16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Gardening is never perfect, so all you can do is try to garden in the best way for your area of the world.
If you are growing tomatoes, the spot you chose should have 6-8 hours of full sun, be at least 30 feet away from all trees/bushes, and the soil needs to be well tilled (rocks, roots, etc removed) and composted at least two feet deep.
The next three things are:
1. Picking varieties that do well in your region. Ex. I love Brandywine, but they just don't grow in my part of the world well. Pick varieties that love your area.
2. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch-mulch keep weeds at bay, water from being sapped up by the sun, and mud from splashing onto vines causing for infection (fungal/bacterial).
3. Make sure your summer garden gets at least 3 heavy soakings a week, whether by you or Mother Nature.
If you do these things, you will most often be successful in gardening. Again, things will never be perfect though:-) One year tomatoes grow wonderfully, next year it's melons and beans, etc....
p.s. It's better to water tomatoes early morning. If one waters at night and gets water on the foliage, it will sit there most of the night instead of being dried quickly. This is a major cause of tomato disease.
Why pluck the flowers? Don't we want to have that first bite on those juicy fruits? Plants are smart enough to know if they can raise those babies or not.
Also, flowering , early or late, may depend on the growing conditions and the variety. E.g, in warm weather they would flower earlier than cool, damp weather.
Are your plants now in the ground and how long have they been there?
If your plants have been in the ground more than two weeks or so, don't pluck the blooms. They know when they are ready to make tomatoes. On the other hand, if they were blooming in the pots you boght them in, they may have responded to less than ideal conditions and bloomed in an attempt to propagate themselves. (Survival of the species.)
Betsy
I usually try to get to the nursery where I buy my tomato starts, early. One because I always think I am going to get them in the ground a little early with protection and two because if I wait just a week or two too long, they are often out of the variety I'm looking for.
So I end up sometimes bringing them in the house on freezing cold nights while I wait for the right time to plant. This year has been particularly harder to find the perfect time to plant out. I ended up putting two plants in the ground a week and a half ago and they rode out a couple of nights in the low 40s. Then I put the rest in just as we were going into a heat wave. So far all of them look like they are doing fine. Not ideal, but tomatoes do love heat.
If you are actually planting them on a sunny hot day, I think it can work, if you put an upside down milk crate over them to give them a little shade and air circulation and water them very well. After all, you do usually have to tease the roots loose a little and disturb them so to put them immediately in full sun in 90 degree temperatures can't be ideal. Just a couple of days of shade provided I think can make a big difference, just to give them a little time to get acclimated.
I did end up planting out several days ago at the start of the heat wave. The tomatoes look great, some of the smaller basil seedlings look a little shocked. The tomato seedlings were well established, and I presume had been hardened off well. The basil ones were just babies. They probably could have used some shade. I did keep them all well watered and we've had quite a bit of rain too, which has helped. Weird weather!
pruning is recommended for good air circulation, which is supposed to help in the prevention of fungal disease. Thoughts on that theory?
Since the common tomato fungal diseases are airborne fungus that claim is debatable. It would more likely help prevent bacterial diseases than fungal.
One can read/hear all sorts of claims. That doesn't necessarily make them true.
I have just hear from some local, that some gardeners will even nip the end of branches and even new buds, so that the plan can concentrate on ripening the existing ones
Ripening rates are genetically controlled and there is no evidence that it is affected by top growth pruning, only by root pruning.
There is just ONE STEM that all the plants food production material channels through it.
All the secondary stems have circulatory systems too.
Pruning is always an option but it should be done for valid reasons not because of speculative claims since most are just enduring myths.
Dave
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Angela,
What you have said is true, to an extent. But some people have their accounts set up so that no one can email them.
Qaguy has been on GW long enough that I am sure he is familiar with going to someone's page to email them, so I am sure he tried to do that and "Mary" isn't set up to receive emails from anyone.
Betsy
It would be better to get a fertilizer with all three nutrients (NPK) and use it instead of the bllodmeal. There are no organic sources of P or K that release as rapidly as bloodmeal releases N. Tomatotone is a good quality balaced organic fertilizer that would be available fairly quickly. You would add that every two weeks.
You're pretty darn neat there! I use black plastic ZOne 5b. Usually after digging holes and amending with compost there is usually alot of dirt left that doesnt fit back in the planting hole! Usually I just mound around the plant and always mulch when I am done planting. All this reduces the amount of just black plastic around the plant.
Interesting.
I have tried growing tomatoes in pvc pipes, straight into the ground. I used 10 inch (diameter) pipe 18 inches long, with 2 inches sticking up above the level ground. I did this as an experiment to keep water going to the tomato and less to "weeds". My experience is that the tomatoes (or any of the plants planted in the pipes for that matter) didn't perform as well as those that were not planted in the PVC pipe. I tried this several times over several years with the same results.
I will certainly be interested to hear how your tomato plant produces.
Regards,
Tom
N...I am learning as I go on this...My soil is heavy clay. So, besides not wanting to plant in this stuff (hard when dry, mucky when wet), I would not want to bury my pipe. The container forum here talks so much about the bottom 4 inches being useless muck in pots. The concrete steppingstone on the bottom of the pipe seems to eliminate this! A good thing. I have a feeling I need to up my nutrients in my containers.
No I've not fed them yet, but that's not the problem. I'm just wondering if frost damage that still leaves most of the plant looking ok is going to retard the growth of fruit later it the season. It's a significant question to me because I only have room for 4 plants and if they aren't going to produce much due to the frost, then I want to pull them out and replace them.
"I'm just wondering if frost damage that still leaves most of the plant looking ok is going to retard the growth"
It's possible. Tomato plants are susceptible to chilling injury at temperatures between 32 and 42 F. Chilling can cause stunted growth, wilting, surface pitting or necrosis of foliage, and increased susceptibility to disease. Low soil temperatures also stunt plant growth and prevent root development. Temperatures below 50 F during flowering can interfere with pollination and result in catfacing of fruit.
A lot depends on how cold they got and for how long. If you still feel they aren't growing and you have time to develop a crop on new transplants, then pull them. If you are getting real short on time.... give them a chance because new plants may not have enough time either.
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: The Effect of Extreme Temperatures on the Tomato and Pepper Crop
After reading online info I decided to dump the affected plant. I did spray the neighboring plants with copper/lime. Here in Calif...big brother is so intrusive with laws, I never worry about spraying chemicals and ruining the world. Better vegies through science...thanks for advice.
How bad was it? If you are vigilant with the copper fungicide, meaning, that you are out there after every time it rains, you should be fine. Even if a few leaves near the soil start showing symptoms, cutting them and disposing of them should slow it down enough for the plant to take hold and outgrow the disease.
I have had years where the fungi was more virulant than others, but simple practices have always lead to good yields for all my plants. I have ditched one plant over the last 5 years, it was an orange blossom. It was so infected that in the first two weeks I knew it was a lost cause. Other than that, copper spray, keeping the base of the plant mulched and the leaves away from soil splash has done the trick.
This year one plant has been infected. I trimed the branch that showed the symptoms and am keeping a close eye on things. So far not a single other instance.
This post was edited by spicymeatball on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 1:32
Here you go. You can also find video how-to info on YouTube.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: String tomato discussions
Rhizo I was DESPERATE! I had some kind of blight or fungus that just got worse for the last 3 years. Everything I read said once the spores were in the soil you couldn't get rid of it. I know it was radical. BUT, so far, so good! If its gone then it was worth the expense and trouble!
There is nothing wrong with the plant. It has to do with cold and erratic temps. When the weather regulates the color will return to normal. If you ever noticed geraniums that have been put out too early they do this too. But when the weather regulates they quickly go back to normal. Don't sweat it.
They don't "take plenty of nutrition away from the plant". They gather the sun's rays which is necessary for photosynthesis.
They also shade the fruit from sunscald.
This post was edited by robeb on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 18:43
Yeah, the plant's health is dependent on the leaf branches for its growth energy derived from photosynthesis. Pruning a few select branches is one thing, cutting most of them off is something else entirely and highly detrimental to the plant.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: How photosynthesis works