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Old 05-07-2010, 12:24 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Dan Musicant Dan Musicant is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
Posts: 28
Default Tomatoes problematic this year (twisty, dark, short)

On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:22:54 -0700, Billy
wrote:

:In article ,
: Dan Musicant wrote:
:
: Year after year I've been growing 6 Early Girl tomatoes in a patch
: surrounded by concrete, the patch being 11 feet by 25 inches. I usually
: get terrific results. I dig out the soil about 2 feet down (in late
: March if I try to dig deeper I just reach standing water) and mix about
: 1/4 compost with 3/4 soil back into the ditch and plant the seedlings.
:
:Are you near the Berkeley hills? We had late rains in May/June and the
:water table may still be up, in which case, you may be getting root rot.
:I'd take a post hole digger, and dig down 3', or so, to try to find
:where the water table is now. At 4 ft. in height, the tomato will have
:found it by now. My suggestion would be to stop watering your plants,
:and give them a foliar feeding of potassium/phosphate (for general
:health, and supporting root growth).
:
:The symptoms don't seem to match any deficiencies that I'm aware of, so
:I'm left with the water as the culprit.

Not too near the hills, I'm near Ashby BART station. Guess it could be
root rot, I wouldn't know. You don't think testing PH is necessary?

I shouldn't water lightly just to keep the top 6 inches from drying out?

How would I do a foliar feeding such as you suggest? I have some Miracle
Gro, also some chemical fertilizer (dry 16-16-16), but so far this year
I've gone organic. I'm not averse to using chemicals if called for,
though.

Dan



Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net