16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I was thinking I might end up doing that if my plants give out soon. It stays hot here through September. I think mid July through the month of August would be hot enough to get the soil temps where they need to be. I also thought about prior to that spraying the soil with a very dilute bleach mixture.

I will be throwing away all tomato supports (just bamboo, so no money lost there), rotating crops (I have 2 beds that have never had tomatoes planted there) and religiously spraying copper or Daconil next year. I know Daconil is not organic, but copper seems to have its own dangers as well despite being "organic". I don't have any other place to move my garden, so I'm not sure if there is much else I can do. I will also be putting in some type of fence to keep the dogs out of that part of the yard. One of my dogs not only eats leaves, but also the half done compost I use for mulch. I can't turn my back on him for a minute without him getting into something! It's like having a perpetual 2 year old!!! Thus my concerns about safety issues. ;)

I can't make myself use copper or Daconil, etc. Your description of the experience is exactly what freaks me out!

It's possible I've just been lucky, but I've had good experiences spraying a mix of milk, kelp or fish emulsion with water, sometimes with Epsom salt, and dusting the leaves with rock powder (I use agrowinn/s but there are others).I think the rock powder and the milk are particularly helpful - I apply them often when I see foliage symptoms and during the most disease-prone season for me (spring/early summer). What I'm trying to accomplish is not so much to get rid of the disease, since I think these things are basically ubiquitous in the enironment, but more trying to strengthen the plants to resist. So far it's working for me - I usually start out the season with a whole host of fungal and bacterial symptoms and then the plants start taking off and grow out of them. You've got to start early, though - if a plant is really far gone, it's only minimally helpful but that's true for copper, etc., as well.

I have to admit I'm not a big believer in garden hygiene either - I think it's basically impossible to keep a bed free of pathogens that are otherwise everywhere in the environment surrounding it. I've sterilized my stakes and scrupulously removed diseased foliage and I've also not done that, and I don't see much difference. You just want to do what you can to get your plants growing. Growth seems to be key to outpacing disease.

I didn't realize you could search your own name. I usually save my posts in a folder in my browser favorites (named "Posts" ha!). I date 'em so I know which are most recent.

"It's also the only site where I read and post that does not allow you to mention another message site, or you can be banned, last I knew ,although I've tried to clarify that several times with no luck."

Ok, let's see if I get banned for mentioning another site...I've always been curious about this.

Another great discussion forum: T o m a t o v i l l e. Had to do the letter spacing to avoid the "spam" police.

If I don't post again soon, you'll know they got me.

I have volunteer tomato growing between onion rows . I let it grow to see what will happen, it's now with fruits and lots of flower. Before the onion start bulbing the onion where fertilize by 21-0-0 every 2 to 3 weeks . I also put eggplant next to it to see what will happen .Now the eggplant has flowers.

Thanks for the responses. I followed the instructions on how much nitrogen to put on the cukes and corn, but am afraid the amount may have been too much for the tomatoes. I read the FAQ on blossom drop and it says that calcium can sometimes reverse the effects of the nitrogen in the tomatoes. Has anyone used egg shells successfully?

My first thought was do you have moles? Sometimes they will tunnel right under the center of a big plant in my garden and bring it to its knees, especially in hot weather. Add that to the fact that when it is hot they are active further down in the soil so their tunnels can't be spotted easily and you can have a real head scratcher.

An errant mole took out one of my black cherry transplants early on this year, but that plant was a trooper, already sending out new roots the second day and it has recovered to be a robust vine a bit behind its peers but healthy.

Could you have accidentally included some black walnut wood in your Hugel? Could your tomato plant have got it's roots into an airspace or dry spot in your bed?

Baby stinkbugs. Flick into soapy water.

Agree. The shoulder shape and the white spots are the give away. Bad guys.

Dave

If they are an early variety you will get tomatoes, but if late, maybe not. I grew Early Girls back in the day when my plants could only get 5 hours of sun, and I got tomatoes, but it took a long time and the palnts were very leggy. If I were you, and had the room to move them to a place with more sun, I might try it with one and see how it responds after a day or two, then move the rest it it appears to be surviving ok. Why not, it's worth a try.

It would be a really big help to know where you live or at least your garden zone. There is a box provided for that info with every post.

Weather and length of you gardening season are crucial to how successful moving them now may or may not be.

Dave

I recently received some fruits from a cherry tomato the owner says has been producing in a container here in SoCal for 4 years. He said production goes down in winter, but he gave me outdoor tomatoes in February, which is impressive. I am planning on saving seed from these fruits and growing them out this summer and seeing if any survive through next winter.

I also have one volunteer tomato plant that survived this winter so far relatively unscathed. If it produces this spring, I will save those seeds.

I figure that tomatoes have mostly been grown as annuals for at least 200 years, so some of their perennial characteristics have been selected against. Within a few generations of breeding, it should be possible to breed an indeterminate tomato with a more favorable perennial habit.

Specifically, I am interested in a long harvest season, some degree of frost tolerance, a short dormant period and an early return to production in late winter/early spring.

This has been my experience and it was kind of random, so take it for what it's worth. Also, I am in AZ,so we have very mild winters.

We found a random tomato growing in our garden area in Oct. It set fruit and was growing well until temperatures dropped in Dec. Because it had already had a bunch of green tomatoes on it, I thought I'd try and keep it alive just to salvage the fruit. It rarely gets below freezing here, so they were fine most of the time. We did cover them with sheets at night when the temps dropped down into the 20's for a few weeks. About half the plant died off, but most of the fruit still stayed good.
By the time the temp started warming up, We had a half dead plant with lots of green tomatoes. I cut off the dead parts and buried the stems in the ground. We did get most of the fruit to ripen up in Feb., so we had tomatoes by the end of Feb.

We kept the plant and new shoots started growing. We had a few beautiful new plants growing and flowering by March and fruit in April and June. It was fabulous.

Now that it's July and the heat is consistently above 100, the plant has stopped producing and is getting leggy, but I plan on doing the same thing we did over the winter. Cut off the dead parts and cover the stems. Hopefully we'll have fruit again come Oct/Nov.

As grown by me hollow, as the link from Tania's data base also indicates, and for me pretty much tasteless.

I have to call them as I grow them. ( smile)

Carolyn

I just harvested my first batch. They were not quite ripe, so hopefully the flavor will develop a bit more. So far, a bit bland, neither sweet nor tart, but really not bad. The texture was slightly mealy, so I think these would be better suited to saucing or drying versus eating in a fresh salad.

I chose this variety because I heard it would do better in hot dry conditions as compared to other varieties. I did not grow them in my garden; I planted one beside an apple tree so that it could piggy back on the same drip line. That tree gets watered no more than once a week. I rooted the suckers from that first plant and started about twenty more plants throughout the orchard. None of my plants have been bothered by any bugs or birds - not one nibble. They all seem to be quite happy with minimal watering and no added fertilizer or any ammendments whatsoever.

So, while this is not the most delicious tomato I have had so far, it is heavy bearing, tolerant or dry conditions and heat, doesn't mind poor soil. The only thing I did after transplanting them was cut off suckers and let them use the tree stakes for vertical support. Since I let them go sort of wild all over the orchard, I will have a lot and plan to sun dry most of them.

Dave, I read through each of your links and wanted to share some points that were not made in either one and that has to do with how hybrids are constructed.

The earliest hybrids developed usually had just two parents that were selected for different desired traits .Examples would include Big Boy F1, Better Boy F1, Ramapo F1, etc.

But more modern varieties are done in a different way.

There are two breeding lines, let's call them A and B. An OP with a desired trait starts off in line A, these are NOT specific varieties, rather what are called breeding lines that have been chosen b'c they have desired genes. Then that first one is crossed with another OP to introduce a gene, such as uniform ripening, high solids, a disease tolerance gene, etc.

There can be up to four parental gene inputs in a line and none of them are known varieties.

The same is done for line B.

When the last of lines A and B are done, then those two last selections are crossed with each other to form the F1 hybrid.

One of thel inks also discussed the role of using male steriles so that there's no self pollenization.

Carolyn, who did say she would be back later, and the reason being is that she's a HUGE tennis fan and Wimbledon in London is on now, and she wants to watch as much as she can, especially her favorite players. ( smile)

Yeah I know all about you and Wimbledon. So was trying to save you some time to watch. 3 copies should cover it well. :-)

Didn't intend them to be all encompassing info on hybridizing but they cover the basics that was asked for.

Dave

Early Blight is a fungal issue.

My reference above was to your use of the term "blight" - "I always have blight". There are 3 different types of Blight - Early, Late, and Southern all with difference causes and symptoms.

Plus we have a chronic problem here with the fact that many folks use the term "blight" for their tomato problem no matter what it actually is - Alternaria, nutrient deficiency, Powdery Mildew, leaf mold, Septoria, Bacterial Speck, etc. etc. etc.

Without seeing it I can't tell what disease you have so I take your word for it being Early Blight.

Dave

Ok thanks.

This is a strange year for me as well in Ct. I have been pinching blooms off small plants for a couple of weeks now across several varieties I am growing. weird

I left that one but pinched some buds off other plants that hadn't been in the ground as long (replacements). That raises a question though - how long should a plant be in the ground before you allow it to flower? If it's been in the ground 3 weeks to a month, but is still small (like this one), do you figure the roots are established enough to let it flower, or is there some rule of thumb as to how much to let it grow first?

The BWs never purpled as much as some of my others (the Mark Twain planted 6/17 still look a little peaky), but they haven't doubled in size either - I think they went in on 6/8, most of the plants I put in 6/3 had to be pulled and replaced - just too much rain and I planted the runts still in 6 packs first.

I think this is the latest I've ever planted tomatoes - except for the leftovers I didn't sell last year (that never really produced after getting them in late June - makes me wonder about even putting in the large ones now but they look so healthy I hate to compost them).

Next year a hoop house or at least set the transplants out under row cover (I can't afford 100 WOWs)!

macbttz - where are you in CT that's zone 10??