16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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.
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?
I have some early varieties that I'm growing in 3 gallon containers:
Jagodka
Early Annie
42 Days
Russian Cherry
Pipo
The earlies that I'm growing in the garden are:
Kimberley
Black Early
Bloody Butcher
Jaune Flamme
Kimberley was the first to blush (still ripening).
Linda
I have about half a dozen of so-called EARLY ones. So far Bloody Butcher has won the contest. SiletZ is getting the second place. But it has much much larger fruits than BB. Sun Gold is also tied for 2nd place but it is cherry type.
Other varieties : Early Treat, Stupice, Legend, Siberian, Matina are way behind. I like Siletz. It has good size fruits (~~6 -8oz). BB and stupice are slightly bigger than cherry. But Stupice is very prolific. Amazing !
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
I pulled it. I'm surprised it hasn't spread to the adjacent tomatoes. There is a Mortgage Lifter on one side and an Early Girl on the other (The leaves were touching that Roma, but they aren't affected) I put some clear plastic over the hole in the black plastic mulch to solarize the soil. Maybe it's not even in the soil, is it possible it was already in the plant? Just find it odd it did not affect any other tomatoes. That's what I love about gardening, always something different every year and you learn along the way.
That's steeped compost tea in the buckets. I gotta put the lids on them. What would the world be like without mosquitoes? LOL. I don't really have a problem with the mosquitoes, plus there a some frogs in the buckets (but my neighbors might :) The mosquito dunks sound interesting since they are organic.
Self-watering containers are always better, especially when used with a good water-wicking mix (not the Moisture Control mixes).
As for watering, the key is not when or how often or any sort of schedule. Those don't work. It needs to be available when the plant needs it - that's why self-watering container works. A drip irrigation system is even better as it delivers small amounts on a regular hourly basis and can be adjusted as the weather requires. No way a person can match that type of regular delivery and moisture control.
As is often discussed here, the bigger the container the better and the easier it is to stabilize the moisture levels. Yours is a small container for anything other than one of the dwarf or 'patio' type plants - you don't give the variety - so next time go bigger.
Whenever I check the soil with my finger, it is moist up to the first or second knuckle. l
In that case it doesn't need water nearly as often as you have been watering. Too little water is always better than too much. Stick your finger full down in the soil, better yet use a wooden dowel 8-10" deep.
Dave
Thank you, Dave! I will try a self-watering container next year (my deck doesn't have a water source, so drip irrigation unfortunately isn't an option). The pot is much bigger than it looks in the picture, but will go even bigger next year as well.
Thanks for the watering advice - your input is extremely valuable to an extreme newbie like me!!
Osmocote (14-14-14) is just an old "all purpose" slow release fertilizer . It has nothing special for tomatoes AND it is outrageously expensive for just being Slow Release. There are much cheaper and better alternatives for tomatoes. There had been an "Osmocote Plus" with different analysis for tomatoes and peppers but it is not readily available anymore.
Slow Release, if it really is/works as claimed, then it is a better choice in containers where they are watered more often than in ground beds.
BTW: Osmocote is made by Scott company, who owns Miracle Gro. But some of MG brands are much better than Osmocote ( economically and by ingredients).
If you don't have frost you can grow tomatoes all year round. Same with peppers, they just grow slower in cold weather. And there are specific varieties that are known to grow in cooler weather...such as Oregon Spring, Stupice,Siletz, and possibly Legend. And there are plenty of other varieties, like Russian tomatoes, you could try.
We still have at least 4 months of warm weather...you should be able to grow any tomatoes right now...I'm more worried about having tomato varieties that produce in hot weather. The ones I mentioned above are for experimenting with in December.
I let the wind and random insects do most of the work since most of it happens before the blooms even open. I might rattle some cages now and then while in the garden or finger-flick a cluster of blossoms as I walk by but otherwise mine do just fine without brushing their teeth. :)
Dave
Tomatoes are self pollinating. The female part (stigma ?) is wrapped with the male parts that provide the pollens. Probably they don't even need winds since the pollens are right there surrounding the stigma. And probably there are thousands of them where just one is needed (like sperm in mammals). That is why crossing tomatoes is very difficult task.
I suspect it's a nutrient deficiency, and that you could solve the problem next year by adding some manure or compost to your soil. What kind of Miracle Grow did you use? I know that they sell one that is a compost.
Mulching the surface would also help to keep the moisture in, and something organic could be dug into the soil to add more nutrients for the following year.
Linda
Thank you seysonn, and labredors, for your comments,
As far as the Miracle Grow, I just chose the one I could afford, not sure the name other than Miracle Grow, and that it had a lot of the nutrients that I needed to bring the pH balance to match the label of the seed.
I have gone back an checked the pH again and it's still were it should be for the two packs of seed I bought, I also bought three large plants, one Big boy one Beefsteak and one hybrid. They may have been planted below the 6 inches of Miracle Grow, because they were in large ten inch deep pot, I removed them from the pots and have always use the potting soil that came in the pot leaving as they came...
So far I'm not too worried because the tomatoes though small are really good, I can live with them being small.
I do have a bag of compost that hasn't been opened but that shouldn't be add to growing plants, right?
Thank again,
I think all you can do is play the odds. Determine which is more important to you - trying to salvage the plants from Early Blight (which given your weather description is very slim odds anyway) or saving the money and time spent spraying.
Factors: Are you sure it is just Early Blight? If not then it is a whole different ballgame.
How much Early Blight is there? If only a small to moderate amount just remove the affected foliage and ignore it. If a really bad infestation there isn't much hope anyway so save the money and take what you can get.
How effective is the copper proving to be? It is a good preventative spray before the disease develops but doesn't do much after the fact.
Dave
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.