On 03/10/2015 10:43 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
I am hope at some point Songbird will chime in. He has about
100 times my knowledge. Maybe he knows something about
your "blight / fungus / rot" problem too.

nope, i'm not a guru when it comes to tomatoes
and unfortunately i get overruled now when i want
to try different varieties. others here have a lot
more experience.

i've done the usual routine types of attempts to
limit damage or remove plants that look to be badly
infected before they can spread to other plants.

spacing plants, trimming lower leaves to prevent
diseases by increasing air flow and sunlight, mulching
to prevent splashing of soil onto the plants, etc.

sometimes these things help and other times they
don't. last year it didn't matter what i did the
disease came in with the plants when they were
planted (my best guess, because of how it affected
all the plants no matter where they were planted in
different types of soils, some were mulched others
weren't, etc.).

this year i plan to plant two cherry tomato plants
and that's about it for tomatoes. we have enough to
get by in the pantry and that will let me rotate
plant other veggies. i can always use more space for
beans.


sonbird


Hi Songbird,

But you are the soil expert!

I make up with lack of yield with quantity of plants.

Wife and I both LOVE cherry tomatoes and eat them like candy!

Two years ago, some invisible mite got a lot of folks,
but they missed me. :-P (Usually it is the other way
around.)

I still have to get a decent yield off a regular
tomato plant. Got 5 box car willies last season.
Got a nice yield of cherries though for once.
(Boy picking cherry tomatoes sure gives you an
appreciation of those that do it for a living!
The trick is to eat one out of every ten you pick.
Keeps you encouraged.)

This season, I think I am going to double my compost.
And stock up on chicken poop fertilizer.

The year the greenhouse used chicken poop, their tomatoes
made your eyes roll in your head. The year they switched
to fish poop from ponds, they were on the bitter side.

-T