Growing Tomatoes

mal5000

now they are good looking tomatoes rupe
pity mine dont look like that

KudaPucat

It's all a scam Mal, nobody can grow tomatoes like that. They're all photoshopped or something. I'm giving up on the stupid plant. Just keeps pretending to grow, and dying underneath :-(

here's mine :-(

Still not a single flower either. and it was more expensive as they're both non standard varieties.

Disclaimer: My first 2 sentences were complete BS.

creative1

I bet that tommie gets less than 4 hrs sun

KudaPucat

negative, from 10:00 until 16:00 or so

see the little one to the right? it was suffering similarly (lost 4 before that) and it shot from the bottom, so I cut the top off, and it's now doing well. So I don't thin kit's light, as that one is much lower.

mal5000

Hi KudaPucat

i would say that your soil is lacking potassium which cause the flowering process

i was having problems with minimal flowers on the tomatoes and end rot with my zucchini's and after a dose of eco rose ( organic source of potassium and suggested by rupertofOZ) and 1 week on i have lots of flowers coming out on the tom's and the zucc's have produced 3 already picked and have 1 to be picked everyday this week off 4 plants and more coming everyday too

the other thing might be that you have to much nitrogen in your soil creating all your leaf growth without the flowers

my patch only gets little more sun than yours but only by about 2 hrs or so .... the only other difference is that mine is away from the fence

good luck with getting some more flowers

mal5000

oh i forgot to mention

hey rupert it helps if you keep your fingers away from the front of the camera when taking pictures :mrgreen:

but your tomatoes look great hope they taste as good as they look :cheers:

creative1

Is it my illusion that the tommy is against the fence?
..and only now just getting above the fence :wink:

you will probably be able to select some 'lats' to train on a trellis
pinch out the shoots to get end growth.

I guess the sun could be travelling parallel with the fence :?:

Oh yeh, if you want to get serious about the moon phases then
the reason the flowers formed over the last 10days was to prduce seed
for the new moon...
possibly their viability has been increased by additional input.ie seasol(not that I use it)
...flowers form in flushes and the fruit ripens in flushes...
makes sense to me :flower:

KudaPucat

creative1 wrote:

...flowers form in flushes and the fruit ripens in flushes...

yup I've seen that.

KudaPucat

mal5000 wrote:

Hi KudaPucat

i would say that your soil is lacking potassium which cause the flowering process

i was having problems with minimal flowers on the tomatoes and end rot with my zucchini's and after a dose of eco rose ( organic source of potassium and suggested by rupertofOZ) and 1 week on i have lots of flowers coming out on the tom's and the zucc's have produced 3 already picked and have 1 to be picked everyday this week off 4 plants and more coming everyday too

the other thing might be that you have to much nitrogen in your soil creating all your leaf growth without the flowers

my patch only gets little more sun than yours but only by about 2 hrs or so .... the only other difference is that mine is away from the fence

good luck with getting some more flowers

I will try adding some potassium and see if that helps.

DanDMan

KudaPucat, I have heard similar symptoms when the nitrates are to high and/or potassium is to low. Add some K and reduce the N for a week or so; thats the trick I used in hydroponics to force lots of fruit. The fish will be hungry, but that should kick it off.. Whats your nitrate reading?

KudaPucat

Reading? hmmm bit too much of a cowboy for regular readings :oops:

it was low though, and I've just now noticed some other deficiencies, perhaps iron showing up in my cukes and other leaves.

Gilly

KudaPucat your prob looks like Verticillium wilt which is a fungas. This is very common in tomatoes. Symptoms vary slightly from plant to plant but leaves wilt and dry out first and the plant will usually die later. The fungas is in the soil so don't know how this would work in AP. Best way to fix the problem is to remove infected plants. If it was in soil I would suggest not to plant tomatoes in the same area for at least a year as the fungas would be in the soil. Don't know if AP has the same issues. Maybe someone else can answer that. There are some resistant cultivars on the market.

spiritrancho

Last summer in my first young AP grow bed My tomatoes grew and flowered but no fruit. That continued till early winter when fruit started setting. We have been enjoying more tomatoes than we can eat since December. This is in an unheated greenhouse. I do put steel wool, carbon, and banana chunks in the FT outflow. I also use a foliar spray. There is a notable lack of polenators this time of year and the flowers are to numerouse and to high to reach to hand pollenate. There is also little air movment untill the sun causes the solar air vents to open an then not a lot.
All this confirms what I have read that tomatoes need night time temps that fall below 75 deg. F. for flowers to set. Outside in the dirt our tomatoes never do well. To hot? Summer nights rarely fall below 75 even at our altitude of 3500 ft. To much wind? Hot summer days often see afternoon wind 10 to 20 MPH. To little nutrients? The last few years our dirt gardens have been in improved raised beds with lots of compost, steer manure and urine tea. The earth worms now abound there. Even side dressing with inorganic fertilizer fialed to set tomatoes.

keith

while on vacation, i was watching a pbs gardening show,
the "tomatoe expert" recommended putting shells from a dozen eggs in the bottom of the hole you put the plant in (for dirt gardening) so that the plant can get calcium..
just thought it was an interesting point, but i haven't looked any further into it.. has anyone else heard this?

Decal

Never heard of that one.
I suffer from wilt also in my dirt garden, even though we rotate our beds on a 4 year cycle.

Nothin better than a fresh home grown tomato. :headbang:

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