MadamCorgi
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Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:52 pm

Beefsteak Hybrid Shennanigans

I'm new to gardening, and I wanted to get into the hobby of growing my own veggies, especially since I'm in culinary school and know the importance of sustainability. So I bought myself a tomato plant from Home Depot (I cheated and grabbed one already growing tomatoes, lol) and watered it everyday. However, the tomatoes stopped growing, so I looked up the issue and found that pruning the indeterminate swede key. So I did that, and my tomatoes grew! But they were very pithy, and had these weird gold/yellow speckles on the flesh.

I looked it up and decided it was possible stink bug damage (I live in VA) and found a home remedy of cayenne pepper and water solution would deter them. I also noticed the lower foliage's leaves were turning yellow, but with further research it said it was normal and that the upper foliage was blocking the lower foliage's sun. So I trimmed the bottom foliage off, and fast forward a few weeks.

Now, my leaves were turning brown. I tried adding fertilizer and plant food (10/10/10) and watered it once a day, and now they're dying! I put way less fertilizer than the bag suggested to, but now the tomatoes that were growing are all dimpled and unevenly covered.

GARDENING IS SO HARD.

Can anyone help with suggestions? I worked so hard to keep this thing alive, and the brown leaves are spreading fast. It is about 4" high at the moment, in its original plastic pot and cage it comes sold in. I will attempt to post a picture.
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MadamCorgi
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:52 pm

Sorry for all the typos. The plant is 4' (feet) tall, not 4".

*indeterminates were key
* dimpled and unevenly colored, not covered

Stourme
Full Member
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 8:27 pm

MadamCorgi wrote:I'm new to gardening, and I wanted to get into the hobby of growing my own veggies, especially since I'm in culinary school and know the importance of sustainability. So I bought myself a tomato plant from Home Depot (I cheated and grabbed one already growing tomatoes, lol) and watered it everyday. However, the tomatoes stopped growing, so I looked up the issue and found that pruning the indeterminate swede key. So I did that, and my tomatoes grew! But they were very pithy, and had these weird gold/yellow speckles on the flesh.

I looked it up and decided it was possible stink bug damage (I live in VA) and found a home remedy of cayenne pepper and water solution would deter them. I also noticed the lower foliage's leaves were turning yellow, but with further research it said it was normal and that the upper foliage was blocking the lower foliage's sun. So I trimmed the bottom foliage off, and fast forward a few weeks.

Now, my leaves were turning brown. I tried adding fertilizer and plant food (10/10/10) and watered it once a day, and now they're dying! I put way less fertilizer than the bag suggested to, but now the tomatoes that were growing are all dimpled and unevenly covered.

GARDENING IS SO HARD.

Can anyone help with suggestions? I worked so hard to keep this thing alive, and the brown leaves are spreading fast. It is about 4" high at the moment, in its original plastic pot and cage it comes sold in. I will attempt to post a picture.
Hi MadamCorgi,

Since no one else has responded, I'll take a stab. Tomatoes are the hardest vegetable to grow. They are incredibly delicate.

1. A tomato needs root space. I grow them in 5 gallon buckets and the plant will completely fill that up with roots.
2. If the tomato doesn't get enough space it will be "root bound" and the growth will be stunted.
3. Too much water and the plant will drown or develop diseases.
4. Tomatoes get stressed very easily. This causes all kinds of problems from rolled up leaves, rotting fruit, flowers not forming or falling off, turning yellow, etc...
5. Inconsistent watering will cause plant stress.
6. Getting too hot will cause stress.
7. Wrong soil PH will cause stress.
8. Getting too cold will cause stress.
9. Not enough or wrong nutrients in the soil will cause the plant to mutate, grow fangs and eat you and your little dog. I hate it when that happens. :shock:
10. Insects...
11. And believe it or not, herbicides carried on the wind will kill a tomato in a heart beat.

Last year, we had very very heavy winds. We are surrounded by commercial corn growers and when the crop dusters came in half the town got "dusted". All the home gardeners in this area lost all their tomatoes. My father-in-law lost all 15 of his plants, I lost six and so on...

So yea...tomatoes can be very difficult. It's kind of the unspoken right of passage for veteran gardeners. :)

You might want to consider trying herbs until you get the vegetable particulars down. Fresh oregano is awesome to cook with. The flavor is very strong when using fresh leaves vs dried packaged spices, world of difference. I grow mint, peppermint, rosemary, oregano, Stevia etc... And you can grow plenty to cook with in very little space.

For example you can grow more than enough oregano in a 1 gallon container.

Stevia is incredible as a natural sweetener.

Anyways, just a thought.

Taiji
Greener Thumb
Posts: 921
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:19 am
Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

I once saw some advice on The Victory Garden that maybe it's not such a great idea to buy plants from the local nursery that already have fruits on them. Though it's tempting to buy the plant that already has the tomatoes, already has the peppers on there, etc., in the long run it usually doesn't pay off. That means they have probably been in those pots a long time. Better off to to buy smaller healthy plants and up pot as needed.

I don't think you mentioned the size of the pot, but it probably wasn't large enough to support the plant for the entire season. (along with the other things Stourme said)



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