16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I like John's idea if you have the space. I had a bunch of tomato plants zapped by a late freeze and did just that: bought some new, but left the zapped ones (I don't have a huge number of plants and there was room for both Teams A&B). Some of the B Team expired, but some are now vigorously producing.

After 2 months of no care while stuck in a cell pack? Sorry, I agree with Jean - toss them. They are well-stunted and their circulatory system is severely damaged already. Even if one was to survive it would be very prone to pests and diseases and wouldn't be a productive plant or worth the time and effort of trying to save it.

Dave

Yes! Leaf-roller it is! Thanks for that suggestion!

Surprisingly, I couldn't find much by Googling "leaf roller caterpillar" and "tomato," but I did come up with the GW thread below with a pic. The monster in the pic is much larger than the ones I squished this morning! The ones on my plants were even slightly translucent, mostly dark green.

-Bruce

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf roller thread

I get them about the size of yours.... 1/2" to 3/4" but not on my tomatoes. Mostly on my blueberries, raspberries, and apple trees.

Third image. It's hard to tell, but some of the edges on lower leaves have small dried-up edges and/or little dried-up spots.

This post was edited by Stella_z6 on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 13:56

Hi, just posting again to knock this post higher up the thread. Still wondering if anyone has any ideas what might be causing this group of tomato plants to curl upward, look stunted, and have some slight darkish discoloration.

Maybe it was early exposure to cold weather? If so, I imagine I'll just have to wait and see if these plants bounce back? I'm tempted now to replace them, since I don't have scads of garden space, although I'd be sorry to give up on these plants.

Many thanks again.

Harden?

Harden?

To gradually accustom a plant to more difficult living conditions

Plants need to be "hardened-off", an adjustment process that takes 7-10 days to gradually adjust to a new environment prior to transplanting outside.

So were these plants purchased or did you grow them from seed? If bought were they outside or inside? If you grew them did you move them directly out from growing inside to the outside rather than giving them a period of adjustment?

Dave

PS: are you sure there was no damage to the stem done when transplanting?

Thank you for the insider knowledge regarding member approval.

When I didn't get the acceptance email first thing Monday morning, I figured it was something like that, since I can see by viewing it's well run.

That's going to be a long hard task to catch up. Been there, done that...it's like keeping the dishes done or the weeds pulled. As long as you do a bit every day, it's not so bad, but can become a monumental problem if left too long.

I'm just grateful I can view the carefully gathered information. It's a treasure for sure.

So thank you to all of you more experienced tomato folks that take you time to guide the rest of us, not only here, but on other sites as well. I'm a very experienced gardener, but tomatoes are not my specialty at all, So I'm here and there lurking and admiring your plants. Inspiring !

The only actual insider knowledge I have is that now when we get new members we get A LOT all at once and that is because the owner carefully screens out spammers. I am guessing he sets aside as much time as he can to process new members, working around the constraints of family, employment, his own garden, etc.

I can only imagine that every thing is much more time consuming now that we are nearly 15,000 members. But, we are still getting new members approved so hang in.

hahahahha

Hummm ... and in the off season that would be perfect for dandelion removal.

My evil twin made me post it!

Yes, BLT with white cheese. It was a Dwarf Wild Fred that set while it was still in a pretty small pot. I read online that somebody said it wasn't worth planting so I never did. I did keep feeding it often with a balanced liquid fert so I could taste it, and it turned out to be very good. Now it is in a 5 gallon bucket and Wild Fred will surely be invited back!

Some folks say it taste like Cherokee Purple, I am probably the only woman in America who has never tasted one. The actual patents are Carbon and New Big Dwarf.

Last year I couldn't wait for a sandwich so I cut a bunch of Sungolds in half. It was pretty damn good.

O ! That is interesting. Now you know the trick how to grow a variegated tomato plant : D

"And the most recent issue with them has cropped up in just the past couple of years - sprayed mulches and compost containing sprayed ingredients that is brought in as tomato garden mulches and can still damage the plants."

^ this should be considered posted above by Dave.

The past couple weeks i have collected a bookmark file of conflicting pics and guessing on this issue with tomatoes. 50/50 split between drifting round-up and iron/nutrients, and some tap water issues, etc.

I may have mentioned a month or more ago about how odd my potting-up mix seemed. With-in days it seemed hard and dense and ashen looking. I switched to pro mix and started using my rain barrel water...though did not keep notes on individual pots, but my later, and properly timed tray of starts are fine. (started three weeks later than the early trays)...
I have maybe six out of a hundred peppered throughout my starts that are showing this pale yellowing in the center of fresh growth...

I used that questionable soil in a few 5 gal pots and put in a few toms that were way to big to wait for in-ground planting....(my bad for starting too early), but 'all' those toms are showing pale centers...now about three weeks later...A light hit with iron last weekend a few have recovered...one that had gone much more pale white did not. -still very much alive but the few leaves affected did not.

Spray drift can travel miles. On a clear sunny calm day.
Two systems can collide and lift without notice. Or in the time it takes to go in and refresh your coffee to return moments later and your folded newspaper is all over the lawn...

I'm not quite convinced that 6 out of a hundred random starts would be round-up drift.

One house maybe a 1/2 mile up the road might spray weeds...a tidy home...lawn art, fake wishing well, seasonal banner flags...'happy spring', and sports 'go Nicks'...a ring of glossy painted rocks around the mailbox refreshed every year...a very green lawn.
The rest of us are deep in a natural forest landscape....home of hosta and ferns. No one near me has a veg garden...or much of a lawn to speak of...just not possible. My starts have been outside and need to be moved around to get the slivers of sun near our driveway on various tables set up...
All will travel to the mountain garden and planted this weekend...finally. Some have been planted and some are in a southern window in the barn...curious how they are doing...

Can you post few pictures ? Like they say a picture can say thousand words.
What you have described in your first paragraph, does not necessarily equal to over supply of Nitrogen in case of tomatoes. And about peppers it needs more info. Peppers have some what different fertilizing needs and perhaps less than what tomatoes require and also they need more balanced fertilizer.

You wrote:
"""I put one bag of manure and one bag of commercial garden topsoil in each 4X4 raised bed. After about a month I added Espoma garden fertilizer according to the directions. I did the same last year. """

I am not familiar with the analysis of ESPOMA and don't know how much did you apply BUT a bag (1 cu-ft ?) of manure mixed in in a 4'x4' bed is not going to cause over fertilizing.

With regard to BER: Can you tell us what varieties are being affected ? I would pitch any and every single one as soon as I find them. Luckily it is an early season problem. I use dolomitic lime as Calcium source also use MG Shake n Feed which also has Calcium and Magnesium. I believe eggshell is a myth. Your tomatoes will be gone way before eggshells break down and converted into Ca++ ions.

my tomatoes plant start drying out and all the leaves dried and burned crispy, I just fertilized them couple a days ago. how can I save them?

Kasey - rather than tacking on a new question to a 4 year old post about different issues could you start a new post please with your questions?

It is less confusing to the readers and you'll get better information related to your situation that way. Plus the answers will get emailed to you rather than to the OP that posted this 4 years ago.

Thanks.

Dave

bcmolle, sorry for your loss. I think we see at least one fish head incident (fish heads, fish heads) every year. Oh no! (roly poly fish heads) It's running through my head and (fish heads, fish heads) I can't get it to stop! (fish heads, fish heads) Fish Heads YUM!

Betsy

It does work well but not many backyard gardens can keep the critters out. No mater how deep you dig them in. And yups, they will till your compost and do a fine mess of it getting to it.
Your compost bin, the one that gets fresh adds, needs a strong hardware cloth or similar sides and top to keep the animals out. And dug in deep to keep the flies away.
In a three bin system that works so well...i bury them deep under the middle bin.

Better used for stock for a fish chowder...

I do mulch and dig in about a hundred cod bodies and heads every fall and compost them as well...a costal home in Northern Canada...but that has been done for many years. Mulch with seaweed and collect sea urchin shells and double dig it all in.
No critters but moose... they prefer my blueberries.
A whole other gardening challenge i deal with every year...

To Prune or Not to Prune, both are options open to the gardener/grower.
About suckers and branching:
I have noticed that not every branch out can be labeled as "suckering". Some varieties tend to branch out and get bushy. For example my Mortgage lifter has 2 branch outs. This branching habit is more common in peppers and it is not a suckering. The so -called suckers normally start much later in the game at the lower nodes. I do prune 100% of such growth on indeterminants but I am not doing that with my determinants. That is my option.

My plants are being pruned to 3 stems and they are showing the same flower suckers. I may leave a few leaves of this sucker intact for shade purposes, but otherwise I prune it to stop it.
I have also noticed that some of the main stems break into two main stems, and by the time I notice it, both stems have a flower cluster, which makes it hard to decide which one to keep and which one to grow out. So I have been keeping the "sucker" stem but only to right after the flower stem. Maybe leave a couple leaves for shade. This way I get that extra cluster of flowers, but it will not grow any more after that.

There are a couple of other discussions running about this question here right now. Normally, assuming the plants are of proper size to transplant to the garden outside, then removing blooms is stopped once the plants are transplanted to their final growing place. Yours certainly sound plenty big enough to leave alone.

In other words, you remove any they have before planting and then leave them. If the plant can't cope with them, they drop.

Dave

Yes, I agree with above. You describe your plants as already strong, planted in large containers with good medium, they get plenty of sun ... so there shouldn't be and issue that leaving the blossom might cause some kind of stress on them and prevent them from growing bigger.
When I bought a 6" seedling (RC ML) it had some buds on it. I pinched them because I wanted the plan to spend all its energy on growth (roots, foliage). But when it flowered at 16" , I welcomed it with open arms .:D