Tomato questions and answers

**camprn** 7/6/2011, 11:57 am

Tomato Q & A <~~~~Click

tegaan 7/6/2011, 12:09 pm

thanks for the Q and A. I am wondering if I may be watering my tomatoes too much? I water every day, it has been hot here 25 C and above. The top of my soil sometimes gets dry and crusty but usually I keep it really wet. Is that too much? Some of my leaves are yellow and curling and I only have 1 tomato growing with 6 plants.

thanks, kari

**camprn** 7/6/2011, 12:10 pm

Keri, would you be able to post a photo of the plant with issue?

boffer 7/6/2011, 12:20 pm

What caught my eye:

14. Blossom end rot is caused by erratic watering. No mention of calcium issues.

27. Tomatoes were declare a vegetable by the Supreme Court. Seriously? The Supreme Court?

I'm doomed. There has got to be a greenhouse in my future for summertime use. Shocked

tegaan 7/6/2011, 12:42 pm

I don't really think I have an issue that pictures would help solve, just some yellowing/brown leaves and no tomatoes. I was just wondering if maybe I am watering too much.

kari

**camprn** 7/6/2011, 1:04 pm

It is difficult to offer any kind of diagnosis without a visual. If the yellowing is throughout the plant there may be a nutrient deficiency. If your mix is drying out, you may need to water more often. If it just that the mix is dry on top, adding a layer of homemade compost or mulch should help retain moisture so you do not have to water as often. Have you stuck a finger down into the mix to check for moisture?

busygirl 7/6/2011, 2:38 pm

boffer wrote:What caught my eye:

14. Blossom end rot is caused by erratic watering. No mention of calcium issues.

27. Tomatoes were declare a vegetable by the Supreme Court. Seriously? The Supreme Court?

I'm doomed. There has got to be a greenhouse in my future for summertime use.

If I remember correctly, the Supreme Court thing was actually about taxes and commerce. I believe there was an import tariff on one (either vegs or fruit) but not the other and the poor tomato was in the crossfire. very sad, but I am glad they got it all straightened out for us... Tomato questions and answers 43549

Edited to add that my friend who knows EVERYTHING (and don't we all have one)....says there is actually no such thing as a vegetable. What we eat is either fruit (seed pod), seed, leaves, stalk/stem, or root. He's big on "specificity" right up until I use his own words against him. Twisted Evil

**camprn** 1/8/2015, 6:22 pm

**jimmy cee** 1/8/2015, 9:35 pm

I've been keeping my empty egg shells, clean them out, in a plastic bag I squeeze them till they wont reduce any more.
Then I use my coffee grinder to grind into almost dust.
I save this in containers, add 1 tablespoon to each tomato plant hole and slightly mix.

yolos 1/8/2015, 10:47 pm

jimmy cee wrote:I've been keeping my empty egg shells, clean them out, in a plastic bag I squeeze them till they wont reduce any more.
Then I use my coffee grinder to grind into almost dust.
I save this in containers, add 1 tablespoon to each tomato plant hole and slightly mix.

Oh, Oh. I was in the store today (very unusual for me) and I saw a real cheap coffee/herb grinder. Ah ha, maybe I can use it to grind my eggshells. Just before I sat down to the computer, I tried it out on the egg shells. Yep, turned them into powder.

I don't know how true this is, but I have read that it takes a long time for them to break down into a form useable by the plants. Some suggest to put them in your compost piles.????????

Rolling Stone 1/8/2015, 11:22 pm

Try this site for diagnosis of tomato problems

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomLeaf/TomLeafKey.html#speck

Unfortunately, the pics are thumbnail size and I have
not been able to enlarge them.
Karl

**jimmy cee** 1/9/2015, 10:50 am

yolos wrote:

I don't know how true this is, but I have read that it takes a long time for them to break down into a form useable by the plants. Some suggest to put them in your compost piles.????????

I'm thinking this is the whole shell, not when ground up like talcum powder, another good research project !

**camprn** 1/9/2015, 11:41 am

jimmy cee wrote:
yolos wrote:

I don't know how true this is, but I have read that it takes a long time for them to break down into a form useable by the plants. Some suggest to put them in your compost piles.????????
I'm thinking this is the whole shell, not when ground up like talcum powder, another good research project !

Especially in relation to tomatoes, as the thread title indicates. Wink

**sanderson** 1/10/2015, 2:15 am

Isn't instant or fresh non-fat Milk easier than egg shells, even ground?

**camprn** 1/10/2015, 7:33 am

sanderson wrote:Isn't instant or fresh non-fat Milk easier than egg shells, even ground?

Yes it's easier, but getting calcium into a form available to the plant roots is a more complicated matter. Additionally, the pH and moisture content of the growing medium must be at a certain level to have any Ca in the soil available for the plants to take up.

http://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/SoilConsiderationsforGardenTomatoProduction.pdf

I just add sour milk and whole unwashed eggshells in the compost pile.

**sanderson** 1/10/2015, 1:28 pm

Thanks, Camp.

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