16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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
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.
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.
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
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.
"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
Ami and Tammy those setups look great.
It's a potential combo of late-spring cold frame, plant support and excessive rain umbrella, all in one. Those in hot climates can even make use of the mid-afternoon shade it would provide. Lots of utility.
Going to give this idea some consideration for the 2014 season, thank you for sharing.
- Steve
This post was edited by sjetski on Sun, May 26, 13 at 11:11
steve, next yr I Plan to place some clips along the edge of the bed frame on the long sides so I can stick the ends of pvc pipe down in them and bow the other end to the other side . Then when these hoops in place, I can put plastic over it to make a low hoop house to possibly get my tomatoes outside sooner next spring. Some using mittleider will place the hoops at the top of these frames and put plastic to make greenhouses.
Tammy
When I said I thought my plant was a Siamese twin or mutant, I was just speculating. I am delighted that Carolyn has confirmed that something like that can happen. I wish I'd pulled my "mutant" early in the season when I first noticed how odd it was. I didn't trust my own instincts and wasted valuable space in my tiny garden.
MKSinSA - last year I experimented with the nctomatoman's dense seeding method where you pick out the seedlings and put them in individual cells/pots instead of snipping off all but 1. I started about 500 tomatoes! Sold some, gave a lot away, planted about 150 but the last 50 didn't get out til the end of June and hastily-prepped bed, didn't do anything. Maybe b/c I didn't bother to water them as much as my main beds - I put them in trenches where they had drowned in 2011 but still not enough rain for them (though the volunteers in the chicken manure compost pit in the same general area did great without any watering!
This year I started about half that number - tried about 24 seeds of each variety but more cherry tomatoes and Brandwines (cherry seeds are small, and I have a lot of demand for Brandywines). Got really good germination on almost all, though I did lose a few with Dad taking care of them for 10 days. I hate to give up on any though (which is why I decided to try this method instead of snipping), so I've got some that it looks like the growing point died from underwatering, but a sucker took over, others I broke potting up ad I buried deep and are doing great, some more larger plants that get bent/broken when my storm window windbreak fell on them, I put those deep in 1 gal pots. I know I'll end up composting them or giving them away, but you know how some people rescue stray animals? I feel compelled to rescue injured plants (though I stay away from anything that looks diseased).
Next year if I want 100 tomatoes, I'll start no more than 150 seeds, I swear! Even if they're tiny and stuck together (though I'm running low on cherry tomato seeds, maybe I'll just buy starts of those to resist the temptation to start so many).
Then again, with this horrible weather, it may be another loss this year and I may give up on marketing, only plant 40-50 tomatoes for our own use next year.
Oh, if buying these "more mature" plants would really give me 2 weeks' earlier harvest it would be worth it.
This post was edited by ajsmama on Sat, May 25, 13 at 7:11
I decided to start from seed this year and got carried away. Then we had a hot spell in early May and I jumped to start hardening off. Learned that lesson fast enough. Weather has been dreadful, cold and rainy in Montreal. Some of my plants are about 10" tall. I just hope I can get these babies outside by the first week of June. I tried the dense method also, but then I feel compelled to transplant too many like you ajsmama. It's too much temptation. I'm cutting back on varieties once I see which ones produce.
Sharon
Yes you can plant them in the ground. You will just need to dig a hole bigger than the current pot and a couple of inches deeper, water it good and then carefully remove it from the pot soil and all and set in the new hole.
Aspirin is not required.
Dave
Of course I used the miracle grow for container plants. I know the difference between the garden soil and container soil and always read the directions.The pots drain really well which probably should have been a sign to me that I need to water more. This is my first year doing this and everyone and their mom has a different method and rules of growing so it's a lot of info to take in.
In retrospect I wouldn't use miracle grow in the future I don't really think it's that great. I used the garden soil to prep my raised beds because there were so many great sales on it but I don't think it's really all that great.
I'll look into transplanting the yellow pear this week, I think I will leave the other cherries alone, they are doing very well in the pots. Thanks for the info everyone.
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