amberg
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Del_ is smoke not good for the plants?
Let's see your tomatoes
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chuckwood
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It's not the smoke itself, its the virus that could be on your hands when you are fiddling with tobacco products. If your are a tobacco chewer, you could also transfer the tobacco virus to your tomatoes.
amberg
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Thanks, that is good to know,
chuckwood
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I'm not a tobacco user. Even the cages can carry disease? Well, I've been using one of those giant propane torches people use for killing weeds and melting ice - and burning up my tomato plants after harvest is over, hoping to kill fungus spores that way.
chuckwood
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I know I've got Septoria, and probably have early blight as well. I've tried using straw as mulch, thinking that would prevent spores from splashing up on the tomato leaves, but that didn't seem to have much effect. I'll try black plastic mulch this year instead. I'm always behind schedule with tending my tomatoes because I've got too many other chores competing for my attention. Also, because of the blight problem I plant twice as many as I should need in order to get any decent crop at all. But twice as many plants means twice as much maintenance and I start losing interest. This year I'm spacing my plants at around four or five feet apart and planting half as many. Can I be bringing in fungal spores via organic mulches like straw or leaves? Plastic mulch is easy to install, but won't constant walking on it while doing maintenance and harvesting cause it to rip and tear up?
If I'm constantly spraying copper fungicide on the plants won't the copper eventually build up in the soil to toxic concentrations? I've also got Daconil to use up, but I'm not real happy about spraying that stuff on the food I'm ultimately planning to eat. Serenade sounds like a good alternative fungicide, first I've heard about it here.
red plastic is supposed to be good for tomatoes. 3 0r 4 feet wide then leave a walk row between the tomato rows. this is a pic of mulch laid with a plastic layer. it also puts the drip tape down.
stakes are then driven in every 3 plants and string ran around the stakes. it's called a florida weave.
amberg
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WOW! Looks like a lot of tomato canning and juicing there.
Conquistador3
Le Comte de Frou Frou
Septoria can be get rid of by plowing the soil over immediately after removing tomato plants at the end of the season and not planting Solenaceae there for two years. Plant leaf vegetables, pumpkins and beans instead.
Its spores are nowhere near as resilient as Alternaria's and if they don't find a host will die out in a year or so.
Copper fungicides are very very low toxicity and you are not exactly going to use tons of them: typical concentration is 7g of copper sulfate per liter of water. My grandfather used it for decades and it wasn't copper poisoning that killed him.
red plastic is supposed to be good for tomatoes. 3 0r 4 feet wide then leave a walk row between the tomato rows. this is a pic of mulch laid with a plastic layer. it also puts the drip tape down.
View attachment 487673 stakes are then driven in every 3 plants and string ran around the stakes. it's called a florida weave.
impressive tomato patch. I see the red trays being sold in some seed catalogs for tomatoes, etc.
More 'Mater Matters:
these are some 'early tomatoes' from grow zone 9a; ie: my garden. they have been growing kinda slow past few months, but steady. actually these early 'maters are on fall plants. Solar Fire. but when we are harvesting these kind of 'maters... this time of year, we call them early 'cause no one else in our neighborhood we know of has tomatoes on vines and they are ripe or ripening. I have lots of small tomatoes that have just set or are in setting process...thot some of you might like to see what is in my kitchen currently... as of this date.
early 'maters, grow zone 9a
these are some 'early tomatoes' from grow zone 9a; ie: my garden.
they have been growing kinda slow past few months, but steady. actually these early 'maters are on fall plants. Solar Fire. but when we are harvesting these kind of 'maters... this time of year, we call them early 'cause no one else in our neighborhood we know of has tomatoes on vines and they are ripe or ripening. I have lots of small tomatoes that have just set or are in setting process...thot some of you might like to see what is in my kitchen currently... as of this date. early 'maters, grow zone 9a
and should any readers think... ah, heck... that Backyard Lumberjack guy just went out and bot them at the grocery store... well... here is comparison shots. lots of 'maters, homegrown and storebot. the storebot are the ones that come... 'on a vine'. and yes, the homegrown taste significantly better...
homegrown and storebot 'maters
Test:
which 'maters are homegrown? (hint-see post above this one.)
a) on L
b) on R
c) A and B
d) none of the above
homegrown and storebot 'maters
Test:
which 'maters are homegrown? (hint-see post above this one.)
a) on L
b) on R
c) A and B
d) none of the above
amberg
Addicted to ArboristSite
Well my guess is (a) The ones on plate (b) look like they were pulled of the store mater vine. and they look more shiny to.
Grade: A+
here is a tomato shot everyone is sure to like!
biggest, newest early first tomato on the tomato plants I planted this spring... imo, seeing such early sets never fails to put a smile above my chin... perhaps you, too! ?
bush early girl
biggest, newest early first tomato on the tomato plants I planted this spring... imo, seeing such early sets never fails to put a smile above my chin... perhaps you, too! ?
bush early girl
amberg
Addicted to ArboristSite
Again I envy you, will do mater's in June.
Conquistador3
Le Comte de Frou Frou
The nursery is coming along nicely: all Kosmonaut Volkov's and Stars of Moscow have sprouted and are growing very nicely. If the weather stays on schedule, like it seems, I'll start hardening them next week and transplant them after the 15th of April. Highly impressed so far by both varieties.
I had to replant part of the Chernyy Slorn, but that was to be expected: "black" tomatoes seem to have low germination and seedlings often die within a few days of sprouting.
As an aside: has anyone ever heard of putting fish offal underneath tomatoes and eggplants as a fertilizer boost?
I had to replant part of the Chernyy Slorn, but that was to be expected: "black" tomatoes seem to have low germination and seedlings often die within a few days of sprouting.
As an aside: has anyone ever heard of putting fish offal underneath tomatoes and eggplants as a fertilizer boost?
those certainly are some unique names for tomatoes... quite different from ours... better boy, early girl, solar fire... big boy, etc...
we don't as a rule use fish or parts to fertilize our gardens over here. in the past, yrs ago... the early pioneers did put fish whole out in their gardens and crops to up the soil's nutrients...
a popular fertilizer here is 13-13-13... nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium... %'s....a side dressing of 13-13-13 will 'bump' almost any crop... 07-20-0 better for root crops like spuds...
any pix from Russia? you got any Russian gardening pix? am sure many here would enjoy seeing... I, for one, would like to see some Stars of Moscow...
Conquistador3
Le Comte de Frou Frou
those certainly are some unique names for tomatoes... quite different from ours... better boy, early girl, solar fire... big boy, etc...
we don't as a rule use fish or parts to fertilize our gardens over here. in the past, yrs ago... the early pioneers did put fish whole out in their gardens and crops to up the soil's nutrients...
a popular fertilizer here is 13-13-13... nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium... %'s....a side dressing of 13-13-13 will 'bump' almost any crop... 07-20-0 better for root crops like spuds...
any pix from Russia? you got any Russian gardening pix? am sure many here would enjoy seeing... I, for one, would like to see some Stars of Moscow...
The tomato plants are still small, and will be put in thefield no sooner than 15 days: it's still too cold outside for them or anything else but early salad, which I've sown last week.
When I moved here a few years ago I found the soil here was very poor. The vegetable patch I built has got about 2" of compost each year, plus two or three NPK fertilizer applications per growing season according to crop. This year I got my hand on a trailer full of manure so I shifted to that.
I am still not fully satisfied with yields, so I am looking for ways to improve them: a common practice here, when planting fruit trees, is to bury 3"-4" of manure underneath the root ball to give the plant a boost during early growth. As tomatoes and other Solenaceae are not big fans of manure, I was thinking of using fish offal for the same purpose.
being in Texas, there is no shortage of manure here!
all along the dusty trail, or pasture... lol. in fact, I have no shortage of it at my farm... lol however, I don't use it or horse manure as it is too hot. it might be ok if you do plant it real deep as u say. have you looked at the utube vids on making compost? lots! simple process, pick your scale. I have 6 compost piles. all kitchen fare biodegrade, ie vegs etc go in. and this or that bio, leaves, some grass cuttings, pine needles, etc. I never bother turning it. just let it break down on its own... great stuff. simple plan is merely getting 50' roll of welded wire, about 5' high. then cut 16 1/2' lengths, roll into bins, secure with ends of wire... as in bend back to make a latch or loop on welded wire on other side. then fill at ur leisure. it is not a 2-week process, but I have been doing it for years and have emptied mine several times... makes super compost...how deep does ur poor soil go? can u remove it and replace with compost? or is to too rocky? etc? or too much clay?
Conquistador3
Le Comte de Frou Frou
Manure here is used after it "matured" meaning three months for that coming from cattle and six for horses. Never had a problem with mature manure.
Rabbit manure is the only one that can be used "as is" because it's a cold one. But I don't keep rabbits: I've eaten so many connies when I was a boy the mere mention of the name causes me nausea.
I make my own compost, but it's not only never enough but I suspect, being mostly vegetable matter, it's not that great to start with. I mostly use it for ornamentals with low fertilizer requirements now.
Not a big fan of soil replacement and given my vegetable patch is terraced it would mean a lot of back breaking work for little reward: better to improve things a bit at a time and hope I'll be able to move away from here.
Rabbit manure is the only one that can be used "as is" because it's a cold one. But I don't keep rabbits: I've eaten so many connies when I was a boy the mere mention of the name causes me nausea.
I make my own compost, but it's not only never enough but I suspect, being mostly vegetable matter, it's not that great to start with. I mostly use it for ornamentals with low fertilizer requirements now.
Not a big fan of soil replacement and given my vegetable patch is terraced it would mean a lot of back breaking work for little reward: better to improve things a bit at a time and hope I'll be able to move away from here.
