16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Yes. Which garden zone are you in in NJ? When is your last frost date + 2 weeks? Did you pre-warm the soil? I'd make plans to cover them in some fashion to keep them from stunting and to keep them alive until the ground warms up enough for them to begin to grow.
Dave
Jersey, yes. More than likely. I have the same problem.
One "cure" is to learn which crops are warm weather crops and which are cool weather crops. And then grow some cool weather crops "to get it out of your system"!
Onions, broccoli, etc can handle the cooler weather. Try growing them from seeds. My cool weather crops are planted out in the garden now; they can handle the weather. And the tomatoes (and peppers) are still safe under grow lights, only getting set outside for a few hours on nice warm days. All is well with the world.
Yeah, I thought about that later. Yes, I think you are a couple of weeks ahead of me and you started your seedlings a couple of weeks before me too. My last frost date is about 5/15. The only reason I don't warm the soil in my containers with the WOW's persay, is because of the diurnal variation in temperature. Any sun and the container soil warms, cold night, they cool. If I wanted to plant in warmer container soil there are many ways to get warmer soil other than setting up the WOW's ahead of time. That's just too inconvenient for me.
One of the things I really like about my large, black smart pots is that they do warm the soil enough to plant a little earlier. Of course, that becomes a bit of a draw back in July. Thanks to both of you for all the advice. I can't wait to get started.
Once it breaks there isn't much anyone can do to help. It will either heal and survive and send out new growth or it won't and it will die. Preventing the breaking in the first place is what needs to be done. But it is a leggy plant and sometimes they just can't support the weight of the leaves.
I assume that is some sort of rag or something tied around it? And tape? They will only interfere with the healing process so I'd recommend removing them. You can carefully slide a pencil or a thin strip of wood into the soil alongside the stem to help support it but you have to take care not to do more damage trying to fix it.
Or you can take the whole plant and transplant it into a very deep container burying all that stem to above the break. It will try to develop new roots and send up a new shoot.
Dave
Fairly common and tied to cooler spring air temps at pollination of first fruit set.
Fused blooms (aka megablooms) are terminal blooms so most growers normally remove them for the benefit of the plant and future production. Your choice but any fruit produced will be a grossly distorted fused multi-fruit rather than 1 big fruit.
We used to have some great pics and discussions here about 'megablooms' but I don't know if they are still around or not. Try the search.
Dave
Daniel, if you get any big ones don't bother saving seeds from it, b'c the individua lblossoms could be cross pollinated so all those X pollinated seeds could be present in one single fruit.
Megablooms usually appear early in the season and are especially prevalent on large pink beefsteak PL varieties.
Carolyn
if it is beneficial to plant tomatoes in the same bed (The bio intensive folks say three years is ok) is it ok to plant my peppers in the same bed as last years tomatoes? Tomatoes are semi perennial in their native tropic zones so I guess that's why they like tomato mulch for a few years. Last year I was pressed for time and noticed aphids on the stems and leaves of some of the plants but couldn't get to treating with neem. I had a couple of plants that wilted and died. Now in reflection I think the two could be related because aphids spread disease. Is this true and if so could that disease persist in the soil from last year? It seemed to only affect the german greens.
I bought a lower watt bulb because of money constraints.
Home Depot sells it: Philips Plant Light 50w. My floor lamp has a horizontal brass, tllt-able shade/cover. The light is probably 8" above the plants. Others have said should be closer (2-4") to plants/seedlings but that won't work with my lamp. I turn it off at bedtime but I do put some of them in the windows when its sunny. I think I may have over-watered the Jiffy Pots 3 when I put a little water in the bottom of their dishpan container but I've done that before with no problems so I thought maybe it was the grow light. I suppose I did over-water them so trying now to dry them out a little.
Yeah that particular light, and that far away, couldn't hurt them. It does need to be closer (4" if possible) and if you can't lower the lamp then raise the plants. Set the tray up on box or something.
The Jiffy pots have a reputation for watering problems. They get too wet and then wick the water out of the soil and dry out. Once dried out they are hard to get wet enough again so the plants get over-watered. Any plastic container works much better. Plus unless you use a really good soil-less potting mix in them the soil compacts and smothers the roots.
Dave
Thanks grow4free
Good to hear from you. I'll see if i can pin down the date for Porters introduction to see If I can determine which came first.
I've been to Hart a few times. My daughter went to school just up the road from Hart at West Texas A&M in Canyon.
You might want to check out the Tomato Seed Exchange forum here - linked below. Note what others are looking for and what they have to trade for ideas.
Dave
PS: Sweet 100 is a hybrid. As to Big Zac - no point in saving seed unless you plan to grow them out and see what happens. Very few folks want to trade hybrid seeds since you never know what you'll get.
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Seed Exchange
The spots remind me of flea beetle damage. I'm not saying that's what it is -- particularly since you're in the UK! But in the absence of flea beetles, some other very small insect which likes to munch the outer layers of a leaf.
Here's flea beetle damage on eggplant leaves:
Flea beetle damage in older tomato leaves:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tompests/msg072122118371.html
The weird light green stripe running through the big leaf on the right: haven't a clue!
Certainly it is your call.
I know when I started gardening and didn't know about hardening plants off I would buy plants from stores, plant them, then wonder why they soon died. I assumed the plants had been exposed to the sun while in the nursery,
btw - Piedmont only means something to someone from NC.
between Charlotte and Winston Salem... These things were leggy and leaves were kinda pale greenish color they have darkened two shades. i dont think these plants have been exposed to any Ferts and were probably grown indoors with a cheap light. I cut off a set of leaves and burried it 8 inches up on the stem. they have seen sun for the 2nd day now. they are also going to get a good rain tonight.
See my answer in your other post of this question.
You know you can combine all these posts into one. They don't have to each be a separate post.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: your other post
I think I would start over with that one.