16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Sorry, I misread that all 3 were in the same pot, not same sized pots.
Cilantro gets about a foot tall in my garden but may not in a pot, esp. in your heat. Best to move that to a shady area. Sounds like basil could do with less sun too (and in picture looks wilted a little, maybe it needed watering then).
Leaf miners shouldn't do serious damage to the tomato. How bad is the septoria? If that's not basil in the bottom of the tomato pot, then you've got some very low-hanging trusses that should be removed. And it looks like 4 main stems?? How many plants in the tomato pot?
The first link on the page Dave gave was to Cornell - they say use fungicides containing maneb, mancozeb, chlorothalonil, or benomyl. University of Maine gives some brand names - Daconil is one that I've heard spoken of highly, though I grow organically so have only used copper (probably too little too late).
Is it very humid there? Septoria really only likes it in about the 70's for temps, and 100% RH. I'd think that it would be getting hotter (if not dry) in FL by now, so removing the affected foliage, separating the plants (if multiples, may have to cut a couple off if too big to separate), bottom watering or carefully watering at the soil surface and not the leaves, and allowing plenty of sun and good air flow would go a long way toward controlling it.
Here is a link that might be useful: U of Maine septoria page
Thank you. Yeh it's getting hotter here entering into Summer, and humid. I'll attach some pics as I think teh Septoria is getting worse. There's 5 main stems and one or two look bag, like even the stem is turning the off gray/blackish color and that's also the one where the flowers just die and fall off where as the other side you can see the flowers in yellow and starting to bloom. Not sure if when i move it to the larger pot, should i just cut off that stem and throw it away? I'll look into copper as I saw people recommend that.
I think that would be strong and it's clean unlike the other stuff I mentioned. I'd say the opening is fine at 6"x6". Although I've grown tomatoes that big most are much smaller. And you should be able to reach in and trim whatever you need or want to trim.
It is your choice as long as you understand it will cost you production.
Sounds as if better cages are needed especially since it is normally a much taller plant ranging 8 feet easily and most of us just let the extra growth drape down over the outside of the 6' cages and keep on growing. Circulating the needed water and nutrients poses no problem for the plant. It just grows more back up systems. :)
Many discussions here about 'topping' and what happens to the growth if you do it. Unfortunately "bushing out" isn't what happens with indeterminates as those lower nodes are already sealed off. it just stimulates new top growth - usually doubled from the nodes just below the cut.
Dave
OK. I think the point is that topping won't encourage bushing out. That's a bit surprising, as there are plenty of suckers, and I would have thought that topping would just encourage them to grow more. I wasn't expecting lots of new suckers to form.
As I said, there are no incentives in this climate for letting the plant grow very tall. When the summer heat gets fierce, it's the heat that effectively "tops" the plant. I see that on many plants.
With my hybrid cages, I can manage 6 feet, which is probably where I'll lop them off.
As a general rule mixing different suspensions is not recommended. Without details from the manufacturer we can't know the effects the ingredients will have on each other or the effect the mix will have on the plants. In this case the M-Pede label says:
Always determine the compatibility of water, pesticides, and other additives prior to mixing in the tank.
It then goes on to discuss testing on various plants before application, the damage that can be done to various plants, etc. etc.
In this particular case since the goals of foliar feeding and the purposes and goals of pest control are totally different, especially when growing organically, mixing the two would be strongly not recommended.
Aside from the fact that pesticides are never used prophylactically, especially when gardening organically as they kill beneficials as well as any pest that might happen by, you need to learn more about M-Pede.
First it is not just a pesticide but also a fungicide and is composed of mostly fatty acid salts. It works by coating the leaves. If you mixed it with a foliar feeding spray how would it be absorbed through the coated leaves. And the fungicide benefits would be neutralized by the salts.
Second, as the label states it only control aphids when used in conjunction with other aphid pesticide products.
See link below.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: MSDS - M-Pede
Haha. Just carried my first tray out for some shady bright hot weather. Maybe a few more trays will get some nice weather...yesterday, after so much rain, during the rain, i was even wearing a scarf, and down vest under my raincoat, giving my evergreens some food.
Indoor winter air is usually low in Relative Humidity, whereas a commercial greenhouse is highly humid. So the plants (in commercial greenhouse) do not need those hairs , trying to get moisture to compensate for moisture loss. To me those hairs are similar to thorns grown on some desert vegetation like cacti.
Just my theory.
And if they don't produce fruit, it doesn't really matter :)
Seriously, she's right. The one does smell different.
The stake fell out of the row of SS100 early on and when we found it, I didn't replace it. I wasn't feeling well yesterday when I finished transplanting and when I yanked them out of the little flat, I realized the stake was loose and didn't know which row it had come from. At first I thought it went with one, but then I thought I could see the indent at the head of the other row. Anyway, that's what happened and the row with the indent seems to be Sungold.
I've been using Peters 20-20-20 on everything. I grew Brandywine, Black Krim, Maskotka and these 2. All new but the SS100 so we'll see.
Diana
Yeah I was going to suggest that because it shoots out runners like lemon balm. Some times plants can do amazing things. Had a dirty pond, threw some straw on top...clear pond. Had mosquitoes...tossed a shovel full of lemon balm on top and the vampires went away.
I'm on one site right now and it says peppermint oil. They also mention ammonia soaked cloth.
Of course I left out the obvious choice a cat.
It was named Wheatley's Frost Resistant tomato. Yeah seeds for it are still around from some sources.
An indeterminate cherry type that is claimed to withstand temps down to 25 degrees if I recall correctly.
It never really caught on for some reason. :)
Dave
You would want to dilute it to no more than 1/4 strength for peppers as they are less tolerant of excess N than tomato plants unless you happened to want giant bushy plants but only a few peppers. :)
But then that strength is also considered very strong for tomatoes too if used full strength. If used in one of their hose end sprayers it is automatically diluted by the sprayer but if mixing it in sprinkling cans or buckets for watering you will need to do the dilutions yourself by cutting the amount per gallon in half or less.
If you explore the many tomato fertilizers available you'll find that most of them are much lower dosage. It is easy to overdose with such strong fertilizers so generally speaking it is better to feed more frequently with well diluted lower doses than only once or twice with very high doses.
Dave
It is quite possible, I think. Find a cherry type that grows long vines. Most cherries do. You can even grow mix color fruiting.
Another thing. Plant them in containers at about chest height level (~4ft from ground). This way you can easily water/maintain them an they will reach the roof much sooner and then continue to run on it.
But one thing to realize that tomatoes are annuals in your zone. You have to start from scratch every year.
I am planting for quality and taste first then growth. I will have 3 boxes with a combination of two in a box. It will be Parks Nectar, Sungold and Sweet Baby Girl. I am considering elevating the boxes. I also have a box with two Sweet Millions and a pot with one Napa Grape. It's too cold to mess around outside right now so will wait a couple of days till it warms up to do some measuring and planning. I've grown tomatoes at various times but never knew much about it except to stick them in the ground.
Several years ago I planted tomatoes in a neighbor ladies garden and kept them well watered and I think she kept them fed. I buried a large fish in between two rows and the tomato plant next to it got over 10 ft tall. All my tomatoes were good but that one was quite a bit taller that the rest. I have no idea what variety they were but not knowing any better I thought that was the norm. I have a picture standing on a step ladder measuring the plant and a picture of her and I holding very large tomatoes. Doing a lot of research on the web. It's a learning process as you have to learn a certain amount so that you can begin to weed out the nonsense. That applies to all subjects. I have also gotten interested in flowers this year and I had some left over Geraniums so I decided I would harvest as many starts from them as possible. 40 so far. I thought it was very easy to start Geraniums but I would check on the web for advice anyway. It was actually comical the advice people were giving. I used a root starter on all clippings and put some in water, some in pots and some stuck in potatoes that I stuck in pots. I ran across a video done by a large production green house where one person might do 4000 plants a day. They simply cut a start, stripped all the leaves but one on top, dipped it in root starter and stuck them in seed starting trays. Nothing serious in my life-just enjoying my last childhood. LOL
This post was edited by growmor on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 11:44
ZachS, actually I used the anti-grav machine for a while, but got tired of drying my clothes on the line; they usually end up frozen here in MN. So instead, I've created a mini-star (easily done by initiating a small nuclear reaction inside a gazing ball) and set it below the plants to balance out the light of the sun. Probably too much heat, though...
Dave, yeah, I'm using that's basically mixture I'm using for everything, except more recent batches it's been peat moss (3), perlite (2), miracle-gro organic garden soil (3) + a bit of garden lime & Espoma garden-tone. I cover seeds in soil block divot with vermiculite because I read some positive studies on improved germination rates when seeds were therewith covered (no matter the soil type). Anyway, this is near the basic recipe that came with my soil blocker from Johnny's, similar to the one used by Elliot Coleman I believe. (Oh, also in recent batches, I've been throwing a very small amount of EM1 in, too, just to make sure the beneficial microorganisms outnumber the wicked ones.)
Why do you say highly problematic? Because it's not soiless and thus damping off diseases are more likely? Thus far, all the seedlings apart from the tomatoes appear fairly healthy: cabbages, morning glories, artichokes, potatoes (TPS), asparagus, peppers (pic), hyssop... But perhaps I've just been lucky so far.
lindalana and edweather, I'd use soiless to avoid disease, but I don't want to have to worry about having to fertilize at random times and I don't know how well soil blocks would hold together with a soiless mix. It Would be easier to buy a pre-mixed substrate, but I have more time than money at present and it's cheaper for me to just mix it myself (especially with the 2000~4000 seedlings I have). Plus it really only takes a few minutes. I get about 8 cu ft. (dry mix) for $27. Btw, I cover the seeds with vermiculite, so they have very little resistance pushing up.
2 cu ft perlite: $17
3 cu ft peat moss: $10
3 cu ft compost: free
garden lime: negligible
organic fert: $2
gardener_mary, thanks for the change. Perhaps I'll just water as you suggest and test a bit of fertilizer on a few of the seedlings in another tray. We'll see who looks happier after a week.
Cheers for the advice everyone!
Peat is an excellent germination (seeding) medium, even straight up.
Peat as one component of a good, balanced, soil-less, seed starting mix is ok for seed starting IF it is properly wetted first. Peat straight up is not as it has all the issues detailed above.
Peat, as one component of a good balanced growing mix is also fine. Transplanting young seedlings into containers of dirt is not a wise move because of damp-off and water retention issues.
Dave.
They look like some of mine that got a bit of 'food shock'.
I re-potted in maybe 6 stages due to time and took some quick notes.
The first tray of mine had that slightly crooked stem. I just called it a confused 'core'.
Unbalanced potting up in a light potting mix...And fed at that moment. I think i over-fed.
(i have no idea what i'm talking about)
I stuck a note on that tray, "don't feed". (for a while, at least a week)
Second tray i potted dry plants into warm wet potting mix and bottom fed water till saturated.
I waited to feed the very dilute fish/seaweed a few days.
My best and healthiest tray so far.
My fan, across the room, runs almost all day. Set so they dance and jig a bit.
All looks good now and the early tray has recovered.
-i did lighten my potting mix that felt light at first, then compacted rock hard within a week.
I started about three weeks too soon, and now have an extra 'insurance' tray to pot up.
About half the size of the first run. Will be interesting to see it they catch up with the elders.
-I do not put in ground till June 1st or week of. Aprox have room for 60. The rest go to good adoption homes.