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#1
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
Kris wrote:
Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway. This year I planted a blight resistant variety called "Legend". Also I planted "Porter", which doesn't have any particular disease resistance, but it's supposed to do well in poor weather. I planted 6 Legends and 5 Porters. Everything was very late this year. I've picked 6 fruit off Legend so far, probably will get about 5 or 6 more before they are done. The plants are eat-up with blight. The Porter plants look gorgeous. No disease and no insects, but they are a later variety and I haven't gotten anything off of them yet. They have green tomatoes on 'em, but not a lot. Haven't picked a single pepper or eggplant yet. The one jalapeño that survived the rabbit attack has a few little peppers on it. The ají peppers are tall and healthy, but no little peppers yet. I'm really ****ed about that because I was growing them for seeds, and there's very little chance of getting even 1 red fruit before frost. Eggplants just started blooming. I planted pepinos (Solanum muricatum) this year for the first time, and they are blooming but no fruit yet. The tomatillos are covered with empty balloons but no fruit yet. (notice a trend?) Basically, the whole garden has been a bust this year. Bob |
#2
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
zxcvbob wrote:
Kris wrote: Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway. This year I planted a blight resistant variety called "Legend". Also I planted "Porter", which doesn't have any particular disease resistance, but it's supposed to do well in poor weather. I planted 6 Legends and 5 Porters. Everything was very late this year. I've picked 6 fruit off Legend so far, probably will get about 5 or 6 more before they are done. The plants are eat-up with blight. The Porter plants look gorgeous. No disease and no insects, but they are a later variety and I haven't gotten anything off of them yet. They have green tomatoes on 'em, but not a lot. Haven't picked a single pepper or eggplant yet. The one jalapeño that survived the rabbit attack has a few little peppers on it. The ají peppers are tall and healthy, but no little peppers yet. I'm really ****ed about that because I was growing them for seeds, and there's very little chance of getting even 1 red fruit before frost. Here in zone 9a our tomatoes totally flopped, we had a number of cherry toms picked but only a few of the round red regular toms. I'm still growing Aji Limon de Peru chiles and the plants are gorgeous, damned few chiles on them though. It has been a wet spring and summer though. The Aji's should do better when we dry out a little this fall. Eggplants just started blooming. We planted Ping Tung eggplants this year instead of our usually Ichiban. The Ping Tungs gave us two or three wizened little eggplant fruit and then died. Next year we go back to Ichiban, they seem better for our climate. May plant Louisiana Long Green again next year, they do well too. I planted pepinos (Solanum muricatum) this year for the first time, and they are blooming but no fruit yet. The tomatillos are covered with empty balloons but no fruit yet. (notice a trend?) Basically, the whole garden has been a bust this year. Bob We got several pints of green beans in the freezer and also in jars. Beaucoup sweet chiles and the okra went completely nuts this year. Everything else sort of failed. Oh well, hope springs eternal in a gardeners heart, next year will be better and we're already putting in the fall garden. |
#3
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
In article ,
zxcvbob wrote: Kris wrote: Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway. This year I planted a blight resistant variety called "Legend". Also I planted "Porter", which doesn't have any particular disease resistance, but it's supposed to do well in poor weather. I planted 6 Legends and 5 Porters. Everything was very late this year. I've picked 6 fruit off Legend so far, probably will get about 5 or 6 more before they are done. The plants are eat-up with blight. The Porter plants look gorgeous. No disease and no insects, but they are a later variety and I haven't gotten anything off of them yet. They have green tomatoes on 'em, but not a lot. Haven't picked a single pepper or eggplant yet. The one jalapeño that survived the rabbit attack has a few little peppers on it. The ají peppers are tall and healthy, but no little peppers yet. I'm really ****ed about that because I was growing them for seeds, and there's very little chance of getting even 1 red fruit before frost. Eggplants just started blooming. I planted pepinos (Solanum muricatum) this year for the first time, and they are blooming but no fruit yet. The tomatillos are covered with empty balloons but no fruit yet. (notice a trend?) Basically, the whole garden has been a bust this year. Bob No bust here, but things could have been better. The whole region (San Francisco north bay area - Sonoma County) had late gardens. Our tomatoes have just started to out pace our ability to eat them. We are in synch with the cucumbers. Our climbing squash (our favorite), Zucchetta, is flowering, and the bitter melon is filling in it's trellis. The nights are staying cool (50F - 55F). Hopefully, we will have about 6 more weeks of good gardening before we go into gleaning mode. Most of the large tomatoes (Mortage, Brandywines, and German Striped) have under performed this year with small fruit and low yields. The Stupice have earned a permanent place in the garden though. Next year I'll definitly have at least one "Blondkopftchen" and one "Koralic" for cherry tomatoes. The Green Zebras haven't done much, and the Marmands are still green. The San Marzanos are producing well, but I find that I am not using them as much as I thought I would. Our carrots and beets, while on the puny side, are tasty and encourage me to plant more. I think I've worked out a crop rotation for my northerly facing hillside and have more understanding of where I can grow, and where I can't. In the meantime, the eats are good. I just wish Sept. could last a few more months. -- ³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.² -Archbishop Helder Camara http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm |
#4
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
zxcvbob wrote:
I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway I had a heavy attack of late blight, encouraged by a cold wet summer here in upstate NY. Got enough tomatos for salad, but not for canning. I got a few "Silvery Fir Tree" fruits to preserve my seed supply at least.... I'm going to give the seeds a quick dilute Clorox bath after their usual fermenting/cleaning. All my plants are started from seed, but there are apparently enough spores about, despite my rural location, to infect everything in a year like this. I'm looking for suitable treatment for next year, with the emphasis on things that are proven to work. Organic preferred, but.... Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G |
#5
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
On Sep 6, 8:55*am, Gary Woods wrote:
zxcvbob wrote: I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway I had a heavy attack of late blight, encouraged by a cold wet summer here in upstate NY. *Got enough tomatos for salad, but not for canning. *I got a few "Silvery Fir Tree" fruits to preserve my seed supply at least.... I'm going to give the seeds a quick dilute Clorox bath after their usual fermenting/cleaning. * All my plants are started from seed, but there are apparently enough spores about, despite my rural location, to infect everything in a year like this. I'm looking for suitable treatment for next year, with the emphasis on things that are proven to work. *Organic preferred, but.... Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G Gary, If there's something I could add to my soil, I'd be much obliged to hear what it is. Kris, suddenly wishing she was a Master Gardener |
#6
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
In article ,
Gary Woods wrote: zxcvbob wrote: I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway I had a heavy attack of late blight, encouraged by a cold wet summer here in upstate NY. Got enough tomatos for salad, but not for canning. I got a few "Silvery Fir Tree" fruits to preserve my seed supply at least.... I'm going to give the seeds a quick dilute Clorox bath after their usual fermenting/cleaning. All my plants are started from seed, but there are apparently enough spores about, despite my rural location, to infect everything in a year like this. I'm looking for suitable treatment for next year, with the emphasis on things that are proven to work. Organic preferred, but.... Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G It was a banner year for tomatoes in Seattle because we had a relatively hot and dry summer. Naturally, I didn't bother with tomatoes because of my abject failures in previous years. Although I think the rains of this weekend are about to drown any chance of a good late-season crop. Right now it looks more like Ithaca rain than Seattle rain. Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me |
#7
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
"Cindy Fuller" wrote in message ... In article , Gary Woods wrote: zxcvbob wrote: I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually manage to get a crop anyway I had a heavy attack of late blight, encouraged by a cold wet summer here in upstate NY. Got enough tomatos for salad, but not for canning. I got a few "Silvery Fir Tree" fruits to preserve my seed supply at least.... I'm going to give the seeds a quick dilute Clorox bath after their usual fermenting/cleaning. All my plants are started from seed, but there are apparently enough spores about, despite my rural location, to infect everything in a year like this. I'm looking for suitable treatment for next year, with the emphasis on things that are proven to work. Organic preferred, but.... Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G It was a banner year for tomatoes in Seattle because we had a relatively hot and dry summer. Naturally, I didn't bother with tomatoes because of my abject failures in previous years. Although I think the rains of this weekend are about to drown any chance of a good late-season crop. Right now it looks more like Ithaca rain than Seattle rain. Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me Had a good year in So-Cal. Planted tomatoes with lots letters after the name. Not as tasty as previous years. I got tired of being hit with blight or whatever it is. The peppers are still going strong. Going to add more varieties next year. All in all a very good year. |
#8
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me Had a good year in So-Cal. Planted tomatoes with lots letters after the name. Not as tasty as previous years. I got tired of being hit with blight or whatever it is. The peppers are still going strong. Going to add more varieties next year. All in all a very good year. Had a so-so year in the eastern PA area. Despite late blight I had a decent amount of fruit on all 4 plants, but very slow ripening. The only thing that is producing at an OK rate are my yellow cherry tomatoes. Not sure how much longer things will keep ripening. Three of the plants are still flowering, so it's kind of hard to tell. Plus as a novice I don't know whether to call it a day or just hold on to some hope. Any opinions from you guys? Jon |
#9
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
In article ,
"Zeppo" wrote: Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me Had a good year in So-Cal. Planted tomatoes with lots letters after the name. Not as tasty as previous years. I got tired of being hit with blight or whatever it is. The peppers are still going strong. Going to add more varieties next year. All in all a very good year. Had a so-so year in the eastern PA area. Despite late blight I had a decent amount of fruit on all 4 plants, but very slow ripening. The only thing that is producing at an OK rate are my yellow cherry tomatoes. Not sure how much longer things will keep ripening. Three of the plants are still flowering, so it's kind of hard to tell. Plus as a novice I don't know whether to call it a day or just hold on to some hope. Any opinions from you guys? Jon I am in Zone 5 South East Michigan. My tomatoes were great his year. Best crop in years. almost all of them blemish free, bug free, sweet and tasty. I have given up on the larger beefsteaks - the season is a little two short for this type of tomato in Michigan. It was a cooler than usual summer this year. I grew three types of tomatoes from seeds: 10 Roma plants, 10 Bonnie Best plants and 2 Cherry 100 plants. I grew the Romas and Bonnie best tomatoes in the main canning garden and the cherry tomatoes in the kitchen garden. I have canned so far: 14 pints of basic tomato sauce, 14 pints of tomato juice and ten pints of whole tomatoes. All of excellent taste, color and texture - better than anything that is in a typical supermarket. Tomorrow I will make salsa out of more tomatoes. A very good year for tomatoes. All for one and all for none other. But then the topic was "Any one else have a - BAD - tomato season" So - sorry for responding Corn - that is another story Enjoy Life ... Dan -- Garden in Zone 5 South East Michigan. |
#11
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
Zeppo wrote:
Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me Had a good year in So-Cal. Planted tomatoes with lots letters after the name. Not as tasty as previous years. I got tired of being hit with blight or whatever it is. The peppers are still going strong. Going to add more varieties next year. All in all a very good year. Had a so-so year in the eastern PA area. Despite late blight I had a decent amount of fruit on all 4 plants, but very slow ripening. The only thing that is producing at an OK rate are my yellow cherry tomatoes. Not sure how much longer things will keep ripening. Three of the plants are still flowering, so it's kind of hard to tell. Plus as a novice I don't know whether to call it a day or just hold on to some hope. Any opinions from you guys? Jon Depends, Also in PA . Our plants had very low yield but the cherry tomatoes kicked in with the recent hot weather. If the nights stay mild you can count on more cherry tomatoes. |
#12
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
"George" wrote in message ... Zeppo wrote: Cindy -- C.J. Fuller Delete the obvious to email me Had a good year in So-Cal. Planted tomatoes with lots letters after the name. Not as tasty as previous years. I got tired of being hit with blight or whatever it is. The peppers are still going strong. Going to add more varieties next year. All in all a very good year. Had a so-so year in the eastern PA area. Despite late blight I had a decent amount of fruit on all 4 plants, but very slow ripening. The only thing that is producing at an OK rate are my yellow cherry tomatoes. Not sure how much longer things will keep ripening. Three of the plants are still flowering, so it's kind of hard to tell. Plus as a novice I don't know whether to call it a day or just hold on to some hope. Any opinions from you guys? Jon Depends, Also in PA . Our plants had very low yield but the cherry tomatoes kicked in with the recent hot weather. If the nights stay mild you can count on more cherry tomatoes. I might just give up and stop watering them, though it looks like I wont need to for at least the next 5 days or so. Fried green tomatoes is now on the menu. Jon |
#13
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
Kris wrote: Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris Late blight struck ours but many had already ripened by then, or were near ripe. I canned several dozen quarts, pints and half pints of sauce. I'll have enough to last us over a year. The freezer is full of greens and peppers. Also canned many quarts and pints of green and wax beans. |
#14
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
In article ,
"D. Arlington" wrote: Kris wrote: Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris Late blight struck ours but many had already ripened by then, or were near ripe. I canned several dozen quarts, pints and half pints of sauce. I'll have enough to last us over a year. The freezer is full of greens and peppers. Also canned many quarts and pints of green and wax beans. Interesting. I live in an area that isn't great for tomatoes, although one of the biggest US tomato growing areas is less than 100 miles away. This year our big tomatoes ripened first, early and often. The first year I grew big tomatoes, they didn't ripen until November, and they were horrible ugly due to cracks and deformities. They are perfect this year. -- Dan Abel Petaluma, California USA |
#15
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Any one else have a bad tomato season?
"Dan Abel" wrote in message ... In article , "D. Arlington" wrote: Kris wrote: Hi all, I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had few tomatoes compared to last year. What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water. Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure. Did anyone else experience this? Kris Late blight struck ours but many had already ripened by then, or were near ripe. I canned several dozen quarts, pints and half pints of sauce. I'll have enough to last us over a year. The freezer is full of greens and peppers. Also canned many quarts and pints of green and wax beans. Interesting. I live in an area that isn't great for tomatoes, although one of the biggest US tomato growing areas is less than 100 miles away. This year our big tomatoes ripened first, early and often. The first year I grew big tomatoes, they didn't ripen until November, and they were horrible ugly due to cracks and deformities. They are perfect this year. -- Dan Abel Petaluma, California USA I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. Our tomatoes are just finally ripening and the skins are fairly tough. Long cold summer. -- mompeagram FERGUS/HARLINGEN http://mompeagram.homestead.com |