16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Well my Tomatoes (2 Better Bush) are both basically dead at this point, I got around 150-175 tomatoes between the two plants. Planted them in early April and they are done and dead in mid August, produced about 75-85 tomatoes per plant.
They are Determinate plants though.
Now I planted 3 Dwarfs which are indeterminate that were basically planted first week of June.
The HEAT and HUMIDITY have taken their toll on them.
The plants are fighting off Blight and are dropping on average 2-3 blossoms per day.
I only have just 3 tomatoes set on one plant.
But up until the past couple of days the temps have been in the mid 90s to low 100s and even at night it has been close to 80.
Next year I am going to plant them as early as possible, probably in March in the Vegtrug under the greenhouse cover then transplant them in their growing pots when they get too large (22+") for the Vegtrug.
Herbicide can travel up to 2miles when it volatilizes.
It can also travel on a mild breeze, such as across the driveway or a yard.
And it can travel via the spray turbulence itself. The higher the pressure in the sprayer, the smaller the droplets, the farther they travel.
Must always differentiate between virus and herbicide damage. Frankly, in my region, herbicide damage -- typically inadvertent -- is much more common than virus in home gardens.
5 gallons is pretty small, thats the minimum size I'd use for ONE cherry tomato plant personally. For bigger, like the Cherokee, I'd aim for a minimum of 10-15gal, maybe even more, and only use one plant per container. I use 10 gallon containers, but the roots grow out the bottom into the ground anyhow as I have them in the yard, if they were on cement I'd go bigger. Gotta give those roots room to spread out.
I shouldn't expect too much more from these plants, right?
I didn't say that. Your question was about plant appearance - "plants getting sparser" - not production and that was what I addressed. And without knowing what varieties or at least the type they are no one can say.
There is a FAQ here about the difference between determinates and indeterminates that explains how they grow and produce. Indeterminate tomato plants will keep growing and producing until killed by frost and as long as they are healthy and have enough water and nutrients they will keep producing fruit until they are killed.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: tomato type FAQs
Pollination rates have been unusually low here in the PNW for at least the last two years, probably because of our unusually cool spring and summer. You can help fruit set by shaking your plants to improve pollination. You can either shake the tomato cage or the stake or lightly tap the trusses with open flowers. I live in Seattle, and I transplanted my plants in early June under hoop houses. I kept them covered until early July, and when they had flowers, I would shake the plants to improve pollination. Based on my count today on 25 plants, I have just over 600 fruit, about half cherry tomatoes and the other half larger black and beefsteak tomatoes.
Because of the cooler weather in the PNW, tomatoes usually take much longer to grow and ripen even if they're grown under hoop houses for the first few weeks. For example, last year Sungold took about 70 days to break, and larger tomatoes like Cherokee Purple and Black Krim took about 90 days. This year my Sungold took 37 days to set fruit compared to 31 days last year, so it's was about a week longer than last year. The larger tomatoes took 40-50 days to set fruit, about the same as last year. Given our cooler weather, I've only been watering about every 2-3 weeks and fertilizing once a month with Dr. Earth or Organobloom, but that's also because my planting mix is pretty rich and retains moisture.
Yes, I am willing to bet it's weather issues. If it was nutrient issues, you'd know it, and would be talking about the condition of the leaves, not fruit set issues. Plants will grow a lot of foliage if they don't have fruit set, the reason some are saying they have large plants without fruit. This is normal for most plants in that energy normally put into fruit go into leaves. Like the person in Ohio, I am having a bumper year like I've never seen before. It's all in the weather.
Bonide's 3-in-1 is supposed to be good for fruitworms, and since I sprayed last week, the count has plummeted, although I did pick 3 or 4 off this morning. I also found, on the underside of a leaf, about a dozen tiny eggs laid out in a diamond shaped pattern.
They went down the garbage disposal.
I had fruit worms on the fruit that laid on the ground, on the part that touched the ground. I'll try better cages next year.
I have read that horn worms glow under a blacklight at night. I might buy a cheap handheld blacklight next year and try that trick.
Don't worry about it Lesuko. It wouldn't be viable anyway. You can't keep pollen alive long enough to ship it through the mail.
This person spammed this post all over the forums in any discussion even related to tomatillos but I doubt he will return to read any of the replies explaining why his post not only violates the forum guidelines but isn't possible in the first place.
Dave
Sorry I wasn't more specific. I am new to this. I live northwest of Denver, CO but still on the east side of the Rockies. The previous owners of my house had a garden but obviously didn't amend the soil. It is pure clay. I added compost and leaves but it will take a number of years before it is reasonably fertile. I was teaching an intensive college course during June so everything got in the ground late as I had no time. Actually, I only put in 2 tomatoe plants as I live alone. My "Sweet Million" is doing fine as usual. I have a volunteer paste tomatoe that has some tomatoes and the single "Pineapple" tomatoe with blossoms but no tomatoes. I didn't realize that extreme heat affected fruit set. I appreciate the information! :)
I misread your post. You said 5 feet not 5 plants. There are some high producing open pollinated tomatoes but some of the big ones are late and only have a few tomatoes. I have good luck with medium sized tomatoes that mature fairly early. The big ones are exciting and impressive, but not good if you only plant one plant. I don't know what grows best in CO but others here do.
A friend ask me to help put in a raised bed & said she had a vole problem. We dug down 8 inches, put in 1/4 hard ware cloth &boarded up 12 inches, mixed in compost pine bark fines.
Then planted & she has a great garden now.
AND I just saw the fattest chipmunk I have ever seen. Scampering (or waddling) between the raised beds.
The raised beds all have hardware cloth bottoms, but this is our kitchen garden, it is about 12 ft across the front, the other three sides are brick foundation. Which usually makes for great growing conditions. I have taken the electric fence down and the cats are having a field day. (but banished to the basement so they don't yak up vole parts on my bed again) They are old but not that feeble. They just wait and wait, you think they are asleep and then a paw goes down a hole and comes up with something.
I think two plants are a total loss, but the rest seem to be surviving. I will try putting the hardware cloth down about a foot. I will be adding amendments and re tilling over the winter.
They are forecasting heavy rains today and tomorrow, the squash have just had it.