2013 Tomato Tuesday - lower south

I'm out of town today and just planted my tomatos last Tues so I don't have pictures or progress to report, BUT all you lower south growers do me proud and post your planting times and pictures of your tomatos. It will be interesting to see how the harvests progress from across the region.

Kay

I will try to get some pics tomm. I'm holding my breath because I had Southern Blight hit about this time last yr. I have lots of plants, with lots of small tomatoes. If I've prevented the blight, I will be putting up toms this yr.(I never got to eat 1 tomato last yr.)
Jo

I think you're asking for pictures of progression? (If I've misunderstood, let me know and I'll remove some of these pictures.)

I'm in Savannah, GA. I started my tomatoes indoors around the end of February and they came up in about 4 days. I grew them under HO T5 lights. I planted them April 12, after transplanting up (some twice). Each time I transplanted, I took off the bottom leaves and buried the stem as much as possible. Here are some pictures of their progress.

baby seedlings






Transplanting up mid-march







end of march progress (I had such an overabundance of plants, it took me several days/weeks to transplant them all up. That's why some are still very small, while others are fairly large. I ended up giving away so many plants, it's crazy. Never grew anything from seed before, so I planted WAY more than I needed to.)



april 9





Transplanting into garden/buckets April 13/14





April 26







May 7



May 20 (You can see one of the new beds in the background. That is for cucumbers, melons, beans, peppers, etc. It isn't planted yet but will be in the next couple of days.) This the day before trimming.



These are from yesterday, after a major trimming. I (again) took off all the bottom leaves, and a few of the leaf stems that were crowding the plants. I felt they needed the air flow. There are still plenty of leaf stems and leaves left on the plants. Last time I did this, they looked naked, just like now, and they quickly recovered. I didn't take off anything above the tomatoes, unless it was absolutely necessary. See all the tomatoes? (oh, except for suckers.)























The tomatoes in buckets are definitely behind the ones in the bed. Still, I do have tomatoes on most of them, and buds on all of them.











This is my first attempt at serious gardening. Since I've mostly been growing tomatoes so far, I only hope I have as much luck with other things as I've had with the toms. (There actually are some plants in front of the tomatoes in the bed, but the only thing doing much is the baby bok choy, so I'll probably rip everything else out and plant marigolds and herbs or something.)

Of course, I credit you guys with a lot of my success. I learned many things here that I would otherwise not have known. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much, to everyone who advised me or tried to help me when I was having a nervous breakdown about some thing or another.

I'm popping in from the mid-south to covet your tomatoes!
I got a late start, so mine are still just reaching for the trellis and will be a bit till I get to taste fresh tomatoes. What a lovely setup you have! How are you planning on preserving your extras?

Thank you! I'm planning on learning how to can and make salsa, etc. (or however you preserve tomatoes for later), and I'll invest in a dehydrator once they start coming in. I imagine I'll be making a lot of V8 type juice, and tomato salads, and sandwiches, and sauces. (I love tomatoes.) I have family I can share with also. If they do really well, I might look into selling at the farmer's market/health food store, or to a few local restaurants. I would actually LOVE to sell to some of the restaurants here. The guy who owns the local hydroponics store does this, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind hooking me up. There are also food banks, and things of that nature, if I have a really big crop.

I probably have no idea what I've gotten myself into here.

This is my second year doing my garden. Last year I didn't get started until the end of May. This year I have done much better.

[/URL]

I planted my tomatoes on March 1st and was lucky with the cold weather shortly after. I have been harvesting tomatoes (Cherry & Grape) for about two weeks now.

I had to steal the grandkids toy snake to keep a ocking bird from eating my entire crop. The snake has been there for 4 days now (moving it every day) and "No more mocking bird trouble....yet"

I have two "Sweet baby girl" cherry tomatoes; two "Grape Tomatoes; two Creole; and two "Better Boy". It won't be long for the large tomatoes but the cherry tomatoes are very good but not as productive as the Grape tomatoes. There are still about 100 Grape tomatoes left on the bushes and going strong. The PVC cage worked great this year.

Below is a picture of my small garden.

Good show all of you. I hope my late garden will start taking off. I noticed some blossoms on some of my plants yesterday. Just got the camera recharged today and will try to get pics when the weather clears.

Kay

The sun is way too bright to get great pics but that said here is what I got:
My bed 3 tomatoes; ten plants in two rows with a string trellis app 10 ft tall

Better boy (two of three) opps needs to be rotated to the left

Cherokee purple

I believe these are Golden Jubilee

Two Sweet 100's; looking punie yellow in the center probably due to lack of sun the growth is soo thick.

two of the pics of did not focus so the lemon boy and the other Cherokee purple are not shown.
This is the big boy planted last and much smaller when planted has caught up to the purples. I am considering making it to have two stem now.

Pepper, those look great. I have a question for you. I've been keeping the bottom leaf stems trimmed off to keep them off the ground, ans also taking a few of the leaf stems higher up so they will get adequate air flow (nothing above the tomatoes though), and because I read (somewhere) that when they're that close together it also helps stop spreading disease. I'm kinda wishing now I had left them alone. What are your thoughts on this?

I think the best advise is to cut the bottom limbs BELOW the first fruits. I have a jungle because I have not done much cutting. I do have many tomatoes on or very near the bottom. I have also allowed at least two main branches to grow; not stopping a sucker, some have three. I know I should have limited each plant to one main vine. All mine are indeterminate's so...

Most of mine have two stems as well. I decided to grow the two stems on the ones in the bed. I think one or two may only have one stem. In the buckets it's the opposite. Most of them have one stem, but 5 or 6 of them have a double stem. The ones in the buckets are looking kinda pathetic at the moment though.

Tomatos in buckets are just about ready to hit the cattle panel. Sounds like a Wed project.

Kay

My laptop is at the computer doctor. I'm working off an android mini tablet so no pictures for tomato tues. I found some more baby tomatos on a vine today. Can't wait for my first ripe one. Finally got some raîn Mon and sèems like everything just sprung up. What is your tomato patch doing?

My laptop is at the computer doctor. I'm working off an android mini tablet so no pictures for tomato tues. I found some more baby tomatos on a vine today. Can't wait for my first ripe one. Finally got some raîn Mon and sèems like everything just sprung up. What is your tomato patch doing?

  new "post a reply" page. This may take a bit of getting used to.

Any way it is Wednesday but here goes anywho:
Overall shot of my 'mater bed


But I have an unknown problem. The leaves are dying and the vines/plant trunks are turning brown. I am lost HELP!!! Every search turns up brown leaf problems ; no one mentions the browning vines.

and another; this is NOT shadows you can see these are almost all brown

Here is a close up of the leaf symptom and the brown trunk

yet another shot of dying foliage and brown trunks.



I sure could use some help identifying the trouble and hints to a cure. I have just mixed up some baking soda and dish soap and water spray for my squash PM problem. I have read this will help tomatoes as well ant thoughts before I really mess up?

Everyone seems to be having tomato problems.  Mine are starting to get better, I just hope it continues. *keeping fingers crossed*  

I hope you solve your problem Pepper.  I have no idea what it is.  I'm such a newbie.

Pepper - That looks like a serious problem to me.  I tried looking on the Cornel website to see if I could identify the problem, but no luck.  Do you have a county extension office near you.  I was reading all the different fact sheets on the various tomato diseases and some of them are scary (hard to control the disease etc).

Hope you can quickly figure out what it is.  Need to keep it from spreading if it is a disease.

thanks yolos

I will have to check with them

Agreed on the County Extension service.  But last year I had good luck spraying with copper fungicide when my tomato stems started having dark blotches.  Early Blight

Post if you get an answer.

Kay

I looked up early blight here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/preventive-pruning-for-tomato-early-blight-control.aspx#axzz2W74tMRIZ
here is something we all need to ponder"Organic growers sometimes use copper fungicides, which are often effective, but frequent use may harm earthworms."
Some of my leaves look similar to the ones I saw but the vine pictures look vastly different. The pictures shown: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=early+blight+in+tomatoes+pictures&qpvt=early+blight+in+tomatoes+pictures&FORM=IGRE&id=D614A3A3C76EB4C3CAFD43187068631252466D09&selectedIndex=141#view=detail&id=D614A3A3C76EB4C3CAFD43187068631252466D09&selectedIndex=0

still looking

In another post I complained about my sungold cherry plants not surviving seedling stage well and how I only had 4 plants survive enough to transplant.  One of those transplants grew well, but the other is just being stubborn.  I trimmed up the good plant about 3 weeks ago and decided to try rooting a sucker.  It put out beautiful roots and I transplanted earlier in the week.  Here are pictures

second from left is the sungold



Here is the stubborn one.


and the rooted, transplanted sucker in the silver bucket.



rooted suckers I have no space for and just hate to throw away.



the few in a bed - beans in middle and acorn squash in front



others coming along








Kay

Passing through to drool 

Not bad considering nothing was planted/transplanted until  7-12 May.  And a few others even later.  Plus we had cold weather in after I did the planting.  In the mid 30s  at night, which is unusual for this far South.  And the winds  Andrea and then last night they shook the whole house.  Almost hurricane strength.

Kay

Ok, I'm a day late, but here it is.

The silver bucket sungold cherry rooted sucker is growing and blooming.
p

on the cattle panel beside the strawberry bed


the other half of the melon cattle panel


right hand cattle panel



the other half of the right hand cattle panel



the stubborn sungold cherry finally growing.




left hand cattle panel. check the left hand tomato.  it is an ugly monster from Josh's seeds.  And I've eaten 3 sungold cherry maters from the second from left plant.



the determanent celebrity tomato between the cattle panels
 

in the raised bed


I've been spraying with aspirin water and copper fungicide.   Knock wood, so far no signs of blight

some of the heirlooms have some funny looking blossoms and gnarly vines.

Time for the rest of you to update your tomato pictures.

Kay

Heirloom Costoluto Firorento tomatoes ripening.  I've picked about 5 so far.


Hybrid romas from my son in law.



the cattle panel vines. That is a sungold cherry trying to reach the sky. I tied him to the top of the panel after taking the picture.


the other cattle panel and the celebrity determenent in the cage in the left corner.


Knock Wood, I've escaped diseases and blight so far.  

Kay