16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Thank you for the advice! I have been under the impression that ordinary spays and such wouldn't do much good with these little guys. (Very funny story about them drinking the fox urine!) I also hadn't considered giving them water, but I'm thinking that might just encourage even more of them to come around.
I don't mind dead mice, but I would rather just discourage the chipmunks. I think it might be mice, because last year I also noticed mouse activity in my basement on the same side of the house as the tomatoes. When I set up a trap, and killed 3 mice in the basement, the lost tomato issue almost immediately got better.
I would rather not have to wait until they come in the house to kill them, but I don't want to go killing off a bunch of chipmunks either.
I'd move the plants to the back porch, which is relatively mouse free because the terrier patrols the back yard and kills everything. The problem with that is the terrier's buddy in the back yard is a tomato eating Labrador Retriever who does far more damage than any rodent I've ever seen.
We have a huge chipmunk problem. They even made holes in our car cabin filters. But "repel all" seems to keep them away from the garden so far....we don't have any ripe tomatoes yet though, so I'm not sure if they'll keep away after they see some yummy red tomatoes.
I have more fruit and they are much bigger than normal also!
I had 2 late frosts that killed all but 2 tomato plants. I replanted and have started getting big fruit from the late ones now.
I have been canning and giving away tomatoes from those 2 for 2 months now. I get at least a 1/2 full plastic grocery bag every day from just those 2!
I haven't weighed anything, since I don't have scales. I have measured them though. I have 3" diameter early girls and 4"diameter better boys. The survivors.
I picked a Brandywine yesterday that was 4 1/2"! You couldn't see the bread when I made a sandwich with it.
Should you? No. It will cost you fruit production and will only stimulate more new top growth. Can you? Sure, it is your plant to do with as you wish.
The plant is only doing what comes naturally. The top growth will drape back down over the top of the cage and keep on growing and setting fruit once the weather allows.
Check out the other 'topping plants' discussions here.
Dave
I had nutrition problems, followed by leaf disease, followed by more nutrition problems. I dont drink, maybe I should.......
This is the year I decided to stop trying to grow organic in my containers. I am much happier now, even without the beer LOL =)
I just had a tomato seed to sprout that has 4 seed leaves. This is the very first one I have ever seen. I decided to google it and found this forum, so I am now posting. I took pictures and I am posting a picture showing its very first seed leaves. I am very curious to see what its next growth will turn out like. I will let it grow out naturally to see what happens. This is the "Delicious" variety of tomato, from a seed I ordered online from Remier Seeds.
And if it is not feasable to soak your pots like Cole showed above, even going back and watering two or three times can help a container plant actually take up water. The root pathways get dry and sometimes just help the water run right through the plant. 5 gallons is not very big for a healthy, fruiting tomato. In my climate I would water twice daily at least and fertilize lightly several times a week.
Probably heat refection off the house.
IF the plants are in good soil in the ground and watered very well which in this heat (100+ degrees)should be twice a day then they really shouldn't be wilting.
As long as the roots are large, no disease, good drainage, well watered then no wilting should really occur even in 105 degree temps.
Mine have yet to wilt this year and we have had over 108 degree temps.
I have one branch wilt the past 2 weeks only because a damn squirrel jumped up into it and broke that branch 2/3rds in half, only 1/3rd of the branch is supplying water to that whole part of the plant and it has about 20 tomatoes on it.
It wilts when over 95+ but is still hanging in there.
All the rest of the plants and rest of that plant never wilt at all though. and that fact tells you it is the lack of water supply doing the wilting.
Another source is Twining vine Gardens. (link below)
Here is a link that might be useful: Twining Vine Gardens
I have some of the everglades growing. They are in their second year and the fruits have gotten larger and some of the plants seem to be suffering from the heat. I suspect they hybridized with some of the other varieties that are nearby.
I just got a fresh batch of seeds from http://myworld.ebay.com/fishfarmerjohn/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 Is it possible to isolate them and keep them from hybridizing? I have another property that is in the woods, hopefully far from any other varieties. I also have a large enclosed porch and a greenhouse there that could be used. Would they need to be hand pollinated?
Do you think it might work to do as you suggested above, but with the hose nozzle? This way I can keep the water off the leaves - mostly - but still try to simulate rain?
Not really as there is a much greater chance of triggering BER from over-watering. That is the trade off here - preventing BER from developing vs. getting the leaves wet this one time. After all we aren't talking about doing it all the time and it won't be the first time they got wet either.
As I said above I do NOT normally recommend this as I am well aware of the reasons for not doing it.
Your choice.
Dave
Hi, BER is running rampant. At first I did not know what was wrong with my poor tomatoes. The cherry and grape ones were fine, but the larger ones had a yucky rotten bottom. I did some research and found it was BER. I did not exactly know what to do since they were already planted and it was too late to treat the soil, so I went to the store and got some plant food that had added Calcium and after a week I noticed a few more tomatoes and there were fewer with the yucky stuff on the bottom.
Also I noticed that some of my tomatoes are blotchy red/orange and yellow. They look strange. I am afraid to eat them!
It's hard to know if the plant food helped, or if the problem just got better on its own. It is supposed to be the earlier tomatoes on a plan that get ber the worst.
I think your other problem might be sun scald. I have it myself, and I have read a lot of people complaining about the same problem, due to our intensely hot summer. The yellow tops will never turn red; just cut that part off. The rest is fine to eat.
Agreed this looks like blossom end rot. I have had similar problems with my San Marzano tomatoes which grew like crazy when hot humid weather hit. Same problem hit some of my peppers too. This is supposedly caused by a calcium deficiency ... which is aggravated during periods of very rapid growth.
I've had pretty good short term luck with foliar feeds of 'Rot Stop' ... which is a calcium bearing spray that is readily available online, from Ace Hardware etc. A longer term solution is to add some gypsum to your garden soil ,,, but this isn't going to do much good in the short term.
I have also heard of plain old skim milk being used as a calcium 'watering additive' ... but I've never tried it myself.
Blight or whatever. I had the same thing yellow spots on the leaves and the fruit gets injured. Fungi is the biggest enemy of backyard gardens. I lost have of the peach on my peach trees the peach gets injured and fall. I consulted with the county extension. They recommended spray program to all my trees and all my vegetables. I started the spray every 10 days I use spectracide all purpose fungicide. I saved half of my peach crop and my tomatoes recovered. For three weeks now not even one tomato got injured and all my plants look very healthy. The lady at the extension told me without fungicide spray the commercial producers will go bankrupt. The hot weather and occasional rain is a fertile condition to fungi.
Plant looking OK, like top lateral may replace growing tip, but no flowers yet. The one same age in same sized pot had flowers open today, I gave it to my aunt since the ones she bought at Mother's Day plant sale are dying (EB and maybe just neglect - she never planted the 2 cherries and 1 eggplant I gave her last month, looks like she didn't even water the eggplant!). The last one I took from 4" pot to 3gal pot is a little behind since it's only been in the big pot 2 weeks. Don't know if I can sell that one at market (will transport OK, the big one with flowers I didn't want to risk, aunt's car 1/2 mile up the road should be OK). May keep it as a "control".
Although the white thing on the tomato cage looks like a white fly, they're much smaller. If you have them, they will fly up in a little swarm when you shake the plant, and leaves will show damage. You could spray with spinosad or neem if you think they're hurting your plant. But your plants look healthy, so I would go slow.
I too have insects like Djole described every summer. I think they are some kind of leaf hopper. I've never seen them do any damage, I've never done any thing more than spray them with water.
It was humor :) but also it was meant to illustrate how many different species of whitefly there are - each with own differences in appearance, behavior etc.
Whitefly, leaf hopper or something else, 3 things are certain - its not fungus, and its not alarming and its been dealt with :). Just hose 'em like mentioned and keep a close watch on the plant for reappearances. Good luck ;)
Cheers,
Djole
My best guess is Black Plum so you might want to check with the place you got it from to confirm that they were offering it.
Below is a link to Google IMAGES and hold you pointer over a picture to confirm what you're looking at is indeed Black Plum.
If you mean the data base here in the FAQ's, that's so out of date it's mostly useless.
the data base that you should be going to is Tania's T-base, and here's a link to her page about Black Plum"
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Black_Plum
There are over 3,000 variety pages, most with pictures and comments from others and then if you scroll down you can see where seeds are sold.
When through at the above page click on MAIN at the upper left which takes you back to HOME and see all the ways that you can search for varieties. When you know the name it's best to use the alphabetical method.
When trading seeds it really is important to know what specific variety you're offering so I hope that you can get confirmation on that.
As for me, for several reasons I don't trade seeds at all with very very few exceptions.
So my best guess is Black Plum. And the orange one is called Jaune Flammee, received in a huge trade with a Frenchman, Norbert P. in 1992 along with some other great varieties. TGS listed at first as Flammee b'c I forgot to write the Jaune part on the seed pack when I sent it to Linda at TGS. ( smile)
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Google IMAGES; Black Plum
Thanks! I'm pretty sure it's a Black Plum as I am kind of remembering it. I'll see what the co-op where I got the seedling says.
I did mean Tatiania's. There are just so many black tomatoes and the search stuff could be a lot better. It's be great to do a filtered search.
Yes, the Jaune Flammee is a great variety. Great taste and a huge yield for me so far and it's early in the season. It's my first non-cherry/plum tomato aside from the Glacier.
I've been keeping extensive notes on the 30 varieties I have going this year and looking forward to some trading this fall which is why I want to solve the mystery ID. So far it has the most fruit on it and is looking great.