16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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.
"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
Okay, I'll stop putting them out for awhile. Is there anything else I can do to help them recover?
Sorry but I don't think you understand what we are saying. You cannot radically change the environment of a plant without damage. The damage is done now since they weren't hardened off first so you might as well leave them out. The damaged parts will die and fall off but the new growth will slowly replace it and should be ok . Taking them back inside only to move them back out side later on will only reverse the progress made and then cause more damage.
Plants need to be very gradually - over a period of 7-10 days - exposed to the the outside when they have been grown indoors. This is called Hardening Off and there are FAQs here as well as lots of internet info about it.. They never go from inside directly into the bright sun.
Rather they go in slow steps from inside out into the world. First to sheltered shade like a screen porch or under a deck, then into shade protected from wind and high temps, then into light sun for a few hours, and gradually over several days into more and more sun for longer periods.
And once they start out they don't go back indoors again except briefly in the case of severe storms or such.
Dave
How are everyone's tomatoes beginning the month of June? Mine are growing and making little tomatoes. I planted both closed containers and draining containers to see if they show a difference. I used lots of coarse coir for both and am watering the same amount, also feeding live aerated Tea with a measuring cup to be sure everything is the same. Some of my closed containers are clear so I'm watching the moisture through them, to respond to all the plants, of course, keeping an eye on all the exposed plant parts. Still can not decide to prune or not, thinking same ones I have two, will try pruning one Indigo Apple and not the other to compare. Hope all of you are enjoying the process as much as we are here!
In the past I have planted 1 tomato (better boys) one per each sq ft in a 4x4 sq ft raised bed next to a 4 x5 trelis. I then pruned each plant to one vine. I got less tomatos per plant but more tomatos per linear ft. It was a wall of solid tomatos...I got this method from the sq ft garden gook. I'm not smart enough to dream this stuff up
by myself.
Congrats Johns, you built a nice set up for your toms !
I admired all the stuff you guys build for your toms and spent my winter months dreaming about your various ways.
Finally, as I have two left hands and a job that keeps me too busy for my taste, I decided to let my plants do as they like.
I guess it'll end up with crawling toms on boxes.
And more mockery and hypocrite smiles from my neighbors.
Well never mind, anyway I sucked so much from the start that the 50 ones which survived out of 210 seeds have gone through a real darwinian selection ;-)
I assume those 50 ones are pretty life loving toms who can take care of themselves alone.
But I'll never stop admiring your dexterity !
Francoise ... I could post a close up that shows how I sometimes miss a nail with a hammer by a country mile ;-)
(The important joints are screwed, but the feet are nailed on.)
This post was edited by johns.coastal.patio on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 11:12
Yes I got my info from the same thread. It is a brief pictorial timeline, nevertheless very useful. I have no idea about its accuracy though. But I just take its numbers as ball park figures. Obviously a small fruiting or cherry tomato is not going to act like a beef steak.
.
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.