A question for tomato growers about bugs & diseases

Pam

there's some good snail killing advice on this thread.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33562&highlight=

What a laugh! That's a great title...How to murder snails...Thanks for the link! hee hee hee hee. too funny.

I hope you found some useful snail killing information in there, too, Pam.

To msolga and PamO

Thanks for your welcome. Sorry it's taken me so long to respond.

You both wanted to know about potash. What it actually is is sulphate (sulphur?) of potash (a fine, white powder) which generates healthy growth and lots of fruit. My mum, who can grow anything, swears by it. I guess it's a sort of potassium? I've used it on potted tomatoes in the past and find that it works very well.

Thanks, crisscross

I'm going to seriously check this out! Lots of flowers & budding tomatoes, but some of the leaves leave a bit to be desired. I'll report back!

I ate my first tomatoes from my plant tonight & they tasted good! A bit on the smallish side, but not bad ....

I read here where some of you have your garden's up & growing..I only wish. Too cold here yet. 1 degree here this morning. We grow only Heirloom Tomato's. Have a ton of seed's from them. We do trading quite often.

Mrs. L.D

Not the best of tomato seasons in Oz this year. The weather has been amazingly erratic & the tomatoes are utterly confused. A bit of a let-down!

msolga, sweetness - this year I seriously suggest you get yourself a hydroponic set-up for your big reds. It is not very complicated and you will be maximising the space you have available.

The other big advantage is that you will only need ONE plant. Because they're a vine you can let them climb everwhere!

I was considering to grow tomatoes this way :

Too late, too late! <sob> Your good advice, precious, is too late (& probably too expensive for moi ) to save the day! So, a summer of yucky, pinkish pretend tomatoes from the green grocer's. How cruel!

I know you probably mean for the next season, Stilly, but I'm consumed with disappointment at this current tomato fiasco!

Interesting concept, Francis!

yellowing leaves is usually a multi component thing. They arent using iron because the pH isnt correect and they are not getting Magnesium (epsom salts is the best source).Or, the yellow is entirely from bugs sucking the juice out of the plant If you dont wish to spray the bugs, you gotta hunt em and kill em.
That old diatomaceous earth crap is just a tale from Organic Gardening. It doesnt work at all. If youve got bugs that have caterpillars BT will work. If you have aphids, use soapy water. Did you find any BUGS?
oFTEN , ITLL SHOW THAT ONE SIDE OF THE PLANT IS AFFECTED MORE, SO MY SUGGESTION IS TO CLIP THAT SIDE OFF (oops) and let it releaf.How long do you have in your growing season yet? Another 2 months? That should be plenty for the plant to repair itself

farmerman

We usually have tomatoes right up to Easter, then a few stragglers after .... It really has been an extraordinary summer, weatherwise (extremes of hot, cold, wet, dry) & that certainly hasn't helped. This was my first attempt at growing tomatoes in a pot. I thought I'd done all the right things, but .... The ones that have self-seeded in the backyard are having no problems at all. Though it's probably too late to get much value out of them at this stage. Oh, & yes, there were those little caterpillars. In the past I'd used tomato dust on my plants, but was trying not to, this time.

caterpillars , pick em off, then dust with BT. Thatll stop another wave.
So its getting late for you (Easter is early this year , March something)
Balanced but light feedings are always better than trying to make up for lost food by a heavy load. Also, all "Nightshade crops" (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos) are HEAVY feeders of Magnesium. The use it as an adjunct to making such things as iron and K and trace mins available. Just a slight bit of epsom salts in water . T/gallon with each weeks weak feeding will help. Of course keep water at an as need basis for potted plants. We never use those big clay pots for patio tomatoes cause they wick water out of the soil and dry out as fast as we water em. QWe always use plastic.
Hope you get some more time squeezed out of your tomatoes. They are such a good veggie especially when compared to that crap we have to buy now (Its late winter up here and weve run out of fresh things and are eating all these veggies from Florida that they pick while still green, hit em with ethylene and then ship) . The tomatoe boxes taste better.

Im dyin for a nice wedge of garden fresh tomato , some stone crackers, and some hard Prima Donna cheese. Thats a summer time treat plate .

Yes indeed, farmerman! Nothing like a REAL tomato!

I think your very good advice will be used next summer. A bit late now!

if you plant dill next to tomatoes the catepillar will attack that instead of your tomatoes. Worked for us.

hey kimber, welcome , pick out a rake and shovel and join in, most of us are pretty sane, but, you never know about gardeners who make pets out of bugs (we like preying mantids).

Companion cropping like the idea of dill or fennel (or parsley) near tomatoes does work . BUT, if you use BT on the tomatoes to kill leaf miners or hornworms, you will also kill the neat swallowtail butterflies that live exclusively on dill, fennel and parsley (and carrot) family. We always plant a patch of dill just for the swallowtails and we are covered with them all summer. When they become butterflies they flock to the buddliea bushes.

When you guys mention caterpillars, are you actually talking about tomato hornworms?

I dn't know, eoe! You know, the little caterillar thingies that really thrive on tomatoes .....