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Post by littleminnie on Jun 19, 2011 22:19:06 GMT -5
My plan for this year is to not touch my tomato plants. I have then caged with plenty of room between and I have had no interest in pruning suckers and they look so beautiful. A few were attacked by CPB and since there are a few still around I figure they need all the foliage they can get. So I am not touching them except to put the top cage on the bottom and then to harvest and I am hoping I get no fungal problems this year. They have straw mulch and plastic mulch on the paths. I have drip tape ready but it is still not hooked up. Hopefully I can do that early next week. We have been getting just enough rain most weeks but low temps and humidity most of the time. Of course I will report how my hands off technique works.
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grunt
Breeder in Training
Posts: 160
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Post by grunt on Jun 20, 2011 18:20:13 GMT -5
I think you will find it makes a fair bit of difference. I handle mine as little as possible, and chase myself out of the garden when the humidity starts to spike towards evening, just in case.
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 21, 2011 20:16:35 GMT -5
Isis Candy Caspian Pink started/planted early not sure which one this is a photo of Yes there are weeds! Some are getting bad too! I need more straw. One row has zucs every other. The other rows just have chamomile and parsley here and there. I ended up with 108 plants. I have one brandywine in a huge pot for sale at market. If no one buys it then it will be 109.
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 29, 2011 19:24:57 GMT -5
I weeded my tomatoes yesterday. I tried to keep my hands off but had to pull some branches back through the cage tops. Two plants looked spotty on the bottom. I don't want to have nightmares but I worry a lot about disease. All the rest still looked great. I am feeding drip tape through in the next couple days since they have just been getting rain and occasional AM sprinkling up to now.
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jcm05
Administrator
Posts: 1,685
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Post by jcm05 on Jun 30, 2011 9:21:44 GMT -5
Good luck minnie. Disease, mostly eb is showing in my garden from all the wet weather we've had.
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 9, 2011 21:42:12 GMT -5
Update. Last Friday we had severe hail. My garden 3.5 miles away was nothing like my house and home garden! Luckily. But my potato leaved tomatoes have bruised leaves. they have a bit of brown bruising like someone rumpled the leaves in their hands. I pruned two brandywines that had also had CPBs (CPBs lay eggs on PL tomatoes!) and hail and looked sad. What about the other plants? Should I prune and exactly what would you take off? A few of the plants have a little yellowing leaves on bottom but not bad at all. I have sprayed copper twice since it has been really humid lately! I have drip all set up and can water from below now finally! Anyone know what to do after hail? Really they aren't as bad as they could be. My 3 plants at home were all beat up! One was for market and there goes $15. I have never seen growth like this year before. Most of the plants have reached over the cage now and need the top cage put on when I have a chance. The purple russian has fruit all over! Looks like a big harvest come early August if we can stay disease free. I plan to shoot some photos soon. It has been so hot and humid by eyes sting from sweat and it drips off my nose. can't bring camera to face...
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 11, 2011 21:43:43 GMT -5
Thanks, will do. I have to prune a little of the bottom stuff now but most still looking good. I have photos from yesterday! Caspian pink same as photo above. Purple Russian with loads of fruit. Some bottom yucky. hail damage- bruising Do you think I will have more than myself and 9-10 CSAs can eat? I quit market and just have CSAs now. I can still go to market when I need to I believe.
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 12, 2011 21:49:12 GMT -5
I just have striped gophers which eat the beans and peas!
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 14, 2011 21:30:27 GMT -5
OSU blue Rosa Bianca flower. First eggplant to flower
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 21, 2011 21:42:08 GMT -5
I picked the first almost ripe tomatoes today! Guess which varieties? Stupice Chinese Purple and Sungold of course. I sprayed copper heavily today. Some plants look yucky and some look great but all are crazy huge and need attention.
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 24, 2011 21:05:50 GMT -5
I ate the first sungold OP today. bluck no sweetness! they just taste like your normal red tomato. I prefer the Juliets.
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 29, 2011 20:34:45 GMT -5
Will do. Well my faer has been realized, my tomatoes are getting pretty spotty. It looks different than last year and many tomatoes still look good but look at some of the fruit! This one was worst: I did a second weekly spray of copper today and the humidity is set to break soon. I haven't had time to prune all the bottom stuff and clean up the plants but will next week when it is cooler. It was so humid lately the plants stay pretty damp. I haven't had much ripe yet and what does show color has nibbles or spots or cracks. Son of a biscuit!
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Tom Akers
Tomato Gardener
Fishrman and Tomato Lover
Posts: 84
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Post by Tom Akers on Jul 30, 2011 6:12:15 GMT -5
What the heck did that?
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 30, 2011 17:50:34 GMT -5
I think you are right. I thought I had Septoria Leaf spot but the fruits are infected too this year. so more copper spray alternating with Actinovate now. Funny the info said really hot and really humid weather with high night temps. so that is what we have had and I suppose others will get it too here. Today I passed a garden that usually has beautiful tomato plants and the area was cleaned out and the cages were stacked to the side. I wonder if they pulled their plants? The rest of the garden was planted.
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Post by littleminnie on Aug 7, 2011 22:08:06 GMT -5
I have 75% of my plants pruned and sprayed. There are some ripe ones now. I have a huge colander full of them on my counter waiting to go to CSAs on Tuesday. I have been trying to note which varieties are doing best despite my disease and weather problems. I want to note them down and take photos but I have been so busy and will be gone for 4 days this week. I am glad I am on Prednisone for my zucchini rash because it helps me have more energy to get stuff done!
Anyway Stupice of course are doing awesome. The potted one on my deck has produced like mad. Sungold F1 isn't blowing anything away but Sungold OP is worse. I have 2 Isis Candy plants but one is not- it has Stupice sized fruits. I don't know what happened there. The absolute standout this year is JD Special C Tex. I haven't had a ripe one quite yet but the plants are the biggest and healthiest and most loaded with fruit (2 of 3 are but 1 is slightly smaller). And to think all I gave them was compost this year and then a little fish emulsion early when the CPBs hit and I sprayed Spinosad. Japanese Black Truffle is also doing well and Goldman's It Amer. looks quite good. Darth, I have picked 2 nice McClintock's Big Pink. I wouldn't call them pink especially compared to the Caspian pinks next to them. But they are doing very well. Purple Russian is putting out giant paste tomatoes but every one has a very deep vertical crack- nasty. I picked everything at the breaker stage to stop those cracks. Chinese Purple is a delightful plant. The fruit are cute! I haven't eaten one yet. My Orange Flesh Purple Smudge are just plain orange all over and the plant looks awful. Speckled Roman is not just striped but spotted too- that is it has the spots worse than any other. But many of my plants are 'speckled'. I call them appaloosas. The advantage this year is that since I didn't prune and let them get huge and bushy they have had much more foliage to rely on than last year when I pruned and still go a bad disease. Then the plants had no foliage. Most of the plants look like topiaries with their naked legs but above that are a lot of leaves.
Hope you don't mind my long report.
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