16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I sprayed last weekend, but we've had a rainy week so I should probably do it again. First really sunny day in awhile.

Copper-Sulfate, i forget my current brand offhand but it's a concentrate that's much heavier on the sulphur and lighter on the copper. A remote concern but i don't want the copper to build-up to toxic levels in my plots. Here's a quick read on copper build-up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_mixture

Serenade concentrate. I use this the most, both as a prevention and treatment. I have/had some chronically infected rose bushes, i yanked some but Serenade keeps the rest chugging. I use it right through the month of September.

Daconil. I'll use it one to three times in a season, often right after plant-out during periods of heavy rain. I'm looking to phase this one out eventually but need to research subsitutes first.

Plant trimming and yanking. I automatically trim off leaf tips and whole branches. If a plant looks bad enough then it gets yanked. No need for an uphill battle with a disease vector.

People here asked about aspirin water, I use one 325mg tablet per gallon. But i only use it when i've torn up roots during plant-out or potting up. I know there are some in the pepper-growing community that spray it onto the leaves but i use a couple of oz's per plant to drench the soil. I apply it to one side of the root system only as i don't know if it will harm the myco's.

Steve.

Ripening of tomato and some other fruits AFTER MATURITY is an internal biochemical process in the fruits. Have you left almost green starchy banana on the counter for a while? they will taste sweet. The sugar was produced inside the banana. How about pears ? Hove you left them in the basket when were hard and tasteless and after a while they soften and become sweet and juicy ? Have you left some Jalapeno or Serrano pepper , with tiny bit of color suggestion and after a while find them scarlet red? I have done that many many times,
The bottom line: certain fruits ripen without assistance from the plant.
The key is MATURITY. In tomato it is the start of color break.

Sey

you can always fry some of those green tomatoes.

Pat, do not despair !
Often, BER goes away after a while.
In the meantime just try to control the moisture level by watering regularly, before the soil gets too dry.

Sure, big container offers an advantage in more than one way, as it mimics the in ground planting.
BTW: I am growing several dwarfs in 4 gallon pots. But in my location it does not get very hot. Many people grow tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets with relative success. The thing is that they need more attendance.

Sey

Just curious... was it hydrated lime or maybe dolomitic?

Thank you Sey, when I go anyplace away from my house, the first thing that I hit are the farmers markets to see what is in season and taste as much as I can, I ask so many questions to the vendors. One thing that I noticed lately is that they are having the place of the veggies or fruits where they come from, this way the customer can make a choice. I like to shop as much as I can with local produce and you cannot get any closer than having your own garden and then we get spoiled when we get inferior tomatoes at the store.

After trying the Indigo blueberries and the Indigo rose, I like the rose better, bigger fruit and you can tell when is ripe it gets a red color at the bottom.

Keep on gardening!

Silvia

Yeah, I understand , as a gardener what interests you.

PC, that is a nice harvest there. They all look yummy.
I know Juliet. It is prolific and if you are into canning whole tomatoes, juliet is a good choice. I am growing something like it . I named it "mini roma". I got the seeds from store boughts.

Okee dokee. Keep harvesting before the heat comes.

Sey

ON GROWING TOGETHER:
If the variety is fast growing indet, growing two of the together might be fines in terms of soil accommodation, but managing the top will be/can be challenging in close air space. So you have to work harder to support them. For this reason a pruning might be a necessity. Otherwise it can turn into a jungle.

Sey

I left some seedlings in the original container they were sown in due to the abundance of plants. They are still going strong even though i don't care for them. Now i am curious to see if they will fruit in the small container.
^ Cherokee Purple ^

Gardening teaches patience. I planted a pear tree and waited 6 years to see the first flower. Now this tree will most likely out live me :-)

Potomac Pear

Kathy, you already have plenty of fruits on the vines. Most of them should get ripe in about 3 weeks.
I am still looking and looking to see some fruits on my beef steak types. Mine takes much longer to set and grow.. PNW weather, you know !!!

Sey

The first of my tomatoes to fruit was the non potato leaf Brandywine. Not sure if I mislabeled or the wrong seed was sent. Whatever it is, it's the earliest of all my plants from seed.

Aunt Gertie's

Fused...

I know my insects pretty well, but this description does not clue me into anything in particular.

Nope, I'm in Pennsylvania, but we got some cow manure that was from Texas and these buggers were in it. The adults look like small ear wigs and where their pincher is is red, the middle part is black and their head is red. That's as close as I can get to what they look like. I've bought and applied some predatory nematodes that are supposed to go deep in the soil so I pray to God that they can control these evil bugs.

I will try to get a picture if these little nematodes don't work. I hope they do so these bugs go back to the level of heck they came from.

Thanks everyone! :)

Hey PC, thanks for the kind words in your other post. I love Cherokee Purple. Great flavor & productive in my garden. This one easily maxed out my 180z scale...lol :-)

Growing Black Krim for the first time.

Am growing Margaret this year as well and so few of my friends. I think it will be impossible to completely be sure to say, yes, it is same plant. I suppose one can grow them side by side...

Thanks Hudson, I hope the twins do well, but they are pretty small still. The fruit set around May 18 for the two. It would be so cool if mine stayed green till the end of June for a 14 oz entry, beautiful or not. Centexan's 18.3 oz is a nice big mater that's there to set sights on. Now that the contest is extended I think some new Southern growers could have a chance to start in a month, and northern folks will have a better chance too, like those near the Great Lakes and PNW.

Great on most massive harvest from a single plant! Anyone who counts/weighs their tomatoes and keeps it straight over the whole haul from one plant deserves an honorable mention! What starts as an easy enough sounding task somehow is as hard as doing New Years resolutions ;) I can see why you made it counting them (and not weighing)!

PC

caryltoo,

I also grow sweet corn, beans, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, zucchini, squash, and cantaloupe. We do a lot of canning and freezing. The last 2 years have been pretty thin on canning tomatoes so I hope to make up for it this year and get about 60 quarts in. I am a little behind on the garden as a whole because I have been putting in 80 to 100 hour work weeks since March. That is over for awhile now so finally maybe I can finally get some more stuff planted.

Your plants do look great! And good to know that they can recover after one frost! Thanks for the update.

Thank you both! I just wish I had taken a photo of the plants after they were hit with frost so you could see how bad they were. They lost all of their foliage and half of their stems. They are tougher than I thought they were.

I used Neptune's Harvest and Big Bloom (FoxFarm) and I was happy with both products.

I also used copper and I was VERY happy.

I think fabric mulch is the best to control the water intake from the rain.

Yes, you need dripping irrigation, which controls accurately tomatoes' water needs.

Straw mulch allows MUCH MORE water intake than fabric mulch - which most of the times is not good.

Bummer on fusarium wilt. It is a tough one. I lost large plant to it last year.

Check the stem at the soil line. Damp-off has been much more common this year thanks to the wet cooler weather many have had. Look for the pinched in browning of the stem right at the soil line or just a smidge above it.

Dave

thank you digdirt2 and Seysonn.. Damping off! never had it in the garden.. only on seedlings planted in potting soil instead of seed medium. The reason I think it's got something to do with water getting to roots is that all through the rain they were standup and healthy.. next day is clear, and they wilted. Thanks so much everyone! Still trying here.. put a little pellet gypsum in soil and swirled it around. Next, I'm thinking sand....

Well all of the tomato plants have grown dramatically in the past week so I've snipped off any leaves (or branches) that had damage with no ill side effects.

Mine seem to have more of those spots this year too. I was thinking it had something to do with the cooler, wet spring......but I don't think it's a big problem.