16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Same here. Just as I posted on your duplicate post of this question on the Vegetable Garden forum - only the one time when my drip system broke and flooded the area.

Dave

Thanks guys. THey're not getting too much water. They're in pots so that is what it is. I currently water 2-3 times a week.

I had this question myself, I switched to organic soil with chicken manure added instead of shellfish...what little research I found said that 1. people react to the proteins in shellfish 2. the proteins are broken down during composting 3. so there should be no problem. So far all I have growing in that is basil, and me and my father are both eating that basil right now, and we are both allergic. Ill let you know what happens.. I planted all my other herbs and veggies in the soil with chicken manure, just because the idea of shellfish makes me paranoid and why deal with it if I dont have to. If I would have read the first bag with the shellfish I problablly would have bought it. STILL what I've read says there is no problem....

*wouldnt have bought it.

All of my plants are planted in the ground. They have been in the ground for about 8 weeks. The wilting started about 3 weeks ago, and the weather has been in the high 80's the last two weeks. However, these plants only receive direct sunlight for about 5 hours a day. Thanks also, for telling how to post a picture. One picture can be worth a thousand words. Only the top parts of the plant are showing the curling of the leaves.

Richard,

Is the "wilting" occurring in the evenings, but they look fine the next morning? That is relatively common when one is watering frequently but shallowly. Shallow watering does not encourage deep root penetration, which means the roots are near the surface and far more affected by variations in temperature and moisture levels of the first few inches of soil, which may account for the wilting of your tomato tops.

Cool weather or soil with lots of clay needs will be less water, hot weather or sandy soil will need more.

Dig down with your finger about 4", is the growing medium wet, dry, or just right? If it is wet, don't water, if dry then water. If it is just right, check again the next day. Water deeply once or twice a week. Watering daily encourages shallow roots which means the plant is affected more by variations in soil moisture. In my garden during the heat of the summer, I water deeply every 4-5 days, early spring I may only water every 8-9 days and when the weather is moderatly warm (70-80 degrees F), about once a week. I have several dowels that I push into the soil six inches or so, in several areas of the garden and leave them there. By pulling up a dowel and checking the end that was in the soil, I can easily monitor the soil moisture.

Mulching heavily (to a depth of 6 - 8 inches) with compost, straw, hay, rotted leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper or sheets of paper or cardboard helps maintain a consistent moisture level.

Betsy

if that's the same case for you.

To a degree, depending on the seed source I use, and I have tried many, including selecting and saving my own. But I find it is almost impossible anymore to find the true determinate seed from any vendors - even when they label it as such.

JMO but I think that as the variety has stabilized over the years most of the seed has reverted or adapted to more of an indeterminate growth pattern. Rather than a determinate or semi-determinate type of fruit set and cropping, its a continuous cropping and the growth patterns are usually true vine indeterminate - height, lateral branch development, node lengths, etc.

But I haven't been overly concerned about it as the production and flavor remains true. I just don't count on it being determinate even when it is labeled as such.

Dave

So, I guess I WON'T be growing the shortest Rutgers in the World. LOL

Phyllis, if you're growing plants from volunteers, as you said above, there's really no way to know or name the varieties you have. If hybrids,as mentioned above, they don't come true from volunteers or indeed saved F2 seed from the actual fruits.

If the initial varieity is open pollinated then there's a chance that the volunteers could be OK, but I think you'd know that once the fruits appear and you can ID them as being a specific variety that you started out with.

Every year I used to take 10 volunteers from the field where I was growing tomatoes and transplant them elsewhere, just for fun and to see what I'd get and to see if I could ID them, and sometimes I could, and sometimes not. But I nevere saved seed from them.

There are many varieties that are called white, but actually are more ivory in color and the final color can depend on the variety, the degree of foliage cover and the amount of UV. So fruit colors can range from ivory to pale yellow to even a deeper yellow.

For me the whitest and best tasting of the large white fruited varieties is White Queen and it actually has some taste to it, which I find is missing in most so called whites that I've grown.

This year I'm growing a new white one called Fantome du Laos which someone I know well suggested I grow and sent me the seeds, so we shall see.

And yes, you can save seeds from white ones as well, as you asked above.

Carolyn

Thank you Carolyn, I think that's the one I have White Queen.The only ones I can ID are the Jubilee and that's because it's yellow and who knows I've probably got that wrong also,but I'm not gonna worry about it since I'm the only one who eats them besides my neighbors and they don't care,Haha I'm glad there are people like you and Dave to ask all the questions I might have. Thanks again.

nitrogen since there are a lot of lower (older) leaves that are remaining robust and dark green.

True but N deficiency shows up in NEW growth, not old growth. Yellowing of old growth is almost always over-watering.

Dave

Oooh, ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. The tomato spikes are really low in nitrogen too, so combined with being used faster than I expected maybe my plants are just starved of nitrogen.

I had a tomato plant that was stressed out like this and had way overgrown its pot. I removed the plant from its pot, teased out a few of the tangled roots, repotted into a larger container, and then gave it a dose of Fish Emulsion, both foliar and systemic. This helps reduce transplant shock. It recovered very, very well and has continued to grow and produce tomatos. It did look a bit droopy for a couple of days and then took off.

Susan

Susan, I hope my transplant does well! I just transplanted it. Unfortunately, my fiancee tried to put in a cage without my permission and bent and ruined one of the stalks. So I'm left with just two. =( I'll give it some fish emulsion and will hope for the best!

Nice pics!

Signed,
A Very Envious Zone 3'er

Hello, I know this was posted a really long time ago but im really interested on the cherry tomato that looks like a bell pepper. I have done lots of reasurch trying to figure out what variety it is and where I can get seed. I have found that it is a miniature version of a stuffing tomato but I have not been able to find anything else out. There are several varieties that are similar in shape but I don't think they are the same size. Yours seem small. About what size are the actually? If at all posible is there any way I can obtain a few seeds from you? If not, do you know what variety it is and where I can get some seeds for next year? I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks!

Yes, it's BER and while most paste varieties are more susceptible to it, almost ALL other varieties are as well.

3rdear, please go down on this first page and read the thread titled Rotting Tomatoes for even more information.

I don't understand why there would be BER fruits on only one branch, though.

And from what you showed it appears that those fruits also have catfacing, multible lobes, which can occur when pollination occurs in cooler weather and is most often seen on beefsteak shaped varieties.

Carolyn

Wow, you all are quick to respond. Thanks so much.

In my experience the percentage of fruit depends on the type of plant. Cherries, grapes, and whatever Juliet is (large grape or small Roma) produce fruit from -- for all intents and purposes -- every single blossom. (If conditions stress the plant, however, the last few blossoms in the cluster, when so small they're barely visible, may drop off; decreasing cluster size is probably all you'll notice. The plant knows how much fruit it can support.)

Larger-fruited tomatoes aren't so productive. Some say heirlooms are less productive. But there is also variation among particular varieties. I've never grown Patio and don't know about its productivity.

A major factor can be temperature. If daytime highs are 90-95 and nighttime temps are either above 75 or below 55, the pollen isn't viable, and pollination usually fails. Cherries handle hot weather better than larger tomatoes -- but some large varieties are better than others.

While I am an avid gardener I only grow a couple of dozen different veggies each year so I do not have the expertise of the folks on this forum.

I tried the patio tomato about two years ago just for kicks and giggles. My experience was that it was trouble free, set a ton of fruit, and ripened much quicker than my plants in ground. However, and this is just my opinion, I did not find them to have much flavor.

I do wish you luck with yours and I'm sure you will have enough to share :).

It's called BER ( Blossom End Rot) and is quite common. If you go to the FAQ link at the top of this page you'll find an article about it that I've linked to below.

And I'm cutting and pasting an explanation that I wrote which goes into a bit more detail, Betsy has had posted it recently and I was glad to be able to save it for myself;

(With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it.
As the plants mature they can better handle the streses that can induce BER so usually it goes away.

The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil.

Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK.

Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that.

If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date.

The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information.

BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black

Hope that helps

Betsy had written the following after my article and I'm leaving it here as well since so many folks talk of adding eggshells, or lime or spraying the foliage with milk, which just does not work.

******
So, what it comes down too is: Tums do not work, nor do egg shells, milk, and other "home remedy" treatments. Foliar spray only works in some cases. Time and good management practices work best.

Carolyn, who notes that since no one can control the weather that, along with too much N, etc. as explained above, there will always be stresses on the plants that can lead to BER.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom End Rot

Dave, your post wasn't there when I started mine so we posted almost at the same time.

It took me a while to go fetch the article I cut and pasted and then I stared out of the window here from time to time at a gift someone gave me. It's a solar powered artificial bird perched on a short pole that turns colors of green, blue and red, and the blue one lights up the whole back yard.

I've been wondering what the reponse would be if one of the local critters came by when the backyard was blue. LOL

Good thing it's in the backyard b'c if it were out front by the road I suppose someone might call 911 and report that an alien ship had landed. LOL

Carolyn

My Amish Paste plants are like this. They all look droopy.

My Jersey Giant Plants however all look normal. I'll try and take a picture tonight.

You are problably right on tracydr,this is the only paste type I'm growing,will see:)