16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
LATEST SECRET to prevent BER !*/&^??:)D
I have read this recently that POSSIBLY magnesium (Epsom Salt) can help tomato plant to uptake Calcium.
But to veryfy this one has to do it early in the season, just before transplanting. Say, take two spots with Epsom salt, two spots without. Plant your worst BER friendly tomatoes in there (like Roma !!) and collect data.
To me, it has to do something with the soil pH/chemistry. Some varieties have a very narrow tolerance range. Then when the soil temperature may also play a role. Isn't that why BER stops after a while ?
I thing the Epsom salt therapy is worth experimenting and it has no bad side effects on the plants and the gardener. hehe
I mentioned Epsom Salts in my long post earlier in this thread.
It's of use only if the soil is too acidic to allow for uptake of soil Ca++ b/c it raises the pH.
But again,getting Ca++ into the plant does not ensure that BER will not occur b'c of all the other variables I also mentioned in that post,such as all thestresses that plants have to deal with and which can cause maldistribution within theplant.
Leaf transpiration is also an issue and that's related to ambient temps and humidity.
So yes,there are two reasons that no Ca++ is available to the plant,one is that the soil is too acidic,and the other oneis where there is no Ca++ in the soil.
And both conditions are quite rare indeed.
And getting Ca++ into the plant does not ensure that BER will not appear.
Carolyn
I find a long, dry, heat wave can cause it. I noticed it last year with out drought and this year when we had a week or two that were pretty steamy.
Last year, once the temps dropped, the new tomatoes didnt have the tough skins. So, I do think as weather improves, you will notice a difference.
I find a long, dry, heat wave can cause it.
*********************
Make good sense.
It is a defensive mechanism to reduce evaporation and retain moisture. It is also in general true about a lot of leafy veggies that tend to get tough for the the same reasons.
Knobby stems may be the result of root initials. Seldom, if ever a problem for the plant.
Stem knobiness can also be due to a whiff of 2,4-D or other broadleaf herbicides of the same group. That said, I don't see the damage that often shows up on the leaves at the same time.
Compost contaminated with long-lasting herbicides such as clopyralid can cause similar symptoms.
Tomatoes are also sensitive to Roundup but the symptoms are different. The new growth at the tips becomes bright yellow.
I don't see any evidence the stem has been chewed.
Any chance of posting more images?
- view of several plants in a row
- view of one entire plant
This post was edited by jean001a on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 20:46
Jade,
Are you using any manure in your garden? Sometimes farmers spray their hay with a broad-leaf herbicide, the cows eat the hay, and the herbicide is not completely deactivated and remains in the manure. I have read that it can be quite a problem if we buy this manure and plant vegetables in it!
Linda
There is a red submarine, and it is RL. (Which is what your plants in the second picture appear to be, I think Seysonn was looking at the Basil leaves in the background of the first one.) There is also a red pear (haven't grown it) but the pics I have seen of it tend to be more narrow at the top: Red Pear. I've also seen a couple of other tomatoes with Red Pear in the name, but they aren't shaped anything like that, more knapsack shaped.
What you have looks more like red plum, but as Dave said, no way to know for sure.
You may want to contact Seeds of Change and let them know what you are getting, I'm sure they'd like to know. And if anyone else has gotten the wrong type from their SM seeds, they may want to pull the stock of their San Marzano. Of course, you may have just gotten a stray seed. It happens.
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: Red Submarine at Tatiana's TomatoBase
This post was edited by bets on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 15:31
@ ir4ten & Betsy
As Dave mentioned, I also thought that the tomato in question has PL. But since we did not know of a ROMA with PL, then, I looked into other possibilities. I was not sure what color the ripe tomato will turn into, Yellow or red.
It was a 50/50 draw.
Anyway, I searched and came across a CHERRY ROMA, just like in the first photo.
Below is the picture of the Cherry Roma.
Not sure what you mean by "trouble free" tomato plants.
I've never heard of anyone growing tomato plants for their attractiveness. Most grow them for fruit, not eye appeal.
Even the most healthy and pest free plants look pretty ragged by the end of the season.
Dang that looks fine!! Just the thing to go with the grilled pork ribs planned for dinner tonight.
I'd want a twist or 2 of fresh ground pepper on top but then I'm a ground pepper lover.
Ever tried it with some shaved fresh parmesan on top?
Dave
Thanks both of you and thanks again for the support. Parmesan is great on top as well, and another great thing is fresh Mozzerella. I will show you some awesome Italian stuff to do with tomatoes soon. I got to go away on another trip but will be back in a few days and get some more nice photos. I will also have the old lady do a youtube of the old fashion italian recipes with tomatoes.
Also remember you may need to adjust the garlic basil ratio to your taste along with salt.
- Mr Beno
The intensity of light drops of rapidly the further from the source that you are. (The inverse square law of light.) Typical street lights range from 35 to 250 watts. If at 1 yard from the light the intensity is 250 watts, at 2 yards, it is 1/4 strength or 62.5 Wats, at 3 yards 1/9 strength, or about 28 watts, 4 yards 1/16 = 16 watts, 5 yards 1/25 = 10 watts, etc, etc.
So it is very unlikely that any street light will affect your tomatoes, even if you are using the lamp post as a stake. (LOL!)
The inverse square law of light is used to measure distances to stars. (I took an astronomical physics class.)
Betsy
I switched from IMAGES to the web where there are some pictures, and as long as the rest of you can see it that's all that matters.
I did misspell Accordion as Accordian at first, but that shouldn't be a problem.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Accordion
ajsmama, when do you start your tomatoes? Here in Chicago zone 5 as well, we can èsafelyè plant on Memorial day but I have found over the years that plants put in the garden earlier will do much better. Most years it is safe for me to plant out around May 15.
I usually start in mid-late March and then set them out sometime the last week of May (23-28) but this year May was very dry, cold, and it was hard to harden them off - there were a couple of times I had to cover the strawberry bed b/c they were flowering but it was going to be below 40! That last week we had a lot of rain and 3 days around 90 so I put them out June 2-17 (the very last ones, Mark Twain and Latah) in between rain storms. All of June was very wet (about 1 ft) and the ones in the main garden turned purple and stalled, I replaced almost all the SuperSweet 100 and Rose de Berne, half the Gardeners Delight. The "determinate hybrids" from Burpee planted in the house garden never looked as bad (purple) but grew very slowly and are now about 4ft tall, producing many more tomatoes than the heirlooms but none are ripening - and 1 was supposed to be 49 DTM (put in 6/2)!
My neighbor put hers in around Mother's Day but hasn't gotten any ripe ones yet either.
Hi Betsy,
I try to water it deeply 3-4 days apart, provided there has been no rain. Is it too much/too little? I follow the same schedule with my other plants and they are doing fine. However, I must add that the Sunsugar looked much better today overall and its tomatoes are getting gluttonously consumed in the backyard itself.
Dave,
As always, thank you for your help! I'm just so frustrated after having such wonderful success last year with this variety (10 quarts/38 pints and many, many eaten fresh). This year, they aren't shaped the same (more pear-shaped than the oblong ones we had last year). It is different seed, but same seed source and variety.
I'll update this post as the season continues.
Here's hoping there will be a change in the weather and we all have a better harvest than we thought!
Cheers!
Some very nice pictures there, I am growing some Roma too and those pics may give me some help as to when they are ripening, they seem to go from a lighter to a darker green first.
Cannot really off any advice on the toms though, at least not expert advice.
All I can suggest, on the positive side is the that the plant knows best and decided to drop those fruits, perhaps because it had such a big crop? Too may mouths (tomatoes) to feed? But why would it drop them? Well maybe if they rotted on the plant the whole plant might become diseased?
Sacrificed for the greater good?
I am just guessing of course, I am a novice grower, just trying to apply some tomato logic.
I guess it remains to be seen how the plant will get on.
There is picture of my Roma in the linked blossom end rot thread. I am just wondering how long that big one has tell it ripens. I think some of mine fell off last year too, but they were all hit by disease. I would consider ripening ones falling off a success, none of mine got that far before disease set in!!
I'm in the UK though and they are outside, so I was never expecting much, I started earlier this year and am hoping things will be better this year as the weather has been better (sunnier) too. All my plants are twice the size as well, it's like a jungle out there!!!
Best of luck with the rest of them!!
Here is a link that might be useful: my pic in blossom end rot thread
Well, I have seen some improvements over the years, such as :
1- Edit Function: Help to go back, correct your typos, add, subtract etc.
2- Single Photo Upload from your PC. This is also very good. I am too lazy to go to another site back and forth. I WISH this feature were expanded to more than a Single photo, tho .
"Also there is no quote facility here."
Copy and paste still works. (grin) Stick a quotation mark at the beginning and end and Viola! you have a quote. Some people set the quote apart from their reply with a line of dashes, periods or asterisks. Others, like me, use some simple HTML coding to italicize, bold or color their quotes.
Forums that have the quote feature are the lazy persons way out and so often you have to wade through a long repeat of a post or posts because someone didn't edit out the non-relavant material to get to the meat of what someone was replying to.
Just my personal preference. But then I am an old coder (not codger) from the days when web pages were written with HTML tags in a text editor and viewed with a browser before uploading to the web.
Yeah, I did that, once upon a time....
Betsy