16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I see only two leaves and each one has just one lesion. I can't see the internal structure of the one on the right, but the one on the left looks like the beginning, possibly, of Septoria Leaf Spot to me, a very common fungal foliage disease,
Because of the way it's spread, via wind and embedded in rain drops, no doubt it would have affected ALL your tomato plants unless you bought just the one being shown and it was infected where you bought it or where whomever raised the seedlings that sold them to a nursery, farmer's market, etc.
Carolyn
Seysonn, if you go back and read the FAQ here you'll find that bagging with tulle is one of the main methods suggsted for absolute purity of saved seed.
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Yeah. But I was talking about that article, not FAQ or other sources!!. I am done.
The article from Jeff only discussed geographic isolation, no other methods of helping to prevent cross pollination, which is why I suggested reading the FAQ here at GW that Dave linked to for other methods such as bagging blossoms with tulle.
Carolyn
seysonn, since you chose to call out people's posts....you are actually mistaken and somewhat rude....that was the title of his post.
what he did say in his text was ....." my concern is that they seem small for their type- the largest is bigger than a golf ball, and the smallest I have are maybe slightly larger than a ping pong ball. Am I doing something wrong?"
That is why my quote you posted.. was answered the way it was...his concern for under-sized fruit. Digdirt did the same.
isn't that Miracle Gro too high in nitrogen
It can be but the thing with containers is the nutrients wash out everytime you water the plant. So they need to be replaced regularly. Many report good success with MG diluted to 1/2 strength weekly or even diluted to 1/4 strength every time you water.
If using a self-watering container or if using drip irrigation and fertigation with containers it can be quite effective as it is always used in a diluted form.
Dave
labradors/Linda, I don't think we can move the upside down container. The iron stake is pretty deep into the ground as it is, and slightly bent due to storm damage, so I am weary of moving it, and have it secured to the staircase with jute. I wish I could hang it off a tree or something stronger! haha. Also, I live in a co-op, and the tree is on "our" side. It also gets significantly more sun here.
How much, and what kind of a difference will it make if I transplant into a bigger container? I have read 5 gallons is the general rule, but seen so many people post online - and in person - with containers smaller than I am using.
Either way, I think by the stairs will become the permanent spot. The container is hidden from street level by a bush in front, and there is already an upside down plant, there, so it won't look random if it's up against the steps.
Agressive? Dang! I got cherries instead of bigger tomatoes for two reasons: I thought they'd be faster to grow, and I thought the plants would be smaller. ha!
Thanks, you guys!
Wild Cherry is a huge, sprawling plant. Here's a pic from an older GW thread (wild cherry is the one spilling out onto the ground:
Edit: Sorry, the original pic must be gone, but you can see the cached version in the link below.
Smaller plants would be Tumbling Tom, Cherry Falls, Tommy Toes, and a few others.
Here is a link that might be useful: original thread
This post was edited by conchitaFL on Fri, Jul 4, 14 at 12:00
They do that when conditions are right.some gardeners will pinch them off, sometimes they fall off on their own. Since romas are determinate, you could pinch off the flowers. However, the plant will continue to grow as fruit developes, you are an easy 30 days away from fruit readiness and by that time your plants will be big and strong enough to hold fruit.
To me that plant is not too young or too small to flower. It will take about 50 days for the flower to become a ripe fruit. And in the meantime the plant will also grow in size too. Tomato plant can allocate its resources to wherever and whatever needed. If it could not support the fruit, plant will abort it itself.
The leaves will come into contact with many more disease microorganisms on the ground. Good air circulation around the plant helps reduce disease, and there will be less air circulation if the plant is lying on the ground, so more diseases.
When I've had volunteer tomatoes in my compost area, the loss of fruit to bugs was many times what I would normally see with staked plants. And in those conditions, I could pick less fruit because the vines/leaves/fruit were lying all over the ground and many fruit were unreachable (unless I wanted to step on the vines/leaves/fruit to get to them).
Now that said, I'm in WNC, where it can rain at any time (at least, it can during the Wet Years), while you are in zone 10 -- and if that's a dry Zone 10, you may not have so many problems with critters on the ground as I do here?
Your plants look ok. The color is good. Sometimes the leaves curl due to stress of some sort, but it's not a serious problem, and doesn't affect production. Is it hot on that deck? How much soil is in the container? Container size? What kind of mix is it?
It looks like you have a few inches between the top of the pot and the top of the mix. You haven't told us what variety/ies you're growing, so we can't recommend how large a pot they'd like (and I am not an expert in that sort of thing anyway), but I'd just like to point out that if the experts say you need a larger pot, you do have room to add more mix at the top (tomatoes will happily grow additional roots higher up on the stem).
Copper Fungicide is good but not organic, I use Immunox Fungicide for Gardens, Straw is excellent, I use that plus grass clippings which is also excellent, I wouldn't use wood mulch, But I do know a guy who uses saw dust every year during the fall when he turns his garden over then in the spring just lime it real good.
I've never used cocoa shell mulch with veggies, so I can't say anything about that. Old straw should be fine (though sometimes straw is contaminated with clopyralid and similar herbicides which persist for a year or more; I assume your straw is old enough that this wouldn't be a problem -- but I can't guarantee that).
(See info here:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/ncorganic/special-pubs/herbicide_carryover.pdf)
In the same way, if the grass clippings came from a lawn which had been treated with Weed & Feed or similar broadleaf weedkiller, the tomatoes could be affected.
Shredded office paper is another possibility. Newspapers. Bark mulch is fine.
Wood chips (not bark but wood) are okay as long as they're on top of the soil rather than in the soil. In the soil, they'll use up the nitrogen the veggies need.
There certainly COULD be reasons to prune, such as a desire to put more plants into less space, as has been stated. Also, I have had Indeterminate plants that reached 14 feet and more in length in one growing season. This is a bit unwieldy. And, pruning can help with trellising, help open up air flow, etc. BUT, I guess what I am saying is pruning a plant will MOST LIKELY reduce the production on that pruned plant. So, I think that people who prune tomatoes to INCREASE production on those plants are most likely making a mistake.
This is my first year gardening so I am torn on the pruning discussion here. I do have a question though.
If anyone can answer me one question, I have one plant that just now decided to really grow vertically. It has 5 or 6 main vines but only two are near my trellis. Can I top the other vines to stop their growth(if not, they are going to end up on the ground or breaking off in a strong wind)? This information would be much appreciated.
Would bottom watering work for a container of this size? I did that back when they were in seed cells, but didn't consider it an option for large containers...
Sinking them into the ground would be a serious chore. I have raised beds back there too, and digging out all the rock that I seem to have in the ground is serious hard work. I just took an appropriate sized cardboard box which I had on hand, opened both the bottom and top, and slid it over the bucket. With the lids, it's just big enough to provide a shade ring around the bucket while the plant is still in full sun.
As far as watering goes, would poking some couple inch deep holes every few inches around the plant be an idea? Water into the holes so it has more surface area to absorb into?
You said "came out of the drainage holes at the bottom only a few seconds later"
That means the root zone is far too dry.
If possible, get a large tub, fill with water which will over the potting mix, and allow the pots to soak until bubbles stop coming to the surface.
If not possible, put a trickling hose on the surface and allow to drip/trickle long enough to rehydrate the growing mix.
Good luck.
Thanks! Yeah, it does look stressed. I thought it was because of the aphids, but I checked, and indeed, it was very dry. I've been so afraid of overwatering I may have overdone it. Gave it a good watering, and will give all the plants a good spray with the hose, hoping for the best.
Dave,
After tasting them and seeing how big they get (some are as big as small romas), I'm happy about the mix-up :) Will definitely save seeds.
Sleevendog,
This is my first time ever growing tomatoes/anything edible, but as far as I can tell these are nice and flavorful!
Seysonn, the many home gardeners making crosses are not doing it for the money. they are doing it to get the F2 seeds to sow the next year and make selections and continue making selections at each generation until the one selection they think best is stable.
Keith is not a full time breeder but all those he bred, and is still doing so if you look at his website, are also available at several websites and he gets no money back.
His variety Purple Haze F1 is not that available other than plants and any money received from those sales go for autism research since his son is autistic.
And often they , the amateurs,come up with something great as did Sam with his initial cross between German Red Strawberry and D.r Wyche which is now called Sweet Ozark Orange, which took him about 5 years to stabilize.
And I could give you other examples aswell.
I send seeds to several places for trial, so do others, and such new varieties often end up being sold here and there, and the persons who did the original crosses receive no money at all, just the pleasureof doing what they do and finding something successful.
it's quite different for commercial breeders such as Fred Hempel withhis Bumble Bees and Mark MC Caslin and Bill Jeffers and more,b/c sometimes, at least for the first two I just mentioned,there is always a contract involved.
if you look at Johnny's, TGS, Jung's and many more you'll see Fred's varieties being sold, for instance.
Hope that helps,
Carolyn
Carolyn, ..I was talking about the commercial breeders, not the home hobbyists. After all, I suppose, the process must be the same. An it sounds very involved and time consuming even when a person is trained and experienced. .. One has to do one flower, one crossing at a time.
And what amazes me is that the so-called "hybrid" seeds are sold at about the same price as the open pollinated ones.