16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

It depends on how near/ far the ant hill was from the plant.
Also the roots grow around the plant, 360 degree. So hot water may have killed some of the roots but not all of them.

It would be too late for cold watering to do any help after the fact.The damage is nor reversible, IMO.

Thanks everyone! We tied up all of the vines, so that they were at least off the ground, and today the plant seems to be doing much better - even starting to sprout little suckers again :). I was worried, because the anthill was only inches from the base, but some of the roots must still be ok.

For the last couple of years I have had critters eating my tomatoes but it was always just a chunks out of ripe tomatoes. This year I have also had green tomatoes be the target. It seems like everyday I find one or 2 half eaten tomatoes on the vine or in the grass. The other day was the first time I actually saw one of the tomato thieves in my yard and it was a woodchuck walking Away with one of my nice big green tomatoes. The next day neighbor tried to catch the tomato thief with a trap baited with a green tomato. This is what he saw later that day. (Note the trap is sprung) What do you think that woodchuck was trying to say to my neighbor?

Haha! I would suspect that with the awful year we've been having here (SE Wisconsin) that they are eating the green ones because there aren't any red ones yet. I also suspect that it's a variety of thieves (But woodchucks??) because not only are the tomatoes taken in the late evenings, but hanging cherry tomatoes are taken throughout the day, as well as hanging ground cherries. One thing common to many is that they eat the insides, but leave the skin AND THE SEEDS! Vey picky eaters.

I bought a small heater and put the temperature around 80â F.

Some varieties took 3 days for seeds to sprout, while other varieties took 7 days. Even in the same variety, some took 3 days while others 4-5 days.

I was very happy to discover this method, because it allowed me - after choosing the nicest seeds - to select the best sprouted seeds. Than, selecting the best seedlings, I came up with some really nice plants.

This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 17:20

Thanks Lindalana for sharing the specifics of your techniques; I had started some exotic ones last night and when I read what you said, I actually put a heat lamp/heating pad on them as they were well insulated under a humidity dome and tucked in with a thermometer, and I took it up to 92 degrees F before removing the heat (room temp is close to 79 F here all the time). The temperature settled back within a few minutes; so maybe that will do for the lukewarm water, it was only one variety and probably my slowest one and the seeds had just (finally!) arrived.

Daniel thanks too and for the great pictures. I was going to try something similar and it is reassuring it is working nicely for you and probably solves a uniformity problem if you need that. There are three reasons why I held off doing that, disease, expensive or having few seeds, and bumblefingers me stressing small sprouts upon a transfer.

Here's the thing with me. Molds are a great problem here. Not necessarily initially, but later as the seedling develops. I used to add a small amount of fertilizer to my seedlings but now I do everything germination related in pure (distilled) water under sterile conditions including no paper, filters, etc. Holding off on the small nutrient content doesn't allow anything undesirable to get much of a start and the fertilizer can always be added diluted later. But I think I'll try next a few minutes soak in a very weak soluble fertilizer like Lindalana mentioned and then sowing the seeds into distilled water as normal (for me), though it will be inorganic.

If that doesn't cut down on the scattered germination times, I'll think about pre-germination but once I get a plant going the problem is usually slowing its growth, not selecting for vigor, at this latitude, though for fall it might make more sense. I'm just frugal with the seeds as I usually only get about 20 and preselect only the well-formed ones. I started by double sowing, and that has the same problem, too much seed waste and leaves decaying material.

This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 10:49

Of course I chose for myself. If I go back I wouldn't buy from that vendor. It must be that he waters way too much. And picked way too early. I don't expect them to pick during the night before market but this was ridiculous. I did get a huge and beautiful lemon verbena for only $4 from an herb stall.

No offence, Dave...I have nothing against farmers markets...this was just an experience I had at my local one.

I was wondering how it's doing. It'll be fun to see what you get.

One thing is for sure - it can't taste any worse than Green Zebra!

My opinion is that, if you really like it, the name does not matter. Save seeds and continue growing it. Chances are that one day you will identify it.

CASE IN POINT:
Last Fall I bought a heirloom tomato from store. I put a picture of it on this forum. But nobody could ID it, (mostly because my picture was not of good quality). But I saved seeds from it. A week ago I finally positively identified it (Ananas Noire). It is now one of my favorite black/brow tomatoes. Even if had I not identified it, I was going to keep growing it next season no matter what.

On Aug 17th the orginal poster said it was a plant bought at the supermarket.

I had thought fruits at first, but indeed I would go back to the Supermarket since plants that are bought have a label and a source.such as Bonnie plants or Chef Jeff's,to name two common ones around. Also the possibility of local suppliers

Someone there should have an invoice listing what specific varieties were delivered as plants.

I'm not anti-orphan but there are many who list varieties s in the SSE Yearbooks, trade seeds, make seed offers, etc, who must know the names of the varieties they work with.

If just for home use it really doesn't matter, unless, as the original poster asked what could the variety be? ( Smile)

Carolyn

How does GZ Cherry taste to me? Sweet with no tang, no fuity taste at all. Very different from Tom's Green Zebra.

AS to Maglia ROse and Blush, I found that they both needed to be fully ripe to get the best taste.

Tom, If it were me, and it is, I wouldn't automatically assume that anything you might have sent to Kees Sahin was reused, renamed, etc. I once had a list of what you sent the first time, but you never sent the followup varieties.

There are many seed companies in the NEtherlands as you know and there are also many associated places where they raise fruits that are sent all over Europe for commercial sale, such as the small box of mixed cherries that Manfred found in a local store in Germany.

The only exception I can think of would be the origin of Green Sausage, which I first saw being offered by a Swedish Company, which could possibly have been from your Chile Verde or similar.

Kees died quite a few years ago now, as you know, Elisabeth still runs the company, but the only ones I know of that they bred were Snowberry, Bloody Butcher and now I've forgotten the few others which I could find if I went to their website.

Green Doctors was a spontaeous mutation from the variety Dr. Carolyn, and I like it and its clear skinned mutation called Green Doctors Frosted. NEither one tastes like your Verde Claro or Green Grape.

And now I'm thinking of the time we spent together at the Hortus Nursery in Pasadena for their Tomatomania when you drove down from Bakersfield where you were living at the time and brought with you two plants of Green Grape b'c at the time, for some reason that still escapes me, Green Grape had morphed into a det from the original indet, and you'd seen that yourself when you were in the Netherlands.

We all know that taste is both personal and perceptual and that other factors play a huge role such as how plants are grown, what amendments are used and how much, what the soil is like and what the weather is like in any one season, which is why I encourage folks to grow what appeals to them and find out for themselves how any variety does for them as they grow tomatoes.

Carolyn, who also remembers offering you seeds of several varieties at a different message site a few years ago, but you never replied, and I tried twice, but if you want some Green Zebra Cherry seeds you can send me an e-mail at cmale@aol.com and include your address and I'd be glad to send them to you. Right now I don't think I have any fresh seeds of either Green Doctors or Green Doctors Frosted,I may, I'd have to check, but they can be easily found where you normally post or go to Tania's superb tomato data base and look at the several sources and I know Adam Gleckler has both at his site as does Jeff Casey at his site, Casey's Heirloom Tomatoes of Ardrie ( sp?) in Canada. The frosted version was found by three folks at about the same time, Jeff Casey, Neil Lockhart and I believe it was Lee Goodwin, but I may be wrong on...

I can only comment on the Green Zebra Cherry that I having growing now. It is very prolific and the fruit are sweet and juicy. The one thing I have noticed with mine is that if left on the vine a bit too long they start to split, it is either because I have overwatered or that they have a fairly thin skin. This plant is growing in Southern California.

Joe - when you pull the plants examine the roots and look for the symptoms of RKN (root knot nematodes) or phytophthora.

Dave

Ok Dave will do. Thanks...Question for you...if this is a soil borne pathogen how is it that the plant which has been in the soil since May 12 is just now being affected. Are all pathogens present in the soil and only affect the plant when stress lowers its ability to battle the pathogen and thus it succumbs to the disease?

This does look like a moth to me....but sure can't tell you which one. If you can get more images, that would help. Sometimes, it helps to get just the right angle.

Leafhoppers are very happy to feed on tomato plants, real estate guy. You're right that they don't usually overwhelm a crop.

NC and Rhizo, thanks both for your friendly advice.

The dang thing is so diminutive and noteworthy in its acute triangular "up" posture. I'm pretty sure I was wrong to say "Orthoptera" because they seem to have long hind legs in the classification scheme. Leafhopper fits and feels right, but I can't find this posture in any leafhopper images online. I was calling them "delta winged micro-moths" LOL, and his eyes do look like they are on top/side of his head, another leafhopper diagnostic.

It could be a moth, but here's what made me rethink it. First it is so tiny and has a hard body, ruling out most moths for size alone, and I couldn't make out any moth antennae. I attempted to crush it in my forefingers after the pic and I can say the body is much harder than I would ever imagine from a moth (Lepidoptera). To confuse me more, I thought some slippery scales on its wings (making it a moth), but to say that is a stretch and might be my filling in what I expect with my mind only; it was just too small to say anything further and I am not even sure what happened to it when I tried to crush it as it seemed to slip right from between my thumb and index finger and either drop into the grass or perhaps it is built like a tank and escaped. That's too bad since I'd like to get someone to take a look at it and they are hard to grab, I need the fingers of a 6-year old for it.

I might try a bottle with a lid. If there are just a few, is this something I should be worried about? I just read that the beet leafhopper is a major cause of Curly Top Virus in tomato, at least in California, but this one isnâÂÂt that species.

One more thing, - does it look like it is feeding on one of the veins of the leaf in the image, because moths don't/can't sap-suck, and maybe the posture is because he is inclining to putting his mouthparts against the leaf, but this is always the posture they have here and I don't see any leafhopper pics like that online.

*confused* I wonder if it is worth bothering the University's entomology department, if it has the potential for a virus, since I'm planning to propagate the plant for more than half of my fall plants' fun.

Any other thoughts please let me know!
.

Take a leaf off and tap it over a white piece of paper. If you see tiny red dots, it's spider mites.

If you see tiny red dots on the paper, draw circles around a few so you can tell if they are moving about. If not they may just be dust.

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Sun, Aug 17, 14 at 18:24