grape shaped, but not that available.
Carolyn, who right now has no time to make lists of this or that so thank you in advance for not asking.( smile)
I do get similar leaves on my plants ( the very lower ones). They get yellow and the start drying up. Hot weather speeds up the process. I don't think that is a disease. But I just remove them. It is also getting close to my third round of anti fungal spray, as preventive measure.
I know nothing about it and have never even thought of it.
The only relevance I can think of is knowing exactly what the airtemp is to be able to think about what an increase in14 Fmight mean.
The upper leaf surface has many components that are made of protein and high sustained temps would denature those proteins and essentially kill the leaf.
In addition, leaves transpire, as a thermal regulator and I don't know how that is relevant to what you ask.
Summary?
I don 't know anything about it, never saw what you posted, never thought about it and am not going to think about it now.LOL Also thinking of ALL my tomato friends who grow tomatoes in high heat areas and as long as they have access to water they do just fine and some do use shade cloth,
Carolyn
I asked because I know that when air temperature reaches 85 degrees the stoma under the leaves begin to close. By 90 degrees they are closed and photosynthesis essentially shuts down as no CO2 can enter the plant as stoma are closed. Southern growers us shade cloth to lower the air temperature around their plants. A 40% shade cloth can lower the temperature by 10 degrees. Misting can add to that. This allows photosynthesis and thereby tomato growth to continue. With direct sunlight in summer a tomato plant only uses 50% of the light energy available. So with a 40% shade they still get enough light for growth and are yet have a better chance to be cool enough to have their stoma open. The reason I asked about leaf temperature is that I wondered if someone here had an interest in it and knew anything about it and its effect on tomato growth. Think about it Carolyn. It is just another piece to the puzzle of knowing all you can. My puzzle has a lot of pieces missing.
See the more detailed info about how and when to collect pollen in the link below.Click on CULTURE first to find that info.
Keith also discusses genetic segregation and how long it takes to stabilize selections.
The website is a wealth of information, so look around and you'll see many links, and much more information.
Carolyn ,just noting that Keith is not an amateur and has bred several well known varieties, and those are pictured there with the parental inputs and he also shows what he's working on now
Here is a link that might be useful: Making crosses
I will try to take a photo and post. I've been unable to take pictures the last couple of days because it's been raining. I'm confused by the bugs -- mostly I read to knock the aphids off with a blast from the hose -- this seems to make sense with normal aphids but does it work for flying ones? And also seems to conflict with advice not to wet the leaves in order to curb spread of fungal diseases. Any advice on this one?
Gardening is a balance. Nothing directly conflicts with anything else in reality. It is all in the timing and the context :).
Sure you don't want to wet leaves anymore than is necessary - so avoid doing the watering with an overhead sprinkler when possible. But the rain has already wet the leaves. So hitting some aphids with a water hose isn't going to make any difference, right? Had it not been raining then blasting the aphids with the hose early in the day when the leaves have plenty of time to dry out - no problem. Ok?
And yes it works on winged ones too as it destroys their wings.
Dave
Posted by ddsack z3MN (My Page) on
Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 9:59
The internet can be great if you use critical thinking skills and can be selective in what advice might work in your location, and most of that comes from experience. So many forget that what works great in the south, might not work in the north or in high altitude gardening
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Well said.
You cannot take any article, You Tube video, blog etc at its face value. They can be a source of confusion sometimes.
I started learning the fundamentals about soil chemistry ( pH, nutrients) , Soil physics ( water drainage, retention), micro herds/soil web, . Then start learning about plants in more specifics. What one can learn is never ending. I learn something almost everyday.
Would need to see at least a photo of them to even begin to know what is wrong. Lots of things cause plant leaves to turn yellow so with out seeing it we can only guess.
Over-watering is the #1 cause by far, nutrient deficiency is the #2 cause, and #3 is disease.
9 times out of 10 those who claim they are not over-watering discover that yes they really were once they cut back on it and the plant improves.
Soil that contains a great deal of decomposing wood chips in it has most of the soil nitrogen bound up in the decomposition process so is not available to the plants. Large amounts of extra nitrogen often needs to be added to compensate. Fish emulsion fertilizer, even when used on a weekly basis, is still a very low dose nitrogen fertilizer.
Vegetable garden soil treated with Preen, especially after transplanting, causes all sorts of problems for the plants. Can't say I have ever heard of that being recommended by anyone. Tomato plants just don't tolerate weed killers of any kind. They are one of the most susceptible plants there is to weed killer damage.
Then there are the diseases that causes yellowing of leaves, primarily Early Blight.
Dave
I got some of my metal T-posts at an auction, But got most of them free, A crew was doing road work and when there done they were going to just throw everything away so I asked for the posts and they said sure you can have them, So you might want to check construction crews that are doing road work and let the tax payers buy them for you.
Thank you so much, Dave.
Your input really helps.
I kinda put it all together (after hours of looking at pictures last night)
that what is going on IS bacterial spot/speck.
I removed the plant away from the others and intend on purchasing a copper spray today.
Unfortunately the weather has been uncooperative the last few days dreary/rainy/wet leaves. I've been pretty diligent/careful about not watering the leaves.
I have learned quite a bit from my tomato growing trials and tribulations.
Just hoping to have one tomato plant survivor (of the 5).
Also, if we could just PLEASE have a few sunny and dry days...that would help a lot.
I think next year IF I do grow them again, I will definately do things differently.
Most likely I will buy LOCAL from a tomato grower and also prep their bedding a bit better.
I should have mulched and should have put down straw.
Soil is good/ good nutrients now.
Also, having a raised bed would make gardening a little bit easier too.
Thanks for your help, wish me luck! :)
Happy growing, to all!
Just wanted to update...and ask another q..
I pruned/picked off all of the speckled leaves of the infected plant and sprayed it with Daconil (home depot was OUT of copper spray..grr) and left it overnight. Last night it did not rain. but it did a little bit today. Should I, can I respray?
Or is it too soon?
Sadly, it appears that the infection spread to the rest of my tomato plants except for 1 (so it appears). I pruned/picked them off also, and sprayed them.
Weird side note, I looked at some of the weeds growing on the ground, and it appears that there are speckles on them too. Could THIS be where my tomato plants acquired their illness?
I also pulled as many weeds up that I could that seemed infected. Not sure if there is any correlation or not..
So, to respray or not to respray...that is the question.
Next year I'm going to put my tomato plants in a bubble! HA!
Thanks for any input or advice..
Happy growing!
I would have picked them totally green and added them to my Green Tomato and Green Peppers Relish. It's a sweet relish that goes well with hot dogs, beans, anywhere you use chow chow, and some places to be determined. You can add hot peppers to give it some heat and the pickling spices don't care if you use good or bad tasting tomatoes because it flavors everything.
I agree with Linda. Waste not - Want not !!!
This post was edited by containerted on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 15:09
I don't cook. I'd be scared to death to can. I don't eat meat so no stews. There weren't many tomatoes. It did cross my mind to give them away but how could someone transport those huge bushes? They were in bags. Well, I have my Red Robins which I love and can always count on.
Have you tired using actual cages (not the 3 ring things) on them rather than stakes? Much better support and lateral containment. I too grow some plants in Earthboxes but find the support system they sell to be useless. Using 5'6" CRW cages many of us make ourselves (lots of discussions here about them) works 100 times better.
As to varieties - if you grow your own from seed then you have hundreds of choices but if you buy your transplants then your choices are limited.
Tatianas Tomatobase lists several hundred tomato varieties suitable for containers, dwarf, determinant, semi-indeterminant, etc. but the majority of them have to be grown from seed.
Personally this year in containers I am growing Bella Rosa, Bush Champion, Bush Early Girl, Principe Borghese, Japanese Black Trifele, Better Bush, Margo, etc. just to name a few.
But in my Earthboxes I grow only 1 plant, not 2 and most of my containers are 15-25 gallon tubs.
You should also check all the tomatoes discussions over on the Container Gardening forum here for more suggestions.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: TT - Container Tomato varieties
hey sorry for lat posting but.
can anyone tell me what happened to your potato leafed plants? im growing it now and its potato leaf... help!
Sudenly died down.
peakchua, ..can you post a picture of your plant ?
I am growing one from an store bought tomato, which I thought was some kind of costoluto. It has potato leaves. Maybe I mistagged !!
PS.
Costoluto (meaning ribbed) sounds like an adjective ?
Also, any ribbed tomato can be alleged to come from a known Costoluto ? That is more likely the case with my plant. But I will have to wait until the fruits ripen.
This post was edited by seysonn on Sat, Jul 19, 14 at 14:41