16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

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

Not to go sideways, but back in the day I could get a charge of 0.1A from a full moon on my solar panels.

Trying again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Accordion

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.

Gilgamesh8,

When you say you "I have watered it diligently, deeply and when it needed it." how much water are you giving it?

Betsy

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

Thanks for the reply, Carolyn. I checked my specimen and the leaves are not hairy, so I guess it is cerasiforme.

Sorry about your disability, that is very tough for a gardener.

I just want to point out pimpinellifolium typically have smooth stem and leaves, not at all hairy like regular tomatoes. Also, cerasiforme contains genes from cultivated(esculentum) and wild tomatos(pimpinellifolium). All three are interfertile and have been mixing before humans got involve. There's a studies that suggest cerasiforme is a result of interbreeding between esculentum and pim. And another that suggest cerasiforme have originated from pim (this is a bit newer and found it more convincing).

About matts wild cherry, it is speculated that it's late blight resistance comes from Ph-3. The Ph-3 resistance gene used in tomato breeding come from pimpinellifolium. So, it possible matt's wild cherry is a pim or a cerasiforme with pim genes. Idk if it's tolerant to early blight.

As for early blight resistance, IâÂÂm not aware of any good resistance(like those for RKN, V, or F123). You may want to check out NC State University Tomatoes like Mountain Magic, Plum Regal, or others (NCSU or other sources) for tolerant varieties.
Both parent lines of Plum Regal were moderately resistant to EB (also resistant for VFF). So, it might a good tomato to use for crosses if you plan to improve some OP tomatoes tolerance to EB (and add V, Fol1, Fol2 resistance).

Agree with Dave 100%

When driving stakes down, TOO CLOSE and TOO LATE in the season it can cut through the roots. That is why it makes sense to stake (those close to the plant) at the time of transplanting.

Thanks all for the advice.

I think I must have damaged it. I tried to be as careful as possible when putting in the stake in so as to enlarge the old hole rather ramming in a new one but I guess I wasn't careful enough.

I probably would have been better off leaving some of the leaves touching the ground but I got scared as we've had quite a bit of rain recently.

There are some images attached to the post above or at http://imgur.com/a/LKhkV.

Awesome Tomato porn!! Love these. I will definitely be growing Kellogg's next year. Awesome job guys. ENJOY!!

All of your fruits looks great! This is my first year so I didn't know what to expect. With the weird weather (cool, rainy, then dry) I got some cracking but nothing that will effect the taste hopefully. Had to pick these a bit early to ripen in the window. They are so beautifully colored IMO!

Mr.Stripey's in the rear and old german up front.

In your zone in CA you might be able to pull it off but for most of us it would be impossible except with a greenhouse and have a costly overhead even then.

And the benefits you are hoping for often don't manifest themselves. But experimentation is a good way to learn.

Dave

"In your zone in CA you might be able to pull it off but for most of us it would be impossible except with a greenhouse and have a costly overhead even then.
And the benefits you are hoping for often don't manifest themselves. But experimentation is a good way to learn."

I sure wouldn't waste precious greenhouse space on such an experiment.

As for pulling it off in my climate, the tomato has already survived a winter with zero attention, meaning it survived a few light frosts. Whether it is worth it or not in terms of long-term productivity remains to be seen.

I've taken a few cuttings to plant in more favorable locations in the garden (with irrigation & sun) to see what happens. I'll update next spring.

Hello, Sorry for not replying to the post sooner. They are not, teeny wasps, at least I don't think so. It is inside a greenhouse, and I have never had hook worms, or any kind of worms. I do have parasitic wasps, which help the ladybugs keep the aphids under control, they are smaller and leave mummies in the leaves. there are no mummies on the tomato plants, only these bugs and other smaller ones, which I suspect are their young. Maybe it is something only found here in Mexico, I will continue searching, but thanks for your responses.

I added some photos to an album in imgur, in case someone wants to see. Note the black spots, which I suspect are some kind of honeydew.

Here is a link that might be useful: Imgur album

Take a look at this link and compare the pics to your leaves. Looks right to me. Best fungicide is Daconil but many others are available. many discussions here about them the search will pull up for you.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU - Septoria Leaf Spot

spray leaves with a copper fungicide. Much better for you and the environment then Daconil.

Thanks Dave. If nothing else, I'll remove the dead foliage.

Yes - You should spray or it might spread and kill the whole plant. I have had early fungus problems and now I have spider mites and Late Blight. If you get Late Blight, it will kill the plants very quickly. Spay a copper based fungicide once a week or after every rainfall.