16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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.
UglyRipe (aka Ugly) is Procacci Bros. (hissss!) and is generally believed to be Marmande -- or Marmande hybridized for disease tolerances.
The shape is variable: some have the squat, ribby shape of the tomatoes in coatfetish's pic, while others are the ribby pear-shape that I call "gathered-purse" because they resemble a drawstring bag.
I bought an UglyRipe once; it was a wide gathered-pear shape and had a mild taste. The cells were semi-hollow.
- mto
Not to argue with Carolyn, but damping off came to my mind immediately when I read "the stem is almost as if you tied a rubber band around it and shrunk it in tightly."
Just in case, take a look at the link below and see if this looks like what is happening to your seedlings. It has been years since I've had any damping off, so I don't have my own picture of the problem. I found this one by Googling "damping off in tomatoes" then clicking images. There are others you might want to compate yours to.
Betsy
Here is a link that might be useful: Pic of Seedling with Damping Off
This post was edited by bets on Wed, Apr 10, 13 at 10:08
Doesn't look like it but to be honest since it's been awhile since I've raised tomatoes and I don't recall these issues it could be.
Another way to describe the issue since the ones that had this problem are long dead now and I didn't take a picture. More or less when this happens, the tomato stem looks identical to a hour glass.
As if it were squeezed in tightly and there's no way for the stem to hold up the weight of the top any longer. Very stringy.
Rest of the tomatoes look like they're starting to grow strong though, stems thickening up. Still would like to know the reason though for the future so maybe I can adjust the way I do things.
Thank you for your help. I think it probably had been overwatered prior to purchase as the lower leaves were more yellow green while the top were very healthy looking (and still are). I have taken your advice Danielnc8 and removed the lower leaves. And Dave, I transplanted it to this pot from an even smaller pot but with the 5-1-1 mix. I plan on putting it in a much larger smart pot as soon as the night time temps remain above 50 here, 2 weeks if I can wait that long. In trying to harden it off and get it as much sun as possible our unusual 80+ temps might have been to much.
One last question, if watering is adjusted is it probable that the plant will be fine?
Thanks
Beth
p.s. does anyone know why the photo which was upright in the preview gets flipped to the side?
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.
Fused fruit Images
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