16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Hi guys, I thought you might like an update on the effects of the milk I tried -- I only put it around my 3 puniest tomato plants and they are now rockin' the socks off the other four. They are the sturdiest now and are the only ones that are flowering. I think it is still too hot for them to set fruit but it seems that the milk did those tomatoes good!
Since no one has said it, I will.LOL
Here's the reason that Mr Stripey appars at almosty all the big box strores as well as commercial nurseries.
Wayne Hilton, who used to own TT and that whole stable of companies now owned by Jung's, found it in GA and sent seeds to Seeds by Design in CA, a wholesale place he was dealing with at the time.
Since the folks there didn't know that there already was a variety called Mr. Stripey, aka Tigerella as bred in England by the Glasshouse Res Insti, they called it Mr. Stripey, again, not knowing that the real Tigerella had also been called Mr. Stripey.
And SBD send out a commercial list to many many commercial growers of heirloom varieties in the US, and that's how it got spread around.
This meaning that since then I and others have had to distinguish between the two, the real Tigerella being a small red with gold jagged stripes and not a bicolor, which splits with the AM dew and has a very aggressive taste vs the gold/red large bicolor.
Yes, I've grown Mr. Stripey the bicolor and it would be about at the bottom of my list of gold/red bicolors based on production AND taste and I do know that many others feel the same way.
With over about 200 named gold/red bicolors I think there are many others that are more worthy.
Again, just me wee opinion.LOL
Carolyn
When I first posted I assumed My tomatoes had early blight but today I noticed a couple plants has several leaves with light freckly looking spots.
Is that consistent with early blight or might there be a separate problem.
Here are some pics.
Again overall the plants seem healthy and tomatos so far not effected.
Thanks
Blight is a general word that many use to describe a sick tomato plant but it's best to be able to ID the specific disease involved if one can.
First, I Don't know where you live which would help narrow down the possibilities.
If it's a foliage disease I'm just noting that there are no varieties, hybrid or OP, that are tolerant of the common foliage diseases, but I don't see any spots on the leaves that would indicate that so please do note if you see any such leaf spots and if so please describe as to size and color and shape and if there are any yellow halos around them. Also if there are any dark colored areas on the stems.
If it's a systemic soilborne disease, such as Fusarium or Verticillium or several others, again, it depends on where you are in a geographic sense, then there's nothing to be done at this point.Even with hybrids that have tolerance to some of the soilborne diseases all it means is a week or so more of growth before the plants go down. There is no such thing as total resistance to soilborne diseases, and the genes that are bred into many hybrids are of best use to large scale commercial farmers who base when they harvest on Brix levels, which is a measure of soluble sugars and the extra few days that tolerance brings can allow for those Brix levels to reach the right level.
It would also help to know if you're growing other tomato plants and if they all have the same symptoms.
Carolyn
Hi Rita, I wsh we had Lowes in my area. How much were they? I'm going to check Home Hardware and see if they have them the green coated ones are much better. I'm getting excited about the garden. Did you shape the beds first and put any kind of edging?
Sharon, scroll up and look at my last picture. You can see where I have the bricks as edging. The cages were $6.47 each. And thats the thing. You don't need a Lowes in your area of you order on line. Right now they have free shipping but thats only for a short time.
Earlier in the year Home Depot had free shipping for a time. And I ordered all the green coated metal fence posts I needed at that time.
All the previous discussions here on how to root cuttings.
Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting cuttings discussions
I will say yes if it is the very tip or a sucker off of an indeterminate plant. I did this last year, mid August (frost usually by mid September) and grew it indoors. It was spindly and pathetic, and stopped growth during December and January. February I saw new leaves off the top, let those grow, then pinched back to hopefully encourage a sucker or two from the branch axils lower down. I also rooted the tip. I took 4 cuttings from the plant this way, the tip, and then each subsequent sucker branch when they got to be 3 inches in length. The last 2 cuttings I took (near mid April) grew the best and were the ones I put out in the ground. They have grown like monsters with the exceptional heat we've rec'd this summer.
Reason I did this was because I liked the tomato (sunsugar cherry) and knew it was a hybrid, so saving seed was out. Plus, I was paranoid that all the local places wouldn't offer it next year, and I've wanted to try this experiment ever since I'd read about someone else doing it. This spring I made a mental note of the (2) places that did carry sunsugar cherry should I want it again (and one was sold out already when I asked about it), and I see that I can also buy seed for it. One thing that makes me nervous about this method is should the mother plant have some disease or genetic flaw, that of course, will be carried to next year's
crop. I had fun though, and enjoy eating those tomatoes knowing they are from 2011's plant!
Darlene, your title says black spots on smaller varieties ( plural) of smaller tomatoes. What other smaller ones are you growing and what larger ones are you growing that have no spots?
I can think of some reasons for small black spots, but most tomato diseases are equal opportunity diseases and wouldn't distinguish between small and larger fruited varieties.
And off hand I can't think of but one disease that would cause small black spots that might be seedborne.
So the next question is, did you raise the plants with the spots from seed that was purchased commercially or get the seeds by trading? Or buy plants themselves from a nursery or similar?
Carolyn
Here is a link to your first post of this question from early in Aug. The reply was asking for more information. If you didn't get the reply then it was routed to your junk/spam email box by your email provider. Likely these replies will be too. It is always best to come back here and check your posts for replies.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Your first post of this same question
If the plants were surely diseased, I would pull all the bamboo supports and toss them, but if you can't or don't want to toss them, you can soak them in a dilute bleach solution to try to sterilize them. Then I would pull all the plants and clean up as much of the fruit / plant debris as I could find, bag it up (plastic trash bags) and put it to the curb for pickup.
That said, in general, I'm not a huge "garden hygiene" fan. When you know the plants were diseased and you don't know what it was, it's best to exercise caution because certain pathogens can survive in dead or rotting plant tissue - so the less you have lying around the better. In cases where the plants were not diseased, I'm not so particular with clean-up. I'll clear the garden enough that I can get through it - get the bulk of the dead top growth and then I'll mulch over top of the rest.
If the pathogen is a soil borne disease, moving your garden probably won't help unless you can really put some significant distance between the old and the new; and even then, it's possible it could be spread by simply tracking it around on your shoes. If the pathogen was wind borne, it'll probably just come back next year anyways.
Well to all the non-believers out there (including myself...I was almost ready to give up on this plant)....yesterday I saw that one of the blossoms that had been on the plant for like 5 weeks, with no change in it at all....there's now a teeny weeny hard bulb shape emanating from it! I'm sure it's the start of a yellow pear tomato! Yeah!!!
Cool, hope youâÂÂll have many yellow pear tomatoes.
yippee1999 wrote: >Am I wasting my time watering it every day?!
EVERY DAY? YouâÂÂre kidding right?
I live in your area - Long Island, NY - and I water every 2-3 days.
My tomatoes trellis has a roof that serves both to:
1. Avoid overwatering or unplanned watering from heavy / long rains, and
2. Protect for a few days, from strong sun, the recently planted seedlings / companion plants
To control even more the watering, I also have a DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM:
i doubt changing the dirt will do any good / you need to start spraying early / start spraying when u plant you want to prevent not try to cure the fungus / mulch helps alot too
Spray if it's a disease. But ....
Other than OP's guess at the underlying problem, no diagnosis has been made. Cultural problems are more common than disease.