16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I agree with junktrunck. That looks like tree rats, or "squirrels" as novice gardeners commonly call them.

Tree rats or woodchucks, and my guess is woodchucks. I suppose it could also be deer. The bites look too big for a squirrel or rabbit, were the tomatoes the only thing eaten?

Here's a shot of the chaotic garden. Beans, squash and cukes are at the far end of the trelli. The low fence and the electric strand I have going around it has been successful so far. Right after I put the fence up a curious deer came and leaned against it and put a perfect imprint of his face and knees into the wire.

I have raised rows that are 10 feet long and about 2.5 feet wide with paths covered in straw. I did some early fertilizing but haven't done anything in a couple months. I'll probably side-fertilize again in a couple weeks when it's not so hot.

Thats a plate full of beauty! I am an hour east of you and planted out maybe a week later, but so far I have picked one Early Girl which is finishing ripening on my counter right now. I have been eating plenty of other things from the garden, but still waiting on that first bite of fresh tomato.

Please do post an end season re-cap. I am interested to hear what types do well for you. I have Prudens Purple, Purple Russian, Stump of the World, Sabre, Rinaldo, Genovese Roma, and the Early Girls. Its my second year with tomatoes from seed too, third year with a garden. That learning curve is pretty steep - but fun to climb.

Not a disease. Short of water. Perhaps a sudden brief hot spell?

Thanks for the reply. We did in fact have a hot spell here in Sacramento, CA. a couple of weeks of 100+ degree weather.

I use about 1.5 GPH worth of emitters per plant, and currently water every other day for 25 minutes. prior to the hot spell I was watering every 3 days for 30 minutes.

I have clay soil that I have amended with mushroom compost, and I have placed mulch around the plants.

should increase the watering? I have lost a lot of lower leaves from most of the tomatoes.

My parents' neighborhood has a rabbit problem. The next-door neighbor puts a 12" ring of hardware cloth around her tomatoes. I don't know how she fastens it or how easy it is to open.

A great low tech way to discourage rabbits is to tie a Jewel or Dominick's plastic bag to a stake, fence, or tomato cage near your plants. The slightest breeze makes it rustle and scares them away. It works for me every year! (Saw it in Italy and copied them:)

jessica_ I am sure some experts will be along shortly. Spraying with Daconil is an appropriate response to leaf / fungal disease. I am not surprised your Early Girl is also showing symtoms. The disease resistance many hybrids have is to soil born rather than leaf disease.

Fruit can be blotchy for several reasons but one of them is not enough ferts during the ripening stage I would agree that a dose of MG would be good. YOur tomatoes are fine to eat.

Thanks for your insight, Linda. Fertilizer it is and hopefully the weekly Daconil will head off any trouble with new leaves. I was just unsure as to whether the more infected plants would give me problem tomatoes or if I should just leave them there, ugly plant and all.

Here's hopin your aim is the bathroom is a bit better.

Well I won the plumbing battle, I can be a bit stubborn sometimes, and after we had done the hard part, I was NOT going to call in a plumber for the 'easy part'. In theory.

They are right back in the yard, but not the garden, but I have had it. They have NO fear of me, my cats (both elderly) or my hens (well they are mini velocoraptors) it's too hot for my dog visit, and they have just got to get gone.
Me, Miss Daisy, and a cup of coffee each morning ought to do it. I am shooting from 20-30 ft, so Miss Daisy does just fine, and is a lot more subtle first thing in the morning. Thanks for the moral support, and suggestions, and just letting me vent.

Could also be a groundhog. They love to eat part of the fruit.

Cindy

I caught the squirrels in the act. They are picking my plants clean!

Thanks Jean and Carolyn.

We have not used any sort of herbicide or pesticide (well except a minor sprinkling of DE before flowering- we also have bees). Someone else mentioned that the curl could be from pesticides. But, I've asked my neighbors and they haven't sprayed either.

Other tomatoes also had some curliness but they grew out of it. This black cherry grew out of the first bout and has started all over again. It's not flowering much so I'm wondering if I should give it extra fertilizer? I gave it 2 tbls side dressing of 4-6-2 fox farm as I did all my tomatoes.

Juane with the black spots also has the yellowing leaves on the bottom of the plant- black spots on top and the top foliage is always wilted. I'm waiting for it not to rain at night so I can sprinkle some copper on it- amazing. No rain for weeks then sudden downpours in the evenings.

What's really amazing is I found another volunteer tomato plant- the 3rd one. 2 of which are on the other side of the yard and no where near where we planted last year. They are all flowering- though smaller than my others, and seem healthy. Crazy.

Oh- I'm assuming the copper is like anything else and has to be applied at night. Does anyone know how this affects bees?
Thanks,
Leslie

Jean- if you think the plant was exposed to 2, 4-D could this have been when it was a seedling and it's staying in the plants system? I bought this guy.

And, would you eat the tomatoes?

What a delightful read ! This tome takes anthropormorphism to a new level.

Coincidentally, I live (and grow a small tomato garden) just down the I-5 in Orange County and had missed the article. It's a keeper.

Now if only we could get Ms. Koss to write a whole book on the subject. Subjectively, it sure would beat some of the fantasy drivel that's currently on the market ;-)

Again, thx much for posting !

Will and the Furry Ones in the OC

Those wacky touchy-feely California hipster libbies. She surely must be smoking some homegrown

Well, that might be correct. I'm in central iowa and we have had a serious heatwave, last week was basically 100's every day. The soil I have been using was an organic potting mix. The plants seem to be getting taller and blooming like crazy.

I am checking every day to make sure the soil is moist during the heat..

Other than bringing them inside, I am not sure what else to do?

Oh, they are getting sun for about 6 hours a day, then shade due to my house being in the way.

I am moving next week, and can either provide them more sun or less sun.. What do you all think?

Since I am afraid this will continue to be a hot dry summer, I would give them a little shade. My tomatoes in the ground are getting sun burnt fruit when the foliage doesn't cover them. People in hot climates go for early and late tomatoes. I am sure if you read the posts, you will find that people all over the country are having trouble with heat and drought. My tomatoes that I got in way early are producing. Others planted later are not setting fruit. I am struggling to get them watered and may give up on the ones with no fruit.

I'm in my 2nd year of ridiculous heat during tomato growing season.

Last year only about 25% of my tomatoes produced any fruit. It was super-hot all summer, and we had a hailstorm that stripped all my plants of tomatoes, and most leaves in the middle of August.

My best producers were cherries, and other round tomatoes, including Prue, Burgundy Traveler, and Thessaloniki.

I grow mostly beef-steak tomatoes. Black ones did fairly well after the hail. Mule Team was the only red beef-steak to produce well. No yellow beef-steak produced a tomato.

This year, the only usable tomatoes so far are from container tomatoes I started early in my greenhouse that I moved outside about our normal planting time. Of those planted in garden soil, only a few cherries and a Prue tomato have set on fruit.

Florida 91 does well in the heat. It has what they call a "Heat Set" gene bred into it. There are others, but this is them most common one. I have over 170 of these plants and they are blooming, setting and I will have a good harvest. Growing for Farmers Markets, I need tomatoes early and later in the year. I try to not have many when most home gardeners are harvesting theirs. This way I am not am not wasting mine and suffering from low prices. The problem it you need a tomato that will set fruit in July and August to harvest in August and September.

Here is a row that were planting May 1. They are just starting to produce.

My next planting planted on July 7th. They have over 2 dozen tomatoes set on.

Here is my Hard luck June planting. They got planted, endured wind, pouring rain (last rain we have gotten) and weeks of over 100 degrees. They are blooming and setting. I also just got them caged.

Here was the final harvest at Thanksgiving last year from Florida 91's.

Jay

One thing deer never get used to is a dog.

"One thing deer never get used to is a dog."

That's what my neighbor always said. He had 3 big dogs, that barked all night keeping me awake. The deer ate both his and my garden.

His widow has gotten rid of the dogs. And I got motion sensor sprinklers. The only time they have touched anything was when the battery died one night and I didn't know it!

It was minimal damage along the outer edge.

No, not stinkbug bites on the fruits, but I wanted to ask if those white spots on the fruits are raised and hard. And if up close they look like little circles, which I can't tell from the photos.

Blight is just a general word which many use to describe a sick plant but it's much better if a spcific Dx can be made in terms of prognosis for other nearby plants now and in future years.

If a disease then I would expect other tomato plants in the same area to be also affected b/c what I'm thinking about is a systemic disease that is soilborne. Is there anything different about this plant in terms of you bought it somewhere, you traded seeds for it, assuming you raised your own plants, etc.

Lastly, what variety is it?

Carolyn

Alas, I did not think to take a picture of the roots as nothing seemed obviously out of the ordinary. Then again, I really didn't examine them in detail... It's been trashed, however, so I can't say much on that front.

I had grown these from the seeds of tomatoes a friend gave me last fall from this crop of what I think were all ID Early Girls. He did have a similar problem with his tomatoes but I believe that was 2 or 3 years ago now. If I recall correctly, none of the tomatoes had the rot one associates, or at least I associate, with early blight.

On the spot front, they were hard, raised and circular. Taking a look this morning, I didn't notice any other fruit with such bumps.

However, I'm afraid to say that I did notice that the 3 plants closest to the original tomato have a few leaves now starting to show similar signs of damage.

I hope this hopes and thanks a lot!

Graham

Betsy, thank you for your help. I am using 7 11 17 fertilizer. I have to confess that I did remove a few shoots to allow more sunlight in. The plants get about 7 hours of sunlight a day. Thank you for your quick response. You might note that I put a second message on the site. Didn't think the first was posted. I'll stop removing side shoots.

Hi Maxyck,

Your fertilizer sounds fine. The reason I asked is that too much nitrogen can cause blossom drop. Tomatoes can be affected by so much that sometimes I am amazed we even get fruit.

High humidity and / or high temperatures, dry wind, and inconsistent watering can all contribute to blossom drop.

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: "Blossom Drop" FAQ