16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
ncrealestateguy

Maybe Pythium.

    Bookmark     May 29, 2015 at 4:10AM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
jaycount

Almost looks like a zinc deficiency, but the stems are also showing symptoms which doesn't quite fit.

I can't find good pictures of pythium-infected plants (other than seedlings) but the plant looked pretty healthy when it went into the ground.

I think I'll play it safe and trash it, I have 7 others and even 1 more of this same variety, so I will live. Thanks everyone for the input

    Bookmark     May 29, 2015 at 4:45PM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theniele6

Is this okay? Thank you! (White is the flash.)

    Bookmark     May 28, 2015 at 6:26PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
edweather(Zone 5a/b Central NY)

I think you forgot the pic. I've done it haha

    Bookmark     May 29, 2015 at 10:50AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Seysonn_ 7b-WA/HZ1

Marc,
No need to compost fall leaves before adding to the beds. It would be better to shred them by running over with the mower or using a shredder if you have one. The worm will do the job of converting them into casting.

Sey

    Bookmark     May 29, 2015 at 4:58AM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
mister_caledon(7a - Maryland)

Marc -- I can second Sey's advice. I have one of those lawn blower/vac things which chips up leaves and twigs into small shreds as it vacuums them up. In years past I had two friends who would place an "order" with me two big bags of chopped oak leaves every October (they lived downtown; ain't no trees). When I asked why - for the veggie beds, they said. So I think chopping and shredding is the way to go.

    Bookmark     May 29, 2015 at 6:51AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Lee Tovey

Ooh another question, I have another plant (I can't remember what it is, as again I've forgotten what I actually planted.) I'll remember to actually make a note of what plant is what next year.

Anyway, I think it's a cucumber or courgette.

It seems healthy ish but the new growth in between stems has got brown/black tips and has stopped growing. Current leaves are getting bigger, but nothing else.

I know it must be so anoting having a newbie asking so many stupid questions.

Sorry guys x

    Bookmark     May 28, 2015 at 4:58AM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Lee Tovey

    Bookmark     May 28, 2015 at 4:59AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
PupillaCharites(FL 9a)

Bacterial Canker, I think. If so, you're screwed. Please get other opinions because there is no solution to Canker except to burn the plants immediately and use bactericide everywhere to keep infection away.

Sorry, really hope I'm wrong. Needless to say, do not save any seeds if these are OPs for seed saving.

PC

    Bookmark     May 28, 2015 at 12:32AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
michellelg0530

Oh thank god.

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 3:01PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

Yep. They're adventitious roots. Plant it deeper when you do transplant.

Rodney

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 3:19PM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
wormgirl_8a_WA(z8 WA)

jennie, I used to be a big bird feeder and yeah the squirrels are just a casualty of that :) I just object when people are putting out the food FOR the squirrels on purpose... it's like fertilizing Kudzu or blackberries, right? :)

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 9:55AM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
thebutcher(6b (Philadelphia area))

about 6-8 years back we had a family of squirrels that broke there way into our house and got into the drywall above our kitchen. It was kind of scary knowing that you heard them run up the drywall and then above cabinets. Was just waiting for one to come through the cabinet. So I contacted the human society and they told me to get havahart trap, we caught at least 6 or 7, just trying to remember. I wish I had my gopro then to film them getting trapped.

We added an apple and peanut butter as bait and in over a week of time with 2 traps running we caught them all. They said to drive them over 10 miles and if you can try to cross a river because they hate water. So we drove them to New Jersey which is about a 5 mile drive and released the traps one by one in a park. I felt bad for my mother the most, she was freaking out every day hearing them on top of the kitchen. We called exterminators and other people liek that but they wanted to charge like $300+ from what I remember. but the human society said just get these traps,

I still have one and if the rabbits become a problem, I will buy another and ship them off at least 5 miles away. I think there like $25-$30 a trap, I recommend 2 because of gas milege ect.

I think is the one I bought haveahart

but if the rabbits don't touch my tomatoes I won't put that one out yet or buy another.

Also below is the video from a couple of years ago when I saw another pesky squirrel that I filmed Squirrel Video

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 12:45PM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
suze9(z8b Bastrop Co., TX)

Don't use Sevin.

Carbaryl/sevin will not kill mites or aphids (read the label). Additionally, sevin will kill off most or all of their predators, creating a rather nasty double whammy effect - especially in a hot, dry year like this.

As far as the nibble holes you mentioned, try to look for and determine what is causing that - some sort of caterpillar or beetles, I suspect... In any case, I would still not use Sevin. Find/target the specific pests, then treat accordingly.

I have read a couple of articles in the past stating that carbaryl can accelerate the reproductive life cycle of mites - eg, the chemical in and of itself is a stimulus to that process. Unfortunately, I did not save the articles and they might have been print only and/or rather obscure. Seeing if I can recall where I saw them initially is kinda sorta on my todo list, but haven't gotten to it yet.

Most of those small sucking insects (mites, aphids, etc) are on a 3 day reproductive cycle or thereabouts. So, your best bet is to spray with a soap spray every three days or so for at least a couple of weeks until you are fairly sure you have the population under good control. After that, 1x/wk should be good enough.

Soap sprays should only be used in a hot climate when direct sun is not on the plants - eg, early morning if you can. Be sure to get the undersides of the leaves - important.

Neem oil is also an option.

Another suggestion I would make is the Greenlight brand fruit tree spray, which is a fairly affordable combo of neem and some pyrethrins, and can be found at better nurseries - at least in my general area. Will help with mites and likely also your other pest that is eating holes in the leaves.

Hope this helps.

    Bookmark     July 27, 2009 at 5:09AM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
jaceymae

This is an old blog, but maybe somebody will still read it. Carbaryl in Sevin dust has been named a carcinogen. I wouldn't use it at all.

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 12:41PM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
wormgirl_8a_WA(z8 WA)

Well, that *is* a lot of amending to the soil you used. Personally that sounds awfully heavy for a potting mix for my taste, but you are in a much hotter area.

I actually burned young plants with blood meal one time. It was so long ago I can't remember what it looked like, but it was obvious I screwed up. But I see you saying they were fine till all that rain.

My favorite organic solubles are Neptune's Harvest and (not quite but almost organic) Texas Tomato Food.

This is a lot of tomatos for you not having grown any for 15 years! Are these all just your personal garden? It's a big experiment to go bad, that would be heartbreaking. Good luck and keep us updated.

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 9:52PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Seysonn_ 7b-WA/HZ1

Sam,
You have already described some of the possible reasons for what has happened : EXCESSIVE WATER .
You have also revealed another possible cause: YOU POTTING MIX.
Yes, in my opinion your potting mix has been a bigger problem'
According to the experts (not me !) and the experienced container growers ( I have some experience) , using top soil and compost, manure is not a good choice. For several reasons:

--It gets compacted every time it is watered.
-- compaction deprives the root system from getting air.
-- In compacted soil the roots will have hard time to grow freely.
-- Compacted top soil will stay soggy for a long time.

The best container gardening results is achieved by using SOIL LESS potting mix. There are many commercial ones. Some are better than the others.

Plants roots need a certain amount of moisture. so a good potting soil has to have right amount of moisture retention an drainage. Neither one has to overwhelm the other.
JMO

Sey

    Bookmark     May 27, 2015 at 12:24AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
hummersteve

Golden Garden Spider,,, beautiful artistry in her web.

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 7:23PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Seysonn_ 7b-WA/HZ1

I have not known that spiders of this/similar kinds to do any harm in the garden. Probably they are friend, as the catch insects like mosquitoes. An some of them weave beautiful/amazing webs in couple of hours.

Sey

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 8:40PM
Sign Up to comment
Monsanto MergerLooks like some bad news.
Posted by garf_gw May 24, 2015
6 Comments
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Seysonn_ 7b-WA/HZ1

How doe this affects us, backyard gardeners and shoppers at the grocery stores ? Just wondering !

Sey

    Bookmark     May 24, 2015 at 11:23PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
lindalana(z5 IL)

You/ and I mean general YOU as human being/ will not die happy from old age. You will die slowly and painfully circulating between nursing home and hospital for most of your retirement.

Adding big corporation to big corporation makes them law unto themselves. Bon appetite!

Time to start looking for homestead.

Couple of seemingly unrelated links

Ticks and agriculture practices

/http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/lawn-chemicals-and-cancer-in-dogs/

and never mind most grain crops being poisoned by Roundup...

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 1:33PM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
PupillaCharites(FL 9a)

Hi Hawkeyext,

I'm so happy it worked out and you didn't have to go pulling any plants out of your hybrid set-up and got to go forward into a fun season! Also, that the suggestion was useful! I just thought of your post this morning looking at some of my undeveloped tomatoes on my plants (blaming the heat).

One thing about the tomato plant you can count on. If the tomato fruit growth gets suspended at a tiny size like this but looks like a miniature tomato, if is likely the plant can eventually send it a signal to grow again when it has the energy. If something happened to it, the plant will naturally abort it in the next week or so and you'll see the end turning pale green to yellow first, before it eventually gets naturally cut off and withers, and falls off.

I've had one tomato I can remember that was tiny just like yours and took about 2 months to actually get the message to grow. But it grew from about 1/4" to marble sized and then shut down again. I think in its case two things contributed to that, and it was the exception to the case. First the weather was very hot, and second I had a leaf mold attack and removed many of the leaves in that area, leaving it bare.

So if we put ourselves in the shoes (roots) of the plant, a good guess would be that the plant waited till it had excess energy and then tried to get moving. But that was a particularly hard case for it and it probably signaled (or signal to grow was absent) that there were not enough leaves around it to support the development of the fruit after all when other fruits began draining energy/nutrients. It is just an anecdote, but I think a good one. Most of the time they develop into fruits even after a long suspension, but occasionally they naturally abort. Perhaps the plant can calculate to preferentially abort fruits that have few seeds/poor fertilization. This would be an interesting topic for the guys working on seedless tomatoes.

OK, back down to earth, congratulations on growing the large plants indoors. That is quite a challenge for anyone to do! I forgot but did you ever mention the variety?

Cheers

PC

    Bookmark     May 22, 2015 at 11:36AM Thanked by hawkeyext
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
hawkeyext(6b)

Hi PC,

They are Brandywine Tomatoes. Some are in hydroponic buckets and some in soil.

Very interesting info. Thanks for sharing. Good to know this little one is not a lost cause!

What kind are you growing?

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 8:01AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
wormgirl_8a_WA(z8 WA)

Sounds great! Congrats on getting them in :-)

    Bookmark     May 24, 2015 at 8:05PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
mister_caledon(7a - Maryland)

Posters above are right in that there's no hard-and-fast rule, but from my own experience 47° is doable. Once the plants are in the ground and growing well, I'd heard that a layer of mulch around the plant and a late afternoon watering will keep the ground moist and relatively warm through a chilly night. Not that I've tested this hypothesis myself but it makes sense to me.

GL with the plants once they go in! :)

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 7:34AM
Sign Up to comment
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
johnthecook

Parks seeds carry them. I was thinking of ordering them and seeing how they do. Brandy Boy is one of my favorites.

    Bookmark     December 7, 2014 at 6:01PM
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
buttercupia(zone4 IA)

I found a Genuwine tomato on the rack at my favorite garden center and bought it.
Hoping for good things..

    Bookmark     May 26, 2015 at 7:21AM
Sign Up to comment
© 2015 Houzz Inc. Houzz® The new way to design your home™