16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

As was said, it's herbicide damage, either drift or contaminated organic matter. And because the seedlings are affected as soon as they come up, I suggest it's due to contaminated compost/manure/etc.

full explanation at WSU, along with the bio-assay test mentioned previously:
http://puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.html

If the assay is positive, read the section that describes what you can plant and how you can speed breakdown of the herbicide.

Here is a link that might be useful: info re contaminated OM

Thank you! I'll let you know how the bioassay goes.

>>>Are there weeds that imitate tomato plants?Yes, they're called cherry tomatoes :p

(ducks and runs for cover)

sjetski,

I almost laughed beer out of my nose.

I have NEVER found Brandywine, Sudduth's strain or any other 'pink' Brandywine to be productive. That is one reason I don't favor them.

Brandy Boy has much better production, but it isn't an heirloom, and probably gives up flavor.

RED BRANDYWINE (not really related to 'Brandywine') tends to have excellent productions of lots and lots of good tasting medium sized tomatoes.

Box Car Willie and Mule Team are similar to Red Brandywine in most respects, in my opinion, and those last two have been some of the tomatoes that produced exceptionally well in my garden.

I second (or third) Jaune Flamme. So many medium-small orange tomatoes that I never knew what to do with them. And the flavor is notably different from almost any other tomato I have grown, but still a very good flavor. It has been one of my favorites.

Early Wonder always produced loads of small, flattened, good tomatoes. Most Cherry tomatoes are outstandingly productive. That is the nature of cherries.

I haven't had good STRONG PRODUCTION from any of the bicolors, like Pineapple,

This is first year of growing Amazon Chocolate for me but I am already impressed. One plant was WOW planted zone 5 Chicago May 1, currently 3-4ô tall and has 6 green tomatoes. Another plant was planted May 14 into raised beds- has 2 tomatoes going currently. Both are blooming. Weather has been rainy and on cool side till about last week.

From what I have read, very few people here prune aggressively like you do so asking people their experiences with aggressive pruning or not pruning a certain type might not yield too much advise except what you got from Dave. I have never heard severe pruning causes earlier or better quality fruit before. Actually, not pruning shields it from sun scald and gives more leaves to help with photosynthesis and give it more energy to produce fruit. Do you mind my asking what the rationale is that it would produce better quality fruit? I have found that severely stressed plants produce fruit quickly but I think it is an attempt to produce seeds before it dies and the fruit is usually smaller in those cases. I have heard some people say they think pruning might yield larger fruit, I never heard that fruit from pruned plants had better taste or less disease or anything. Is it your local conditions that make this type of practice better? You don't mention where you live.

So, I am dedicated to pruning my indeterminates to a long, vine-like habit.

Ok then you will just have to determine how many fruits you want from the Moskvich since semi-determinates produce their fruit on those lateral side branches just like indeterminates do. Pruning them will reduce production. Personally I have never pruned Moskvich but you better know the limitations you have to work with.

IMO the label semi-determinate is misleading. Better they be called something like semi-INdeterminates of short indeterminates since that is essentially what they are, a shorter plant that produces like an indeterminate does rather than as a determinate does.

But when making your decision please do some research into the validity, or lack thereof, of the claim that it will result in faster crops of larger fruit.

Dave

Just have to say how beautiful your tomatoes and neighboring flowers look. And your marigolds planted inside your raised beds. I see an irrigation system for the raised beds. Are you watering the potted tomatoes by hand? Good job!

Thanks, although next year I may just plant more tomato plants instead of flowers because they seem to love it there. The potted plants are watered by hand but we've had so much rain in June here in NJ that I haven't had to water at all pretty much.

You have two posts with the exact same question. So people are answering here without seeing the photos on the other post. I would let this one go and just refer people to your other post on this forum.

See this post for a photo- http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0616244922567.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo

It is an indeterminate, and it says that it should grow to 5-8 feet eventually. Interesting idea with the root bound, I will try to dig it up this weekend and see if that is the issue. Thanks!

You didn't plant it in a peat pot did you? If it looked healthy otherwise I would leave it since you might set it back more by digging it up and tear the tender roots it has developed so far. If you planted it in a peat pot definitely dig it up and remove it. You will get a lot of different opinions on this and I don't think there is a "right" or wrong. Its not a closeup photo but it just looks smaller to me but fairly healthy. Did you plant it deeper or was it smaller to start with?

Did you transplant it or just leave it in the same container? It should have been transplanted into a much larger container if you didn't.

It is never a good idea to buy plants that already have blooms, much less fruit, on them as they are already often too old to do well. Post a picture of the plant if you can so we can see what is going on.

Have you fed it? How often are you watering it?

Dave

Bush type and determinant are are the reason for slow growth. I have two of them planted the same time as other indeterminants. The bush/determinants are about 10 to 14 inches tall while indets are over 3ft tall.

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Jun 18, 13 at 3:49

No taller than 2' for 8 weeks?? That's a long time. My thoughts go immediately to the root syatem as Betsy suggested, and they also might be rootbound. It almost seems like you have nothing to lose by digging up at least one of them and see what's going on. Loosen the roots, remove the yellow leaves, plant them deeper, and mulch heavy.

your raised bed/box seems to be about 6" empty. I would cut all the side shoot at the lower part, also cut all the yellow leaves and fill up the box with soil/compost . Add some granular fertilizer , mulch it and water.

Yellowing is an indication of lacking nutriens and/or two much watering.

The stems is a good point as i should have said "leaves and stems" above. I tend to assume that if all the leaves are treated the spray will get the stems too and that isn't a valid assumption.

Keep in mind that fungicides are not a cure. They are primarily a preventative. So best results are obtained when applied from the day of plant out. Once the disease sets in, the best you can hope for with fungicides is to slow down its progress so you can get a harvest. Of course some fungal disease progress much more rapidly than others.

If Grey Mold is what you are dealing with then IMO you'll get better results from all the cultural controls for it than from the fungicides. Massively increasing the air circulation in and among the plants even if it means sacrificing a few of them, removal of all affected foliage ASAP, no overhead watering, increasing sun exposure as much as possible, tool and hand sanitation so you aren't carrying it from plant to plant, increased N to the plants (studies show it slows the spore growth), even dusting with lime or sulfur or spraying with dilute hydrogen peroxide to alter the pH of the plant surfaces can retard its development and spread.

Dave

Thanks for the tips, some of things I do and some I should do more of. My plants are in crw cages 5' apart in rows 5' apart and are even staggered from row to row to increase air circulation. I don't water unless it is a drought situation and then I use a soaker hose on the ground. I should spray from the beginning but I hardly ever have a problem unless conditions are just right. I am starting to grow more OP/Heirloom varieties so I am going to have to be more proactive. I guess on the bright side before I even got a chance to spray I didn't see any new occurrence.

The spots on the fruit are more likely a mechanical damage than disease (most likely from insect feeding).

Fungicide wouldn't hurt. Who knows how wet or dry the rest of the season will be? I just planted 6 tomatoes I had been holding back since I didn't start that many, and replaced a couple that looked really bad from all the rain, ad now we're under a Severe T-Storm Watch (sigh). Still have about a dozen to replace, and 50 peppers to plant out (1 is starting to blossom and they're still in 6-packs).