16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I have had good luck with Sweet Millions in 111+ degree temperatures with humidity. They were probably one of the only tomato plants out of 30 that produced tomatoes because of the high heat.
I prefer sweet millions over sweet 100 because of the amount of tomatoes it produces. However, this year so far seems like they are slow to produce or someone sold me Sweet 100's and called them Sweet Millions. (You get crazy conspiracy thoughts running though your head when your tomato plants are slow.) One of the best places I grew the Sweet millions plant was under a pine tree with a cold compost soil amendment into heavy clay. The plant went nuts and produced more tomatoes than I have ever seen off of one plant. It was nearly 10 feet tall before the branches started to break in high winds.
Cole Robbie, that is a great idea! I did notice some of the leaf ends getting a little brown, which doesn't quite look like the blight damage, so I think that maybe the roots are too hot. I think I will mulch them with some straw. As far as the bed, for the most part it is surrounded by marigolds so direct sun only reaches very little of it.
Quick update:
Hopefully I don't jinks it by saying this, but my plants are doing really well. They are growing and setting fruit. I've only removed about 6-7 more leaves since last time i posted. Maybe it wasn't late blight (or gray mold) after all...
Copper has long been known as an antimicrobial and useful in either modifying, inhibiting or actually destroying a multitude of bacteria and fungi when applied in proper doses.
How it does it varies with the organism and dose level. In some cases it changes the pH, in some it destroys the bacteria's amino acids, in some it alters the cell structure. A Google of 'antimicrobial properties of copper' gets you all kinds of info.
Rather than mixing the two and applying at the same time since they can interact and even neutralize each other to a degree, the most common recommendation is to alternate applications of the two different compounds.
Dave
Carolyn and Dave,
Thank you for your replies.
Another area of confusion regarding fungicide application is so many people saying that you have to cover the entire plant with Daconil. Carolyn, I've seen posts from you that say only the upper leaf surface has the fungus attachment sites, so only the leaf tops need to be sprayed. Why all the different opinions?
Need to see a picture of them please including a close up of the leaves. 50 things can cause wilting so much information is needed as well beginning with your zone/location, containers or in ground, if in containers how big are they, age of the plant, exposure to weed killer drift, watering regimen as in how often, feeding regimen, signs of disease, why watering with sprinkers, etc.
The more info you provide the better we can help. Otherwise all we can do is make guesses.
Dave
The 4-8-12 mentioned last sounds better than the other two formulas, with heavy nitrogen. My neighbor says he put down MG tomato food as directed, three times. He has no fruit, but two doors down my cherry toms are producing.
I have some slow release tomato food (where the N no. is less than the P and K). Compost and compost tea are my main additives. Only used the tomato food once so far this year.
sawmill farm rt 102 cov. r.i. would have been great, but by the time I called, he was out of the varieties I was interested in. A good place to keep in mind for a BIG variety of tomatoes and I think he said peppers too.
Happy Gardening,
Tom
Cory, based on just your second picture b/c you have some other stuff growing in that greenhouse, if it were me I'd ignore it for now.
It's either physiological Leaf Roll, in which case when root and foliage mass are in more balance it will go away, or it's just plain leaf Curl in which case that can happen when it's too dry, too wet, too hot, too cool, and in such smaller plants such as yours that too might go away as they mature.
If the leaves curl over into a tube structure check for aphids. Aphids love greenhouses.
From that one picture I don't see any evidence of herbicide damage.
Since you say that all of your indet plants are showing it, then I assume that it's more environmental and/or a function of the plants going more towards maturity than anything else.
If any other symptoms show up please let us know.
Carolyn
With temps in the 90's, it's probably that. Plus, those
5 gal buckets need quite a bit of water. Daily if not
more often.
I grew in large buckets (like 30 gal or so) for a while
and had to set them in troughs with water in them. Every
day, I had to water them and fill the troughs with water
before I left for work. When I got home after work, they
were generally empty of water.
In the thread 'Wilt & Leaf Curl. Pics. HELP?!' theres'
some folks discussing watering containers. You don't
have quite the problem that poster has, but it's a similar
situation. Check it out.
If you are growing this variety of tomato without calcium in the soil there is an easy fix:
Pick them when they are green enough to not have started rotting and place them in brown paper sandwich bags ...four tomatoes per bag. It should take only a few days in the bag for them to ripen enough to remove them from the bag. Then leave them on a table or in a bowl to ripen Further.
Speaking of ripening if you do not like these tomatoes fully ripe then use them approximately as ripe as they are in the following photo.
That ripe they are still the best tasting tomatoes I have ever eaten + very juicy. I have not yet tried a tomato of this variety fully ripe .................
I have found out why Marmande tomatoes are the most popular tomatoes in Europe ...When they are fully ripe they are amazing cooking tomatoes with less seeds than most other tomato varieties have.
Amazing and fast tomato sauce without needing any thickening and the taste is amazing.
Put them on pizza without any sauce.
Marmande tomatoes fully ripe with red onions are very tasty.
To enjoy them in salads, in hamburgers or to eat them by themselves they are best not fully ripe. Experiment how unripe you like them when they are not cooked, it's about preference
Yeah, they are just dried out. It is really hard to keep the roots cool in the hot sun. If you use buckets and grow into the summer, white is much better. Also, instead of putting the drain holes in the very bottom, put them about 3-4 inches up on the side of the bucket. That gives you a water reservoir so that it dries out less slowly. Alternatively, you could set your buckets in a trough or kiddie pool in a few inches of water and let them soak it up. As the plant gets more and more rootbound, it is hard to get the water to soak fully into the root ball.
The best irrigation for these plants would be spaghetti tubing and drip on a frequent schedule so that they never dried out. You could also try to shade the bucket as best you can. Burying it in the ground would actually be best, at least from a standpoint of temperature. Roots like it cool.
That's not a bad idea. You would be limited by the size of the container, and it would be hard to fix any clogs in it if it were underground. If you don't mind having to look at it, you can put the container above ground. It's the same idea. I have watered from a livestock trough with a ball valve plumbed into the bottom drain. Just let it drip overnight. It's also an easy way to mix in fertilizer as you water.
Can't tell from this pic but your other post looks like Bacterial Speck to me.
Dave
PS: putting all pics in one thread is easy. Just copy and paste the HTML address your online photo storage site gives you for each pic.
Here is a link that might be useful: Your other post