16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Yeah, that's why I don't prune plants. They are extremely resilient. Whenever a branch goes missing, two replace it :-) Yes, it will be fine too.

Thanks, you guys saved me a trip and a few bucks for new plants.

Dave, I thought you might appreciate that. :)

Thanks again everyone for the great advice.

Ditto to what Dave said! I wish more people read and processed information as well as you do.

Good luck with your garden!

Betsy

Not sure how I managed to repeat my post 3 times?? Sorry, must have had a senior moment or two.

Duplicate - deleted. Sorry!

This post was edited by ediej1209 on Wed, May 29, 13 at 15:35

To missingtheobvious, thank you for the link to the weather site. I had that bookmarked on my old computer, but when that died I couldn't find it again. I used to use it because the local weather station is a farm only a few miles from my house. It was so much more helpful than the general reports from TV news.

As Carolyn stated you can have leaves curl from various conditions and I witnissed leaves curling in front of my eyes at my farmers' market stand last Friday. The day was a cool 45*F with gusts of wind and all my plants didn't like it. Eggplant leaves were the first to curl, then I noticed basil leaves were turning blotchy. The result is that today we had to remove 150 plants from the original total of 430 that were displayed Friday. I did sell around 100 plants (even sales were poor due to weather) but I'm hoping they turned out OK. None of the plants are a total loss but with brown burn on the leaves they cannot be sold in the near future. Like responses on this site, customers see a freckle on a leaf and they don a face mask so they won't catch Late Blight.

The odd thing with mine is that the older, larger, plants were hardest hit and they are 95% heirloom plants. Many younger hybrids escaped without any damage. This is possibly due to the stand position and subjection to the biting wind.

Here's an article I wrote a few years ago which I think will help clear up some misconceptions and explain more about BER.

I had lost this article, but Bets, who posts here, posted it and I was able to get it back thanks to Betsy,

&&&&&&&&&&
With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it.

As the plants mature they can better handle the stresses that can induce BER so usually it goes away.

The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil.

Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK.

Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that.

If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date.

The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information.

BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black

Hope that helps

Carolyn

Thanks, Carolyn, especially for that last point about internal BER. I've had that happen with a few tomatoes in the past where the tomato looked fine but was black inside. I didn't know it was a form of BER.

I will be passing on the info about the egg shells, etc. to the few serious tomato growers I know. I think we always tend to think BER is caused by something we did or didn't do when it seems more likely from what you wrote that it's probably something we can't necessarily control, at least not when growing outside where we can't control the weather.

Caryl

If it's been that hot and you only water for a minute (even if it is every other day) that is probably it. Water so the soil is soaked (trickle for maybe 30 minutes, a soaker hose laid in the whole bed would be best), then wait for it to dry out (depending on how man hours of sun your bed gets, how deep it is, how dry and windy it is that could be the next day or 3 days - rain might mean you don't water for a week).

Your plants have developed shallow roots from the brief shallow watering and they are drying out when the surface of the soil dries out between waterings. Even if you planted them deep, the original deep roots aren't getting any water. When you say the soil is damp, how far down did you check?

If you haven't mulched, you should to retain moisture and to keep soil from splashing up on the leaves when it rains.

I checked the plants again today and it seems like they're no longer limp and are perking up. I guess it's just been stressed, either by wind, a spike in temperature, or not enough watering.

I use the typical garden hose nozzle with 8 different settings. I use the soaker setting and leave it there for about a minute. It seems like that equates to 2 gallons of water per plant. Is that enough water?

I do believe the plants have developed shallow roots. I use newspaper and pine bark as mulch. I've only checked about 5 inches deep.

You never keep soil "soaked". Lightly moist/damp only. Assuming this container has drain holes as it should then slowly water until water begins to drain out the bottom holes and then don't water again until needed. To determine need you use the wooden dowel method or stick your finger deep into the soil. Do not use the condition of the surface to determine when to water. It will dry out quickly.

As often discussed in detail over on the Container Gardening forum here, containers require a no-set-schedule watering. In other words sometimes it will be once a week, sometimes every other day, other times 2x a day. And fertilizing containers is usually done every 7-10 days since nutrients leach out of the soil every time you water. Liquids work better than granular fertilizers for containers.

Dave

Sorry, I didn't mean to use the term "soak". I just meant whether we should pretty much do exactly what you just said here, Dave, which I now have my answer.

So thanks for the info on both watering and fertilizer!

Crap, we have a frost advisory for tonight :-/

Us too. Just got in from covering strawberries (again), after dinner I think I'll cover my spinach transplants (and the kale in the same bed). Unfortunately, blueberries and raspberries (in bud) are on their own since we're having gusty winds and I have no way to secure any coverings.

Senor,

From the pics I would not panic. But what was not revealed in your write-up was removal of peat pellet netting. One can assume this was done; (and for 1st timers) the netting is removed before potting-up. So the tomato seedling is free to place roots in your garden soil. -R.S.

simmran1, thanks for being specific about the netting. That's what I was getting at when I asked what it was transplanted from.

Thanks both of you. Sorry about the zone, I am in 5b. I too was thinking it might be a combination of too much rain and low temperatures. Do you think the second plant will survive? When the sun is out, they get full sun.

The first plant looks ok. Suggest no nitrogen for a while. The second one looks sicker. It could maybe use a little food. The weather has been crazy in the midwest and NE this year. Hopefully they will both take off when the weather settles.

Julia, I do freeze them whole. For a while I was roasting them in the oven with a low heat, olive oil, garlic and freezing. Now they go in whole skin and all. So easy!

Noteybook- to get your thread off the canning discussion (Harvest forum) and back on track you asked about methods for growing.

One big recommendation that is very important is ask if they will be growing in a container and if so encourage them to get one big enough. You'd be amazed how many folks think they can grow a big tomato plant in a small flower pot. 5 gallons minimum and bigger is much better.

Also they need to use potting mix not garden dirt in containers and they need to feed the plants regularly every 7-10 days when in containers.

We also have a good set of FAQs here you can read through for lots of basic info. Linked below.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes FAQs

Having read the original post, I'm sitting here wondering what I mights say, but like Dave, all that comes to mind are four letter words and longer words that would not be acceptable to post.(SMILE)

Carolyn

I'd stop reading that blog -- she/he obviously doesn't know what s/he's talking about.

Thanks for your reply Dave. I think this year we planted way too early too. We got some real nice warm weather early, went to home depot and they had beautiful plants, I guess I got to excited lol. I tried those green water surrounds for the tomato plants for the first time this year, maybe I took them off to early, it's only been in the 60's during the day, down to 40's at night, and wet.

The flea beetles, if it was them, did lot's of damage to my zucchini plant, as to why I started spraying everything. Almost lost the plant.

If it's a variety that you really want, you can stick the broken plant in water and it will form roots and can be re-planted later.

Our winds have been terrible so it's not a surprise that they have broken.

Cindy

"If it's a variety that you really want, you can stick the broken plant in water and it will form roots and can be re-planted later."

Don't even bother with the water, just stick it in the dirt where you want it to grow, and keep the soil moist. That way you won't have transplant shock. The roots a tomato grows when it is in water are different from the roots it grows when in soil, so rooting it directly in the soil saves the time required to adapt.

Betsy