16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
When spraying neem oil, it's a good idea to spray plain water the next day after spraying neem to help wash off the oil residue. Sometimes the oil can inhibit the leaves to "breathe" so spraying plain water (spray to dripping) helps to wash off the residue. In the 24 hours between sprayings, the neem is doing the work it needs to and can then be washed off the next day.
Dave-
I apologize to you and everyone else for the huge size of the pictures.
I'll definitely make them more compact next time I post any.
Treemama-
Thank you for the advice. I didn't know that I was supposed to do this. But, I know it wasn't the neem oil or the transplanting that made the leaves like this. They already looked like this when I brought them home from the store. I just want to prevent it from getting worse.
Because they say true doesn't mean it wont be a tomato of some form. I have volunteers every year, and it is anybodys guess what the fruit will be. But I like surprises.
The heirlooms I grow, the seeds will produce that same variety. Enjoy your freebies.
The range shown on that chart is very narrow and doesn't really indicate pH's higher than the about 4.5 or so that have been shown for some varieties. The higher the pH number the lower the acidity.
There are few varieties that have been documented to have low acid, Jet Star F1 is one of them, there are a few others as well, but I just don't have the time right now to go searching.
Most pastel colored varieties are said here and there to have low acid, but they don't, it's just that the higher sugar content masks the normal pH.
I'm sure some of you who can tomatoes have seen the warning with Jet Star F1, for instance, which advises adding citric acid or what ever, and that acidification was also expanded to all tomatoes to be canned. The reason being that if the open water bath method is used, an acidic environment is necessary to inactivate any botulism spores that might be there.
Dotty, you may be having an allergic response to some of the antigens ( proteins) in tomatoes and it may not be related to the pH of varieties. Just a possibility I'm bringing up. If you do a search here at GW I know you'll come up with other threads where allergies to tomatoes has been discussed.
Carolyn
Thanks for the responses. The chart came up well on your link Missing. I'll check out the German varieties for this area and will look at the allergies. I wonder too if I am using too much salt...darn it, I love tomato sandwiches so I'll have to experiment. Thanks again.
Hi, snake_grower. What kind of split stems do you have?
For instance, there are stems that split when a branch is bumped too hard -- or perhaps is buffeted by a wind storm -- or bends over under heavy fruit weight.
There are also stems that have a small split for no apparent reason and remain upright. The split might be an inch or so long and is relatively shallow. Later what are called adventitious roots appear in the split. These roots look like white bumps; people may assume an insect laid eggs inside the stem. [Stems don't have to split for adventitious roots to appear, however.]
Adventitious roots form for many reasons. Sometimes the plant has a stem problem (like a borer) or a disease which affects the stem. Sometimes adventitious roots form in humid conditions, or where a stem contacts moist soil. There are probably other reasons I don't know about.
Google Image search: tomato adventitious roots
http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/tomato-roots-on-stem/
Thanks for your help. When looking at the pictures on the sites you forwarded, I don't think the plants had the adventureous root problem. The stems just seem to split and the splits can be 1 -4 inches long and some plants' stems split so badly, I will now have to pull them up and start with fresh plants. Thanks Again!
My wife once dug up a volunteer in our garden, planted it in the ground somewhere else, then dug it up again and put it in a pot (because it wasn't allowed where she planted it). It lived and made a couple of tomatoes. Obviously it didn't exactly thrive, but it had a late start anyway due to being a volunteer.
Tomatoes are next to impossible to kill, don't worry. You could hack it off at the ground and stick the severed head into the dirt and it will happily reroot and keep going like nothing happened.
Nothing short of putting your tomato plant in the blender will kill it.
Thanks, missingtheobvious i will try the mulch. The potting soils do not contain dirt as best as i can tell and they seem to drain well. I got some of the Daconil today and a small spray bottle but i have not used it yet as the label kinda scared me. I have a Jack Russell and he "helps" me water and i have caught him drinking the water out of the pots as i water. He is my very best buddy and i don't want to use anything that will hurt him. I pulled off the bottom yellow leaves and i am watering early in the day but i am really hesitant about that Daconil...it even mentioned something about not eating the fruit off the plants and i do have some small tomatoes on them.
Okay: I just read the info on my bottle of Daconil concentrate. Cover your skin, wear the appropriate kind of mask and goggles, and a shower afterward would be a good idea. Now I remember why I didn't use it last year.
it even mentioned something about not eating the fruit off the plants
Where did you see that? Why would they recommend it for use on tomatoes (not to mention other veggies) if you couldn't eat the fruit? What would be the point?
It says wash your hands before eating, but I can't find anything about washing the tomato or waiting a certain number of days after spraying before eating. In fact, in the PHI column ("days required between last application and harvest") it says zero for tomatoes.
I know Daconil binds to a certain site on tomato leaves (and stems?). Maybe it doesn't stick to the fruit?
But I'd think they'd say something about washing the fruit (or, for other veggies, the leaves or whatever)....
No hail, and not enough wind to do damage, I have 2 of them side by side in a large cedar planter in quality soil high in organic matter. I haven't caged them yet because they are growing very well and are quite bushy. I looked for insects or signs of them and nothing. The damage isn't severe, but I've never seen anything like this without knowing the cause. As long as it is a one time issue I should be fine. But if left to continue the health of them could deteriorate quickly. I'll try and post a pic tomorrow.
That is one of the things I love about this place, they are all enablers. :))
I dragged my sister out to see our first actual tomato, she was thrilled. Well o.k. she humored me. It's pretty small, but really a fruit!
YAY blooms! Soon it will be a tomato, and then you will need to decide how to eat the first one!
This is the first year my seedlings have done this well, and I credit the advice of this forum. I am just so tickled!
I had this problem last year with German Queen; it was the first time I'd grown it. I had both early blossom clusters that never grew large enough to flower and pollinated fruit that remained for weeks at the bb or pencil-eraser size.
Well, they finally began growing (both some of the fruit that had seemed in stasis and fruit from some of the newer blossoms). My assumption was that the plant just wasn't ready earlier. The fruit were huge, and definitely worth waiting for.
I don't know how relevant this is to your Cherokee Chocolate situation, since being a simple skin color mutation of CP it should behave the same as CP. But maybe your CC is just a bit slow for reasons you can't see (voles nibbling at its roots ... whatever).
Or maybe that plant is particularly obstinate. I swear some of them are....
Following up...
Well it turns out what looked exactly like iron deficiency was actually the early stages of herbicide damage. Turns out a well intentioned, but uninformed neighbor sprayed some round up WAY too close.
Going forward, from what I have read, there is nothing you can do for the tomato plants other than "wait it out". That said, should I cut off the damaged parts, or leave them in place?
Glad to see another gardener using cinder blocks for raised beds. Few people realize how attractive it can be until they see a neat well contructed one... not to mention how practical - cheap, no maintenance and permanant. Can't beat it.
I would suggest for basic bug control to alternate catnips, marigolds and basils in the little squares on the outside of the bed. You still may need to spray here and there but it will keep a lot of critters away. It looks nice too.
LOL, every last one of our marigolds were just eaten down to the roots and I mean that literally by slugs and pill bugs last week. Put out some Sluggo which seems to have curbed that problem.
If my Basil were not under a bug net in the Vegtrug right now there wouldn't be a single leaf left on it.
Only reason we still have any tomatoes, peppers and especially all the tender leafy veggies like the Bok Choy etc is because they are on our deck which is 20-25 feet in the air and under bug nets and bird nets.
What I see on some of the leaves looks to me like TSWV ( Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus) infection and it's been a bad year for that in NC, that I know.
The problems is not Bonnie plants, the problem is that there are thrips in your area that are causing the infection.
So I suggest either going to the Pest and Disease Forum here at GW and pulling down one of the disease sites, TAMU or Cornell are good, or better still going straight to Google and entering Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, so you can learn more about it.
Not all of the pictures showed the spotted leaves, but several of them did.
Hope that helps.
Carolyn, whose best tomato friend lives in NC as well as two others who do seed production for her as well as her brother.
Unless you plan to give away your existing MG to someone who gardens, I say use it up first. Do I love MG? No. Would I buy Espoma over MG if I went to a store that sold both today? Yes. Do I hate to see people waste money searching for the PERFECT solution when 'good enough' will do? Yes (although I have to own a lifetime of not always living this). Take a deep breath, live, love and laugh (preferably in the garden). Then, when you run out of fertilizer, either buy Espoma (Tomatone) or check here to see if people recommend something they like even more that your local store has.
I sure love what tomato-tone does for the overall look of tomatoes! Here's also a site that sells tomato-tone: http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Espoma-Tomato-tone-3-4-6-8-lb-bag-p6036.htm