Why?

[LifeLess]

Every Year it seems i kill my tomato plants off for some reason. Never a problem with the Mj. Any ideas what im doing wrong? Thnx in advance. This year im ordering some seeds and starting my own. Seeds on the list are -Black Plum,Amana Orange, amish gold and amish red. Peace LL

 

[DocLeaf]

Tomato plants require regular watering,, and don't like being over-watered or allowed to dry out.

As the flowers form we provide them with lots of trace elements, in the form of organic seaweed and guano base tea.

Hope this helps

 

[LifeLess]

Thnx doc. Think my Pure Blend Pro grow and bloom would work? Any tricks to getting them bushy? Thnx again

 

[geopolitical]

You may also have issues with blight depending on where you are if your plants are just suddenly falling over limp & dead. Check with whoever passes for an agricultural/garden advisor in your area.

I have used PBP on tomatoes with good results but it's been years and I suspect they've changed the formula a few times since.

As far as a bushy mater you want a determinate variety and just pinch it back enough to get the shape you want. Cages/support will ensure you have an upright plant but some varieties will stand all on their own if given adequate initial training. Taxi and Tiny Tom are two varieties I've grown that have extremely stiff upright stems. Lots of air movement and very bright light are the other factors you need for a bushy plant.

You really don't need a bush though, some indeterminate varieties can have extremely heavy yields if your season is long enough.

 

[LifeLess]

Great info geo thank you. I will look into the blight. Last year i did have that happen to a few plants. When i start my seeds ill get some pics up. Thank you for the reply its much appreciated. Peace LL

 

[Stress_test]

I have found that the biggest cause of blite's is watering the leaves. Now I just dust em or use a can of compressed air to dust the leaves off. The compressed C02 helps in the room and blows off any dust but without water that allows blite's to get started.

Another things is that tomato's always want to out grow weed, so you have to keep em trained or cropped down and still feed them well without burning. And I found that if you pop in a few cloves of garlic or a couple jalapeno plants in the same pot, and water/feed for them then the tomatoes will do better as a secondary.

Maybe that doesn't make sense but if I grow a jalapeno plant and throw in a tomato as well, and then just grow the jalapeno; the tomato does better than if I just plant a tomato and try to grow that alone. I think it might have something to do with helping control under/over watering like LeafDoc was saying. But it always works for me.

EDIT:

Maybe that doesn't make sense but if I grow a jalapeno plant and throw in a tomato as well, and then just grow the jalapeno; the tomato does better than if I just plant a tomato and try to grow that alone. I think it might have something to do with helping control under/over watering like LeafDoc was saying. But it always works for me.

You know on second thought the garlic or jalapeno's could also be putting off a pheromone or odor that helps protect the tomato plants from virus and blite maybe?

 

[DocLeaf]

Yes. Garlic is good for many things,, including distributing pheromones

 

[geopolitical]

It may be the light reflected by the other plants. Tomatoes have been documented to increase in vigor with other competitors close by. There's a whole series of colored mulches based off of this reaction. I have found dark leaved peppers really give a neighboring tomato a substantial boost. This isn't always a good thing when you're doing all your tomatoes & peppers under glass though.

 

[Limeygreen]

Blight will show up as black spots on the leaves and stems, if you remove the affect tissue, early enough you can prevent it from spreading, also preventing spray with fungicide possible sulphur, I've used different ones not available unless you're a farmer, and they worked well to stop it. Watering the leaves will spread all mildew, blight and botrytis, canker could be another thing you have. That is for dieseases, although there are more, possibly your drainage, are you growing herilooms? Do any other plants have problems there?

 

[DocLeaf]

We only grow heirloom, ibl and landrace varieties . For the last few seasons we have spaced our tomatoes rather than grouping them together in one lot,, (e.g. pepper , tom, pepper, tom, pepper,, tom of the same varieties). We find that large tomatoes transpire at such a quick rate in summer,, that they need lots of air-flow to keep them happy.

As soon as we discover an infected plant we remove it from the garden / glasshouse.

Hope this helps

 

[woolybear]

Love all the helpful information at icmag. Question: Are there any known 'helper' plants for cannabis?

Thinking about popping some peppers or scallions to grow with my crop.... buying green onions at the store is such a rip-off!

Is it easy to grow scallions indoors? Time to look for an answer !

 

[LifeLess]

So you would you suggest not planting along a privacy fence? That would cause a loss in airflow. Ill try moving them out away from the fence. What would be better morning sun or end of the day sun? Right now there getting sun from sunrise till 5ish. Peace LL

 

[LifeLess]

Great question wooly.

 

[Limeygreen]

I heard tomatoes and roses are supposed to do well together, but I can't bring myself to put them together.

 

[Scrogerman]

Isnt it important to give a lot less water to encourage fruiting with Tomatoes? im just getting into veg gardening again, L-Plates!

 

[geopolitical]

Restricting water results in reduced yields and fruit size, but more flavorful fruit (you trade less fruit for better tasting). You're better off just sticking with a variety that produces the flavor you want when it's at it's best. There's old advice for watering tomatoes with brine water for similar effect. Generally a bad idea. All these sorts of stresses though will really hurt your long term yield, esp on indeterminate plants. That being said, some determinant cultivars will basically "fruit to death" they'll fruit so heavily all at once so you're probably not doing a ton of damage if you want to experiment with a few plant to see how they do with mild water stress after fruit set. But there are literally thousands of types of tomatoes out there (last list I saw was around 8000) and I'm sure there's a huge variation in both growth habit, nutrient need and response to stress.

Most peppers do well on slightly different nutrient regimes than most tomatoes, hot peppers are by far the most adaptable in my experience to the same nutrient/soil/etc as most tomatoes I've grown. Frutescens and baccatum cultivars in particular have done well. Bell peppers have never done well for me under the same cultural conditions.

Like anything though, YMMV.

 

[Green lung]

I live in Florida and tomato plants I have grown in the past have died in summer from hot temps.

Huge bushes with fruit just wilt and look thirsty but no amount of watering would do anything and eventually died.


Guy at the store said mexican vareities may do better but he said they didn't taste as good.


could be your temps?

 

[Stress_test]

Aspirin. Dissolve 1 per gallon of distilled water. Mist the undersides of the plants leaves every couple of days followed by a clean water mist when leaves/plants are dried again. A super fine, gentle mist seems to work best.

Also: Add 1 aspirin per gallon of water when watering the pots.

Plants produce salicylic acid to trigger natural defenses against bacteria, fungi, and viruses. However, plants often don’t produce the acid quickly enough to prevent injury when attacked by a microbe. Aspirin is an activator of ‘Systemic Acquired Resistance’ (SAR). Spraying aspirin on the plants speeds up the SAR response. Tests have shown this works on many crops, producing better plants using less pesticide.

It also makes it possible to successfully grow many fine tomato varieties which were discarded because they lacked disease resistance.

My own tests indicate that aspirin during the seedling and vegetative stages also helps resist aphid, spider-mite and thrip and other pest infestations.

 

[geopolitical]

You've been doing side by sides with treated & untreated Stress?

 

[greenmatter]

one of the things that made a huge difference in my tomato crop was a simple change in my planting method. many gardeners are familiar with the "trench" method, i.e. strip all the branches and leaves but the top 4-6 inches of the plant and bury the entire thing on its side in a trench with only the leftover leaves exposed. the entire stem grows roots and you get better growth. the only drawback is the root system is shallow so when the weather gets hot the plants get stressed. what i started doing is exactly the same only i dig down instead of sideways. i find that if i put the rootball deep that i get the same amount of new root growth i get in a trench, the difference is in high summer there is a large portion of the root mass deep enough that the plants very rarely/if ever wilt from water stress even on the hottest days. constant problems with split fruits, blossom end rot,and blossom drop are no longer an issue. i try to keep any manures away from the tomato beds and only amend the soil with compost and leaf mold so i don't get stem rot and lime the bed the previous fall. may sound so simple it borders on stupid but it works for me.