Frustration with tomatoes

[deerlarkin]

Can anyone please tell me what it is I am doing wrong!!!!! It's a good thing I don't have to grow tomatoes in order to live. If so, I'd have been gone long ago. I have tried everything from growing in the garden to pots on my deck. One year I was told to water them a lot. The next year I was told to water sparingly. One year I was told to ignore them. I have been told "Don't water in the morning" or "Don't water in the evening". The next year I was told to add this and that..........the years go on and I still have yet to see a healthy tomato. The bottoms are always rotten. The only tomato plant I have had success with was the one that started growing next to my compost bin. I didn't even plant it there. I got three of the most perfect tomatoes off that plant. I Have added compost to my tomatoes. I have babied them, obviously to death!

[TNnative]

Originally Posted by deerlarkin

The bottoms are always rotten.

I think, but could be wrong, that that is called blossom end rot. We had that with our tomatoes the last two years. We did not get any edible tomatoes last year. My mil told me to sprinkle epsom salts in the planting hole to prevent it. It did not work last year. This year, I'm trying again and have moved my tomato plot to a completely different part of the yard. We'll see what happens.

[HeavenHelpMe]

The best luck I have with tomatoes are the ones that come up the next year after some went to seed and grow naturally. I wait until they get a good size and then transplant them where I want them. The ones I start inside in the late winter are always too weak to withstand any temperature changes and they get sick and whimpy. It is disappointing, though. I have so many new varieties I've started this year, and I probably won't get much out of them because they were started in peat pots in the house. Lesson learned.

[agmantoo]

read here and enjoy http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-28-d.html

[wyld thang]

WHere are you? Are the plants not thriving?(they just dont' grow and stay spindly and small) If nighttime temps go below 60' they won't set fruit/make blossoms--something like that. Kinda sounds like the dirt is wimpy(since you got a good one near the compost pile). Tomatoes need calcium, so save up your eggshells, dry and crush and put a handfull in the planting hole. They love sun and warmth, maybe you have a lot of cooling wind and need to sheild them. THey LOOOVE chicken poop.

It would help to know where you are. WHat varieties are you doing? Here I have to grow smaller varieties because there's not enough hot/hot weather to grow those giant ones(Beefsteak), though I can get a few luscious Brandywines ripened(ohhhhhhh yummmmmm!).

Green tomato salsa is great too!!

[uncle Will in In.]

Well Deer, I feel your pain. For about the last 6 years, our tomatoes get some terrorist blight that starts at the bottom of the plant and goes upward. The plants are usually loaded with tomatoes by then and are just ripening. Before the tomatoes are all ripe, the plant is often dead. We've bought the most wilt and blight resistance seeds we can find. We've planted in new locations. We've tried with mulch, and without mulch. They claim the cause of it is in the ground. ?? Some varietys are better than others. Last year we had a row up on cattle panels. My wife planted a row of beans on each side of the panel. The tomatoes done better than usual and most lasted all summer. I've heard that the rain splashes up from the ground exposing the plants to whatever corruption that is lurking down there. Perhaps the beans shielded the bottoms of the tomatoes???

Does anyone else have this problem?????

[agmantoo]

Uncle, you have fusarium wilt
Here is an article
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html
You need to concentrate on fusarium wilt resistant varieties

[Rita]

Uncle Will, I had that terrible corruption problem for a few years along with blossom-end rot and another awful corruption Anthracnose that left sunken dark spots on the tomatoes and they would rot fast off the vine. I got enough to can but not enough. Well, last yr I planted the maters in "virgin" soil, didn't till, just dug holes, spaced them farther apart then in other years, put a mixture in the bottom (that I will post if anyone is interested) that had epsom salts and powdered milk. Now I also put newspaper around the whole patch topped with old hay. Finally I treated the plants twice with Soap Shield from Gardens Alive. It has copper in it. We had the best crop ever at this location even with fewer plants. No anthracnose, not blossom end rot. Oh, we left a hole around the plant so it was easy to get enough water to the plant. I am doing the same thing this year so I will keep my fingers crossed! Hope this helps. Rita in TN

[KindredSpirit]

Are you planting disease resistant varieties? Some of my favorites are Celebrity and Romas. They seem to do well in my Kansas climate.

http://henryfields.com/product.asp?pn=12587

[dcross]

Blossom end rot is caused by uneven soil moisture, plenty of it when the fruit is small, and then a lack of it when it's larger. Mulch and watering should clear it up.

[ChickenMom]

Try putting cottonseed meal and bone meal around them.

[MsPacMan]

This is due to either:


1, a lack of calcium in the area that the root ball can reach;


2, soil is too acidic


3, rarely -- too little magnesium so that the plant cannot utilize the calcium that is in the root ball area


4, irregular watering that leads to one or more of the problems listed above, or


5, any combination of two or more of the above.



Actually, it is routine even on healthy plants, to see the first few tomatoes of the season develop blossom end rot. This is because calcium tends to head down further into the earth, and is not retrievable in the first few inches of soil where the new plants root balls are in the beginning. Until its root ball grows and reaches down in the earth more, blossom end rot can happen even with healthy plants.


Try watering your plant with a combination of seaweed extract (and/or fish emulsion) plus powdered milk for extra calcium. Might even add a brief dash of epson salts into the mixutre for extra magnesium.


The seaweed extract offers a fairly well rounded, organic foliar feed for the plant. Lots of all the different nutrients it needs. The powdered milk adds extra calcium to the mix, to specifically address that blossom end rot problem. The dash of epson salts adds extra magnesium, just in case your problem is lack of adequate amounts of magnesium.


A liquid made from crushed egg shells can be substituted for the powdered milk if you choose.


Hope this helps.

[MsPacMan]

Originally Posted by TNnative

I think, but could be wrong, that that is called blossom end rot. We had that with our tomatoes the last two years. We did not get any edible tomatoes last year. My mil told me to sprinkle epsom salts in the planting hole to prevent it. It did not work last year. This year, I'm trying again and have moved my tomato plot to a completely different part of the yard. We'll see what happens.

Did you take a soil sample before you planted?


Chances are, your pH level was way too acidic for the tomatoes. Tomatoes like a pH in the 6.0 to 6.5 range.


If your soil was, say 5.5 or lower, you could find yourself unable to grow tomatoes without amending the soil to adjust for that. The easiest way to adjust for pH scores in the acid range (5.5 or lower is definitely acidic soil) is to treat the soil the season BEFORE you want to plant with lime.


Or build raised beds using trucked in top soil or compost.


If you haven't done it already, go to the nearest Agricultural Extension Service office and ask for a soil sample box. Collect the sample as directed on the box, then seal it and send it to the address on the box. In a few weeks, you will get back a detailed assessment of your soil.


This will cost a small fee (8 bux in my neck of the woods), but well worth it, IMHO.

[MsPacMan]

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

Well Deer, I feel your pain. For about the last 6 years, our tomatoes get some terrorist blight that starts at the bottom of the plant and goes upward. The plants are usually loaded with tomatoes by then and are just ripening. Before the tomatoes are all ripe, the plant is often dead. We've bought the most wilt and blight resistance seeds we can find. We've planted in new locations. We've tried with mulch, and without mulch. They claim the cause of it is in the ground. ?? Some varietys are better than others. Last year we had a row up on cattle panels. My wife planted a row of beans on each side of the panel. The tomatoes done better than usual and most lasted all summer. I've heard that the rain splashes up from the ground exposing the plants to whatever corruption that is lurking down there. Perhaps the beans shielded the bottoms of the tomatoes???

Does anyone else have this problem?????

YES!


West Tennessee is very humid, and where there is plentiful humidity, there will be fungus, and fungus is what causes the blight.


If you are an organic gardener, you cannot use the normal treatment to try and stall the development of blight -- daconyl. (If you are not an organic gardener, try spraying your plants with daconyl once a week to delay the onset of the blight).


So it is a big battle between the organic grower and the blight around here, with the grower trying to stall development of the blight as long as possible. I do this by utilizing the following methods:


1. I water only in the early morning, with a wand that reaches down to the soil, and I am careful to try and not wet the plant while I water;


2, I dip my tools in a bucket that has 10% common ordinary bleach and 90% water in it every time I move from one tomato plant to another


3, After the tomato plants become about 3 feet tall, I start removing the lowest branches to put distance between the leaves and the ground where the fungal spores are. By the time my plants are five feet tall, I have cleared 8 inches or so between the bottom branch of the tomato plant and the ground.


4, I spray once a week with a mixture of baking soda, seaweed extract, insecticidal soap, and water. The seaweed extract is foliar nutrient for the plant, the baking soda helps with the fungus, the insecticidal soap helps with aphids and some other insects -- plus it provides a wetting agent to help the spray stay on the leaves and stems of the plant longer -- and the water just dilutes all that stuff.


But it IS one continuous battle, and by the end of the summer around here, the blight is usually winning...


Uuugggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

[MsPacMan]

Originally Posted by agmantoo

Uncle, you have fusarium wilt
Here is an article
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html
You need to concentrate on fusarium wilt resistant varieties

Uncle's problem MAY be fusarium wilt. He./she is lucky if it is, because there are now some tomato varieties that have been bred to be resistant to fusarium.


HOWEVER, the symptoms he/she is describing sounds more like early tomato blight.


This is a different fungus causing the problem, and to date, I do not know of any tomato breeder that has come up with a breed that is resistant to the early blight fungus.


Our problem in west Tennessee is an abundance of early blight fungal spores, and even if you do not have it your neighbor will, and the wind will blow their fungal spores to your garden.

[MsPacMan]

Originally Posted by Rita

Uncle Will, I had that terrible corruption problem for a few years along with blossom-end rot and another awful corruption Anthracnose that left sunken dark spots on the tomatoes and they would rot fast off the vine. I got enough to can but not enough. Well, last yr I planted the maters in "virgin" soil, didn't till, just dug holes, spaced them farther apart then in other years, put a mixture in the bottom (that I will post if anyone is interested) that had epsom salts and powdered milk. Now I also put newspaper around the whole patch topped with old hay. Finally I treated the plants twice with Soap Shield from Gardens Alive. It has copper in it. We had the best crop ever at this location even with fewer plants. No anthracnose, not blossom end rot. Oh, we left a hole around the plant so it was easy to get enough water to the plant. I am doing the same thing this year so I will keep my fingers crossed! Hope this helps. Rita in TN

Rita,

Please tell me more about how you used Soap Shield in the garden.


I got some to use against my tomato blight problem, but when I got reading all the cautions on the label, I got cold feet and became too chicken to try it.


So please, tell me how you used it. Maybe you can help me get over my fear of that blasted label.

[Rita]

I don't like to use anything more than I have to on my garden but the disease problems were so bad here that I just had to and thought the Soap Shield was the lesser of the evils. I just sprayed/sprinkled my tomato plants today and they have been in the ground about 2 weeks. It has rained so much it was hard to decide when to do it and it's going to rain again tomorrow. I will do it one more time when they are getting ready to flower and I figure that much stuff can't hurt us as much as the awful vegies they sell in the stores. Treated and treated. I read sweetcorn grown in FL is sprayed l6 times before harvest! I use the l oz Soap Shield to a gallon of water. We gardened in MD for years and years and never had the disease problems we have here. If any tomato fruit touches the ground it is a goner and I never staked the plants in MD and they sprawled on the ground with no mulch. Hope this helps with your crop. Rita

[wyld thang]

I have acid soil. I throw all my ashes from the wood stove over my beds and dig in. Makes the soil nice and crumbly, de-acids it, works kinda like lime. For around here you cannot dig in too much lime.

[deerlarkin]

Wild Thang

I am in eastern Ontario, Canada. I had very sandy soil and since moving in eight years ago, have spent much of my time adding compost to the garden spots. It's just so frustrating. Oh! The tomatoes I have growing in my pots right now are Roma and Brandy Wine. Thanks for the input.

[whodunit]

Our first year of tomatoes we had extensive blossom end rot. It wa so dispappointing to see a beautiful tomato, pick it and have your fingers break through the bottom.

The next year we sprinkled bone meal in the soil and worked it in; nothing fancy.

Our second year of tomatoes we had zero blossom end rot.

The only watering this I have heard was don'r water them toward the end of the vines life since the water makes the tomatoes too juicy.