16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
Welcome to the forum and to container gardening. There are many of us who container garden, myself included. It's another way to garden and has it's own challenges. I've switched from containers to smart pots which are fabric and really like them. If you go to the container forum you will learn a great deal about container mix, Al's 5-1-1 mix which many of us use with great results. Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention XX is the heading. Good luck and keep us posted. Are you able to put those buckets on something to elevate them a bit off the hot concrete? Also, fertilizing frequently but in weaker concentration is important with growing in containers.
Sharon
I've been fighting the EB too, and the plant that seems to get it the worst is the husky red cherry tomato. My other plants are susceptible but that plant always gets it worse. The other plant that was really susceptible was the Bonnie patio tomato (which is gone now, RIP). They both have bigger thickish textured dark green leaves. My yellow pear cherry tomato doesn't seem nearly as susceptible and it has very small, smoother, delicate leaves. Maybe those bigger leaves take longer to dry after the rain because they collect more water, or the size reduces air circulation for the whole plant somehow?
The patio tomato wound up getting stripped of all it's leaves and then I killed it and made fried green tomatoes with whatever I couldn't get to ripen. I have been able to keep the EB in check on the other plants by picking the diseased leaves off as soon as I see any evidence, and I spray the whole plants down with copper spray until dripping. I have also brought out a fan onto the balcony to increase circulation, which seems to help.
seysonn - thanks for all the info!
My tomatoes and I are very much looking forward to the coming heat wave. I'm hoping to finally start seeing some ripen with the higher temps. Have you harvested any yet? I have lots of fruit, but no signs yet of ripening.
They don't look like they dried out enough to drop the blossoms. No yellow leaves or nothing like that.
And the pictures do not show blossom drop... blossom drop is when the entire flower falls off at the knuckle, no. Yours are still attached and just look like the flowers have run their course. Are you sure there are not small fruits inside the dried flower petals?
I've developed a little bit of a system for transplanting (or maybe I've discovered something everyone already knewlol). I like to move my plants out into the parking lot to get full sun and so I don't want to have to move a big pot until I have to. I've been using the black plastic pots that you buy for 89 cents or whatever. I buy them in several sizes. When the plant outgrows the pot, I water the plant really well and then I cut the bottom off of the smaller pot and place the whole thing in the bigger pot. Then I cut down the side and peel the smaller pot off completely, and fill up the rest of the big pot with soil.
Right now I have a yellow pear cherry tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket and it has clearly outgrown it, but I am scared to death to attempt to transplant it. It is 6 feet tall, in a tomato ring cage and like 50000 bamboo stakes to supplement that stupid wimpy cage. It looked so small when I got it and since the tomatoes are small I thought it would be fine in a pot! (Which, now that I think about it, makes NO sense). Turns out they grow up to 12 feet high. whoops.
Yea that's fusarium IMO .. I'd pull that plant, bag it and get it off your property.. Has it spread to others? Btw, what's up with the pails of water, I'm guessing (definitely hoping lol) you have some mosquito dunks in there?
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.