16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I've got these too. It took a little looking around , but I found, on mine, it's Septoria Leaf Blight. I've cut and bagged any affected looking leaves (don't compost them!). The good news is, if it's Septoria, it shouldn't affect your fruits, just leaves, and your plant may be able to out grow it.
It's from all the damp weather. Try to increase air circulation around the plants. Leaves that remain wet are very susceptable to blights and fungi. Removing the infected leaves will be a two-fer.
Hi Bob,
You don't have your zone or location listed, so it's going to be hard to know for sure what is happening to your tomato plant. Also, a clear picture or two would help. That being said....
It is normal for the older leaves on a tomato plant to die as the seaon progresses, but you may have other issues.
To be able to suggest what might be wrong with your plant, it would be helpful to know more about the environment it is in. So, here are the "usual" questions:
What growing medium are you using? How large is the container? Is it self-watering or do you manually water it? Is the container in full sun, part sun or shade?
How often do you water? Have you checked the moisture of the growing medium or soil 3-5" below the surface? Is it dry, just right, or soggy? Are you feeding the plant? How often? What are the NPK values of any fertilizers you are using to feed it? What has the weather been like in your area?
The more information you can give us, the better the chances that someone can give you an accurate diagnosis.
Betsy
Great news. We picked our first 2 red tomatoes on Thursday of last week. They came from the plant that's apparently a cross between last year's "regular"-sized big tomatoes and last year's cherry/grape tomatoes.
Even better news. Those 2 tomatoes taste dee-lish! They're so juicy and flavorful. I was surprised how good they are, after reading I might be disappointed. I hope their seeds produce true next year. Wow, that 84-count plant (it probably has over a 100 toms on it now I guess) not only produces tasty tomatoes but it produces them fast. We have another 4 toms ripening red right now, and, although we have lots of toms on our "regular," big-sized tomato plants, they're all still green as of today I think.
By the way, the size of the first 2 red toms on that 84-count plant was about 1.5 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. They're pretty round. I guess each tomato is about the size of 2 ping pong balls.
It is now on my grow list for next year. I always grew Sweet 100 and last year it really wasn't great, but I think that was because if the intense heat we had. Anyways, I didn't grow it this year b/c I wanted to try other cherries, but I think SM will be a definite for me.
the sweet pea can be grown in a basket. That's pretty much what i did. let it grow up 2ft high from the pot and it waterfalls over the container. I have the planted pot sitting about 3 ft off the ground. I won't grow them next year. I thought my children would like them, but they like the super sweets and sungolds much better.
When you transplanted them at that advanced stage - normally not recommended - they were what is called "set back". Plus they had the added stress of fruit already on the plant.
They need time to develop new roots, adjust to the new location, and trigger new growth. Until they are fully adjusted to the transplanting they won't make new blooms. They concentrate on just surviving and making new vegetative leaf growth for 4-6 weeks instead.
As long as they continue to look healthy they will very likely develop more blooms in time. You just have to be patient.
Tomato plants grow in cycles of approx. 6 weeks in length depending on the type (determinate or indeterminate). And that is without the added stress of transplanting them. So it will take time to get your plants back into a blooming/fruit set cycle.
Dave
Thanks for the message Dave, that is what I had hoped. I did have some BER on a few of the plants and was hoping that was not the culprit. I will continue to keep them growing and taking care of the plants and hopefully I will start to see some new activity in a few weeks. Next time I will make sure I take them out sooner. Joe
You might want to try Moravsky Div. Plus a few other tomato varieties which are adapted to your climate. Indian Stripe is a little earlier than Cherokee Purple (noted above).
Here is a link that might be useful: Tasty early tomatoes.
JD's Early Black is a 50-60 day tomato with flattened irregular red/black fruits in the same size range as Early Girl. They are sweeter with more depth of flavor than Early Girl but are more prone to cracking. In my garden the plants are more compact with less foliage and produce about three tomatoes for each one that Early Girl makes. Like you I do not plan to grow Early Girl again.
Based on your numbers I'd call all of them "prolific". :)
Some folks do it by number of fruit, some by total weight of fruit produced for the season. some go so far as to weigh each individual fruit and calculate weight by size (small, med., large).
Over the years I have done all 3 many times but now days I tend to rate performance of a variety by what I call "proportional to the plant size/health" (for want of a better label). It's a stand back and evaluate the plant as a whole approach, a "just me" thing.
In other words if it is a good weather year and I have done my job well so that I have a healthy plant of good size then I expect to see fruit in various stages evenly distributed throughout the plant to call it prolific. If not then it is just average production or poor production depending on the number of fruit and how they are distributed on the plant.
I can't control the weather but I can compensate for it in many ways so my approach means I have to take into consideration my performance as a grower, something many fail to do. They'd rather lay any shortcomings off on the variety itself.
Dave
I am going to check the link out now.
Honestly I'm just beginning to research. Marketing strategy? Honestly I dont know. I dont know if it'd be better to go the organic route, I'm sure you have to get FDA crap to be able to actually claim it so that might be a pain, I also dont know the difficulty of getting rid of the tomatoes. Is it hard to get local grocery stores to take them in the off months?
I'm just vocalizing my initial "no clue" thoughts. This is just a bubble of a hope of an idea right now. Based on what I've read on
In ground beds or containers...Again, I dont know yet. I have experience growing in coco and I dont know the quality of my soil. I'd prefer in the ground if going with organics, and probably pots if not
I'm just sort of wanting to play with it for a few harvests feeling it out really...If I'd be able to pull it off...if I can find buyers for the product etc
If it looks like I can make it work advance from there.
Again, thanks for the informative posts--checking out that link
a local here that grows tomatoes in his green house stated that the best tomato for him is "Geronimo". He has been doing this for some time. His tomatoes are not as good as mine, but are far better than store bought. They are nice looking tomatoes and some grow to be a good enough size to cover my blt with one slice.
hth,
tom
DE is an interesting idea. Seems like it should work like Surround. A poster here called DE an "invaluable weapon against stink bugs", and points to an extraordinary video about how to apply it. This guy in the video says that you don't mix the DE with water to spray it because it clumps. But he's got a way-cool way to apply it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkrK8LvQPa8&feature=youtu.be
I suppose you could do this with Surround, but I believe DE is somewhat cheaper than Surround.
I don't have a leaf blower, but a shop vac running in reverse should do the job, pointed as a handful of the stuff. I gotta try this!
There are 2 kinds of tomatoes:
-High (stake) -cutting necessary
-Bush (like on your pic) need to sprouts keep
Yes we all know that. What you call "high" are indeterminate varieties and bush varieties are determinate. That is common knowledge.
However all the tomato plants in the pictures I posted are indeterminate (high varieties) well over 8 feet tall and still growing. So as I said, we grow tomato plants very differently over here than you do.
And that is your choice as long as you understand that cutting is NOT necessary on indeterminate (high) varieties. It is your choice.
As to your problem in your original post - since we grow them so differently I'm not sure how we can help. It sounds like you have not overfed them. But perhaps they need more feeding since you haven't fed them since planting them. The general recommendation here is to feed every 6 weeks.
You say you are Watering: everyday 2-3l per plant, today much more, since u said, theyre too dry.
We would never recommend daily watering as that leads to shallow rooted, water dependent plants. Deep, less frequent watering is the normal approach. Using the thick layer of straw mulch and watering deeply rather than so often is the only advice I can offer.
Good luck with your plants.
Dave
desann,
When most gardeners are talking about mulch they are referring to compost, straw, hay, rotted leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper and cardboard, etc. Wood chips are not usually recommended as a mulch because it binds the soil nitrogen as it decomposes and makes the nitrogen less available to your garden plants, however, if you have no other mulch available, wood chips will do. Mulch should be applied heavily, 6 - 8 inches is usually considered a good depth, though even as little as one or two inches is better than no mulch at all.
"I work in tomato greenhouse and we cut off them every week."
As Dave mentioned, sometimes tomatoes that are grown in a greenhouse are trimmed to a single leader (stem) for space reasons. But tomatoes that are grown outdoors are in conditions that are NOTHING like being grown in a greenhouse. (Well, maybe not nothing, but very unlike the conditions of a greenhouse.) Here in the states, when tomatoes are grown outdoors and pruned, most of the time they are pruned to three or four main stems, and occasionally to just two. Personally, I can't recall knowing of anyone who pruned to a single leader and didn't have problems of some sort, especially with sunscald on the fruit.
I don't have any idea of the length of your growing season, but why not let one or two of your tomatoes grow out any new branches they put out and see if that helps with the problem you are experiencing now?
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ on Pruning Tomato Plants
Agree that variants of A. Lincoln have been around for many decades. Most are an ok tomato, just not anything special when compared to hundreds of other varieties. They never developed a devoted fan club of groupies. :)
Dave.
Don't know which Abe variety I have. Link to the seed packed is below. I just picked my first two today and they were both decent size.
Here is a link that might be useful: Ferry Morse Able Lincoln
Thank you!
These are Minnie Bussell tomatoes. They are large, deep-pink heirlooms that can often have rough looking tops but make up for it with amazing flavor. My mother-in-law received her seed from a wonderful lady named Carmie Grinder, who got it from the original Mrs. Minnie Bussell (now both deceased). These plants can be purchased at our family's nursery (look us up on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/MartinsCoutryGreenhouse).
Here is a link that might be useful: Martin's Country Greenhouse