16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Oh, seysonn and michael, thanks so much for asking questions and answering. Until very recently my knowledge about this topic was minimal. Hopefully will make some other people rethink their gardening practices.

Not to jinx myself but significant improvement noted in fungal bacterial spread at my community veggie gardens. 2 applications of aerated compost were foilar and one soil drench with mycorrhiza. 2 days later after last Compost application after the rain applied actinovate foliar.
So far so good, has been for about a week. Noted more blooms, top growth all clean and deep green.

I changed things up this year, and for the first time have no BER. I planted only Better Boys, and since they were slow growing at first, I planted rather late in a spot that years ago had been a compost heap for yard clippings and leaves. It was very dry soil, so I watered every other day at first. When the plants were a good foot or two tall, I whirled crushed egg shells from one or two dozen eggs in water and poured it on my 4 plants. I have always had BER on the early crop, but not this year. Since we live in the coastal southern California dry climate, I control the water. Just harvesting the Better Boys, and I am not impressed with the texture and flavor of the first few.

Here is my two cents:

I don't quite believe the idea of adding eggshell to supplement calcium.
1) It needs the soil to be acidic to dissolve calcium carbonate in eggshell into soluble forms for plants to absorb. So if the soil is very close to 7 or above, they will remain solid and plants won't use it.
2) Soil should have a lot calcium. Calcium is an abundant element.
3) Natural water has a LOT calcium. Even in tape water, there are about 50 microgram of calcium per liter. Natural water has MUCH more.
4) If I wanted to add eggshell to soil, I probably will soak it with venegar first to dissolve some eggshells. I tend to think it takes forever for nature to dissolve eggshells.

Jimmy, I think you may find it very useful to read the link below,a recent thread that makes a lot of good points about BER, I posted on July 4th, and you'll also recognize some names of folks here who do post quite often.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: BER

For the first time, I have had no Blossom End Rot this year. I planted the tomatoes late in an area that had been a compost heap years ago. The soil was very dry and I had to water frequently, every other day. After a couple of weeks, I ground up the egg shells from about one or two dozen eggs and whirled them in the blender with water that I then poured over the 4 plants. I have added crushed egg shells a few times since then, but not blenderized ones. Something did it.

LeslieSison wrote: > Hi, I went to Home Depot yesterday and bought a tomato tree that is about 2 feet tall already. There were flowers blooming and small buds of fruit that's coming out.

I transplanted many 2 feet plants before. Actually ALL my transplants are 1 ý - 2 ft. high. Most of the times with flowers and small fruits 1âÂÂâÂÂ+. And always everything was⦠ok.

> We have decided to transplant it to a bigger box yesterday.

How BIG is the box ? What tomato variety did you buy ?

> And today it is wilting.

Wilting can have A FEW causes.

One - as others said - is the transplanting shock. Just provide shade, especially between 12-4 pm, and in 3-4 days hopefully everything will be ok.

Make sure you water thoroughly, I mean SOAKING. Every other day. Until water comes at the bottom of the box. When itâÂÂs 90â F outside, soil in boxes dries very, VERY fast. Btw, what soil did you use ?

Another cause could be a disease. I donâÂÂt think itâÂÂs the case, but to be sure fungicide ASAP. This year I decided to use the organic Copper Fungicide (Bonide) and my plants look very nice and healthy. Until now, no problems whatsoever - knock on wood.

Apply the fungicide once a week, better after a rain - never before - so check the weather forecast. Apply the fungicide on the top AND under the leaves. I use SoloâÂÂs ý gl. sprayer, which has a multi-directional nozzle for spraying from all positions.

LeslieSison wrote: > â¦i also see some insects on the leavesâ¦

2-3 days after you applied the fungice, use some organic Garden Dust (Safer) [OMRI-listed] against insects. Ortho insect killer is NOT organic, and I wouldnâÂÂt recommend it to you.

Also, cut the dry (lower) leaves. Make sure to mulch the soil in the box, to avoid splashing rain water on the leaves, which can lead to diseases.

Leslie, can we see some pictures ?

How WilberâÂÂs âÂÂ18 branchesâ technique worked for you ?

Oh Daniel,

That was a good one. Thanks for the link! Ha ha!

I wouldn't want tomatoes that tall, or ones that produced THAT MUCH fruit (LOL).

Linda

I feel like here in Philly we have had relatively good tomato weather - intermittent heavy rains, not too hot. I did not yet get the horrible mid-summer blossom drop that usually stalls all tomatoes.

Yet my t'maters are not great, I can only chalk it up to culture and genetics trying to figure out what went wrong with some plants.

I live just North of Columbus, OH. Out of 80 tomato plants, I probably have around 30 that have survived. Way too much rain! I pretty much had this problem last year so I planted tomatoes in two different locations and about 10 in large containers. I will have plenty to can, I think. It is just a shame to see beautiful tomato plants die. I raise them from seed and they are really, really nice when I put them in the ground.
I think my garden needs about (5) semi loads of top soil to raise it up about 12 to 18 inches.

I just wanted to note that if it is a systemic disease it wouldn't be Root Knot nematodes or Fusarium, since both of those are not a problem in areas where the ground freezes deeply each winter as it does in CO. unless of course there's a heavy snow cover which insulates the ground temps

I'd possibly vote for Verticillium, with most of the time leaves wilting on just one side of a plant and can and does overwinter.

Carolyn

FWIW, here's the feedback from my friend on his gardening methods.

My gardens are raised planting beds, amended soil every year, tomatoes never planted in the same bed 2 years in a row. Plants are pretty close together, about 24â apart. This is the only plant that is having issues. All other plants are 100% healthy, planted the same way, and have an identical, automated watering schedule.

I donâÂÂt think itâÂÂs an issue of a damaged stem. That happened as I was planting when I pinched off the lowest branches and the plant has grown just fine for weeks. The brown spots on the stem now go down to the ground. The whole plant has a yellow-grey hue now, and itâÂÂs basically a goner.

Could be bacterial canker. DId you buy the plants or start from seed? Nothing much to do about that except pull the plant if it's bad but I'd say if fruit isn't affected just follow recommendations in my earlier post.

If it's late blight you'd be seeing it on the stems and the plants would be dead within days.

Heavy mulch is good - from the little I can see in the last pix, the clippings look pretty thin.

Give us an update next week.

In my Toronto, Ontario garden, I've definitely got a blight situation. My leaf edges started going dark a few weeks ago. I picked off affected stems, but the spread rate is accelerating and entire stems are going black/brown overnight. I wondered if it was a bacterial issue, but it's looking exactly like blight in its advanced stages now. Heartbreaking since I had so many green tomatoes on the the vine! I hope your garden is faring better, Kpn.Kardif.

According to a Google image search, that last picture is Black Krim. That exact photo is on various seed selling websites.

gin-gin,

you are right. I got it from the internet, As seen, there are 4 different shape and size of fruit in just one cluster.

I just wanted to show that fruits shape, size, color can be different. Normal BK has roundish fruits, not lobbed, not boat shape. So really, short of a DNA test one cannot say if this is CP, BK, Black from Tula, so forth.

I just take it as a guessing fun game here. It is not a matter of life and death.

I have to say they are a very stunning color this morning, I've never seen anything quite like it. I just wish they were a tiny bit larger though. They are now deep purple throughout except for a touch of green on the bottom. All of them still feel a bit firm though. The problem is that I can't determine whether or not to pick them and allow them to ripen indoors. For red tomatoes I usually pick them when they start to blush to avoid splitting, pests, etc.

From what I understand the flavor of these are better if you let them fully ripen on the vine... so the bottom of the tomato (which doesn't get direct sunlight) should be red like a ripe tomato.

Any areas which get direct sunlight will turn indigo.

I am guessing since they are smaller in size you are lest likely to have splitting etc.

My CSA farmer is growing Indigo rose and his is not cracking (but they are on the smaller side as well). He let me try one (usually I'd have to wait till they came in my share), they were good... nice flavor. I am thinking about growing an indigo variety next year. Can post an update on how the indigo apple was?

As a follow up to my original post. My original question was "has anyone ever germinated this variety ( Elfin) and what did they experience and what were their results. I was only asking for "experiences".

To answer your question directly, no, I've never grown it but I thought it might be helpful to give a bit of background information about it. ( smile)

Carolyn

OMG, digdirt, LOL. Right. I am off to go throw away all my maters then. Then I will never have BER ever.

My plants are okay, but the bucket that my 6 foot yellow pear is in is definitely a solid block of roots. However, I just counted 100 tomatoes on Heather (that's the plant's name lol) so I guess it ain't dying anytime soon. I thought that 5 gallon buckets would be overkill but now I realize why people say it's a bare minimum.

BER susceptibility is a known fact. Amongst those some are more prone to it than others. What causes it an how different varieties are affected, are different issues. we are not concern with them in this thread. It is the same/similar case about certain disease resistance that can affect our choices.

As gardeners, we try to maximize our returns and nobody likes to pitch rotted tomatoes. Just going by the laws of probability and statistics we can minimize our losses, by simply avoiding the varieties that have a higher probability of developing BER. Luckily there are many many choices out there and one is not limited in choice to a known limited varieties . AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT.
Ultimately at the end of the day one can decide for him/her self.
Peace, brothers and sisters !