16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Looks like mite damage to me when you enlarge the pic. Strip off the damaged leaves and dispose away from the garden. Check the undersides of new grow for any signs of tiny mites - might need a magnifying glass to see. If none discovered just monitor the plants for another week or so. If any signs spray with one of the several miticides available.

Dave

Thanks for the reassuring responses everyone. I'm relieved I don't have to go to drastic measures this early in the season. I'll check for the mites and keep an eye on it.

@edweather I got these cages for free, and as this was my first season gardening I already had plenty of expenses getting the beds up and running. First thing on the list for next season is a roll of wire to make some much larger cages. I'm hoping with some constant pruning of suckers going forward I can make these guys work.

Thanks again, and I'll update in a week with results.

Black Krim always splits too much for me but are very delicious.

Since thread has been revived, I just wanted to mention that Carolyn always raves about Jet Star. If the OP grew them, hope you come back to report!!

Thank you guys for all the advice... :) :) :)

I supposedly hardened the plants before planting outside and I also mixed the soil that i dug from the ground with store bought soil, so I thought it would not be cold... I don't have a thermometer for the soil, so I'm just guessing

I am located in Europe - Bulgaria to be exact.... Here tomatoes are usually planted outside in the beginning of MAY.

Maybe, as you guys said, the plants were just too big and they are having a tougher time adjusting :/ Well, I hope for the best!!!

I cover them with plastic wrap in the afternoon until morning... I also checked the soil and it doesn't seem too moist...

BUT yeah.. they definitely look like the ones that lack phosphorus!!! I can see the dark veins on the leafs.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!! If they get better, I'll send some tomato pics :D

Regards!!!

Maria

You may be able to help warm things up with a simple black garbage bag. Cut it down the sides to make one long strip of plastic. Cut a slit in the middle to go around the plants stem. Then lay it so that it is fairly flat on the ground, and weigh it down in a few spots with some heavy rocks or bricks. You may have to cut enough away from the stem area to be able to water the plant. This will help to warm the soil a few degrees during the day.

> I select on the basis of the plant that emerges, not on the basis of a tiny root that emerges. That seems to me to be a better way to select.

In my experience, the healthiest seedlings come from the healthiest germinated seeds, which usually germinate first. I also sowed in soil, in cups, but watering could be a problem: either too much, or too little. The bag keeps the SAME humidity for a few days. No worries.

> In fact, when I do that, and I get five plants coming up in a 4-inch cup (oops!), it just takes a small spoon to separate the ones I want to keep.

I wouldn’t put more than three seeds in a 4 in. pot. I hate bothering small seedlings’ roots.

"I select on the basis of the plant that emerges, not on the basis of a tiny root that emerges. That seems to me to be a better way to select."

I have to agree with this. The biggest drawback of the baggie method is the selections are made before the shedding of the seed coat. The baggie method does not address helmet-head or tipstick. Advantage: direct start

To be fair, the baggie offers a uniformity of seed coat hydration which most media don't due to the random particle size and need to police hydration of them near the surface. This confounding factor gives an advantage to the baggie method. Perfect hydration every time can speed things up and allow better comparison for initial selection in the helmet, allowing us to be tighter with seed use, while temperature control can be a tie between the methods.

PC

Seysonn, somewhat simple explanation in regards to foliar feeding- plants have savings account and checking account, soil might be rich on nutrients but those will be unavailable to plants. Common soil test you get from local extensions usually show only savings account. Whether plant has a bit of cash to use now it is different story. And some soils are heavy on CD account but not happy to share now.

Foliar feeds are meant to help plants to get some cash here and now and they do it exactly by absorbing via leaves, which as some experiments show about 20 times more effective than root feeding.

It would be too simplistic to think that plants can take nutrients only in ionic form, they sure can use complex molecules as well but it is relationship between minerals that makes difference. As PC mentioned above it is not only Ca amount, it is relationship between Ca and Mg which should be ideally around 7 to 1 and P to K 4 to 1 or 4 to 2 which help to release nutrients. So foliar feeds might just give that boost and change balance to the healthy side- i.e. get you some cash influx to live by till your savings account gives better dividends LOL

Very good analogy Linda. That helped me understand much better.

LISTENING to others about taste. Taste is subjective, and varies from palate to palate.

Biggest mistake? I've done lots of them - not sure which was the biggest.
- I start too many seedlings
- I start them too early so then I have sprawling plants when it comes time to plant.
- I've over watered them. Then I get damping off and fungal gnats.
- I've dowsed them with too much fungicide to try and get rid of the damping off & fungal gnats.
- I plant them too close because I don't want to kill off any of my baby seedlings that made it to planting season!
- I've planted out to early and lost them to frost.

So which one of those is the biggest mistake?

Growing from seed hasn't helped mine -- I seem to get early blight or septoria every year. This year I have started the daconil from plant out and will also try to prune out the lower leaves so they don't come in contact with the soil.

Well be glad you're not growing them in South Florida. It feel like a sauna outside here.

Checked tempts inside of my WOW yesterday. Soil temp on raised bed with black landscape fabric is at 48-50, inside WOW 55-60. Weather remains at mid- high 30, low 40 at night and 50 during the day.

I should mention that, on the coldest night, I added paper across the top.

The plants look pretty good. I put screening over them to reduce the sun burn. That's gone now and the ten-day forecast shows no lows below the mid forties. I plan to keep the wrap and water bottles for another week.

I don't know about weight.. but I had a few Woodle Orange last year that were the size of a softball. They were my largest tomatoes. I don't usually weigh my tomatoes, so I have no idea what my heaviest tomatoes were.

These are some that I harvested last year. I had quite a few over 2# and a bunch at least a pound or more. The variety is called Anna Margaret's Heart.

I wasn't going to buy any more plants, but I saw a Big Rainbow last night and couldn't help myself. Fred Meyer also had Orange Strawberry, Black Prince, Black from Tula and a few other interesting heirlooms.

Yes, Fred Meyers garden centers have more varieties than Lowes and HD.
I've bough a few seedlings from them. This branch that I go to, is across the parking lot from HD. So there is some competition .

BTW: I grew Black from Tula and Big Rainbow from seed. And have them planted out already.

Sey

Thank you so much for the great answers. I transplanted this plant well before it was even blooming, so I think it will be okay. I was just starting to think I wasn't going to get much. This information was still very helpful for the future, I'm not really ready to commit to doing my own seed starts and I often see plants that are already bearing blooms and even tomatoes at the garden center. I will make sure to avoid those! Hopefully I'm okay, they just are so small, but our weather hasn't been overly hot. Today there were 3 more on one of the plants. I recently added some additional compost around the base of the plants, and I'm keeping the soil consistently moist, but I'm starting to wonder if I need to feed them?

I'm in zone 8b. I wish I could figure out how to add it to my profile in this new houzz system...

It is easy to do. Just click on your name and it takes you to your member page. Click on edit my profile and type your state/location and zone into the box provided for it.

Last year my Black Krim took 105 days from plant out day. Like Sey says the PNW is WAY different.

I, too, have realized that here in the PNW, we have to add a lot of days onto a DTM date. Steve Solomon explains it very well in his book. I finally "got it" after I read it last year. I like the way Carolyn puts it in her book - early, mid, or late.

I think that trenching has benefits, as there is more buried stem area from which roots can grow. If the plant is about 12 - 14", I'll just plant it deeper so that about 8" sticks out.
You can also support the lanky seedlings by small (1/2") bamboo stakes until they get used to winds.

Seysonn

I ended up trimming them down to half their size and rooting the cuttngs. the larger branches did really well the smar ones did not root but I was able to get 10 or so new plants from this. I hardned the trimmed tomatoes off outside and they are doing well (most of them). I will be planting them in the garden tomorrow :)

I think you are worrying too much about your babies. They look OK to me. Mine are purple too but they are purple every year and every year I have tomatoes out my ears in July.

edit: You should see my little heart tomato plants.

Some varieties do that when there is nothing wrong with them. If you want to see sick tomatoes look at some of the other pictures here. If your plants don't continue to grow or get yellow and sickly then you can worry.

This post was edited by helenh on Tue, Apr 8, 14 at 11:38

Can I ask bgtriblle what ended up happening with his tomatoes?

"yes you have to religiously fungicide"

You do? Bought some Neem oil; used it once on a house plant. Bought some daconyl; never cracked the seal. If I have to poison my food to make it edible then it ain't food.

Easy to say Grubby, being in Tucson. If all your plants die it ain't food either.