New England July 2014

The only tomato problem that looked like my issue was nitrogen deficiency.    That doesn't seem possible....but I know how to fix it.  Will hit the potty at lunch today.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:The only tomato problem that looked like my issue was nitrogen deficiency.    That doesn't seem possible....but I know how to fix it.  Will hit the potty at lunch today.

CC

i strongly suggest tomato tone. Better yet dig it out of where it is. pot it up in a bucket and get it away from the other plants.

Another thing is it could be a genetic anomaly.

Huh. Pure yellowing with no spots? That looks like a -N problem to me too, judging from the link photos. Or it almost looked like an iron deficiency issue.

Interested in this link on that other thread: http://awaytogarden.com/tomato-troubles-faqs/

Because it says volunteer tomato plants are a no-no. HMM.

My tomato plants have all been inflicted with what looks like blight, for about a month now. I've just been pulling and chucking the dead leaves. I overplanted tomatoes so I'm not totally fanatical about them this year. While I don't believe it came from the volunteers, which weren't up by the time these starting showing symptoms, maybe it was leftover from last year in the soil. So maybe I should dump all the dead tomato plants when the season is over instead of letting them compost right in the beds, which was what I had heard somewhere: Leave your vegetables to compost in the beds. Well, maybe tomatoes are an exception.

Anyway, sorry about that CC, what if you just added worm castings and see what happens?

PS - I don't know if you throw woodchips on your beds or not, but if you have, those burn up the nitrogen supply too, so if so, that could be a thought.

I think we had an inch or so of rain last night, judging from the amounts I'm seeing in empty buckets out there. But I did notice that under my butternut squash plants, which have shown signs of calcium deficiency, the soil seemed semi-dry due to the large, canopying leaves that seem to be diverting rainfall. I hope the roots are deep enough to get the rainfall outside of the mounds, but jeesh. They're like living umbrellas. You'd think nature would have made a fix for that.

Edit: The gardening link up there ^ also referenced a potential method to deal with calcium deficiency: Dilute milk with water and pour it on the soil. Hmm. Dare I?

camprn wrote:
Another thing is it could be a genetic anomaly.

Hmm...that's an interesting thought.  Two were grown from the hybrid SuperSonic seeds I saved.  Altho the first one was a Roma/heirloom in a pot.

NHG, no worm castings here, just compost with a ton of worms in it.  But a layer of compost is already on there over the MM. And yes, there are wood chips atop the compost, but there wasn't any on the first plant that croaked.

During lunch I watered it with compost tea and urine.  We'll see what happens.  If there's no diff by tomorrow eve I'll pull it and maybe move it to solitary confinement to see how far I can take it.

CC

Hmm. You're not overwatering it, right CC? That could dilute the N I think.

I've never had a tomato plant turn yellow, unless it included spots.

Is that one of your new wood boxes? (I think you just made your new boxes, so probably not, I was just wondering whether it could be wood-related...)

NHGardener wrote:Hmm. You're not overwatering it, right CC? That could dilute the N I think.

I've never had a tomato plant turn yellow, unless it included spots.

Is that one of your new wood boxes? (I think you just made your new boxes, so probably not, I was just wondering whether it could be wood-related...)

I don't think I'm overwatering - twice a week since it's SO dry here, drought conditions.  The other 4 in the same 2 yrs old box receive the same watering and they look great.

It's a mystery, Marc.    But my feeling is I need to remove them so that's why I quickly bagged the other 2.  If it's only N related then I trashed 2 good plants.  
We'll know more tomorrow I think.

CC

Well, that's a stumper CC, got me searching the internet. The 3 biggies I found, and we know this anyway, were: overwatering (plants can't absorb nutrients if there is too much water), nitrogen lack (but you've been fertilizing, so hmm), and maybe some kind of disease/pest. Or soil imbalance, if there's too much of one thing, it may interfere with another. But still.

Sorry about your tomatoes.

****ALERT!! ATTENTION!! !****

Late blight is on the way. Take preventative measures!!!
http://nhvegfruitnews.wordpress.com/category/pest-alerts/

camprn wrote:****ALERT!! ATTENTION!! !****

Late blight is on the way. Take preventative measures!!!
http://nhvegfruitnews.wordpress.com/category/pest-alerts/

Already? Does that mean we dodged the early blight?

SVB hit the control plant. But I haven't noticed any damage on the foiled plants yet. So far so good. I'm thrilled.

Also, shhhhhhh...*whispering* no powdery mildew on the cukes. planted 2 resistant types - Market more and Burplesss.  Sooooo ... https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/17/52/89/27/img_2028.jpg

Poor little yellowing tomato is still not happy. If nothing changes by tonight it's coming out.

But its box mates are still having fun.

and this banana pepper in a pot in straight compost is really going to town. I couldn't even get all the peppers in the photo.
But its twin in the SFG only has one pepper on it.

the garlic has all been harvested and is hanging in the basement drying with the fan blowing on it. Are these onions ready to harvest now? They seem as small as a day I put them in.

CC

Goodness, those onions are beyond ready. Good job leaving them in.
What type of tomato is the yellow leafed one? Aside from the yellow leaves it looks relatively healthy.

Pot it up in compost and see what happens?

We don't necessarily get both early blight and late blight.

I came across this and just had to share.  I know all of you will appreciate it.

Tree of 40 fruits

mollyhespra wrote:

RJARPCGP wrote:Here it is:

Nice.  I didn't know hibiscuses could survive the winters up here.

There's a strain called hardy hibiscus that will grow in the cold.

camprn wrote:
What type of tomato is the yellow leafed one? Aside from the yellow leaves it looks relatively healthy.

It's a Supersonic like the two right next to it. The previous two with this affliction all looked good and healthy dressed in yellow in the beginning, too. As of this afternoon this ones leaves are beginning to turn brown and crispy and it will die probably by tonight, same as the previous two. No sense potting it up, the first one was in a pot of compost. Second one was in builders sand and compost mix. This one is in straight MM with extra compost.

I don't know, Camp, it's weird. Hopefully the other 17 plants will carry me thru this season.

CC

cpl100 wrote:I came across this and just had to share.  I know all of you will appreciate it.

Tree of 40 fruits

I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!!! Who's with me?

Maybe we could graft 40 vegetables onto one plant and only have 2 living things to worry about. HAHA.

CC, can you get that plant to a county extension agent? It's killing me, not knowing.

Are those the potato onions, or a different type? I can't even see mine under the volunteer tomatoes, but I guess you can leave onions in the ground and not worry about them, while garlic you have to take out before the cloves separate. Right?

It's probably time for me to get the garlic out of there too. I noticed on the 2 garlics that I pulled that the roots were really gripping in there, it wasn't easy to get them out. I don't remember such grippy roots last year.

I don't have an extension office here on the Cape. We have Master Gardeners that are in every Wednesday I believe. So mom and I just disected the two plants that are already dead and bagged, and found that the stems from soil level on up about 2 or 3 inches are hollow, which we think would prohibit any water or nutrients from passing through to the plant.. I have no idea what caused that. We couldn't find any bugs or mold or anything unusual, the roots are very healthy. The ball of medium of each looked fantastic and was wriggling with earth worms.

I took a few photos that I'll email off to the MG's, but other than that
that's all I got, kids.  

cpl100 wrote:

mollyhespra wrote:

RJARPCGP wrote:Here it is:

Nice.  I didn't know hibiscuses could survive the winters up here.

There's a strain called hardy hibiscus that will grow in the cold.

They're typically late bloomers! With flowers as showy as a rosa sinensis.

But, bad news for zone 4'ers, you're on your own!
According to the plant tag, good to zone 5.

CapeCoddess wrote:

camprn wrote:
What type of tomato is the yellow leafed one? Aside from the yellow leaves it looks relatively healthy.

It's a Supersonic like the two right next to it.  The previous two with this affliction all looked good and healthy dressed in yellow in the beginning, too. As of this afternoon this ones leaves are beginning to turn brown and crispy and it will die probably by tonight, same as the previous two.  No sense potting it up, the first one was in a pot of compost. Second one was in builders sand and compost mix. This one is in straight MM with extra compost.

I don't know, Camp, it's weird.  Hopefully the other 17 plants will carry me thru this season.

CC

CC, I had a new cuc plant where the leaves all of sudden went pale yellow. It had just started a new happy life and I didn't know what to do. Someone in a youtube vid recommended making an epsom salt spray (1 tbsp/1 gal water). I used it last night and today the plant already looking better. Might be worth a try ;-)

Iron and magnesium deficiencies can cause yellowing, as can lack of nitrogen of course, and all of those can be created in ordinarily okay soil by excessive watering. Does that yellowing plant get more water than any of the others?

Also, (gulp) Round-Up causes bright yellow leaves. You getting any wind drift from the neighbors? Probably not Round-Up, though.

Cc did you get a photo of the hollow stem? Was there any frass present?

NHGardener wrote:
Are those the potato onions, or a different type?

The top half is a Spanish type onion in the bottom half are the potatoe onions. They are all coming out tomorrow even though I think they're all still pretty small.

camprn wrote:Cc did you get a photo of the hollow stem? Was there any frass present?

I photographed the other two plants with my camera and won't be off loading them until I get on a bigger computer on Monday. I'll disect the current one shortly and take the photos with this tablet. Hopefully they will be clear. Nope, didn't see any frass and I was looking for it.

Looks like I lost another one recently, a Black Cherry/heirloom, but I missed it happening since it was in the perennial garden surrounded by other plants. Hence 3rd variety and a 4th location. I'll dissect and photograph that one, too.

Marc, no neighborly drift here that I know of as my neighbors are organic and we live across the street from a lake. The drift would have to come clear across the lake to get here. I can't blame the wasp spray as the first two went down before I used the wasp spray. Which didn't work by the way. We're still doing battle with them but that's another thread.

I think I found the culprits. I'm not sure what they are but if I opened the plants up further down in to the root system I found frass.


And I found one tiny little grub. I also found this centipede type thing ...and little orange balls that could be eggs?.

The only thing I've done differently this year is add cow manure compost to a bucket of my compost before top dressing the tomato plants when flowering


So if these centipedes and grubs are the bad guys then they are either in my compost or in the cow manure. I guess I need to figure out what they are, if the orange balls are eggs and how to get rid of them. Then find out where they came from.
Any ideas?

CC

On the agenda this afternoon is canning dilly beans and hive inspecting to see if there's honey to be had; let's hope everything is well capped. Then off to Camp Sangamon. When I get home it's last minute preparations of exhibits for the Cheshire Fair.