Boron Elgar wrote:
songbird wrote:

as for diseases, our location seems to favor
certain types of late season blight, but if we
can get a crop through the mid-summer it doesn't
matter what the blight does. it doesn't ruin
the fruit. last season was unusual for us in
that the disease took 90% of the crop just in
the last few weeks of ripening. greenhouse
people said it was last seen in this area 80
years ago. likely weather and growing medium
related, but hard to prove without a lab to do
the work and ways to trace things...

I have gotten blight or other fungal problems with tomatoes at times.
I gave up on rotation planting, as that did not seem to solve the
problem. I think weather is a big contributing factor with my
disorders, none of them too serious. I also grow in large tubs on the
deck, where there is no crowding. That doesn't eliminate the problems,
either, but I have never had huge losses.

Fungus with nightshades is a result of wet leaves over night. When
needed water in the AM and not the plant, water the ground only...
tomatoes are best watered with buried soaker hoses, never overhead
watering. Tomatoes also benefit from good aeration, do not crowd. I'm
fortunate in that my vegetable garden is situated alongside a small
natural spring, I plant tomatoes closest to the spring, I never need
to water as that ground is always ideally moist.

Brooklyn1 wrote:
....
Fungus with nightshades is a result of wet leaves over night. When
needed water in the AM and not the plant, water the ground only...
tomatoes are best watered with buried soaker hoses, never overhead
watering. Tomatoes also benefit from good aeration, do not crowd. I'm
fortunate in that my vegetable garden is situated alongside a small
natural spring, I plant tomatoes closest to the spring, I never need
to water as that ground is always ideally moist.

can't keep the fog/dew off the plants here.
overhead watering happens only very rarely
(when it's really hot and the plants stop
setting fruit) and usually they are dry again
pretty quickly.

last year was wet consistently enough that i
don't recall ever spraying the tomatoes at all
or even doing much watering (maybe twice the
whole summer).


songbird

On Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:43:18 -0400, songbird
wrote:

Brooklyn1 wrote:
...
Fungus with nightshades is a result of wet leaves over night. When
needed water in the AM and not the plant, water the ground only...
tomatoes are best watered with buried soaker hoses, never overhead
watering. Tomatoes also benefit from good aeration, do not crowd. I'm
fortunate in that my vegetable garden is situated alongside a small
natural spring, I plant tomatoes closest to the spring, I never need
to water as that ground is always ideally moist.

can't keep the fog/dew off the plants here.
overhead watering happens only very rarely
(when it's really hot and the plants stop
setting fruit) and usually they are dry again
pretty quickly.

last year was wet consistently enough that i
don't recall ever spraying the tomatoes at all
or even doing much watering (maybe twice the
whole summer).


songbird

Thought you, and, perhaps others here, might find this interesting. I
am not sure how well it works with all tomato varieties and climates,
but it intrigues me.

http://www.veggiegardener.com/reduce...ming-tomatoes/

Boron Elgar wrote:
....
Thought you, and, perhaps others here, might find this interesting. I
am not sure how well it works with all tomato varieties and climates,
but it intrigues me.

http://www.veggiegardener.com/reduce...ming-tomatoes/

there's nothing wrong with trying something out
to see how it goes. i do know that when i've watered
the tomatoes too much they do taste watered down.

a normal tomato crop here is 20-40lbs per plant
for the beefsteaks and probably 10-20lbs of cherry
tomatoes per plant.


songbird

On Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:10:13 -0400, songbird
wrote:

Boron Elgar wrote:
...
Thought you, and, perhaps others here, might find this interesting. I
am not sure how well it works with all tomato varieties and climates,
but it intrigues me.

http://www.veggiegardener.com/reduce...ming-tomatoes/

there's nothing wrong with trying something out
to see how it goes. i do know that when i've watered
the tomatoes too much they do taste watered down.

a normal tomato crop here is 20-40lbs per plant
for the beefsteaks and probably 10-20lbs of cherry
tomatoes per plant.

Just how many acres of tomatoes do you grow that you can average your
yield accurately in a 50 percentile range, or do you just have a
couple three plants... I'm serious... I put in about fifty plants of
various types and often plants right next to each other have a very
different yield. However with ~fifty plants I always harvest way WAY
more than I can use, I give plenty away, feed those bitten by rodents
and bugs to deer, and at end of season I harvest many more green
tomatoes than I feel like frying/pickling... deer eat green tomatoes
too. I long ago gave up canning tomatoes, salad tomatoes are too wet
and besides I can buy canned romas by the case at the big box stores
and use those to make sauce for a whole lot less money, time, and
labor. The only time I may weigh/photograph is when I happen to find
an exceptionally large/unique specimen. I've actually never bothered
to weigh/count any of my crops, there's always more than I can
possibly use... in fact a few years ago I decided to donate a third of
my 2,500 sq ft garden to growing blueberry bushes.

Brooklyn1 wrote:
....
Just how many acres of tomatoes do you grow that you can average your
yield accurately in a 50 percentile range, or do you just have a
couple three plants... I'm serious...

between 16 and 50 plants depending upon what we
have for space and what we need to put up. it is
easy to measure output in the rough because a full
pail of tomatoes runs about 22lbs and when canned
that usually ends up around 7 quarts. do it enough
times and you get an idea of what the yeild roughly
is.


I put in about fifty plants of
various types and often plants right next to each other have a very
different yield.

yes, that is true, i just measure it roughly as
a whole and we keep track of what we can so that
gives us a lower bound (i don't keep track of what
we eat fresh).


However with ~fifty plants I always harvest way WAY
more than I can use, I give plenty away, feed those bitten by rodents
and bugs to deer, and at end of season I harvest many more green
tomatoes than I feel like frying/pickling...

we put them in the garage on a table and they
eventually ripen, they are not as good as fresh
but they are better than nothing or most of what
we get at the store. a few will rot, but while
i love fried green tomatoes i can't eat that
many of them.


deer eat green tomatoes
too. I long ago gave up canning tomatoes, salad tomatoes are too wet
and besides I can buy canned romas by the case at the big box stores
and use those to make sauce for a whole lot less money, time, and
labor.

to me the whole reason for growing veggies is
to cut down on food expenses and i like knowing
what goes into the food i eat. canned store bought
tomatoes taste like metal to me.

the silly thing of it all is that i'm getting
reactive to tomatoes. after 50something years of
eating many lbs a year and now i start reacting
to them?


The only time I may weigh/photograph is when I happen to find
an exceptionally large/unique specimen. I've actually never bothered
to weigh/count any of my crops, there's always more than I can
possibly use... in fact a few years ago I decided to donate a third of
my 2,500 sq ft garden to growing blueberry bushes.

i'd like to put in blueberry bushes too, but at the
moment i'm having fun with what is here.

as we grow many flowers in addition to the veggies
and a lot of our space is just wasted IMO we don't
get a huge over production, but when we do Ma will
turn it into something and take it around to the
families or we'll can it or i'll make jam.


songbird

On Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:10:13 -0400, songbird
wrote:

Boron Elgar wrote:
...
Thought you, and, perhaps others here, might find this interesting. I
am not sure how well it works with all tomato varieties and climates,
but it intrigues me.

http://www.veggiegardener.com/reduce...ming-tomatoes/

there's nothing wrong with trying something out
to see how it goes. i do know that when i've watered
the tomatoes too much they do taste watered down.

a normal tomato crop here is 20-40lbs per plant
for the beefsteaks and probably 10-20lbs of cherry
tomatoes per plant.


songbird


I find a measure of unpredictability and variability, even when I have
grown the same varieties over several seasons.

I see this in many of the kitchen garden crops, though. It is not
unique to tomatoes. Some year I get a lot more of a particular bean
variety, or huge broccoli, or more cukes than I can shake a stick at
and another year even a tried and true favorite may do poorly.

Obviously, one can only "control" for so much in these observations,
as my garden is outdoors and subject to the elements, but I still love
to try to outsmart the critters, the bugs, the weather and the rain
each season.

Boron Elgar wrote:
....
I find a measure of unpredictability and variability, even when I have
grown the same varieties over several seasons.

well sure, but after ten years of growing
them you should have some idea of which kinds
will produce.


I see this in many of the kitchen garden crops, though. It is not
unique to tomatoes. Some year I get a lot more of a particular bean
variety, or huge broccoli, or more cukes than I can shake a stick at
and another year even a tried and true favorite may do poorly.

yeah, last year a lot of our crops were eaten by
animals and the weather wasn't very sunny. that
along with the rot in the tomatoes meant a pretty
varied and lower harvest of a lot of things than
all of our other years. still, we had enough of
some things and more than we could eat of others.


Obviously, one can only "control" for so much in these observations,
as my garden is outdoors and subject to the elements, but I still love
to try to outsmart the critters, the bugs, the weather and the rain
each season.

sure, it helps to plant a diversity of crops if
you have the space for it. it also helps to have
different soils to try things in.

i'm enjoying things too, it's a lot more fun than
many other things and i like the schedule. part-time
and when i want to, leaves time for reading during
the winter and best of all the boss, once in a while,
actually listens to me...


songbird

On Fri, 24 Apr 2015 19:35:35 -0400, songbird
wrote:

Boron Elgar wrote:
...
I find a measure of unpredictability and variability, even when I have
grown the same varieties over several seasons.

well sure, but after ten years of growing
them you should have some idea of which kinds
will produce.

I am too adventurous (the older I get) and try many new varieties each
year.

I am an inveterate seed saver and off-season seed buyer. Whenever I
see an unusual tomato or other yummy cultivar, I grab the packets and
stash 'em.

I brought back two tomato plants from California this past Monday.
Happened to pass a sale at an arboretum and saw some tomatoes I had
never noticed here in the east or online in my usual haunts. What the
heck...we will see how they do.


I see this in many of the kitchen garden crops, though. It is not
unique to tomatoes. Some year I get a lot more of a particular bean
variety, or huge broccoli, or more cukes than I can shake a stick at
and another year even a tried and true favorite may do poorly.

yeah, last year a lot of our crops were eaten by
animals and the weather wasn't very sunny. that
along with the rot in the tomatoes meant a pretty
varied and lower harvest of a lot of things than
all of our other years. still, we had enough of
some things and more than we could eat of others.

As it is almost every year.

Obviously, one can only "control" for so much in these observations,
as my garden is outdoors and subject to the elements, but I still love
to try to outsmart the critters, the bugs, the weather and the rain
each season.

sure, it helps to plant a diversity of crops if
you have the space for it. it also helps to have
different soils to try things in.

I have very little space. Other than asparagus, garlic, blue and
blackberries, everything I grow is in tubs up on my deck. Even then,
it is hard to keep the groundhogs away.

i'm enjoying things too, it's a lot more fun than
many other things and i like the schedule. part-time
and when i want to, leaves time for reading during
the winter and best of all the boss, once in a while,
actually listens to me...


Yup.


Boron

On Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:13:31 -0400, Brooklyn1
wrote:

Boron Elgar wrote:
songbird wrote:

as for diseases, our location seems to favor
certain types of late season blight, but if we
can get a crop through the mid-summer it doesn't
matter what the blight does. it doesn't ruin
the fruit. last season was unusual for us in
that the disease took 90% of the crop just in
the last few weeks of ripening. greenhouse
people said it was last seen in this area 80
years ago. likely weather and growing medium
related, but hard to prove without a lab to do
the work and ways to trace things...

I have gotten blight or other fungal problems with tomatoes at times.
I gave up on rotation planting, as that did not seem to solve the
problem. I think weather is a big contributing factor with my
disorders, none of them too serious. I also grow in large tubs on the
deck, where there is no crowding. That doesn't eliminate the problems,
either, but I have never had huge losses.

Fungus with nightshades is a result of wet leaves over night. When
needed water in the AM and not the plant, water the ground only...
tomatoes are best watered with buried soaker hoses, never overhead
watering. Tomatoes also benefit from good aeration, do not crowd. I'm
fortunate in that my vegetable garden is situated alongside a small
natural spring, I plant tomatoes closest to the spring, I never need
to water as that ground is always ideally moist.


Just as over in RFC, you are a cut and paste idiot here, too.

No one controls the rain or the dew.

Tomatoes *can* be grown quite successfully in VERY crowded conditions
as my photos show. This is only mid July, too. You should see the bed
a month later. And this bed is rarely watered. The shelter of the
plantings keeps the soil shaded and moist and also keeps the weeds
down.

http://i58.tinypic.com/23sujag.jpg

http://i61.tinypic.com/1jrt5y.jpg

http://i61.tinypic.com/2n171qo.jpg

A lot of kitchen gardening can be done intensively, if one puts a mind
to it.

http://i58.tinypic.com/v5ljza.jpg

Now, back in the bozo bin, where you have spent virtually all of the
past 14 years.