16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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.

Definitely aphids.

The plant looks stressed. Is it dry?

Linda

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!

After your own finding, I was also curious and google searched. There are zillions of pictures. Yours is 99% Black Plum.IMP

Another confirmation should come from the plants foliage , DTM, and growth habit.

My recent most favorite tomato fertilizer is Texas Tomato food. All I can say is wow about it, great stuff. One has to order it on line though unless in the area, but customer service is superb and delivery is in couple of days.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato food

1- Variety is the first factor.
2- Care and growing conditions:
---- This includes a lot of things : Temps, Sun, Soil, Ferts,
Climate, Watering,
3- Reducing burden on the plant. Obviously, a plant growing wild, no trimming, no pruning, with zillions of flowers, tiny fruits.. is not going to produce many large fruits.

did not notice any aphids, but I picked up a couple of fat hornworms. However, hornworms usually just chew the leaves and new tender branches away..????

I don't use any pesticide at all. I am not aware of neighbors using it either, and they are far away

Pesticides wasn't the question and isn't the issue. Herbicides is. Weed killers?.

Dave

PS: hornworms will also eat into fruit.

Do you have other varieties growing under the same condition ? If yes, how are they performing ?

I have one tomato plant (Pineapple, seeds from heirloom fruit), planted out about 75 days ago that is just flowering while the rest of my varieties have many fruits. So I think that variety makes a difference.

As stated earlier it may be too much nitrogen which will produce robust plants but few fruit. Also if the temperature is constantly very high it may reduce pollination. After 70 days there should be tomatoes forming.

Recent professional advice I've heard says to wait a month after the last frost date. I tried it this year and my heirloom tomato plants are doing great.

I can't imagine waiting until June 30 to plant my tomatoes. Jiminy Cricket. If I plant on the "last frost date (May 31st)" I know I'm already late and will get a reduced harvest.

I hate peat pots. They seem to be great at growing mold and fungus but not the plants we want. If I buy Bonnie's plants, I completely remove the peat before planting.

The plants in your pictures are not happy, clearly. Definitely remove the peat pots and make sure they have the fertilization needed and not excessive water. Plants that look like that in NJ early summer don't need water.

Your plants may recover. But I never accept compostable material from neighbors. They lie. But at least yours admitted using them.

The first (or second?) year I planted tomatoes, full of beginner's fervor, I had some big herbicide damage midway through the season. I recalled that my neighbor (who is a wonderful neighbor) sprayed Roundup on gravel driveway areas (some of which were right next to my beloved tomatoes). Neither he nor I knew at the time how sensitive tomato plants were, and he probably didn't even know I was growing something like tomatoes at the time. Heck, I was using herbicides in my own yard at the time.

I believe my neighbor has every right to tend to his issues as he sees fit. Fortunately, he is the most amazing neighbor one could hope for, so when I explained to him what I had learned, and asked him if he would let me try to fix his weeds the next spring to see if I could solve both of our problems, he magnanimously agreed.

I settled on trying Preen pre-emergent on all the areas of his driveway that I thought were in drift-distance to my plot, and it turned out that he was even happier with those results than the Roundup results. He asked me what I used so he could continue it in the future.

I would do as Edweather said: clean up the yellowed leaves and give them a good soak with some fungal spray (neem oil, Daconile ... ).
In the first picture, appears to ME that the leaves had gotten sunburn and subsequently died and dried up. Yellowing is just normal course of dying and I don't see a typical concentric rings there.

I trim any lower leaf as soon as I see one getting yellow. In that condition that leave is just a burden on the plant and might harbor disease.

I first posted this a little over a month ago. Since that time I have removed all the affected foliage and sprayed with daconil. It didn't help and this just kept spreading so I started pulling plants. Finally, today I pulled one of the affected plants and took it to my county agent to see if he could tell me for sure what it was.

He said that it is tobacco mosaic virus(which is not what I expected!) I have spent the last hour doing some research on it and it does look exactly like what is going on with my plants. Then I came here and did a search for it to see if I could find any more info and found several posts in reference to it that stated that TMV was practically non-existent in the US.

So now I am confused! Does my county agent know what he is talking about or is there some small chance that this is actually TMV?

Also if anyone can recommend any good TMV resistant varieties or other suggestions I would greatly appreciate it!!

Thanks,

Carly

Hi there,

I'm the OP, with an update (and what an informative thread this turned into!).

I fertilized and am doing the finger-in-the-soil method to discern when they need to be watered. Happy to report that growth has resumed. They're getting bigger, and more maters are popping up each day.

I believe I'm supposed to fertilize weekly now. True?

One last question--some of the leaves (I believe on the Amish paste, not the Brandywine) are large at the ends of the branches, and tiny in the middle. Is that normal?

As for the fertilizer, I think that depends on which kind you use. As for leaves being much larger on the ends, that should be because they have more sun access while the interior leaves don't get much.

Only kidding John. Yours are the best tomatoes in Z5 so far this year that I've seen. Thumbs up.

That is impressive! Would love a BLT on the 4th of July...
(Might need to replace the heater with an ac unit this year.)

Looking at my garden notes this morning i noticed in 2005 i had first blush July 25th and two full salad beds thriving...
Way ahead of that this year but nothing near what you have. But i'm NY5a in a mountain altitude valley...warming up and don't think i'll have salad much longer....