16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Thank you for your responses. Theplants slowed their growth. The tomatoes stopped growing or turning red. My neighbor across the street gave me some of his. Many varities and different ages. I cant help but think the compost tea had something to do with it. Could I have made it too strong? I put about 36 oz. To about 3.25 gal water.
I wish I could tell you about your compost tea, but I don't use it. I compost frequently, and have gradually turned my sandy clay soil into dark loamy soil, with compost, but I only use standard fertilizers.
I will say that I did reach a point where I used neither compost nor fertilizer for a few years, since I think I had too much. Now i use small amounts of regular fertilizer, but only up until June 1st, each year.
"add a little tomato-tone every 10 days"
You are feeding your raised bed like a container, and that really shouldn't be necessary unless you are having issues with nutrients washing away like containers do. With that feeding schedule, which is pretty close to what the package directions for Tomato-tone say to do, I would expect the plants to look more lush. (Deeper green with more leaf cover and branching.) Also, "a little" doesn't tell us if what you are feeding is too much, too little, or just right.
With temperatures in the 60s, a weekly watering may be sufficient, and is generally the desired interval, as long as it does not get dried out. By watering deeply, you are training your tomatoes to look deeper for their water (and food.) Shallow rooted plants are more susceptible to dry spells and temperature fluctuations.
However, if you are not watering deeply (or that is not water receptive soil under the beds) then it may not be enough and that could be the problem with the branches that are dieing.
"...lower yellowing, some curling..."
Those are very typical signs of overwatering. If the soil under the beds has a lot of clay in it and doesn't drain well, it could be that you are watering too much. Either way GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too."
I hope that helps.
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: Signs & Symptoms of Overwatering Tomatoes
to date we had 16 èrainfall over what regular year would bring. I am surprised that my toms did not become aquatic plants yet. Yes, all of mine are wilting as well, some more some less, there is standing water still between raised beds. Am not sure about white flies but water wise we should be fine, July and August traditionally drier months for us so even if we go over again it should be better from now on / I hope/
See link below, so it's known beyond anyone you sent seeds to.
No seeds fromTania or listed commerciallyand just a reference from Tomodori to Tania's website.
I checked the latest SSE Yearbook and it's not listed.
There's an outside chance that Mark Korney might still have some seeds, but that's far out so I hope that someone here can give you more leads.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Bocek
well, if the seedlngs are decent and are of the rare to find varieties, I wouldn't mind paying $3.50 -$4.00. But for the ordinary varieties those prices are bit expensive. I paid about 3 bucks each for Brandywine and Black krim at Lowes. So, I think that small home growers should concentrate on specialty varieties and differentiated themselves from the big box stores.
Yes, generally they will assign same plot year after year, but one has to remove-disassemble everything and village will rototill everything after the season and before the season starts. So there is benefit in adding to the soil just not the same I would have done otherwise.
Fertilizer is a general term . Essential general all-purpose fertilizers contain N, P, K( Ninitrogen, phosphorous, potassium ). Of those three, Phosphorous stick to the soil and stick around for a long time. Nitrogen, being readily water soluble, has tendency to be leached out. Potassium (K)is somewhere in between.
Therefore, in container gardening and also during and shortly after prolonged rains, it is mostly the nitrogen that becomes deficient as evidenced by yellow foliage. Under such circumstances I feed mostly Nitrogen, maybe some Potassium(K) but not much Phosphorous. If you cannot find those elements separately, use a fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen but poor in phosphorous with some potassium.
Also, I often just give nitrogen to my leafy veggies that you don't want them to flower and fruit. But K is essential for roots . Wood ash is an excellent source of potassium if you can get it.
How do I know it's not overwatered? I mean, I want the soil moist, but if it's well drained soil, it won't be soggy. So what this means is well-watered, but well-drained soil?
First I stress soil-less mix, not potting soil. Crucial difference. Some think they are the same thing but they aren't. Soil-less potting mixes are sterilized, potting soils are not. They contain only peat, perlite or vermiculite and some lime to balance the pH so soil-less mixes drain better too.
What I teach in the Master Gardener course for properly wet potting mix is dump the dry mix into a container, pour in enough warm water to cover it all well, let it soak for a few hours stirring now and then with your hand, when it is all sloppy soaked wet then grab it by handfulls and wring it out in your hand just to the point it starts to stick together in a clump, fill the containers with that wrung out mix and lightly tamp it into place with your fingers. make sense?
If the containers are kept indoors out of the direct sun then you shouldn't have to give it any more water for 3-5 days. After that if you stick your finger in it and if feels dry bottom water only and don't let the pots sit in water once the top of the soil surface shows any signs of moisture absorbtion.
i don't agree with the plastic bag as that can encourage damp off or the windowsill as it can be too much sun and heat but that's your choice.
No recommendations of magic sauce or incantations?
I suppose you can always try the voo-doo magic BER cures of TUMS, aspirin, milk and crushed egg shells or recite the alphabet backwards while turning in clockwise circles. :-)
Dave
Thanks, Dave. That's very useful. I would have used sterilized potting soil, but maybe the soil-less mixture is indeed more moisture-appropriate.
I'll hold off on the sauces, but maybe I'll try that incantation. Nothing to lose. I'm on travel for a week, but I'll start in on this when I return. Takin' notes as fast as I can ...
Each hornworm comes from eggs laid by the Hornworm (or Tomatoworm) moth. The moth tends to be relatively large and brown. How many hornworms you get depends on how long the moths visited your garden before moving on to greener pastures, so to speak.
As I said in a previous post, go out to your garden at various times of the day and try listening for the hornworms eating. It sounds kind of like a medium-low pitched "crunch. . . crunch. . . crunch." If you hear them it can help you track them down.
One tablespoon of Tomato Tone is nowhere near over-fertilization. Actually it might be under-fertilizing. They can take alot more than that especially when the plants are growing at maximum. I think the instructions say that you can apply 3 tablespoons, 4 times per year. And that's a minimum...many people apply more. So,yes, correct the situation and add 3 tablespoons per plant now. Don't feel bad, I have a bias toward underfertilizing my plants too :-)
In my experience, you dont generally need to do much for blossom end rot, except pull off the tomatoes and throw them away. They rarely taste good when ripe, unless the blossom end rot is very minimal and involves only a small fraction of the tomato, which is NOT typical.
It tends to occur more with the very first few tomatoes on a plant, and probably is just caused by the plant not quite being strong enough or healthy enough to support the growing tomato. Yeah, it could be triggered by cold, fertilizer conditions, lack of water, etc, but with time the plant grows and improves and future tomatoes are less likely to have BER.
weird- I posted a reply and it did not show up. I trimmed off the end rotted tomatoes, and I added a little more fertilzer, this time with a fertilizer more geared towards tomatoes and claims to reduce blossom end rot. I probably added two table spoons to each plant close the base and mixed it in to the soil a little. I was limited in what I could do without taking the trashbag cover off the soil. In brighter news I noticed a fruit on the taller plant finally! See attached picture and video link
Here is a link that might be useful: Video: First fruit of taller plant etc
Are the Dona F1 that are now at Reimer, the original? I grew it just for the name, and ended up liking it immensely. Last year I purchased from Tomato Fest, and found it to be different. Does anyone know? THANKS!
Dona F1 and Carmello F1, both French hybrids, were originally offered by Renee Shepherd many years ago and I grew them both.
Honestly I didn't think theys competed with some of the earliest hybrids bred by Harris Seeds or Ramapo F1 either,
Nice plants, uniform red fruits, decent yields and that's about it for me.
I could grow some OP varieties that had the same triats such as Break O Day,and get the same plus better taste IMO.
Right now I can't remembe rwhich disease tolerence genes were bred in, but that didn't matter to me since where I live the foliage diseases are the mainconcern,not systemic soilborne diseases.
Carolyn