16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I haven't grown either of the varieties you named, but from what OHIOFEM says, they may crowd each other out.Although this is my first year with EBs, I would say that you get the most productivity from the largest plants if you have only one per box.
However, what worked for me this spring was to plant two plants per box: with one being an early bearing determinate and the other a large indeterminate of either an early or mid season variety.
When the determinates had produced their fruit,I took them out and left each box to the larger plant. Even though many of the tomatoes were still green, they all ripened after I wrapped each one in newspaper for a week or so.
Jan
gumby_ct's white speckles are oval cocoons belonging to a tiny wasp (the cocoons are about 1/8" tall, so it really is a tiny wasp).
By the time the cocoons appear, the hornworm is beyond moving and the wasp larvae are no longer feeding, but it's advantageous to leave the caterpillar in place so the wasps can emerge and begin their lives' work of keeping more hornworms from becoming moths and breeding another generation of worms.
I tend to see about four hornworms in the same area at a time.
Bets is right on. I have droughty sandy soil, and I put several inches of mulch around my tomatoes, and I never get BER and rarely get splitting. I also rarely have to water, even in sandy soil due to heavy mulching. When I do water, I do it deeply. At the end of the season, pulling them up, I've been amazed at how deep the roots went.
THere are several reasons for blossom drop, I got a lot last year and getting some again this year. Its some varities are affected more than others.
I have 1884 on one side, italian heirloom on center, then brandywine on another side. All fed and watered the same, get same sunlight. italian heirloom has less foilage and a lot of tomatoes while the other two simple fail to convert flowers into fruit for some reason.
I had some root knots that I discovered last year so I treated the entire area with double strength beneficial nemetoges, bonemeal, and calcium, Lets see how it goes.
Sometimes conditions are not quite ready for fruiting, while it differs from variety to variety
What varieties are you comparing it to? GG is a late season variety and they often don't set as early as many other varieties. Have you been pruning it?
I have 2 of them this year and while they are huge plants none of mine have set any fruit yet either but I know from past experience that they will later.
Dave
I'd suggest a fungicide for the pepper plants ranter than Neem. They look like Alternaia.
Soil spraying fungicides - personally I don't see how they can be effective on more that the surface but products for soil drenching are available, expensive but available. Your choice. One of those can't hurt and might help situations. Forked, sun exposed, and left to dry out well kills much of an soil fungus.
Dave
Do you mean to spray peppers with a copper fungicide? Neem oil is listed as a fungicide against alternaria. I have never had to get into heavy fungicide use before and have never used a copper spray.
I am letting the soil dry out really good. No rain in the forecast and getting hotter all week.
Thanks,
Kate
I started out with great intentions, too, but have turned into the Hippie. The tomatoes in raised beds in my backyard are loving our hot weather and growing faster than I've ever seen. The tomatoes in the front yard (plopped in clay soil a few weeks later) are still pretty small, I'm interested to see how they make out. They are extras to share with neighbors, anyway, so it's not a big deal if they don't produce :)
Thanks for posting the article!
Just to clarify, in case this is your worry:
Cross-pollination is only a problem if you're trying to save seed. Cross-pollination will not affect size, shape, color, or flavor of the fruit. The pollen-parent's genetic contribution appears only in the embryos of the seeds of the new fruit, not in the tomato flesh (or even the seed coats).
If you're worried about saving pure seed to grow next year, see the FAQ on preventing cross-pollination:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2005025852004159.html
You can find the little tulle bags at Walmart in the wedding aisle of the party supply section. I believe you have your choice of white or silver.
And the larger question to me is for what purpose are you saving seed from some OP varieties.
If for home use then you need not be so concerned but if trading seeds or SSE listing them, etc., then seed purity is more of a concern.
I'm glad you were directed to the FAQ here on How To PRevent Cross POllination b'c there were several of us that spent a good deal of time on that and then it was approved by those who were here at GW at the time. And I'm not all that biased but I do thonk it's perhaps the best discussion of X pollination on the net, and with pictures to boot.
Different insects that can pollinate can fly in excess of two miles, so there's that.
My rows were 250 ft long, plants 3-4 ft apart within the rows and rows 5 ft apart and my cross pollination rate was about 5% meaning that of seed saved from 100 varieties that on average 5 of them would be cross pollinated.
There are lots of variables that play into X pollination and there's an excellent article at SOuthern Exposure Seed Exchange written by Dr. Jeff McCormack who owned SASE before he sold it and he outlined in great detail all those variables.
So while my experience where I grow my stuff says 5% there are places where it can be up to about 50%, but that would be rare.
Carolyn
Dave, I do trust you as to what you described as your growing what was indet, but it's not just what I've seen reported at many message sites and online.
Maybe the following is happening.
Tom Wagner's original Green Grape was indet. I was growing it here at my new place and the plants were not indet they were det and had much less fruits than I was accustomed to.
At the time I was posting here at GW and Earl was as well, not One of the Earl's, but another Earl. I got from him seeds for what he said was indet, and when I planted them out they were det.
At the same time Tom was in the Netherlands at Sahin Seeds where Kees had kind of a gathering of European folks for a taste testing. Tom found even there that his GG was det, not the original indet.
Then I was invited to give a dog and pony show at Hortus Nursery in Pasadena and Tom drove down from Bakersfield where he was at the time and brought me two plants that he said were indet. I carried them back on the plane and they turned out to be det as well.
What I'm saying is that the plant habit was flip flopping back and forth between indet and det, and I wonder if the same might be true with Rutgers, going the other way, that is, from det to indet.
DL, one good way to determine if what you have is det or indet is that det varieties have terminal blossom clusters and now I forget the other major difference which is the distance between blossom clusters as well.
No, I don't think I could tell what you have by pictures, I really don't.
Above is a general Google search about Rutgers and det vs indet and lots of good reading on that.
And below I'm linking to one of those links that describes the difference between indet and det. Look for the post by Hoosier who is quoting from Keith Mueller and the internode difference between the two that I couldn't remember.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: GW link, det vs indet
What I'm saying is that the plant habit was flip flopping back and forth between indet and det, and I wonder if the same might be true with Rutgers, going the other way, that is, from det to indet.
That's exactly what I have suspected as well for the past several years as it would explain much of the performance issues.
I always prefer to give benefit-of-a-doubt to seed suppliers and something like genetic instability let's me do that. :)
Dave
I know Carolyn.
I would rather have the Squirrels here also BUT not at the expense of them destroying all my tomatoes and my blueberries and 1000s of dollars of damage to my neighbors house.
If they weren't lil ecoterrorist I would love watching them.
But they are WAY too destructive when you have dozens of them all over.
I have electric fence to keep the deer out, but after seeing the ecoterrorusts at work I strung one strand about two inches off the ground. I actually wrapped the fencing around each post because there were now slots as low as I needed.
Nothing has given me such a chuckle in a long time, seeing them scamper between that wire and the next one up and hear the POP when their tails touch it. I am a sick and twisted person. There is much consternation in squirrel land. :))
It isn't bad for a tomato plant to be watered from above when it rains, is it? What's the difference?
========================
There is some pretty interesting research out there that talks about how lightening is powerful enough to break apart the nitrogen so that it is available to the plants. You aren't getting that from a garden hose.
Also, most rain showers are accompanied by wind, which helps stimulate growth and dry the leaves.
We need to know where you live or at least what gardening zone you are in. Different diseases are strictly regional.
It would also help to see a picture of the plant if possible.
We also need to know if this plant is in the ground or in a container. If a container, how big is it?
Does the plant respond - perk up - to watering?
Much more info please.
Dave
looks like a nice planter (raised bed).
Digdirt is entirely correct on all counts except maybe the watering, that totally depends on what potting mix and type of plants and how big they are in the bed, how hot it is etc.
If it is good draining mix in a very good draining planter then you could easily water it every day.
I water mine about 6 days a week.
Buy some good "Potting Mix" not top soil, can amend it with some large perlite and pine bark to get it to drain better.
FILL that planter to within an inch of the top, make sure there are "several" drainage holes in the bottom.
On something that size with a flat bottom I would probably put 30 or more 1/2" holes in the bottom.
It is likely that if you just had that planter full of dirt, even heavy top soil that the plants may have at least not rotted. You have heavy soil, probably in a not so well draining container, with only that tiny amount of soil the roots are probably sitting in water in the "perched water" in bottom few inches of soil.
First 2nd and 3rd thing you gotta do is Drainage drainage drainage.
Gary, because I use some Tomato Tone for the micros, I use the cheapest 10-10-10 slow release I can find. That will take care of the basic NPK's and I can use the "good stuff" for the rest of the formula to get a fairly well balanced growing medium.
Most folks get too detailed in putting together a growing medium. Tomato plants are far more accomodating to less than perfect environments than we give them credit for. I treat them like kids. Give them the best you've got and let them adapt a bit to their environment. My formula is not perfect, but it seems to do well year after year.
Take care and don't be afraid to push the envelope from time to time. It'll teach you just how wide the window for success can be.
Ted
I consider reusing the potting mix as practical,prudent,and
frugal.