multiple tomato buds on my plants, first timer- need advice

[DownriverGardener]

Hi there,

I have a LOT of tomato plants. I have never grown them before. Just about all the plants have multiple tomato's on them. They're still green and small, but numerous.

How do I keep these little fruits healthy? I hear tomatoes are very prone to bugs/worms/pests.

I'm just looking for some advice so I can harvest healthy, good looking tomatoes. Anything from pest control and vulnerability, to special feeding of nutrients, etc.

Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

Sounds like you are doing great so far! Nothing you need to do except get out of their way as long as things are going well. About now would me a good time for a side dressing of compost or whatever you are using for fertilizer, if you haven't been fertilizing regularly.

Otherwise "the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow," that is keep a close eye on them.

In my garden the commonest things that might happen to tomatoes are hornworms and septoria. The hornworm is a big green caterpillar. It is amazingly difficult to see for its size, because it is the exact color of the plant it is on. If you start seeing leaves chewed off the ends of stems or round scoops taken out of your tomatoes, start looking for it. You can just handpick them off.

Septoria is a fungal disease that leads to spotted leaves that eventually turn yellow, shrivel and die.

[img]https://0.tqn.com/d/gardening/1/0/U/7/1/Spetoria-Leaf-Spot.jpg[/img]

Remove the affected leaves and spray everything else (top and underside of the leaves) with an anti-fungal.

(see my post here for anti-fungals:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=218854#218854 )

Otherwise make sure they get 1 -2 " of water a week (through rain and/or what you provide) and plenty of sun and they will be great.

It is in the nature of plants to grow!

[PunkRotten]

As pointed out just watch for fungal diseases and check your plant daily for pests. A few holes in leaves is ok but when you see whole stems defoliated then start looking for pests. When your plants get a few feet tall remove about a foot of bottom leaves. You want to create a clearance of a foot from the ground and this give your plants better odds of not catching any fungal disease from the soil.

[barrelslime]

Sounds like you are doing great so far! Nothing you need to do except get out of their way as long as things are going well. About now would me a good time for a side dressing of compost or whatever you are using for fertilizer, if you haven't been fertilizing regularly.

Otherwise "the best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow," that is keep a close eye on them.

In my garden the commonest things that might happen to tomatoes are hornworms and septoria. The hornworm is a big green caterpillar. It is amazingly difficult to see for its size, because it is the exact color of the plant it is on. If you start seeing leaves chewed off the ends of stems or round scoops taken out of your tomatoes, start looking for it. You can just handpick them off.

Septoria is a fungal disease that leads to spotted leaves that eventually turn yellow, shrivel and die.

[img]https://0.tqn.com/d/gardening/1/0/U/7/1/Spetoria-Leaf-Spot.jpg[/img]

Remove the affected leaves and spray everything else (top and underside of the leaves) with an anti-fungal.

(see my post here for anti-fungals:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=218854#218854 )

Otherwise make sure they get 1 -2 " of water a week (through rain and/or what you provide) and plenty of sun and they will be great.

It is in the nature of plants to grow!

That bout sums it up. I like the best fertilizer comment, never heard that before.