16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I was just going to post the same thing. I will read the link and be patient!

Thanks Dave

Great info........wait

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!

And Green Zebra is not an heirloom as the tag indicated,

Carolyn

You are right. But it was sold as "Heirloom " in the supermarket . I bought the tomato, saved seeds an planted.
Now what ?

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

agreeing with dig on the containers, etc. Support is a major issue that often is not thought out by people ahead of time. I use the 4'x7' crw panels...suspended between t posts. It works pretty good. dig...how do you construct your crw cages?

If you go the court route, be sure to take photos of the damages.

Rodney

I suggest not taking legal action...and making the best of a poor neighbor situation. This country is sue happy...and it has changed the way we deal with neighborly issues. Perhaps you can splice the damaged tomato branch back together....and it will grow like a graft. In any event...it sounds like this problem might ultimately be small tomatoes...hehe. You may mention to your neighbor that you are glad the damage to your stuff was not worse than what it was....and you are working to restore your stuff.

Seysonn - It is worth a try - you live in a cool climate - BB has done well in our GH at cold temps. It sets fruit well at temps over 50 degrees and is the first to ripen of all the varieties we plant - no cat facing or BER. The fruit is plentiful and has a good mix of fruit size without pruning fruit. The variety may not perform for you in your outside garden and climate but I think it is well worth - at least trying a plant or two. It loves to climb and has done well with heavy and/or light pruning. I have not tried growing the plant without pruning suckers. It does need a good support system and is heavy stemmed.

Sharon - please keep us posted and let us know how your BB's do at your place. Are you growing them in a GH? It will be interesting to see how they compare with our plants. They are also a great tasting, good sized and attractive looking fruit - I think?

Hudson, I'm in awe. Mine are outdoors in a 20 gallon smart pot in a soilless mix. As a seedling it was very robust. I'm getting good fruit set, and I'm wondering about pruning some of the smaller toms but for now I'm leaving everything as is. I am removing some lateral growth. I planted out a bit later than I had hoped and we had some intense heat and humidity for a stretch but now my tomatoes seem to be going in the right direction. I will keep you updated for sure. I'll tell you, if I love these, no more brandy wines for me. I'm growing brandywine otv this year and boy is it slow!!!!and not very productive at least for me.

Oh wow I really should have done the sip water system. You're great, Linda. Thanks!

I dont believe in using sand in potting or in the garden. It has to be at least 35% if you want it to help drainage. Then it is too heavy and can make the soil compacted.

Perlite does a better job in container. But Adding things like peat moss, vermiculite is defeating the purpose of the use of perlite.

I would suggest that you look into 5-1-1 mix. That is what I am using in all my potted peppers and tomatoes ( close to 25 pots)

Those clinging blossoms on developing fruit will fall of eventually, so just leave them alone.

They have nothing at all to do with catfacing since that occurs when blossoms are pollinated under several circumstances, and without pollination and fruit set you wouldn't have the nice immature fruits that you have right now. ( smile)

Carolyn

Thanks, I figured as much. Also heirloom tomatoes aren't meant to be picture perfect as far as I can tell.

If you read the FAQ here at GW,linked to below, you'll see that indeed as Lindalana just said, only to be used in cold weather.

That means in areas where the temps are too low toallow for normal pollination such as the PNW/

There are many different formulations of Blossom Set, and different hormones are used. And as said in the FAQ and I'll add a few words of my own, since hormone mediated fruit set is abnormal, fruits can me misformed and also the fruits can lack seeds.

No different really, from parthenocarpic varieties, many of which were bred by Dr. Jim Baggett in Oregon, which also allow for abnormal fruit set with the same problems.

If temps are OK for normal pollination and fruit set, and pollen is not clumped and there's been no sustained high heat or humidity, then look elsewhere for the reason for the blossom drop, also discussed in the link below.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: GW blossom drop FAQ

Forget the set spray and go buy yourself a $5 battery operated toothbrush. Place the vibrating brush near the tomato flowers and voila, you've duplicated what the wind does. I do this all winter long in my greenhouse to pollinate the tomatoes.

Lindalana:

From all my research there are only a few specific rootstocks one should use for optimum production: Rootstocks widely used for grafting tomato are hybrids between tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), called intraspecific hybrid, or hybrids between tomato (S. lycopersicum) and a wild relative to tomato (such as S. habrochaites) called interspecific hybrid. Interspecific hybrid rootstocks are generally more vigorous but sometimes lack uniformity of germination/seedling emergence.

When you choose rootstocks for tomato, in addition to the rootstockâÂÂs resistances, you need to select the rootstock based on the expected level of vigor, relative to your scion. If scion is a less vigorous variety and if a very vigorous rootstock is used, adding vigor to the scion is expected. However, if rootstock is too vigorous relative to scion, you may experience an overly vegetative growth of your tomato plants, potentially reducing yields. Some rootstocks can achieve higher yields even without disease present in the root zone (such as in hydroponics).
The top rootstocks for grafting are:
Colossus
Maxifort
Estamino

I suppose you can use any disease resistant hybrid and it may work but you will not get the production and long-season production in addition to superb disease-resistance.

As of July 12 my grafted tomato plants using Maxifort and growing better than any of my standard tomato plants and with lots more tomatoes. My regular tomatoes are doing very well but they are no where near the size and with less tomatoes than the grafted ones. I have been more than impressed with the grafted tomato plants but still will hold final judgement until maturity, production and length of production ends.

Beno:

Sorry didn't fully understand the F-1 graft from Rutgers. I thought you were talking about a Rutgers Tomato rather than "from" Rutgers. That should be OK.

Would it help if you were to not think in terms of time or inches but in terms of results? Shove a long rod or rebar into the soil to see where it's damp and where it isn't. In "most" soils the rod will go in harder if it's dry. Don't worry about damaging the roots. Tomato roots are hearty. The gist is to give the plants water deep enough to encourage the roots to grow down to it.

Most people would agree that both excessive and erratic watering get you a poorer crop. Drip is very good once it's dialed in.

Thanks for the responses. The soil I have is a "triple mix" with one part manure, one part peat and one part top soil. It drains really well. When the drip comes on a small pool is present, which quickly drains after the irrigation is complete. Is it ideal then that the soil be moist, say six inches down, but not "wet"? Would a moisture reader be something worth investing in? My plants are doing very well with many already approaching six feet tall, tonnes of set fruit (first tomatoes in a week me thinks), but I want to have that 'only from the garden flavor' that you just can't get in a store.

I harvest everything... if too ugly to use as slicers, I just chop them up for salsa.

Very interesting Dave, I never knew that! After the rain has ended, I'll have to go out and cull the ones I have.

The "king" flower is new to me to, as far as tomatoes are concerned. I know the first (and largest) blossom on a strawberry is the king berry, but didn't know that applied to tomatoes. Does it hold for peppers too?

Yes, the first day I noticed it, it did perk up a bit overnight after I watered it. But it collapsed early the next day and never perked up again. I have seen verticillium before, and that process took place over several days, unlike this one.

The thing is, walnut toxicity is a wilt disease just like verticillum and fusarium. The juglone poison blocks the vascular channels that transport water from the roots to the plant. I don't think it would be possible for me to know for sure what the cause is unless I could get a soil test that could distinguish between the different causes of wilt.

In any case, the solution is the same for verticillium, fusarium and walnut wilt. I've got to use all new soil mix for next year's containers.

Tomatoes are THE most sensitive plants I know. I have sprayed weed killer on some weeds and they have persisted. Now somebody sprays weed killer half a mile away and a drift of it delivers damage to tomato plants. I have planted numerous other vegetable under Black Walnut tree ( such as peppers, 4Oclock, gurds, okra, shiso, beans ...) and they survived

Juglone exists not just in soil, but also in bark, leaves, So the rain drop from its limbs and branches can carry juglone as well.
So in human terms , tomatoes are allergic to juglone among other thongs