Tomato Tuesday- LOWER SOUTH 2012

Are those as tasty as they look?

Kay

YES MAM they sure are tasty! Few if any cherries make it in the house.

Ok, so it's Mon not Tues, but had to come down to Wilmington early as DIL is having surgery tomorrow.

The strung tomatos. All plants have fruit, but not ripening very fast. Could be because they are in too much shade. However, as the weather gets hotter and into the dog days, we hope these will be the saviors.



The caged determanents and the poled indertermanents. These are ripening a bit faster.



A better view. Most have outgrown their cages and my son had to put a pole in the pot and tie them up the best he could. The indetermanents on the pole have overgrown the tops. We look over the plants and since they are healthy (knock wood) we are letting some lower suckers grow and start a new leader which we will also wind up the pole. Then we can top out the current leaders



The two tomatos lost in the beans of the self wicking "pond bed". A san marzano and a brandywine.



San Marzano is doing great and has produce the most ripe tomatos to date.



Oh, somebody convinced my DIL that the tomatos should be picked as soon as they starting showing color and finished ripening in the house. I had to break that right away.

Kay

new sungold cherry from a rooted sucker. Elizabeth City Garden

Kay

I know it is not Tuesday, and I am on the line between Middle and Lower South but these two pictures are picture perfect and this appears to be the best thread to post them in.

Parts of GA are in the lower south so you are close enough to post pictures of those gorgeous tomatos.

Kay

PS. harvested 3 san marzano paste, 4 romas, 2 costoluto genovese, and a brandywine today from the bucket brigade.

Hello all you lower south tomato growers. I expect some of you are past the early season and waiting later this month to put out your late season tomatos. If you have some seedlings or are babying some starts keep them safe from this heat.

Some pictures of the Wilmington garden before the wind Sun. knocked down a few of the bucket brigade. Lost an entire plant of almost ripe and mid level yellow pears. My son was waiting for the sun to go down before reinforcing their bracing and the storm came up fast. Pictures of the bucket brigade are on another post.
There are two tomato plants in among the beans, a san marzano paste and a brandywine


almost ripe san marzanos



Meanwhile back home, my avitar show what my neighbor picked while I was gone and here are pics of the cattle panel showdowns between tomatos and melons.




Now show me yours.

Kay

I am impatiently waiting on pics of The Lower South Tomatoes! Mine were hit by Southern Blight. I'd never heard of it before. It can hit all veggies except corn(yea) I've been learning about 'not speading it' I usually just go from 1 bed to another, but now I've got to be careful not to do that anymore. I have really pretty corn and peppers!
Jo

Love the arch Kay! Looking good! Jo, so sorry to hear about your troubles with the blight. Is there anything you can do to prevent it next season?

I talked to the extension service folks, they said put the mm in the trash and get some native soil. no help. Went on to my fav. garden store. We looked in all her books and read the fungus bottles and came up with a plan.

Now, put cornmeal on all the beds, corn is not affected so this may give the hint that there is corn in the bed.
I have 2 beds- 2 x 8 that appear to be affected. Put plastic on both beds and use solarazation, for at least 6 months, then, you guessed it, plant corn in those beds.
Use a fungiside pre-treatment- all seeds dipped in fungiside at planting. Pour fungiside on bed before planting(in rows, furrows, seed holes)
Sterilize all seed starting medium.
Wrap all stems with aluminum foil, 2 inches below ground and 2 above.

Seems like overkill, but, this fungus can wipe out a whole garden in a flash. It is a soilborne fungus, not airborne, and it only affects the top maybe 5 in. so it will be contained in the beds, unless I carry it somewhere else.
The only fungicide that works for this fungus cannot be used while food is being grown. I've got time since you cannot stop the progession, either the plant doesn't have it or the plant is dead.
If anybody has any ideas, let me know.
Jo

Wow! Jeeze, what a bummer!
So what is the recommended fungicide?

Southern Ag. Terrachlor 75 WP. It's not sold locally, so will have to order when funds are available.
Jo

Littlejo wrote "I talked to the extension service folks, they said put the mm in the trash and get some native soil"

I'm more inclined to believe the fungus would be in the native soil. I have a question. Are all your beds affected and did you mix your MM in all one mixing or is it several mixings from different compost sources. If this is soil borne, then if had to come from somewhere. Unless it was on the seeds.

Kay

Since this is a 'tomato' thread, I did not tell all. It's in the 2 tomato beds-end to end along fence, and 1 potato box 2x3 and 3 ft tall, next to the tomato beds along fence too. I believe I got it from the potatos. I wanted large baking potatoes so I went to the grocery and bought lg. baking potatos to sprout. I added mm to the box as they grew. Did very well, even bloomed, then the plants died off. I thought that was good! I left it to let the potatoes dry some in the box. Then the tomatoes started wilting, looked sort of like bugs, but saw none. then I saw the hairy fungus at the soil level, with plants dying.
I decided to dig/empty the potato box. None! Potatoes are non-existant. There was nothing, sort of like the soil is dead. No bugs, worms, potatoes, even the potato halves I planted, no skins left.
I made the tomato beds last yr., and the potato box this spring, I see no signs of this fungus in any of the other beds, thank goodness. It is just a guess as to the source, I also bought a few tomato plants. A few of the cherry toms in the same beds next to the fence seem unaffected, go figure.
Jo

Well I want to say that the tomatos on that arch are the one's hit by the late blight. A regular spraying of copper fungicide ( and the farmers's harvesting their potatos) kept them going.

KAY

Talked to my son a few hours ago. He tells me he picked 26 san marzano paste tomatos off the one plant in the self wicking "pond bed" and has about 30 green ones ripening. That one plant is outproducing 4 or 5 other varieties combined. Yet the Brandywine right next to it has only produced 3 tomatos. Of course, both are buried in the long bean vines also on the trellis.

Kay

I lost a tomato plant today from "southern blight." It was in native soil. I am always amazed how fast it hits. In the morning I watered it and 3 hours later it was clearly a goner. Last year I lost many plants to it in Mel's mix. I am wondering if my problem has something to do with using wheat straw as mulch. When putting out the straw I am careful to not put it up against stems but after a few rains and waterings, it seems to make its way right next to it. Wheat straw seems to be the common denominator. But just a guess.

Last year I had had green peppers coming out the ears. By the time the blight hit them, I was okay with it. I was getting tired of figuring out what to do with them. This year, 6 plants and no peppers. They seemed to be diseased--constant leaf drop and the blossoms turn black before they bloom. I am going to pull them and get ready for the fall.

I made sure to rotate my plantings and I haven't had any problems with my raised beds yet but I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. If more problems arise I am going to consider solarization but I can't go without plantings for 6 months. In the south that is probably overkill anyway.

Friday's harvest from the Wilmington bucket brigade and including 26 san marzano pastes from a "pond" bed



Peaking out of the other bowl is a carrot week carrot, an onion and some of the various peppers

Kay

I found these articles

http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/p152southernblight.html

http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19961004.htm

Kay

Thank for the links, Kay. Southern Blight is a bad fungus. I've been told that prevention is best. Sterlize all soil that seeds are planted in. Then wrap stems of all that you can in aluminum foil, below and above the soil line.
This should keep the mulch off the plants, if you think that is where it came from. Solarization of bed can help, it does not have to be done for 6 mos. but it was reccomended that I not plant anything in the beds that I know the fungus is in for 6 mos.
I was also told by a friend at the garden shop to put whole grain cornmeal on all my beds, whole grain type was hard to find, but, all my beds got the cornmeal treatment. I was told to plant corn in the affected beds, corn is not bothered by S. blight.

My store owner friend looked in all her books that she had at home and found 1 from 1988, put out by our extension service, (they deny it now)
It says to use Gypsum to combat S.blight. It 'sweetens' the soil, adds calcium, but doesn't change the ph. I don't know if this will work, but it can't hurt!
I hope no one else is affected by this. It will destroy a bed in a matter of hrs.
Jo

Update on my tomato patch.
My Brandywine is not setting fruit during these hot days. About 5 fruits on a 5 foot high vine. But the ones I have eaten are the best tasting tomato I have ever eaten.


The Early Girl is producing exceptionally well. There are 23 tomatoes on this 7 foot high vine.


I will be eating Gazpacho soup for dinner tonight or tomorrow.


Some of the tomatoes have splits due to a long dry spell and then rain about four afternoons in a row. They are growing too fast for their own good.

Most of my tomato plants are done. I had 8 Roma plants and ended up with 15 quarts of sauce, plus frozen tomatoes and about 6 toms per day lost to the chickens/bugs/BER/etc. In the picture you'll also notice a few Cherokee Purples along the side. This was my first time trying C.P. - very impressed with the taste (although I did have a lot of cracking at the top). That tomato is just begging to be put on a sandwich! I'm looking forward to trying more "new to me" tomatoes in the fall.

That is one impressive harvest. I tried a lot of "new to me" tomatos this year. My favorites were the pink brandywine, the sungold cherry and an eva purple ball. That is a gnarley purple calabash in my avitar.

Kay

WOW jillintx what a harvest Makes mine seem punnie.
Yesterday before picking
Then after I left this many more for the next picking. Mine are small but oh so good. The bottle is a 2 liter for size comparison.

Thank you both - I'm still pretty much a newbie with gardening and I'm proud of having something to show for my effort. Pepper it looks like you will be enjoying your tomatoes for a while yet! I'm not sure how, but I ended up with a lot of tomato plants in my spring garden. (ok, I know how...I seem to have a problem limiting myself on plants and/or seeds!) I hope to try a Brandywine next spring (couldn't find one in time for fall,) and I'm going to try some different paste varieties to see what different flavors they have. I'm looking for what will be our favorite cherry, slicer, and sauce tomatoes and will be growing assortments until I find them. This is the fun part!