imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Tomato problems and some of my solutions

I have been growing tomatoes but not nearly as many varieties as some of you. I have encountered a lot of problems in the process and found a solution to only a few.

Cultural requirements of Tomatoes.
Minimum 6-8 hours of sun for good fruit production. Too much shade will yield a healthy green bush.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders. I do soil tests to determine what nutrients I need to add. I plant most of my tomatoes in 18 gallon pots. It is large enough that it can maintain moisture and not wilt even in summer with daily watering or SIP. Container plants get 1 cup 6-4-6 slow N, with micros as a starter. My soil mix is peat lite 50/50 peat moss/perlite with 1/4 cup osmocote per 5 gallon bucket of mix. Tomatoes will be supplemented when the true leaves come out or after transplanting, when the first flowers set, when the first fruit is half grown and monthly thereafter for the life of the plant (1 tablespoon 6-4-6 per pot) I found that I did not need to use high numbers in fertilizers or I will get a lot of fruit production, but also massive plants. I will sometimes use a tomato fertilizer 9-12-12 instead. I usually have 6-4-6 available since I use it on my potted citrus trees and it reduces the amounts of different fertilizers I keep on hand. The pots may be large enough to be organic. I have found some nitrogen fixing nodules in a few pots before, but I don't have luck with organic in pots. The plants are smaller with poorer yields and I don't like to have to brew up teas every few days.

I select cultivars suitable for hot, humid climates and resistance to disease. I do have to give up flavor to do this, but I don't have high standards. I like a meaty, firm, low acid tomato. I prefer the green shouldered pink and orange tomatoes as they taste best. I find the lobed tomatoes taste better than the pretty red ones. 8-10 oz tomatoes do best. I do not like soft, mealy, seedy, or acidic tomatoes. I do like Brandywine. I managed to grow it but the plant was huge, production not as good as larger tomatoes = fewer tomatoes. It was not disease resistant and I had to plant it in a container 18 inches off the ground and had to spray a preventive fungicide every week. It was remarkably heat tolerant (I did not expect that). The birds still got a lot of the fruit even biting through the fruit fly bags. Now, that I have TYLCV it will be almost impossible to grow it without an isolation unit.

I am now limited to TYLCV resistant tomatoes exclusively. There are very few cultivars currently available. Some of my favorite tomatoes are not resistant. TYLCV tomatoes are not all resistant to heat, so I may have to pull the plants in June instead of keeping them through summer.

Tomatoes are perennial in frost free zones, but are killed off by disease. I have been able to keep tomato plants alive and productive up to nine months.

1. Hot weather temps greater than 88 degrees.

Problems: drought stress related BER, fruit drop and failure to set fruit, white core, small fruit, hard skin, concentric cracking.

Solutions:
BER - The problem is related to the transport system of the plant. Many people counter this by adding additional lime when planting tomatoes. However, the problem is related to the uptake of the calcium from the roots and not to the lack of calcium in the soil. The plant will take calcium from the fruit as a survival mechanism to support the tomato growth that results in BER.

Heat tolerant tomatoes are more resistant to BER: HeatwaveII, Arkansas Traveller, smaller cherry varieties( Fourth of July, sun cherry, sun gold (cracks), sweet 100, currents), Sun Chaser, Homestead 24, Florida 91, Porter Pink, Sun Leaper, Sun Master, Solar Fire, Green Zebra, Quarter Century, Matchless, and Super Sioux. Surprisingly, Brandywine had fairly good tolerance to BER.

Uneven watering is the root cause (pun intended) of BER. There is also more transpiration in hot weather. Mulching, growing tomatoes in morning sun locations with afternoon shade helps especially in places that normally get very hot in summer. SIP containers greatly reduce the midday wilting of tomatoes and solve the issue of uneven watering. Double potting planters help reduce heat at the roots.

The hard white core I encountered with Charger may be in part caused by heat and drought stress in a record July heat and the loss of western sun protection. I don't think Charger has much heat tolerance. I also encountered fruit drop aka June drop and flowers failing to set on days that exceeded 90 degrees. I will have to pull the plants in June or move the pots to another part of the yard that gets afternoon shade.

Keeping plants picked and reducing fruit load will help reduce the stress on plants.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders and should be fertilized regularly to maintain growth especially on indeterminate tomatoes.

2. Fruit Flies:
In Hawaii, fruit flies are a big problem. There are fruit fly lures (methyl eugenol) to trap male fruit flies. GF 120 is a protein bait that is sprayed on plant hosts which kill both male and female fruit flies. Female fruit flies are migrant, moving where the fruit are. Males are territorial. Females sting and deposit eggs in young fruit. Solution: cull damaged fruit, sanitation, reduce male population year round with lures. GF 120 is much harder to find and has been taken off the market entirely in some places. Australia has come up with an alternative bait using vegemite. Selectively spraying and cutting known fruit fly hosts can control the roosting spots. Sprays used are usually neem or spinosad (spinosad can only be used 4 times a year due to resistance). Malathion and Sevin also work but are not organic. Farmers will strip plant roosting hosts to attract fruit flies where they can selectively spray them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Ki7ZTgneQ

Alternatively, barriers can be used. Net bags or paint filter bags can be wrapped around fruit to protect them. Long fruit like cucumbers and bitter melon can be wrapped in tubes of newspaper, although the paper will have to be replaced if it gets wet.
Growing in insect screened hoop houses is a method of exclusion, but exclusion needs to be maintained.

3. Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus:
TYLCV is a newer virus transmitted by whiteflies. The whiteflies carry the virus for life and can apparently pass to offspring. If you live where white flies are a problem year round, the disease is unlikely to go away.

Hoop houses, insect barriers to protect tomatoes and exclude white flies. Plant insectary plants to attract white fly predators. (lady bugs and lacewing larvae). White flies are highly resistant to pesticides. Frequently check under leaves of host plants (not just the tomatoes), hose off the eggs and larvae with a jet of water. Apply ant bait to keep ants from protecting them. Remove or cut back infested host plants (sanitation, bag and trash).

There are a few TYLCV resistant tomatoes. I have tried champion II (does not taste very good). Charger tasted like a market tomato and had a white core but that was probably made worse by the hottest July on record. It is very resistant to fungal diseases as well. Camaro is supposed to be similar to Charger with a better taste and disease package. I have yet to try it.
Red currant, I found out by accident is also TYLCV resistant.
Note: TYLCV may have asymptomatic hosts that can still be a reservoir for the disease. These include tomato relatives like peppers and eggplant. The disease is now widespread on the island and almost impossible to eliminate because there is no off
season for bugs here. Disease resistant cultivars and total exclusion are the only reasonable choices.
https://ipm.ifas.ufl.edu/Agricultural_I ... mgmt.shtml
https://www.reimerseeds.com/Departments/ ... atoes.aspx

4. Diseases and viruses:
Most diseases and some viruses can be controlled by good sanitation, control of vectors and choice of resistant cultivars. Often, there will be a choice between disease resistance and taste. Some newer tomatoes are being bred for taste. Heirlooms, in general, do not have a lot of disease resistance and will be more high maintenance plants especially if grown under less than ideal conditions. Cornell has a tomato disease resistance chart by cultivar and the seed source.

https://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... o_2013.pdf

My current favorites for disease resistance and sweetness is red currant tomato. It is very tiny and grow in clusters. It has been resistant to powdery and downy mildew, early and late blight as long as the tomatoes are well grown and regularly fed. Very old plants will start to show fungal disease.

Charger is a medium sized round red tomato. Taste is o.k. market tomato type. Fruit is firm and meaty. Not as heat tolerant as I would like, so best when temperatures are below 88 degrees. I did get BER, but it was a summer of record heat. I would have done better in a SIP and with afternoon sun protection. Very disease resistant VFFFA, St, TYLCV. I did not have any mildew issues despite my humid and wet conditions. Tomatoes were grown in potting soil in 18 gallon pots, so it does have some protection from nematodes.

5. Early Blight:
Easiest solution is mulching and removing lower leaves of the plant. Stake and prune indeterminate tomatoes, space tomatoes so there is good air circulation, and careful watering to prevent splashing. I use the potting soil bags with the white side up (reflective) around tomatoes in pots to keep down weeds, preserve moisture, and reduce splashing.

6. Late Blight. Luckily, it is not a problem for me. My weather is not cold enough and most of my tomatoes are grown in pots.
I do have phythophtora in one of my plots (herb garden), I can only plant shallow rooted plants there (less than 10 inches). Deeper rooted plants will wilt and die within a week once the roots go deeper. Planting in pots raised above the ground is the other solution.
More information in the link below.
xtension.umn.edu/diseases/late-blight

7. Fusarium, verticillium, anthrachnose, phytophtora, bacterial speck and bacterial spot.
Most plants with hairy matte leaves and stems do not do well in wet and humid conditions. Cultivar resistance is usually the best choice. Avoid overhead watering, maintain good air circulation and growing plants in the dry season. If you have to grow plants in wet humid conditions, they may be better grown in a greenhouse or under phylon where overhead watering can be somewhat controlled. Regular fungicides with copper sulfate, sulfur, maneb, zaneb, baking soda, milk , preventive oil sprays will need to be done whenever environmental conditions of high humidity and warm weather favor the growth of fungal and bacterial diseases. Phytophtora can remain in the soil for years. It is best to grow plants in pots above ground instead.

8. Nematodes:
Nematodes are small soil worms that infest and ultimately weaken and eventually kill plants.
Nematode resistance is best or planting in sterile media in raised pots and planters with no contact with the ground. Tools, hands, clothes, should be clean and washed before doing any work where there is contact between the pots and the surrounding soil. Planting single gold marigolds and sun hemp will reduce and trap nematodes and keep their numbers down in the soil. Solarization and soil fumigation are more expensive options.

9. Pests:
Aphids, mealy bugs, soft scale: control ants with ant bait. Aphids prefer young growth. Inspect plants frequently and make sure they are fertilized, watered and there is good air circulation. Health plants are the best defense. Pest will target weak plants first.

Other Resources I have found that were good for identifying and treating tomato problems.
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/veg ... em-solver/

User avatar
Lindsaylew82
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2115
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 9:26 pm
Location: Upstate, SC

Thanks for that.
Caterpillars ( particularly cutworm, hornworm, pickle worms, and corn worms, and army worms), squashbugs, slugs and SVB, continue to be my biggest problems.

Pickle worms are by far the most devastating. They take down any cucurbit I grow now. 2019 couldn’t pull a single cuke, squash, zucchini, pumpkin... or even melon without one present. It’s pretty infuriating. They look perfect on the outside, hollow and rotten on the inside. Not a single fruit untouched.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

The biggest pest I have with the tomatoes are the birds. I have to use bird netting and they are smart. The netting has to be reinforced with temporary construction fencing on the bottom or else they get in under the netting.
Anoles and skinks take care of a lot of the caterpillars, beetles, and a few flying insects, and earthworms.
I usually grow butternut squash and it is not a preferred host for squash vine borer.
Cukes are usually stung by melon fruit flies. Covering them is an option. I do have net bags that I make with tulle and I got some smaller bags online. Paint filter bags also work on larger fruit. Unfortunately, the birds think bags are presents for them that should be opened, so I usually only use them on tomatoes with bird netting. Young fruit that are stung have to be culled and trashed before the larvae emerge. Older fruit can usually survive the stinging and are edible if the damaged part is cut out. Snails can climb trees, fences, fences vines and almost anything else. I have lost two cucumbers to snails so far. I do have cue lures for melon fruit fly and methyl eugenol for oriental fruit flies.

Moths are attracted to light. You could try a bug zapper to attract the moths and kill them or the soapy water and a glue trap under a porch light or a drop light if you want to keep them farther away from doors and windows. The lights will catch smaller moths. If you are going to use a water bowl, try to get a bright yellow one, some moths are attracted to the color yellow. There is a squash vine borer pheromone lure and a sticky trap. The trick with most pheromone lures is to set the trap as far away from the target plants as possible. Do not give the pests a choice of buffet. When you put out the lures overnight, cover the plants with row covers so the trap will be more attractive and easier to get to than the plants. Bt around the vines and the tin foil on the stems will help derail the larvae from getting into the stems. Peak season is mId June- July. Planting out squash after July, if possible will bypass the peak season. For myself, June-August are the hottest months of the year and it seems to be only getting hotter, so last year, I harvested my early crops and solarized the garden for the three months instead. It was less futile to try to fight the bugs, heat, and drought at the same time. Covering the garden kept the weeds down. Fewer plants to take care of, cut my water bill. I really don't like to work in the garden when it is 90 degrees outside. Bonus! when you leave the garden fallow for a couple of months, the pests have nothing to eat, so they go somewhere else. The plants I do keep are usually perennials that I do have to keep watered and keep an eye on for pests. Solarization does kill some beneficial organisms, but it is mainly to control some weeds and nematodes. Earthworms usually go deeper and are not affected. It does not work on nut sedge.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Does bagging the fruits help against the pickle worms? — I had that just once when I somehow got them on cucumbers I tried to grow in the Winter Indoor Garden by bringing in container grown Littleleaf cucumber. Had never seen the damage or the adult moth (which matured and emerged on the bedroom wall/ceiling in the middle of the winter) before or since.


I have been experimenting with bagging tree fruits (and grapes, blueberries and bramble berries). I also regularly sling melons and squash when growing on trellises. Items I’ve tried with varying successes are:

- nylon footies (buy a box of 12 dozen) — expands as fruits grow
- organza gift bags with pull-string closure — available in various sizes
- plastic zip bags with ventilation holes — this actually worked with some fruits that I thought would get moldy or too humid
- wax paper sandwich bags (recommendation was dry wax bakery bag but I didn’t feel like buying them)
- nylon knee highs
- clear bakery and fruit clamshells
- nylon net produce bags that citrus, onions, avocados, citrus, etc. come in
- (haven’t tried yet but I bought) tightly woven nylon drawstring eco produce bags — kind you take to grocery store and NOT use their plastic bags — for larger fruits and trusses, and also for protecting immature SVB vulnerable squash.


...I’m resigned to using insect protection tunnels for growing brassicas, and am exploring different ways to construct them... am also in the process of building a fully screen enclosed high tunnel over one bed. I bought UV treated fabric for this purpose (actual agricultural one and a mosquito netting for camping) but a roll of Tulle is an inexpensive alternative that lasts for about 3-4 months)


...@imafan — I’m going to build a bird netting/chickenwire high hoop house (STARDOME) to grow blueberries under. You seem to have many Asian culture items there — do you get agricultural do-dads, too? Japanese, Korean, and Chinese farmers (and Japanese backyard gardeners) regularly seem to use what they call “cucumber supports” which consist of long probably 1/2” pipes with a curve at the top and they are swaged so one side slides into the other to form a Λ or Π frame. They also sell very obvious (as in why don’t we have these?) metal connectors that easily hold long Fiberglas garden stakes onto those 1/2 inch pipes, as well as connectors that secure wiggle wire channels to those frames. They can throw together a covered tunnel tall enough to walk under in a matter of minutes! I’ve been looking and slowly finding some sources, but most of these items are coming from China on Amazon or Alibaba, or only available in bulk that I can’t afford.

User avatar
Lindsaylew82
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2115
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 9:26 pm
Location: Upstate, SC

I tried slipping them into thick tights, and they just munched right through. I grew one of the most glorious Petit Gris melons this past summer. I’m mean this thing covered every inch of the floor and trellis of my little window garden (maybe 5’ x 10’? I haven’t actually measured). No less that 10 attempts at fruit in any given point! They just chewed right through it. I’m gonna need to research the adult moth behavior. I think that’s the best way to control. I broke down and used BT, and got zero response, even with diligent use.

This deck garden that I’m dreaming about... I wanna install pvc piping so that I can assemble and disassemble canopy over the beds with simple connectors and maybe hook and eye pins of some sort. Either netting for summer, or plastic for winter. Whatever I do needs to be cheap. I’m sourcing materials currently. Diligence for lifting and replacing row covers worries me a bit. I have GREAT intentions, but if I’m busy, they’ll be neglected at some point...

Here’s my starting point. A new job, and my own capabilities, are likely gonna determine if it even happens.... but I am sure I can get plants in the ground if nothing else.
4D65B71F-9781-4DC0-BEB3-54CB4511787E.jpeg

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

When you say they munched through, does that mean the moth lay eggs on the surface of the fabric, then the hatched baby caterpillar chews through? One option might be to soak the tights in neem or other tolerable pesticide — dust with DE, etc. and maybe spray the covering material with something that will desiccate the eggs — alcohol? Insecticidal soap?


...alternatively, if you are not using contact poisons (I often have to shy away from using DE)... I tried putting every spider I could find under insect mesh screen covered tunnel placed over SVB vulnerable squash bed. The one that already had several wolf spider dens seemed to hold out for a while.

One year, there was a large praying mantis that grew up under insect tunnel over brassicas (?) — I only realized it was there because I saw a cardinal trying to get at the fully green mantis from the outside.

@imafan could try keeping those lizards trapped under the covered tunnels?

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I tried nylon stockings. It did not stop the stinging but It worked as a support to help the weight of the fruit. Nylon stockings are an invitation to the birds to open them up. I make bags out of tulle from the fabric shop. They don't last long since they are not meant to be used outdoors. The holes in the net are small enough to keep the fruit flies out and it has a purse string closure. It needs to be put on as soon as the fruit are pollinated. I can put them on as soon as the fruit can handle being handled since I usually grow parthenocarpic Suyo cucumbers. News paper tubes also work but the net bags allow air and light through and dry out after it rains. Newspaper tubes have to be replaced after rain and are a lot easier for the birds to open up. If I wrap tomatoes, then the tomatoes have to be inside of bird netting and the tomatoes cannot be close to the edge or touching the netting or the birds will peck through the tomatoes. Birds don't like cucumbers that much, so I don't need to use bird netting on them. Paint filter bags are bigger, but opaque so I can't see the fruit. They are not long so the fruit will curl in the bag. It is better for things that are round like tinda squash.

I got remay row covers one year. It was supposed to be light weight and let air through, but it trapped too much heat. I have since replaced it with insect netting which can also go over pvc hoops. I do have limited use for it since I don't have a row garden. The other thing I have is mosquito netting. It is larger and I drape that over a rope in tent fashion and use it as a bug screen. It gets dirty though.

I use CRW or folding tomato cages for cucumber supports. In the past, I used clothesline poles. If you set up a "T" or upside down U posts at the ends using galvanized steel, you can hang trellis netting, string line or CRW trellis on them. Two posts spaced 10 feet apart with 10 foot rebar wired to the top and spaced 2 ft apart and cross wired with 4 ft rebar can make an overhead trellis that can support a lot of weight.

The trellis in my community garden basically looks like a tent frame (10 x 10) Galvanized fence posts are anchored in the soil with rocks and dirt. 2 other fence post on opposite sides midway between the corner posts. The other ends of the tent are left open. Conduit and rebar are used to connect the tops and sides of the tent post and wired in. Conduit is bent and pushed into the open ends of the galvanized pipe and have a tent "peak" Additional conduit with rebar inside them are added to complete the roof and also cross tied. The roof gets covered with CRW and that forms the overhead trellis. CRW on the sides are the side trellises. If I leave the "tent" uncovered, I can plant corn or anything else. If it is covered with squash vine, then I have a table and chair to take a break in summer at least until the gourds start hanging down. The ground would be covered with painter's plastic to keep the weeds down. If my insect netting is sewn together with fishing line to make a larger piece, then I can drape the insect netting over the tent to make a kind of hoop house structure. The only thing that I never learned was not to walk into the tent from the sides if I don't have CRW on them. I hit my head every time. It is also the reason to have a peaked roof. After the 8 foot galvanized pipes are buried, they are not 8 ft any more. They are about 5 ft, and I am a couple of inches taller than that. The galvanized pipe and reinforced conduit can support the weight of hyotan gourds and there can be a lot of them on the trellis. I did try using tent poles, but while it was easy to set up and take down, the aluminum poles bent under the weight of the squash vines. It might have been o.k. for winged or long beans which would have been lighter.

I did have a pvc canopy over my beds at my other house. There was a ravine in the back and locusts and leaf legged stink bugs would munch on everything in the garden unless it was covered. I did use tulle then, but tulle will eventually be pecked through by birds and once the pests got in, nothing was safe except one lone rosemary. I do have pvc frame over my orchid benches. to hold the shade cloth. I did not glue my frame and the neighbors vines put too much weight on them and only 3 are standing. I will have to put them back together and glue them in now. The shade cloth drapes over the top and I tie them in with zip ties or telephone wire. Telephone wire lasts longer, zip ties break after about 3 years. they drape along the back and all the way down the front to the top of the bench and sometimes lower. I have bench masters so, it does not keep snails out and the birds still get under the netting. I had to let a dove out because it was flapping around inside the cover. For hawaiian peppers, I have to make a special cage to keep the bulbuls from eating all of the peppers. It is made from pvc pipe. It allows for me to make it larger by adding different lengths of pipe. Pet fencing or chicken wire or bird netting work with that cage. The wire or netting have to be secured with wire and it has to go all the way to the ground and the ends have to be anchored with tubular sandbags or the birds will get under it. Pet fencing and stakes can work as a round cage and a piece of plexi glass for the top. It still has to be weighted with a brick or two. Pet fencing is only 3 ft tall so, larger cages have to be made with pvc. Bird netting is easier to open up for harvesting than wire panels. There is a lot of extra bird netting, but I don't cut it since I can reuse it or make the structure taller later as the pepper grows. It needs to be rolled or it will tangle badly.

You can make a hoop house for the garden beds if you have long rows. anchor 2 ft rebar into the ground every two feet on either side of the bed with about 6-8 inches sticking out. It is best if the beds have wood sides. Bend the pvc pipe over across the bed over the rebar anchors. You will need to cut the pvc pipe in the middle and use 4 way connectors every two feet to make the long spine support to keep the hoops from falling over. additional pvc spines on the sides might be needed if it sags too much. Drape the insect netting over that (one net can only go up about 2 ft so if you want a higher hoop, you will have to sew two insect nets together. Use screws every two feet on the side boards of the garden. You will stretch the netting tight over the screws to anchor them. The ends need enough netting to reach the ground. Anchor the netting with soil, then sand tubes or bricks to hold it down. We used the hoops to hold shade cloth over the vegetable seedlings and shade cloth is a lot stiffer. The birds still tore through them and they had to be repaired with wire. The covers were rolled up once the seedlings were established and were rooted well enough that the birds could not pull them out. The shade cloth was anchored at the top with wire. The insulated wire was long enough to hold the rolled shade cloth in place when the sides were opened. The screws held the shade cloth and it was easy to remove the cover.

User avatar
Lindsaylew82
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2115
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 9:26 pm
Location: Upstate, SC

Luckily, I don’t have to fight with the birds. I added two feeders to my tiny window garden last year hoping that they’d eat the dumb cats, but meh...

As I read, I really think that night time netting is gonna be a great benefit. Tats gonna knock down the caterpillars. I have a fancy serger that I’m well acquainted with, and I’m strong in math, so I think I can pattern out what I need. Might be able to sew on snaps and screw in snap bottoms to the wood below for security. High winds have taken out every gazebo cover attempted on this thing, so I’m worried a bit there, but my investment isn’t adding up to any monetary extreme, just time.

I’m pretty dang excited about the prospect of pickles without tunnels through them!

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have 60 mph gusts. Netting lets the air through and does not resist it. What breaks my trellis is the weight of the honeysuckle vine shaking my trellis apart. The benches in the front that were not being shaken loose were just fine. When I put the plexi glass cover on the top of the trellis to limit rain when the orchids get too much water, then the plexiglass which is not anchored does get blown off. I can't put the plexiglass top on if it is going to be windy because of that. Insect netting is actually more porous than shade cloth so it should allow the air to move out better. I do anchor the shade cloth with wire to the pvc because the sides are not weighted and they do move in the wind, but I have never had them flip off.

User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

imafan26 wrote:I have been growing tomatoes but not nearly as many varieties as some of you. I have encountered a lot of problems in the process and found a solution to only a few.

Cultural requirements of Tomatoes.
Minimum 6-8 hours of sun for good fruit production. Too much shade will yield a healthy green bush.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders. I do soil tests to determine what nutrients I need to add. I plant most of my tomatoes in 18 gallon pots. It is large enough that it can maintain moisture and not wilt even in summer with daily watering or SIP. Container plants get 1 cup 6-4-6 slow N, with micros as a starter. My soil mix is peat lite 50/50 peat moss/perlite with 1/4 cup osmocote per 5 gallon bucket of mix. Tomatoes will be supplemented when the true leaves come out or after transplanting, when the first flowers set, when the first fruit is half grown and monthly thereafter for the life of the plant (1 tablespoon 6-4-6 per pot) I found that I did not need to use high numbers in fertilizers or I will get a lot of fruit production, but also massive plants. I will sometimes use a tomato fertilizer 9-12-12 instead. I usually have 6-4-6 available since I use it on my potted citrus trees and it reduces the amounts of different fertilizers I keep on hand. The pots may be large enough to be organic. I have found some nitrogen fixing nodules in a few pots before, but I don't have luck with organic in pots. The plants are smaller with poorer yields and I don't like to have to brew up teas every few days.

I select cultivars suitable for hot, humid climates and resistance to disease. I do have to give up flavor to do this, but I don't have high standards. I like a meaty, firm, low acid tomato. I prefer the green shouldered pink and orange tomatoes as they taste best. I find the lobed tomatoes taste better than the pretty red ones. 8-10 oz tomatoes do best. I do not like soft, mealy, seedy, or acidic tomatoes. I do like Brandywine. I managed to grow it but the plant was huge, production not as good as larger tomatoes = fewer tomatoes. It was not disease resistant and I had to plant it in a container 18 inches off the ground and had to spray a preventive fungicide every week. It was remarkably heat tolerant (I did not expect that). The birds still got a lot of the fruit even biting through the fruit fly bags. Now, that I have TYLCV it will be almost impossible to grow it without an isolation unit.
WOW you typed a novel that was a long read.

My tomato plants do best planted so they get early morning sun coolest part of the day then shade from a large, tree, fence, building, etc, hottest part of the day about 12 solar noon until dark. Solar 12 noon at my house is about 12: 50 pm right after lunch. Sun comes up here in TN about 5:30 am in summer my plants get no direct sun light until about 7:30 am then full shade from about 12 solar noon, 1 pm by the clock from the big tree until dark. My tomato plants do very well with only 6 hours of direct sunlight coolest part of the morning.

I have learned too much nitrogen makes BIG tomato plants with few tomatoes. My plants do need some nitrogen fertilizer but not much about 3 tablespoons of urea in the bottom of a 10" flower pot size hole dug in the garden. 1 pint of wood ash gives tomatoes lots of calcium for BER and lots of potassium that produces many blossoms that turn into many tomatoes. I get 25 to 30 lbs of tomatoes from each plant.

I use to plant many varieties of tomatoes in search of plants that grow better, that also produce lots of tomatoes. Big Beef is my #1 best tomato producer. 1" cherry tomatoes are #2 best, Big Boy is good producer too. For many years I stopped searching for new varieties but the past few years I tried other varieties with terrible results. Heirloom tomatoes are ok but they are never big volume tomato produces Big Beef will out produce them 6 to 1 and flavor is better.

I don't have good luck planting anything in pots or raised beds I assume that is not natural mother nature does not grow plants that way so I stopped trying.

My plants suffer very bad in 98 to 100 degree F weather so I plant them 18" apart in rows this helps plants to shade each other. I don't get sun burn tomatoes or burned leaves my plants are in full shade hottest part of the day.

If you want low acid tomatoes pick tomatoes when fully ripe then leave them set in the kitchen for 3 days before eating them. I'm not sure what chemistry takes place inside the tomato but acid turns to sugar after 3 days and I get sweet tomatoes. Tomatoes flavor increases too they taste much better in food.

When I see aphids & other bugs I blast tomato plants with a very hard 5 to 8 second water spray with the garden hose & bugs are gone. LOL. I have 42 bird houses most are empty, bird houses worked much better when I lived in town.



Return to “TOMATO FORUM”