16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
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!
.
Time is of essence to me. That is why i plant as soon as possible (using hoops and WOA) and plant a lot of eary ones and some mid mids. Though our first frost is normally around mid November but October is usually cold and rainy, not tomatoes kind of weather.
So far most of my plants have produced ripe fruits. I just picked my first Cherokee purple, JBT. But Siberian and Green Zebra are taking their sweet time. Bloody butcher, Sun Gold, Matina, SFT and Early treat have been top producers since mid July.
I am going to drop ML (RC) and pineapple next year. Instead I will try Estler's ML, KBX and Brandy Boy.
I'm in northern MN, and this is the coolest summer that I can remember. We haven't turned on our central air yet this year, and looking at the extended forecast, probably won't. Highs have been mostly in the high 70 /low 80s range and the lows in the high 50s to mid 60s.
Most of my long season varieties aren't going to be able to ripen most of the heavy fruit sets that they have. Beautiful plants, loads of green fruit, but we need some heat. Running out of time. These were planted as very robust 12" high plants at the end of May.
Black Krim has been especially tough to get ripe fruit from. Of the big varieties, Cherokee Purple, and Giant Belgium have been my best. 3 of my big hybrid varieties are also very slow.
The seedling will be ok. Most likely it will be the most beautiful plant you have. It happened to me.
Regarding tall plants with 1 tomato, same thing happened to me last year with a Brandywine - huge but only one.
This year, I have 2-3 plants with few stems, that are 8 ft. tall, and just started to have flowers - mid August. Most likely there will be no ripped tomatoes on those plants.
I also have plants - NOT bush - that had flowers when they were 1 ft. high.
This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 14:15
I accidentally broke the growing tip off a determinate seedling (Latah) and had room so I planted it (June 30) to see what it would do. A lateral (sucker) did take over and when I transplanted it I pointed that straight up, the plant has grown but is much shorter than the others, 2ft tall rather than 3-4ft (I planted 2 other Latahs at the same time, right next to it, for comparison).
It got flowers and now fruit on the tip of that lateral so I thought it was all over, that I would only get fruit from that cluster, there weren't any other flower trusses, but other laterals have grown taller and I have flowers on those. I will report back on fruit set. It will be much less productive than the other Latahs but may not be as bad as I originally thought.
I would not add water. sounds dangerous to me. I might add vinegar as it is most important to keep the Ph low. adding water could cause a dangerous Ph in the final product. Even with canning tomatoes without anything added some tomatoes require some vinegar to make them safe.
well some people might use lime juice or lemon juice in place of vinegar. but all are acidic. some water can be highly basic in certain parts of the country. I think out West. things are more acid in the East. But everyone must be careful. I like to add a touch of vinegar to all my tomato canning in jars. just to be safe. but then I like low acid tomatoes to grow.
many recipes are dangerous and I would get a new up to date Ball Canning jar book. they sell them in most Wal Mart stores at a discount of some kind.
for safety I prefer to can my tomatoes plain with nothing added to the jar but some vinegar. then I use that to make my recipe when I cook. that way I do not have added ingredients that might cause the entire jar to go bad. not worth the risk to me.
No one said anything about water. The liquid called for in the recipe is 1C wine, 1C vinegar, and 1/2C water which is safe. The recipe is from the 2006 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving which is still considered up to date (I forget when the last Blue Book was published but maybe 2010? They don't actually update it every year).
mary - I didn't see a post over on Harvest - did you get your answer?
Here is a link that might be useful: Ball Bruschetta recipe
I been drying Glacier and Bloody Butcher. Both are fairly small tomatoes but have big tomato flavor. Being smaller, I don't think that it is worth the time to remove the skins before drying.
The skins are a little tough after drying, but they are still fine with me. After drying, they have that classic "sundried tomato" taste.
Gardenwheels: My Black Krim have a few similarities to yours, but are different in many other respects. It's amazing how much different areas will vary with the same variety.
My BK are the most robust of the 11 varieties that I am growing. They will need my biggest cages next year. They are about 6ft tall, and a lots and lots on stems that have been pulled back to the outside if the cages with wire ties.The plant is so dense that you cannot see through it.
The BK tomato plants have a very heavy set of fruit, but are so slooow at ripening. I've only picked 1 BK so far (very good taste). But we have been picking CPs for about 3 weeks now. Seed start, and plant out date was the same for both of these. Maybe BK doesn't like cool nights. We have had a lot of night is in the mid to high 50s this summer.
I had some issues with Black Krim last year and this year Noir de Crimee is wonderful and full production. IS started very early and now taking break, 1884 Purple started later is large robust plant, just as productive as IS. Gary o'Sena is producing less than IS or 1884 but very nice flavor. The best is Haley Purple comet which is from doublehelix farms, tasty!!!!
Grown Amazon Chocolate this year RL and I think I prefer PL version of it, have to grow both side to side next year I think.
Black Yum yum was on early side, larged than Haley and more buttery in taste.
Now Tasmanian Chocolate, Rosella Purple and Wild Fred are still coming just got first ones to ripen but did not taste.
One that does not seem get mention often is Pierce Pride, stunning, loved the taste very much but am not growing this year, will do for next.
Yes, it is not definitely "Brown" . As I increase the light intensity/angle on my monitor it gets close to yellow. It also depends on the light exposure at which you took the picture. My opinion is that it is some kind of "Pineapple"
Now The most important thing (IMO) is how doe it taste to you ? is the plant producing in good numbers ? I personally don't care a lot about the name as long as I like it , it is heirloom/op that I can save seeds and plant them. That is all that matters to me, personally.
The ribbed tomato is far more productive. Tons of big tomatoes, even with a fair amount of blossoms dropping off. The taste is...just ok. Not very sweet, and more bland than my other heirlooms. The smooth round, yellow orange ones are little less productive. They are, however, delicious. Every bit as good as the best tomatoes I have in my garden. Very sweet. They're pretty dense too. However, I've noticed more splitting on them than my other varieties.
Worst year ever!
Same thing happened to me. Plants grew quickly to 6 ft
and then just stopped and started turning brown and
crispy.
What few tomatoes I got were without much flavor too.
I talked to my nurseryman and he had the same problem. He said it was blight.
We have had early heat and much higher humidity than
normal this summer. Usually humidity is in the teens
and 20s, but this year it's seldom below 35% with even
higher numbers at night when it hits 80-90%.
Don't know what's going on, but I sure don't like it!
At least here in Orange County, the temps have been perfect for tomatoes,
cept a hot spell back in march or April as I recall, (or maybe not)!.
At any rate I've had my best tomato year in the 10 years I've grown them,
but yes the high humidity has made some "challenges".
Here in Yorba Linda, we've seen "Night after Night",
a humidity of 100% and it takes a while for it to "Burn off" the next AM.
So this year, (first year ever) I have been spraying with a copper spray,
(and knock on wood), I've "Kept the Beast at Bay".
Had I not sprayed, I'm sure whatever "Beasts" cater to the high humidity,
would have done in my tomatoes~~~~So far so Good.
Sorry you were not as fortunate!!!
Gary
Ruben, I think it would work, but I don't think it is optimal since in my limited experience tomatoes prefer a good root watering and then allowing the soil to get somewhat dry.
Tomatoes are especially vulnerable to Fusarium and Verticillium fungi and I think this style of watering would promote a uniform dampness.
Also, what worries me is that they seem to work based on water tension in what is some sort of calcium mineral block or perhaps a porous ceramic. This means when your plant has peak demand in the day, the probes will need to keep up, and at night when there is no demand, the soil will be as humid as they make it. I think it would work for a plant that is less a water hog than a mature tomato plant. They will also be subject to clogging and impairment with fertilizers and you will probably need several of them for a tomato in a container, which will look like the plant is on a hospital bed with spaghetti tubes scattered about. I can't imagine one of those can deliver more than a half liter in a day - half of which is from 6pm to 6am and unnecessary. You'd probably need about 5 of them for a tomato plant and be dealing with those issues. Great if you need to take off for a few days and don't want to bother the neighbor, I'd think, but not long term...
But the advice is free and I have never used those. I have used an irrometer and it is a wonderful device, 100% US made and with a colorful history. It works on a similar principal but is simply an indicator of soil water âÂÂtensionâÂÂ.
Good luck.