16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

What kind of tomatoes are they? Also - the first fruits of the year often have blossom end rot (though I rather like "bottom" end rot ;).

And BER is not necessarily from too much watering - rather inconsistent watering. Dry soil then saturated soil, then dry soil then saturated soil is not good. Especially in containers.

Also - I believe BER can present up to three weeks after the watering problem has been corrected. So if you believe your soil is maintaining moisture evenly now, you might not have to do anything - just pluck the problem fruits.

I supplement my Earthboxes with calcium nitrate as a snack to help avoid BER. The only year I had it was the first EB set up and I was growing paste type toms (Super Marzano as I recall) which are particularly susceptable.

If these Violet Jaspers produce like you say they do, especially in this heat. I may grow more next year even if they do taste a little bland. We can use them in salsa. It should be interesting to see how these tomatoes act in perhaps the hottest area if the nation outside of Death Valley. I know my peppers are going nuts right now. I already have red Chile de Arbol and bell peppers, but I wish my Pasilla would turn black. They have been huge for a while now.

You're outside of Death Valley? How cool! Ha - or not. :) Another heat lover I would recommend is the costoluto. I am also not a big fan of that tomato but production was good during the hottest part of the summer last year.

Big Rainbow and Cherokee Purple are also good with heat but are later to produce. And yes - pretty much all of my salsa last year came from the Violet Jaspers.

This is a helpful string. I am planting tomatillos for the first time this year and have wondered how much to treat them like tomato plants. What if the tomatillo seedling has flowers and buds. Should I pinch them off prior to transplanting so that the plant puts it's energy into root development?

I would pinch them off, yes.

Look here http://msucares.com/crops/comhort/tomatodisease/images/glyphosate.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

" plants are turning yellow where the leaf stem attaches to the maint stem and the yellow runs up to the leaf. It is a very bright yellow not like it is dry and lacking water"

Agree with Jean. That description is classic for weedkiller damage. Drift. Contaminated mulch.

If that's the case then they may recover all depending on how much the exposure but the damaged leaves are a loss.

Dave

I have had pretty good luck with Pineapple in clay soil garden in southern Ohio but as been pointed out my plants grown from purchased seed may be diff than your plants. I have two plants this yr so we will see.

It's only May 6th! If you are in N. Cal. it hasn't been hot much yet, especially not the nights. I love growing pineapple, and near Davis, it helps a lot to have blooms by May 1st, which is when the nights start getting over 55.

Hi TeXasbaby,

As a general rule, tomatoes need an inch of water every week. An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 5.6 US (4.7 Imperial) gallons of water per square yard. Cool weather or soil with lots of clay needs will be less, 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 (90 degrees F and higher), 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.

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.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

You must learn to watch your plants and recognize signs
of water need. If they're wilting, definitely water them,
no matter what the general rule states. Keep an eye on
your soil too. Like you said, it's a learning experience.

How much you water depends entirely on your climate and
conditions. What works great for a person in one part
of the country could be entirely wrong for a different part
of the country. In SoCal, I have to water a lot due to the
dry, hot conditions of summer. When I lived in Chicago, I
watered less since there was humidity and rain.

Blossom drop can have many reasons. Of course, you're
familiar with the overwatering, but too cool temps or too
high temps or high humidity can also be culprits. My
plants generally don't set fruit until the nightime temps
reach 55 deg and above.

Good luck and good learning.

Even though it ate half the plant overnight??? I've seen a couple on the heirloom tomatoes and they do quite a bit of damage if I don't pull them off.

My point was learn to tell which caterpillar is which - who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, which do actual damage and which don't.

The hornworms that damage tomato plants are one thing, the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on mint are something else entirely and they are VERY different in appearance. Mint easily recovers. Tomato plants don't.

Dave

It was not a hornworm. I know what those look like. And it was the same kind on both plants.

Thanks, Betsy. I have to do some garden shopping today so I'll look for the spray. I agree about trying to get the powder under the leaves--pretty much impossible.

I use a Dustin-Mizer. Flip the deflector to get the underside of the leaves.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dustin-Mizer

Let a few grow, nothing like freebie fruits, and you'll see how well volunteers do. I think you'll be happy with your results, and quite likely the plants will produce fruits similar to their parent plant. You're in zone six with several more months of growing season ahead of you. Small seedlings catch up quickly, you'll have lots of fruit from these plants during summer and into early autumn with production tapering off as the weather cools in the fall.

If you have limited space, I would not risk a volunteer. Better Boy is a hybrid so for sure you won't get Better Boys from your volunteers. Mr. Stripey is not a hybrid, but I wouldn't let unknown volunteers take up valuable space if it were me.

I concur. Planting it deeper is easier, quicker IMO. With existing roots lower down, you don't have to worry about it drying out as it gets established.

If the plant never got enough light and is very long and skinny, I guess I could see trenching (so you don't have to dig through bedrock). Roots do need some air... so I'd suggest you keep it less than a foot deep.

I read an article by a gardener who lives in the mountains where the mornings are cool. The article pointed out a couple things about trenching - the surface soil warms up faster each day than the deeper soil. Since tomatoes need warm roots to grow, you get more effective growing time per day, esp. early in the season. Also, by orienting the roots to the south of the plant, you get more direct sun hitting the soil where the roots are, since the plant's shadow is out of the way.

I tried an experiment planting tomatoes with the trenching method and with a vertical deep planting method. I can't say that I got any earlier tomatoes with the trenching method, because there are too many variables involved, but I did see an interesting difference in the roots. At the end of the season when I pulled up the roots, the vertically planted tomato looked like a dogbone - a ball of roots 10" down where the original root ball was, and another ball of roots close to the surface. The trench planted tomato had dense root growth all along the section between the original root ball and the surface. This is reason enough for me to use the trenching method. Of course, your mileage may vary.

I'm growing black cherry this year for the first time along with golden nugget and red jelly bean. I've never really grown cherry tomatoes before, I'm not a fan of them, but I've come to the conclusion that if I don't grow them, that means I will have to wait until August/September for tomatoes and that simply will not do! :)

Last year I planted four Black Cherry plants. They where alternated between other cherry plants 34" apart. They Did not want to fruit here in hot weather or any weather for that matter. When they did fruit they did not fruit much and took forever to ripen. On top of that the flavor was not so hot. All the other cherries did well. I see no reason to make the same mistake more than once so I will not grow it again.

I used 3/4" for my cucumber trellis and would have to say that I think it would be a little overkill to do that for my tomato cages. Besides I've seen 1/2" used in many photos and people seem to have no issues with it. I think as long as the sections are not too long, you won't see too much flex. The more tee connectors I use, the more stability it will have as well.

My plan is to make two PVC cages for each 2x4 raised bed. The cages will sit on top of the soil and will be mounted on the inside of the bed frame secured with conduit clamps screwed into the frame (eliminating the need to drive it into the ground). For added stability The two cages will be joined together with the use of snap-inn tee connectors (that I will have to order online).

I gave up on remesh because of the availability of it in my area. You can't paint over rust and all of the sturdy remesh I have seen is either rusted already or bent to crap. The coated fence material is just too thin of a gage and the openings are too close together.

Bottom line is the PVC approach is easier, faster, and more cost effective approach (provided I used the cheapy HP/Lowes connectors, not the expensive ones online).

I'd pound that PVC 12 inches into the ground myself. Wind
will cause the PVC to flex (especially if you don't go
with the 3/4 inch stuff) and I'm afraid the conduit clamps
won't be up to the task.

Pounding the PVC into the ground is easy. Get a piece of
steel pipe about 18 inches long and a cap for it. Slide
the pipe over the top of the PVC (I use 30 inch sections)
and pound away. That gives you 18 inches above ground and
12 inches in the ground. Works like a charm.

Thinking about it, I'd bet I could pound in a section much
quicker than you could attach the conduit clap to the boards.

Take a look at the cages in the link below. The lady in
that video uses a different configuration than I use. I
think you'll find the crossover ( X ) connectors easier
to find than the ones she used.

I've grown both cucumbers and tomatoes and I think the
cukes have lighter leaves and fruit than tomatoes. I don't
think you'll find the 3/4 inch PVC overkill for tomatoes.

If you do decide to go with 1/2 inch, I'd be very curious
how that works. I've always recommended 3/4 inch because
the 1/2 inch is so bendy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom's PVC Tomato cage page