16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

oh yeah I should add that the Bell Peppers are about 5 feet from the East facing wall of the house with some overhead sun shielding, so they get the morning sun, but not the directly over head sun that happens between 230-430 pm. I did this since we are having so many 90s to triple digit days so far this summer here in Sacramento, and more in the forecast this coming week

I'm no expert in container gardening, but I think that the plastic bag over the top is probably cooking the soil and the plant. I'd prefer to use a thick layer of mulch to keep the moisture in.

Linda

Agree with tomatovator above - Bacterial Spot. But to be sure tell us about any symptoms on the plant itself - any dark spots or black specks on the leaves, holes in leaves with a gray-brown ring around them, any discolored places on the stems?

Another possible is Alternaria Canker but with it the plants themselves would have many symptoms too.

Dave

No specs or holes in the leaves, no problems with the stem that I can see. I bought some liquid copper spray and will give that a try this evening.

If it is bacterial speck, are the tomatoes that currently are affected by it -like the one in the picture- beyond saving (should I just cut them off and toss them), or will they be good to go after the spray treatment?

Last year around here we had several solid weeks of 100+ temperatures in July and August (very unusual). I didn't get any tomatoes during that time because it was too hot for the pollen to set, but the few that I got in the fall were all like what you describe - miniature versions of their normal selves. They may have even been smaller; they weren't much bigger than my Sungolds that kept producing though the heat.

This was Cherokee Purple and a hybrid - I think Beefmaster - and not BK, but it was definitely environmental (and really weird).

I am in central Indiana and 4 out of my 5 BKs that I picked have been pretty large (bigger than I expected) - bigger than baseballs. 1 was a bit smaller.

These 5 so far have come from 2 different plants. I have a third that I planted later that is bearing fruit but none ripe yet. So, we shall see how those turn out.

This post was edited by mambooman on Mon, Jul 15, 13 at 15:22

>It looks like a bumper crop this year.Sure does, dog_wood. Funny how bad last year was, but how incredible this year is! This will probably be the best tomato year of my gardening career. :)

Dave, I amended the soil with composted manure before planting the bed, and added plenty of compost, a bit of bone meal, and even some crushed egg shells at the bottom of each planting hole, so I'm pretty sure it's not a nutrient issue. Watering with a drip line, and it never seems over soggy out in the garden, so I think that's good to go too.

I appreciate the replies. :)

Me too! I wish I could make a salad or something, but I keep eating them right off the vine, LOL!

Wow thanks for sharing. I would love to get some, so I will watch this thread to see if there are updates on how to get some.

Wow thanks for sharing. I would love to get some, so I will watch this thread to see if there are updates on how to get some.

I got rid of the dead leaves and have sprayed weekly with organic fungicide as it has been wet here recently. It is an earthbox with miracle grow soil that was recently charged with compost and vermiculite.

Did you use the MG Moisture Control mix or the plain MG mix? The moisture control mix keeps plants too wet in self-watering containers. Adding compost and vermiculite only compounds the problems.

Those plants aren't getting enough sun exposure so they are leggy and they look starved for nutrients too. So too wet, too hungry, and not enough sun.

Dave

Hi again, thanks all for the chat still. Now, in reading this, I'll morph this question to also add, should you deep water and, if so, how often. I've read that yes, 1 inch a week or deep water once a week. I've added organics and the soil isn't drying out but remaining really solid, moist but not too bad.

So, in conclusion, yes, I think I'm now leaning to not overwater but not scale back. Does this mean, now mid summer, should we deep water once a week or once in awhile or .. .cut back in general, probably never deep water unless you see the plants wilt. Continued thanks for your thoughts !! Bob

I think people tend to water a little more in the summer due 1) hotter temps drying out soil faster. 2) 10x greater plant mass. 3) less rain than springtime typically.

The "water when wilt" method seems better suited for pepper plants imho, which tend to prefer a drier soil.

This post was edited by sjetski on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 10:47

Picked first Sungold. Started indoor beginning of April, planted May 14, noted first green tom June 18. Am thinking Tigerella will be second and new for me Amazing Chocolate is looking promising.

Update- Amazon Chocolate and Paul Robeson have changed the color today. Yay! two fruits on each. Planted out WOW May 1. Have had few Sungolds and HHHS so far. http://www.rareseeds.com/hssiao-his-hung-shih-tomato/

Linda, I very much like the beaver lodge for an early. The skins are a little thick and they vary in size from golf ball to slicers but they are tasty. The fact that they are so early though makes them especially appealing. I have had some problems with blight this year so I lost a lot of shade leaves and so I have to deal with some sun damage but overall I am quite pleased.

Moonlord,

Many thanks for the info. They look delicious!

I'll put some on my list to grow next year.

Linda

Pic of suspected environmental damage

Hi, can't exactly tell but .. on your last picture, that may be flea beetles. Little black flea-like ones that jump from leaf to leaf and suck juices out. They sometimes have alot of little circles together. From reading, I believe they won't kill off your plant. Seems to happen in the beginning of the year. Once plant growing strong, these are going away in mine.

Mine began to snap over in the wind. I now have them tied up to stakes. Tomatoes are pretty resilient though, you can probably leave it if you wanted and the tomato will mend the internal part of the stem, most likely.

"there's no way to prop them up at this height."

Sure there is. If the plants are 4' high, buy some 5-6+' stakes and insert them into the soil around the plant. Then either tie the stems to the stakes or weave twine around the stakes to make a taller "cage".

Steve34, where are you at in the US? Here in VA, I've been joking I'll never have to water again, because of all the storms here. The peaches at the farmer's market were "watery" tasting this year--they were saying it was from all the rain. I've heard the same could be said for tomatoes when it's been very wet as well.

I'm apprehensive for my seven varieties of tomatoes I'm growing. But, I'll just see at harvest time (lots of green right now, but no red yet). But heck, can't be worse then the grocery store.

*Grow my Romas, grow!*

Oops! You just said. I really think it could be the excess rains. :/ Not sure there's anything we can do about mother nature this year.

Agree with all the above.

I charged up soil this year with vermiculite and compost. Then i did monthly feeding with garden lime and Fox Farm Happy Frog Tomato food. Now it is happening again. I have a water meter to make sure I don't over water. It has been hot and humid.

Contributing factors to your problems are:

1) the container you are using both size and shape and that it is upside down
2) the vermiculite and compost in the container
3) monthly feeding with lime really skews the soil pH so nutrients can't be used by the plants even if there were any in there
4) only feeding the Happy Frog monthly rather than at least weekly
5)trying to use organics in a container when there is no soil bacteria, no active micro-herd to decompose the organics and make the nutrients in them available to the plants
6) depending on a moisture meter for watering info - notoriously unreliable and especially so for containers so most likely way over-watering.

Sorry for the failure and the expense but a bit of research on the Container gardening forum should get you off to a much better start next year.

Dave

Also, if you are using self watering containers, Raybo has done an excellent job documenting how to get great results with EarthTainers.

Here is a link that might be useful: EarthTainer Construction Guide