16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Fresh Tomato salsa, with some fresh green peppers(with mild heat), sprinkle with your choice chopped herbs(basil, cilantro, chives, parsley, mint), some lime/lemon juice, olive oil and of course some salt. Cucumbers, IF only garden fresh.

Wait a minute... isn't that how *everyone* makes tomato sandwiches?

hmm the leave are going brown but the nights are cold and it is normal but would it be better if I take all the brown leafs off
the spots are very small and then spread even today I see my cherry tomatoes starting to do the same thing should I pick them green so the spots don't spread

The more I Iooked at that green fruit I think there's a good chance what you're seeing is anthracnose.

If you click on the link at the very bottom, go to the 7th row, and second picture in from the left are two green fruits that have lesions just as you pictured.

To find out more about anthracnose here's a link to a Google search;

https://www.google.com/#q=tomato+anthracnose

The reason I was a bit confused at first is b'c usually one sees it on ripe fruits, but the fruits are infected when they are green as you'll find out when you read several of the links in the search link above.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: anthracnose

Yes, they are safe to use b;c the fungus that causes it is not a human pathogen, but I wouldn't use them since most of the time when anthracnose appears in the Fall the fruits have gotten watery and usually they taste on the sour side,

But you be the judge on that.

Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn - your help is much appreciated.

We tasted one of the tomatoes last night and it seemed a little watery but not sour. We're going to peel and start to cook them down tonight before it gets too bad.

Thanks again.

Barb

Squirrels (I assume--I see them crossing our deck frequently) have been nibbling the tomatoes; this morning I found 5 small ones left on the welcome mat (to appease me?) and about a dozen scattered on the deck; one of the geranium blooms lopped off, some of my begonias. I have 3 large cherry tomato plants on my deck--will have to make a trip into town to buy some Repel!

There are 3 ways to deal with squirrels:

1) feed them
2) eat them
3) BEAT them

I like number (3); Just pick the maters at the slightest suggestion of color. And let them ripen inside. This is the most economical and ecological and humane method.
Live and Let Live !

Yeah animals are tough, and I'm lucky it's working out. As even with dogs, if hungry enough they will chance it.
I lost two dogs last year and started growing more fruit to fill the void in my heart, and the time I used to take care of them. And to keep my mind off our loss. I planted fruit trees and such, expanded the present garden a lot. Adding 3 new raised beds.. My wife was so missing our two dogs that died 3 days apart, I had to get another. Then I found myself having this new garden, and a new dog to take care of. I went from nothing to do, to no time to do nothing! But it worked out, he has been keeping the animals away and after taking one tomato, and not liking it, leaves them alone. He's really a great dog too. Again I feel blessed and lucky. Humbled by it all.

I could have got a tomato snatching, plum stealing lab like Linda has! Phew! That bullet missed me! Labs are great dogs. Jesse an Aussie has a lab friend, chocolate too! Ollie is his name, great dog! Oreo is a beagle and Jesse's friend too. His best friend, my daughter's dog, the same age (1 year) is a black pug Axel! They are so cute playing together! I often have to baby sit the pug. They are growing up together. Life is good.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Sep 11, 13 at 15:28

here they don't eat my tomatoes maybe because I feed them sunflowers seeds I have 5 squirrels in all and come every day and 2 chip monks

I was just trying to help.

If you can't get the tomatoes to ripen, you can eat them green. I'm no great fan of the flavor of green tomatoes, but if you add a good bit of hot pepper, green tomato salsa tastes fine to me, and tends to be less runny if you cook your salsa.

Even with green tomatoes, I prefer that they get fairly close to starting to ripen so they're not really very hard.

Good luck.

As for your other plant, see when/how folks in your community usually grow tomatoes. Timing can be very important, and can also be very different from one area to another. If you live in a mountainous area, it may even depend on how high up you are and which side of the mountain you are on.

I follow you Dave. I'll be hard pressed to get much at this point with them just flowering now an setting small fruit...but you never know when that first frost will hit.

thanks

How does Baby Cakes and Hooty taste?

I personally think that it is something of physiological in nature. I have had similar leaves on some of my tomato plants and they have been doing just fine.

Another quick followup...Neem is controlling the thrips and damage has stopped.

Gail, keep thinking about dehydrator for cherries, is the inexpensive ones are good enough to start with? I have been eyeing this square one for something like $60 or go better and splurge on Escalibur?

Hey Linda,
It's really up to you. I don't do a whole lot of dehydrating (just in the Fall), so, for me, a less expensive one is fine.

As I mentioned Amazon has some offered. I often rely on the customer's reviews to make a purchase.

Gail

Commercial growers refer to 4 color breaks:

Breaker 1, just a blush at the blossom end\
Breaker 2, some color about 1/3 up the fruit
breaker 3. color above about 1/2 way up the fruit
Breaker 4, close to fully ripe..

Then totally ripe, not a breaker stage.

Carolyn

I know color break is usually when color first develops on the blossom end. What about when the first color showing is on the shoulders or the side of the fruit, but there is no color on the blossom end? I always have some that this happens to late season, and I do again now. We have been getting night time lows in the mid 40s 2-3 times/week then back up to lows above 50 again. Does plant stress or cold do it? Would you still pick or wait for the blossom end to show color? I don't know why some ripen in a funky way, but right now I have one on the counter that is red 75% around the tomato but one side is stubbornly green.

Tom,

Hope you enjoyed those tomatoes, that plant did seem very happy in your garden :)

And there are actually 3 cacti in that picture, a huge Cereus peruvianus that has been blooming for me all summer since may, and yes, at night, although the flowers last well into mid day, a nyctocereus serpentinus, a skinny lanky cactus that has beautiful fragrant flowers that also bloom in summer at night, and a small cutting of a cereus peruvianus monstrose form at the bottom, similar flowering habit to the regular c. peruvianus but not big enough to bloom.

Those look awesome! I am hoping and praying those seeds become available for next year as I really really want to try them.

So are these plants that require darkness at night?

No it is a generic label for the Solanaceae family of plants and is reportedly derived from the fact that they contain an alkaloid poison brewed and used in ancient times to bring on the "shade of night" (aka death).

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: What Are Night-Shades?