16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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?

Companies like Burpee, need to push HYBRIDs in order to survive and make money. There is little money in selling heirloom seeds/plants and there are a lot of little internet stores selling them. So I understand Burpee's strategy. Probably, there are a lot of paste tomatoes around that are even better. What is the advantage of size in a paste tomato ? Then there is the question of total production , per plant in pounds.

Larry, we had a particularly wet June and July here too and the tomato production has been awful. Tons of septoria and very little fruit. That said, I got a few nice-sized super sauce, but they weren't as big as the package said. Again, you're right, this year isn't really a fair trial since all of my tomatoes suffered. It was the worst tomato year I can remember. OTOH, the eggplant and peppers are thriving.

Yep. Milk as a fungicide is trending. I just find the numbers to not work out when compared to commercial ones. I may have to do it though, because I don't want the potassium bicarbonate I've been using to harm my freshly released lacewing larvae. Thanks Joe.

Kevin

My policy is to get rid of any yellow/ suspicious/ damaged leave, as soon as I spot them. Then, If I think it is caused by fungus , I will go ahead and spray or do whatever . Such leaves are just a source for additional infestation and do not make any contribution to the plant's life. Most soil born diseases are cause by : TOO MUCH moisture, TOO LITTLE air flow under and around the plant. So that is where pruning make sense (to me!) Some people believe in keeping the lower leaves(even the sick ones) as a source of shade. But I would rather use a mulch that will not remain soggy

Sharon, I see maybe one link that says too much sun, most speak of other environmental reasons for yellow shoulders. And if you look at the pictures at various links you'll see that it's mostly large beefsteak types that are susceptible to it.

And they aren't ones with wispy, droopy, dissected foliage.

Over the years I've seen it many times, not every season, and just ignore it b'c as several of the links say, it's really been impossible to ID a single cause.

I would suggest reading mainly those sites from Cornell and other places where the address has .edu in it.

Annoying when it happens? For sure. But again, in my experience it never affects ALL of the tomato varieties in the same season.

Carolyn

Hi Carolyn
I have read over the different links and considering the CDB was the ant that I had a lot of problems with BER it's not surprising. Like you mentioned its not affecting my other plants. I'm happy to report that after much worrying about Anna Russian it has produced some very beautiful and delicious fruit. And that is one wispy plant!

I grew, for the first time, 3 yellow/orange tomatoes this year: Limmony, Amana Orange and an oxheart. The oxheart will not be back again, due to lack of taste. I did enjoy the color variety. The AO was more productive than the Limmony; I will probably plant both again next year.

Every year is an experiment! And my "want to try" list is not getting shorter.

Aunt Gertie's Gold has lots of flavor. Highly recommended.

AGG is a large potato leaf type of tomato. Fruit are large. It is a late tomato, just getting into good production here in the past few days.

Jim

Leave them on as long as possible. You can use 1 or 2 as fried green tomatoes.
John A

Any that are almost ripe or even semi-ripe should have already been picked. Nothing is gained, and much can be lost, by leaving them on the vine once color break happens.

The fully green should remain on the vine as long as possible.

Dave

Dave, thank you for the advice, I will start educating myself on proper techniques. Can you lead me in any direction of good reads on organic fertilizing?

JOE, I do have a problem with white flies I have been trying to hold at bay with Neem and castile soap. I will post more pictures tonight.

Can you lead me in any direction of good reads on organic fertilizing?

Organic fertilizing in general? Sure, we have a great Organic Gardening forum here. But the problems arise with organic fertilizing in containers.

Fertilizing in containers has little in common with fertilizing in-ground.gardening - whether organics or synthetics - just as gardening in containers has little in common with in-ground gardening. Which is why I recommended the Container Gardening forum for the basics.

Containers use different soil-less mixes (no dirt since it compacts in containers, doesn't drain well, and causes roots to rot), plants quickly become rootbound in containers (not a problem in the ground) which is why much BIGGER containers is recommended (10-15 gallons for the average tomato plant), plants in containers must be watered much more often than an in ground garden, and every time you water containers the nutrients leach out of the container. So container plants have to be fed regularly - weekly is common - and fed diluted mixes or nutrients based on the size of the containers. So using liquid organic fertilizers work much better than dry granular ferts.

Organic fertilizers need bacteria and soil microbes and bugs to convert them to a form usable by the plants. Garden dirt contains them naturally but container mixes don't have those bacteria and such unless you add them to it and do so regularly. Some folks do it with compost and compost or manure teas, and some do it with one of the many liquid bacterial supplements available.

So some reading about fertilizers on the Organic Gardening forum will be of help but keep in mind that you are working with containers so much of what in-ground gardeners recommend just work work for you.

The Container Gardening forum does have some organic gardeners too however and they can help balance the two issues for you.

Dave

Unless you re dry those dessicants/ silica gels(in oven, eg), they will be worthless. Because after being around for so long they become saturated with moisture and cannot absorb any more. Unless you can get fresh sealed unused ones.

I think wit airtight container you should be fine.

If you have the possibility of rodents, make the storage rodent proof.

Gary