16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
I live in Orange County NY, zone 5b. I grew Rose this year. It was a late and large plant but hardly produced any tomatoes. The tomatoes that I did get were very delicious. IMO they were meaty and sweet. This was not a great year for gardening though. And it is for this reason, I am thinking about growing Rose again to give her another try.
Pruning FAQ
Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - To prune or Not to Prune
My guess is they're just overripe, which is not a bad thing for seeds.
Unless you're selling seeds, I don't see any bad thing happening from keeping those seeds. Worst case they will not sprout when planted.
Seed born diseases are very rare (I read, never seen myself). On the other hand, tomatoes have a lot of seeds :P
So unless someone gave you just one tomato and you want to save as many seeds as you can, I'd just go with "when in doubt, throw it out" theory ;)
Carol "Which diseases can these pathogens cause? I don't know how to answer your question b/c I don't know which pathogens you're referring to. ( smile) "
I am refering to the pathogens you are trying to kill .Doh
*****
Well Doh back.LOL
I'm trying to kill the same pathogens that I think you are which is why in my post above I went into detail about what I would expect that you might have in WI b/c our gardening zones and weather are about the same as are the major tomato diseases.
Off hand I don't know the answer about pathogens such as the many fungal and bacterial systemic ones that are found much further south than us.
And Dr. Dillard's research was sponsored by either Heinz or Campbells, I can't remember which, and she worked at the USDA station in Geneva, NY so what she looked at is what they asked her to look as to mostly the folige pathogens as well as Fusarium. My info from her was mainly by phone and I have rememered it well over the years. I was referred to her by I think Dr. Tom Zitter at Cornell who is a tomato disease specialist and I knew him b/c of what I named CRUD and also b'c he's the one who taught Dale Riggs her tomato disease knowledge initially and she was the Cornell Coop Ext Director for the 5 county area around Albany, NY and did a disease survey of my heirloom varieties conducted by some interns she had.
I learned almost all I know about tomato diseases from her and Dr. Zitter with one other source which was very important. In the early 90's Craig LeHoullier and I were writing and co-publishing an international heirloom newsletter called Off The Vine. One of the projects was to ID the most important tomato diseases in different parts of the country. For background info I spent hours on the phone calling Coop Ext Directors in many states and asking them to give me the top 10 diseases found in their area and then sent out to all the participants a great little monograph, with pictures of diseases, that I got free from Ciba Geigy and i still have a half box full of those that weren't used since they sent me 500 copies. LOL
OK? (smile)
Carolyn
I was always envious of Florida weather, till I read how much you guys have to spray for diseases due to humidity.
Sorry, I don't know enough about commercial strength remedies to help out.
I get by with compost tea and neem oil, and aside from that late blight year, by the time my tomatoes start showing widespread symptoms of common diseases, there are only a few weeks left before killer frost shows up anyway.
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable replies soon >.>
Thanks for all the insight MTO. I'm excited now about the healthy marglobe, it was not in the most ideal part of the bed as far as sunlight goes, it would have actually been in the second least desirable spot (house side and second from the north end of the bed), so that it is doing better and producing bigger healthier looking fruit than the rest is a good sign I think.
So for the Roma, any fruit I get off that plant with the big fruits will give me a good chance at having similar offspring, the actual fruit it comes from doesn't matter. I am still harvesting a seed collection from my other "normal looking romas as well, just in case next year I get some weird frankenfruit off the larger roma type plants, I can then go back to square 1 the following year with reular romas.
Ok here are some pictures I took this morning. I had some breakers and it was raining so I ran out and grabbed them. First, one of the larger romas in between two of the normal sized ones.
And the next picture is two of the Marglobes on the top, which are from the big plant, notice they have more heavy fluting as well, please disregard the bug hole on the big guy, I almost cried when I saw it but i'm still going to use it and save the seeds anyway.
I tried it 2 years in a row 4 or 5 years back and was very disappointed in size and production. It does have a bite to it flavor-wise, at least mine did, but that varies depending on your soil.
But the low production and the small size isn't worth the garden space IMO.
Dave
I am just seeding it (among scores of others). The tomatofest description indicates "The tall, indeterminate, plant produces lots of 2-inch (6-10 oz.), deep-red, round fruits with a subtle point on it's end."
So low production and small isn't what I had in kind...
I would get the soil tested for calcium content as well as pH by your local extension office. At mine it costs $9 for the test.
Cherry tomatoes are less susceptible to BER than other types of tomatoes, so the fact that the cherries were unaffected doesn't mean the problem wasn't inconsistent moisture level in the soil.
I was also curious about burning the ground with a torch to kill fungal spores. They make relatively cheap propane torches that you could just pass back and forth over the top layer of dirt to kill any spores that would have fallen from the infected plants. I would have to re-think wooden raised beds and probably move to block beds, but do you think it would be effective? (Carolyn) Propane is pretty cheap so it would not be an expensive solution, plus, who doesn't like to use a flame thrower.
Hello fellow Texan! I live near Austin. I had to give up most of my vegetable garden when I noticed my shade trees were starting to look bad. I never watered them before (they're all native trees that should be able to take care of themselves), but I decided I'd better use my precious water to keep those old trees alive, since it takes a lot longer to grow a new tree than a new tomato plant.
Can't wait until this summer is over, but I heard that climatologists are predicting the drought to persist into next year.
So sorry to hear of all the drought Down there.
It is so sad especially when local native trees/plants can't get the regular moisture they naturally used to get. and it is especially tragic for trees to start dying because of how long it takes them to grow.
This thread just keeps reminding me how irresponsible some of us living in the middle east are... earlier this year I was asking for advice on another gardenweb forum about grass and such for when I eventually build our home.
I was advised to forget grass and to concentrate on getting local plants that are more drought tolerant, along with landscaping that makes sense with the climate here.
They are right and I have to just deal with the fact I live in the desert that is the middle east and not Colorado (where in am from) and need to stop thinking I can somehow make it work to have lush greenery on my property.
There are a lot of locals and western expats here who have huge monthly water bills because of needing so much water for the vegetation in their yards that aren't right for the climate.