16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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."
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
Duplicate post. See: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0715043425743.html?2
Your plant is a determinate variety. They are never pruned. You can learn a lot about pruning, blossom drop, fruit set, etc. for the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on this forum. I linked it below.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes FAQs
I definitely couldn't resist raising the mystery pl seedlings, both of these pl plants are healthy and full of tomatoes. The above picture is just a couple of the many ripe fruits. I expected a brandywine or even a roma maybe...but what I didn't expect is that the produce would be indistinguishable (maybe a little smaller) from the regular leaf krims.
I'm gonna check the link you provided. Thanks.
Let grow and flop over as per normal.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: topping tomato plants discussions
It definitely does not look good. You have very few leaves. The plant looks really stressed. I live in LA as well and i have a patio garden and i find that self watering containers work better than either clay or plastic pots. And for sungold you need at least a 15 gal pot. I have also successfully propagated suckers in the last 2weeks. I just made sure the sucker is no more than4 inches and got a shady spot for it.
Just picked my first heirloom slicer today, 1.6 pound Gold Medal. I think my strategy of wrapping floating row covers around fruits is working against whatever critters I have. Of course this wouldn't work for a large number of plants but for the 13 that I have it doesn't take very long. Plus I can see through the cover so I know when the tomatoes are ripe.
Thank you both for the information. Erratic watering wasn't the issue, though. I was constantly checking that, and they never had a chance to get dry. I put the bone meal in because someone said there wasn't enough calcium; I hoped that would remedy that.
Dave, if I can't get all the maggots out, are my tomatoes a loss? Do I have to get rid of the plants? Are they somehow contaminated because of the flies? They DO have some nice new tomatoes on them
No the only threat is that the grubs will munch on the roots. But there are no food contamination issues.
As to the watering - over-watering is as much as issue as under-watering. Consistent slightly moist is the goal and that is almost impossible to accomplish in containers unless they are 30+ gallons in size.
Bone meal as a source of calcium, if indeed low calcium levels in the soil was the cause (which it isn't), takes many months to decompose to a form usable by the plants which is why it is a waste of time in containers. In ground gardens mix it in in the fall for effect the following year.
Dave
A lot of early, cold tolerant tomatoes are determinate.
Oregon Spring - 4" tom
Glacier - best flavor out of these 4
Taxi - yellow
Legend (not grown this one) 5" tom
If that's your climate they'd grow well, but I don't think these take the heat of the south very well.
Here is a link that might be useful: extra early tomatoes
I planted some Legends in my outdoor garden for the first time this year in an attempt to head off 'early blight' problems which have now become a regular annual occurrence in my area. So far so good ... my Legends are the 'healthiest' of any variety I planted outdoors. It looks like my first Legend fruits are starting to ripen at about a 3.5 inch diameter size.
Algoflash, for tomatoes or flowering veg works great,here's mine at one month old. But be very careful if you switch to some high-powered blooming stuff, like I just did, and now I'm worried that I may've over done it with my hose end sprayer and the 2-45-28 Kool Bloom guess I'll know in a few day....not looking good! Should have let them alone. Bummed in Bama
Agree with BubbaEarly that Algoflash Tomato Formula works unbelievably well. Formula is 4-6-8 plus a long list of micronutrients. But IMHO it's too expensive for general use, so I don't switch to the Algoflash until the first blossoms start to set.
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.