16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I've been watering every day unless the soil looks obviously wet. Fertilizing never happens (since I don't know what to use), and the weather's been cold for tomatoes at night - the low this week is 34 degrees.
The plants are inside now, and the German Queen is pretty much completely dead - the tomato's the greenest part, all the leaves are wilted and/or yellow, and she's bent in half where I'd fixed a break earlier in the year. Mr. Stripey still stands a chance, though. I'm planning on using a grow light over the winter to see if I can keep her going until spring.
Honestly I wouldn't make the effort to try to keep it growing. Your choice of course but not only is your zone an issue for winter-growing but relatively complex conditions for indoor growing are also needed.
Add to that it is a heavily stressed plant already and has been nutrient deprived for some time apparently so is both root bound and anemic in appearance, the odds of any cuttings from it being healthy are slim to none.
Better to spend the winter months learning more about proper container growing methods rather than spending time and money on trying to salvage this one.
Dave
Good news; I have no fungus or any other problems. As per some other post I'm deficient in organic material. I'll be adding some leaves, some chipped tomato plants along with some 10-10-10 fertilizer. Come spring time I'll add some more 10-10-10, some peat moss and some organic compost and should be good to go.
CArolyn 137 ,are you serious you don't know what Pox and Flex are ? And yet to laugh about it. Well you could take a break from patting your self on the back for all the tomatoes you grew,introduced,named and gave birth to,sent seeds of ,new the parents of etc. to Google search,
*****
I know Flex as Gold Fleck, not flex.
Yes, I know Fruit Pox as well, but just couldn't connect the two to your MDiv title and since no photos were shown to illustrate that. And just b'c, I've never seen Gold Fleck nor Fruit Pox on any of the MDiv plants that I've grown.
TO me it's interesting that neither of those conditions has adequately been described as to a proven origin,but a good Gold Fleck variety is Depp's Pink Firefly, and it's remained stable for that variety, but Gold Fleck can come and go and not be heritable
So yes, at first I did LOL it, b'c Flex to me is Gold Fleck, I have several links in my faves about it.
And yes, I suppose I sometime do pat myself on the back but mainly living to the age I am and still being active on a couple of message sites trying to help people with questions. And I mean help and trying to always do it nicely.
And yes, when someone posts about a variety and it's one that I originally did introduce I often do say so, but not all the time, b'c then I can give the history of where I got it from b/c that seems to interest quite a few folks, and besides, I like to keep track of what some folks think of what I call my tomato kids.
Back in the years 2003, 04 and 05, things got nasty here at GW, anyone who was here during those years knows that, and it's one of the reasons that someone who was here at the time set up a new message site in Jan of 06 and a good number of folks switched at that time. A few come back here from time to time, myself included, but if things get nasty here again, I'm gone in a NY minute, as I have recently with a couple of other message sites. I want no part of tomato politics, no intertribal warfare between message sites, and prefer a site or two where courtesy in posting is extended to everyone.
Carolyn
Been doing this for 40+ years, and I've never run across "Pox" and "Flex" before. Learn something new every so often!
Lots of 100+ temps here in Indiana this summer, but my toms. never had anything unusual happen. Grown on 4' black plastic and watered weekly, though. Virtually no cracking until the rains came back in August.
-WC2K8
They need direct sunlight. The "hardening off" business is talked about on the forums because most people grow tomatoes in the spring, not the fall. Only those of us in late-frost areas have that luxury, and we can be often confused by "normal" recommendations. "Hardening off" for a fall garden in Florida means providing some shade in the most brutal part of the mid-late-summer day. You should have had those sprouts growing in lots of sun about six weeks ago for a fall garden. Get them into the sun pronto. The more the better at this point as sun intensity and day length are rapidly declining. Be prepared to provide some frost-cover if you want a harvest.
Good job...looks good. Mine are just about gone but I gave away at least three or four bushels this yr of of big red, pink, black, yellow and orange tomatoes and bi-colors. I had about 18 varieties and 75 plants.About all I have now are a few on some suckers started 7-1 and Cherokee Purple in a different spot along with two cherry plants. I took tomatoes to the ladies of two diff libraries, my Dads church, some girls at the Dentist I use etc. Loved every minute of it.
While there is no reason to leave dead branches on a plant there is also no reason to remove branches that are not dead. That holds true regardless of where they are located on the plant. The one common exception is removing any lower branches that are in contact with the ground.
Do branches below a ripened cluster automatically die? No.
Dave
I guess I just found some of the few, good reviews, here, within the last two years as that is what I was remembering I think, and wny I ordered from the site to begin with.
I am sorry to hear of any small farmer / seed producer that is not getting good reviews. Its a tough way to make a living. But, not sorry enough to order from them again in the near future....
I think shading in the afternoon helps a lot as long as they get at least 6 to 8 hours.
I have been here since 1979.I have huge, 80'tall or more, oak trees on the west side and they shade mine in the afternoon. They get full morning sun and the plants closest to the west side do better.
Over the years, as the trees have grown, the toms have steadily improved. I have very little sun scalding any more. Back in the 80's I had a lot of sun scald.
Another thing that I changed a few years ago, I started planting the rows east to west instead of north to south so that they would shade each other and saw an instant improvement on everything in my garden. It is very hot and humid here, especially in the afternoon.
You can look for waste to help find the worm & pick it off.
The moth comes out in Spring in S.C., then lays eggs on tomato plants. The worm eats his fill in a few days & falls to the soil below , then digs in. We are blessed with a long growing here & the worm become a moth & lays eggs again in July. So I get two crops of THW, but I only got 6 worms this year. Mostly because I hand picked them, tilled in the fall to kill most of the worms in Pupae form & rotate my crops.
The wasps (2 kinds) help a lot.
Trap plants help also.
Here is a link that might be useful: Kill Tomato Horn Worm
This made 7 quarts of sauce and I had a dozen toms left to take to Church.
Must add a few shots of our tomatoes!
Left to right: Black Cherry, Snow White, Sungold, and Galina's
German Giant. Just over 1 lb., there are bigger ones on the plant:)
Dagma's Perfection
Orange Russian 117. Very happy with these!
Overall, a great season for tomatoes....even with getting the plants out at least 7-10 days into June!!