16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Nothing wrong with mixing alfalfa and compost together, I think its a good mix. I use a little alfalfa meal in my aerated compost tea on my maters once every week or two. The tea I use is alfalfa+compost+molasses brewed for two or three days.

Damon

IT DEPENDS ON YOUR SOIL. If you test your soil..send a sample into a lab for $7 at your local ag extension, then it will tell you what you need. Then you can make your own fertilizing regimen.

Alfalfa meal seems iffy to me cuz maybe it may attract rabbits...even rabbit manure???

Corn meal MAY attract a crap load of ants or other insects. You can back off the corn meal for a season to get rid of them...or make a corn meal mix with coffee grounds...with a little lime if it is to acidic for you.

Avalanche found at tomatobob.com

Here is a link that might be useful: avalanche

Avalanche seed is available at seven acres seed. I am sure they are legit and have purchased several to sell at my garden center.

spinosad is your answer

I really like spinosad. I bought it for colorado potato beetles, but it also seemed effective against cabbage worms and several other insects.

Just buy welded wire galvanized fencing, make your cages, and then scatter cut some of the wire to a 4x4 opening. Easy and no rust, which isn't an issue anyway IMO. I have several I made years ago from some left over fencing. Posted pics of them here many times.

It comes in all sorts of heights and wire weights.

Dave

I do something similar to Dave, although I don't make them into cages. I just have the 1" X 4" mesh galvanized in a straight fence. I plant the tomatoes right next to the fence. As they grow, I weave the plants through the mesh. Although the 1X4 mesh is smaller than I would like, it works and is inexpensive.
John A

Well, I have ordered some and also a couple other varieties from Pierce's Seeds and do hope I get them.

Thanks to all for the help.

Larry

Bump as I have a seed packet of 25, likely only to germinate 3-4 with the intention of transplanting 2 to the garden and wondering if anyone has further info, specifically with respect to height and size. Figure they are rather large so placing them on the north side, but kinda stuck as to whether they are larger than Ruby's German Green (which would go in front vs back on the row). Went with Dester this year over Lifter for the larger types, but I know Ruby's can get really large come late summer and was wondering which in terms of size is bigger. Thanks

Are you sure that mid-May is a reasonable last frost date to use?

I live in zone 5, and and I use April 15 as my last freeze date. (I think it's actually supposed to be April 21, but the part of my yard where I plant first is somewhat sheltered by the house and woods, plus the frost rolls downhill, away from me.)

I entered my zip in an online lookup, and got:

"Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from October 12 through April 21."

So for the output above, the average last frost date is April 21. I've actually been using April 15 for years.

So I put my tomatoes out around that week, or often earlier under a water clotch called a wall o' water. For early tomatoes I'd rather get them outside sooner than keep them inside longer.

One year we had a really mild winter and I had my first ripe early girl tomato by the end of May!

Yes I have grew tomatoes in my yard for 40 yrs. Twice in the last 5 yrs it has frosted on the 20th of May. One of those times my car was parked twenty ft from the garden. I went out in the dark and drug my fingers arcross a wet winshield at 5:00. When I went out 90 minutes later there was ice that my winshield wipers wouldnt dislodge. I cussed all the way to work. But my tomatoes were not bothered...go figure. I have grown maybe? lol at my grammar

Awesome! Thanks so much Linda! Other forums I use are PM too...are you saying there is another good gardening forum out there???

It is against the rules here at GW for members to name other gardening forums and GW will cancel your membership if you do. Sorry, you'll just have to be resourceful.....LInda

I second sweet 100's!
But you need to find out why so many of your varieties are not doing well at all.

angmnelson, I'm wondering why you had to pick San Marzano and Costoluto Genovese green and bring them inside.

How long is the growing season? (If you're not sure, ask your county's Cooperative Extension office: WA Extension offices.) Did you set the plants out too late for fruit to mature on the vine? Did it take too long for the plant to set fruit? Was the weather unusually uncooperative?

Some tomato varieties want to send out a zillion suckers and even make an attempt at making a new leader out of a fruit
sprig or whatever it's called. I try to avoid these but if one shows up in my new varieties I'm trying I just whack the heck out of the suckers and try to train it maybe to 3 leaders and hold her down a bit.

I sure do agree you don't want to remove all the suckers.
I like cages but stopped using them because winter storage became such a problem. Were I just doing 6 to 12 plants I would certainly get back into cages-probably the ones made out of reinforcing wire.

I tried hogpanels and they worked very well but certainly limited my travel in the garden! Once again, the number of plants has a lot to do with what is practical.

I prune to the tips Of my fingers on top and when the plants reach the next plant on the side. Simple plan, excellent yield.

Yes, the goal is to put growth lower to the ground which, as I said, is the strategy that may ensure survival of the plants. That counts as "plant health", I think.

But that's important about secondary stems perhaps having lower capacity than primary. That is, using secondary stems closer to the ground may not be a lot better than primary stems farther from the ground.

Good hints about cuttings. More specific than some of the many discussions I've seen. Growth tips, rather than leaves and branches, eh? I'll give it a try.

Yep, manic cherries are beasts unto themselves. But the astounding productivity in early summer is addictive, which is why I'm sort of desperate to find strategies to keep them going!

Hi Kristimama...I also live in the East Bay (Oakley). I try all kinds of things with tomatoes (usually because I don't know any better). Last year I grew Better Boys on a trellis.
When they over grew the top, I let them keep growing and tied them is a gradual curve heading downward. This seemed to work very well.I kept pruning the suckers,and treated them as as vine.
I had tomatoes well into the fall.
Any hints on how to keep them from splitting during the last part of the season?

I know eggplants and peppers take longer to germinate, this is why I soak them in filtered water for 24 hours and then wrap them in moist paper towel and put it in ziplock bags over the top of refrigerator. they germinate within 10-days that way

Plants can survive to 32 degrees (freeze)

Dave, I've read that the flea beetles injure the plant, leaving it open to infection by the fungus (and other things), so I guess one isn't necessarily the consequence of the other. I want to treat for both however.
I don't know if I want to plant a 'host' plant for the flea beetles! It used to be recommended hereabouts that people hang out traps to attract Japanese beetles, then they would leave your plants alone.It ended up that you had a beetle convention on your property and more arrived to party than were killed by the bait!

I may try Serenade for the fungus; it's supposed to be organic.

I researched flea beetle control last year when their numbers became exceptionally high in my tomato garden. The only thing that I found that has any indication for treatment of flea beetles (that is organic) is the use of beneficial nematodes.

They can be purchased online and are mixed with water and sprayed onto the soil, and subsequently watered in. The nematodes do nothing to kill the adult flea beetles, but rather, they kill the young flea beetle larvae while they are still in the soil - effectively breaking their reproductive life-cycle.

I used nematodes last year and it appeared to have good results. They died back much sooner than they had in the years past and I was able to limit the damage they did.

I normally don't use any controls of any kind for pests, but their numbers exploded early in the season due to an early spring and very wet weather. While flea beetles won't normally kill a healthy stand of tomato plants, they are capable of inflicting significant damage - and I grow plants for food me and my family, not for flea beetles.