16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Yeah, I was going to say they sounded like Hornworm eggs, even before I saw them. If you get any Hornworms that hatch, you can generally track them down by the sound of them eating, if you go into your garden when it is quiet. It will sound like, "scratch...scratch...scratch." Just follow the sound to the source, pick up the Hornworm and drop them on the ground and step on them. You can also sometimes follow them by their paths of destruction. I don't generally get Hornworms, and don't usually take any precautions, but I got a bad infestation one year and I wiped it out by sitting in the garden and listening.
Thanks for all the advice, including the ones to pass on next year (wish you would have told me this after the current growing season ends LOL).
I decided to start from seed a little too late so I didn't have time to do my homework and acquire any of the seeds recommended above. Most of the seed that I purchased was from local garden centers. The exceptions were the Black Zebra and Pineapple which were ordered from an online seed catalog.
At least next year I will definitely be prepared.
Talking about fused: My Brandy wine has a fused flower. The end of that flower stem itself is fuse to the main stem. n other words, it has not grow from a leaf node. I remember seeing a similar thing about 4 years ago on a Black Krim or Cherokee Purple.
Same here, no info except A 1955 introduction from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station. An improved Rutgers, slightly larger with greater setting ability at high temperatures. that was posted by Farmerdill on another forum. There are no seed sources I can find on any of the usual seed databases.
I'd contact TAMU Extension Service and see if they can put you onto some but the odds are it is no longer available except in one of the Improved Rutgers forms.
Dave
Were all the varieties affected by moving outside or just the one? If it was all of them, it sounds more like a hardening off problem than a variety-picking problem. Can you tell us more about how you introduced them to the outside? How big were the pots they were grown in? Did you pot them up into bigger pots as they grew, etc.?
Kathy
This post was edited by kathyb912_IN on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 23:55
It was just the big rainbow, and they were in about 3 inch pots I transplanted them into, i slowly introduced them but after about a week i figured they were fine to stay out almost all day, they were in a semi-shady spot to keep them from frying, I just wish i knew what i did wrong or if it just doesn't do well here. The remaining plants are doing good though.
This post was edited by LogyMcKae on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 2:56
I fertilize normally. Water gets through whether it has
fertilizer in it or not. Perhaps a bit might get caught up
in the mulch, but since it's water soluble, it will get
re-dissolved when you water.
I use the grass when it's green with no problems. You'd
have to put down quite a thick layer to run into decomposition
problems. A few inches is fine. Clippings dry quite quickly.
I'm using this method. I put it down right out of the mower without any issue. There is no issue with matting and water not getting thru. The rain wets the clippings and eventually runs right thru. I throw a handful of fert right on top, but the method above of pulling back the mulch to fert would work slick too.
One year I had no problems with my tomato plants.. We got tons. Now they grow for a few days and then they stop growing and the leaves start to curl a little. Last year I thought it was too hot here in Chicago. I'm trying to think of something to raise them off the actual roof because it must be making the soil too hot. I wait all year for some good home grown tomatoes and then this happens. Does anyone have this problem? And, if you did, please give me your solution, asap.. I want TOMATOES. (weeping)
This post was edited by JoMac123 on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 14:45
Well, what I do is put my pots on rocks. I got a big bag of small river rocks - they are 2 or 3 inches long max -- and I space them around the pot, maybe 3 or 4 rocks under each pot.
As far as heat, all you need to do is get the pots off the ground. They don't need to be high. (Though that's better for your back. ; >)
What taz6122 said is important: you've got to consider the roof first. I first started doing the rock thing b/c the building guy said that if pots sat right on the patio floor, the water that came out the bottom would heat up and create steam under them, which would damage the waterproof coating. I don't know, but I hope what I'm doing is helping. I really really don't want leaks!!!!
Mostly I don't use saucers because they are expensive. But also, I don't know what the soil implications of saucers would be. Would like to know though. I think it might cause the salt concentration to get too high.
Also, you could try wrapping light-colored fabric around the pot. I use butterfly clips. It doesn't look spiffy I guess, but it helps.
Well since you are in NC, and are using a 511 mixture, are you sure they are getting enough water? I would imagine that a mature plant in the classic 511 mixture, with no additional peat added for water retention, would need a good soaking at least once per day. They might just be drying up in the sun and heat.
Ed,
You are be right! We have had record amounts of rain in June so I turned off the drip irrigation system. I didn't think this could possibly be related to not enough water. We have had storms almost everyday. But there must not have been enough rain. I went out this morning and stuck my finger in the soil and it was dry. I watered the plants and left for work. When I got home they had all perked up. It's my first year using containers and this was a lesson learned about the watering needs of containers versus in ground plants. Thanks Ed.
It would help if you indicated where you are, geographically, and what the temps have been in order for folks to answer you more specifically.
I can tell you that where I am in upstate NY it's been cold and rainy and plants are way behind, And I still have my heating system on,temps to drop to the high 30's even tonight
The reason that your cherries are probably doing better is b'c they are closest to wild types and they usually have greater tolerance for weather,
Carolyn
I'm in 6b (Kansas). The weather has been mild (mostly mid 80's, lows in the 60's) and very wet. My bed is about 8" deep and I did till the ground below it. The plants themselves are growing strong, some are 6' tall already. It's also worth mentioning that I'm using a string trellis so the indeterminates are trimmed to 2 branches each.
I planted one row of cherry tomato seeds last year and they eventually took over the entire garden. This year I cleaned out everything and put new dirt down and planted nothing. Then the cherry tomatoes came back with a vengeance. What should I do? It's just June and they have out grown my plot by far.
Hi Lane -
We experienced the same situation back in the first week of May (huge trusses with growing tips) - with the same questions. I can't address the question as to why we had growing tips (we also prune suckers) but we pruned off the growing tips and took the risk of possible small fruit and let the trusses do their thing.
Here are examples of how the cluster look today. Most of the blossoms set fruit - some of the clusters had 8-12 blossoms. The fruit size appears to be developing fine - but you can make the decision to prune blossoms based on our plants if you like. Based on the size of our fruit - I would recommend that you let them grow.
The number of fruits/truss is contolled genetically according to each specific variety.
Not all blossoms on a truss will set fruits, just an internal control.
I never prune suckers , many reasons why I don't, and after growing now about 3,600 different varieties i just let the plants do their own thing.
If I were growing for fruit size for competition, for example, which I don't, I'd leave only a fruit or two on each truss, but that's the only time I'd do that, and as I said, I don't do it.
Carolyn
Sophie's Choice is a variety I introduced, see Tania's page for it.
It's short but spreads wide and I think two would go OK in a 20 gal gro bag Sue.
Carolyn
Yay, thanks Carolyn! Off to plant!