16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

I'm mostly container growing and I finally took down a Red Penna. It started with the leaves looking like they had septoria or bacterial speck, then the stems started with lesions, but it was producing fruit. I n the last few days I realized the flowers were all drying up and when I cut off a few stems they were hollow inside. I tried several treatments and today I chopped it down and hope none of my other plants get whatever this one has. I think my plants were too close, high humidity, maybe too much foliage and not enough air circulation. I don't think it was too much nitrogen as I was using Foliage Pro 9-3-6 in a 5-1-1 mix, but at this point, I'm not certain of anything. I kind of thought it was tomato pith necrosis too.

Hi sharonie
There is a lot of good info out there on pith necrosis including pictures. After reviewing it all I am convinced that this is what my plants have...It's easy to over fertilizer ( I know lol) You mentioned about using Foliage Pro (Liquid?). How often did you feed them? Many here (Digidirt) recommend that a liquid fertilizer be used for container gardening and that you half the recommended amount when applying it and do it 2 times a week. Getting back to pith necrosis I've read that sunny weather restores the plant. I lost my Paul Robeson completely and am nursing my 3 others, Homer Fike's, Pearls of Wisdom and Livingston's Paragon. The weather here is not cooperating. Cloudy days, cool nights are not conducive to restoring my plants. I have though stopped fertilizing these 3 in ground plants and am concentrating on my containers and hoping that I don't over-fertilizer these.

No, you didn't kill your plant.

Take a look at the link below, from 1927 and all the basic tratis of many different veggies and fruits were studied in the 20's and 30's, scroll down to the tomato chapter, look at the illustrations and see that fibrous roots grow outwards from the top part of the root to often up to 6 ft below.

The difference in a fibrous root and a tap root structure for tomatoes is if one direct seeds tomato seeds and doesn't transplanted them just once that one gets a tap root structure and transplanting them just once gives a fibrous root structure which is more desirable for water and nutrient uptake, but is more fragile than a tap root, which is why I always let my transplanted seedlings get rootbound before they were hardened off and put outside.

Fragile roots break easily whereas root bound ones don't, and take off ASAP to form a fibrous structure/ And I never, but never transplanted seedlings more than once, as in no, for potting up as many call it.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Root Development

I should have known that I was worrying about nothing...it almost always turns out that way. Thanks for the pic and for the link, very informative.

I planted one from store bough heirloom that looked just like this in the picture . They call it "Georgia Steak".
It is just a sitting there in the garden.

Yes, I've grown Georgia Streak, and what's more interesting about that one to me is that Jeff Dawson in CA crossed it with Russian #117, a flat double red heart, to get the first bicolored heart called Orange Russian #117, which is what Jeff himself named it although others have used some different names.

In the link below take a look at the first known bicolor heart, which I've also grown,

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oange Russian # 117

My CPs all have this and they're fine.

We all worry too much..............where is that mockingbird?

Here are fruits on the Sungoldâ¦.

And the San Marzano, still green as can be...

It's a boy! It also had an unfortunate accident and is now recuperating on the counter. It's really not that ugly....

Here is another of our - not so finest tomatoes. This one weighed over a pound.

Just let them cascade, if there is room around the cage.
Anothe option would be to tie 3 or more stakes to the cage (extension) and tie the branches to them.

Yes, tie the cascading branches to poles.

"Well, I relocated the plant to where it has more air-flow and privacy.
Also, I didn't touch it!!!"

How were you able to move it without touching it? lol
The plant doesn't need more privacy, (maybe from you. lol) it needs as much sun as possible.

"I decided that I am being obsessive and to just let it be."
Good move...

"It is supposed to rain for the next few days and this plant is offered protection from the rain, until the soil dries out a bit."
Now this makes sense :-)
Keep it in the sun but out of the rain until it recovers...

"Leave it Alone!"

That is the best advice you've got.
That plant looks normal. Prbably some leaf edema .

LEAF EDEMA:
Edema (or Oedema) on tomato plants is a physiological condition caused by an imbalance of the plant's water uptake and water loss. It develops when the plants roots absorb water at a faster rate than it is transpired through the leaf cells. The enlarged leaf cells divide, and then rupture. This rupturing of the leaf epidermis and inner cells causes the raised blisters and distortion of the foliage.

Also, Cherokee Purple and Black from Tula have ripened and I have a huge Brandywine OTV about ready to pick. The Black from Tula was a 12" plant in a 4" pot, and it was one of the first to ripen, so I was wrong about the 4" pots, though for the most part, the ones that were that size are not ripening like the ones that were in bigger pots. I love the blacks! I also believe they do better in colder climates. I wonder if there is anything written to back up that theory. I chose a lot of Russian varieties when I moved to MT, instead of growing all of my favorites that did well in CA. One thing I do that might increase the vigor of my plants is that I try to not let them experience temps below 50 degrees F. If I can't do that, then at least 45 degrees. And planting out a little later does not slow them down; in fact, later planted ones often do better than those I try to get an early start with (unless I can keep those early-planted ones really warm).

The average time listed on the tags of my plants is about 75-90 days til they start to produce, but I'm pretty sure thats the same time that it is supposed to take these plants to produce from ungerminated seeds. The DTM is pretty much a parameter defined by time from transplant to first ripes. One important modifier of this is weather conditions. For MY typical weather, I add about 2 weeks to the advertised DTM to establish a more realistic time period. With optimal weather and nutrition the putative DTM time frame can be much more nearly approached and sometimes the actual DTM can be fewer than the putative DTM.
Reggie

I had always heard that Starbucks is absolutely terrible for the environment. Okay... it's been very many years since they established their business and my memory is faded on the facts, but what they do and add etc is harming land.

I am a MAJOR coffee drinker and a place I worked at provided starbucks for free to drink as we wanted it while working. After drinking this s!@# for a couple weeks my body has rejected it.... it makes me sick in the stomach and for the past 12 years + anytime it is offered to me my body gives an alarming NO to not drink it again. In meanwhile I can drink any other brand by the loads.

Adding coffee ground to my sunflower its grown about a foot since so it def works. It hadn't grown taller for over a month.

Bed is 10-12" deep.

Bed is 10-12" deep.

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12" deep is ok , as long as it is filled to the brim.
It seems that the bed is not full. If the bed is made 10" deep and 2" of it ie empty, there can be a problem. I woul conside 12" soil depth to be ok.

In hot weather deeper soil can protect the plants' root from heating up. I think the state of your plant shows NOT ENOUGH soil depth and volume. You could get by with that if you did not have scorching weather..

So my suggestion is to fill in more soil AND mulch the top.

My forecast is a bit more temperate. Low to mid 80s for the next four days with upper 70s after that. Where I live it's not uncommon for us to go from June to August with no rain at all. I think we're somewhat under the influence of the rain shadow up here in Whatcom County. I'm picking a few saladette sized tomatoes every day and my SFTs are coming in fast and more of a small slicer size. I have a good blush on my first Black Krim as well, and faint blushes on a couple more. This weather seems just about perfect for my tomatoes. They really didn't like when we were pushing 90.

Just off the east slope of the cascades (Okanogan River Valley), I think we've had a record number of highs above 100 degrees. Most of my tomato plants are having massive blossom drop, with the exception of my cherry tomatoes, Early Girl, and Opalka.

This post was edited by nugrdnnut on Sat, Aug 2, 14 at 14:27