16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
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.
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.
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
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...
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
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! :)
Check the stem at the soil level. I've had some kind of rot which has caused exactly that problem of wilting during the day and reviving overnight.
You could salvage the top of the plant by rooting it in water or you could try mounding soil up around the base of the stem to encourage more roots to form.
Linda
I have heard this can be normal and have seen it in my own plants. In my case, it's only the top of the plant that wilts, but yours might be getting more sun. The fact that it's the whole plant and it's stunted compared to the other, well, that's concerning.
Hi PC
Thank you so much for your reply. I am so impressed with your expertise in this subject.
As you explained in your message the Sweet Rosso variety can be purchased from Marks and Spencer's and that is where I purchased them from as I live in the UK.
Would you know what name the Nebula variety of tomato would be known as over here?
Best regards
Georgina
Hi Georgina, Nebula is the correct variety name worldwide since Syngenta actually decided to name it for the benefit of their marketing department and growers worldwide.
Just to be clear, Sweet Rosso (TM) is only a trademark that Marks and Spencer is using at the moment to give the impression to consumers that they have an exclusive, in partnership with the UK grower who has the real exclusivity. In fact M & S doesn't have an exclusive and you can buy the same tomato at ASDA that is also selling it, where they are more transparent and usually list grower information on the package which should include the name Nebula on the informational label as the variety. Here is a picture of ASDA's Nebula from the same exclusive UK grower, and note the variety name is kindly in fine print on the label, being sold in ASDA under the brand name "Tomtastic Tomatoes"
The UK grower behind this is Melrow Salads' facility for Flavourfresh Salads brand in the Lancashire area where Andy Roe is the Manager that has the contract with Syngenta for the UK.
FF has a huge high tech specialty glasshouse hydroponically growing tomatoes year round, heavily using intense artificial LED light in winter. That vision is a lot different from the painting Flavourfresh gave M&S of the Nebula variety for marketing purposes, which suggest the traditional Italian Riviera LOL. Got to admit these guys are fantastic marketeers and quite innovative. Brings back memories when I was there doing this. Click on this link to see the Nebula variety of tomatoes growing in the Flavourfresh glasshouse in the background:
Flavourfresh gift to Marks & Spensers
Hope that helps a bit more. The closest you can get to a plant is by visiting Flavourfresh and asking Mr. Roe for a tour of the Lansdale nursery ;-) But like I mentioned earlier, you can grow more flavorful tomatoes in your home garden in the Summer since they go straight from your garden to the plate and will be at their very best. The best OP red cherry tomato that is tried and true might be Gardener's Delight, available here in seeds, but now is transplant time so you can pick up (and maybe Sungold too) transplants at a local Nursery catering to home tomato gardeners.
PC
I go around collecting straw bales after Halloween (people buy them for decoration then toss them; wasteful) and they sit outside all winter and spring until I'm ready to use them. At which point I break the bale open, spread out the straw to dry for a bit, then run over it with the lawnmower. Chopped/shredded straw stays in place better for me.
Rodney
Easy? By zip code?
I think not. I don't know what kind of area zip codes cover in your are but here in the NE and also with my own zip code they cover a very wide area. And within that area there's all kinds of terrain that can influence weather at any time. Freda is here right now watering stuff outside, major lack of water coming from the sky right now and we were both laughing at the time it was pouring rain in the backyard and the sun was shining in the front. LOL
But don't let me stop you from getting another app for your probably smart or dumb phone to do what you want to do.<G>
Freda just came in from watering outside and I told her what I was posting about and I won't use the exact words she used, I couldn't, but close enough is when she said....that person has too much time on her hands and yes, Freda has a so called smart phone. LOL
Carolyn
I do live in an urban area with fairly small zip codes. But you are absolutely right, if I really wanted to calculate acccurate info for MY garden, I would need a thermometer here measuring the highs and lows each day and do the calculations myself.
The app is very simple and just gives you cumulative GDDs by month, and compares them to last year. At the very least, it would give you an idea, with no work on the user's part. I mean, it's not like I need to know when my tomatoes will be ready for market, which was your original point :-)
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