Grow tomatoes in a small space?

BNaula1 said:
You mean in general or in the video haha .. I had the opposite with my 20+ plants last season 🥲
Click to expand...

In the video. Tomatoes disease can be a real problem. I know I fight it. I insist on growing old heirlooms for the flavour so fight pretty hard to keep them healthy. Keeping water off them in the heat helps a lot. Also fungicides. I can't imagine not being able to grow good tomatoes though. I look forward to them almost as much as figs. Not to mention, the raccoons don't touch my tomatoes.
 
TorontoJoe said:
In the video. Tomatoes disease can be a real problem. I know I fight it. I insist on growing old heirlooms for the flavour so fight pretty hard to keep them healthy. Keeping water off them in the heat helps a lot. Also fungicides. I can't imagine not being able to grow good tomatoes though. I look forward to them almost as much as figs. Not to mention, the raccoons don't touch my tomatoes.
Click to expand...
Yeah I grew about 10 heirlooms last season and then about another 12-14 “exotic / hybrids” as one would say haha my best one was probably yellow brandywine and for cherry, indigo f1
 
TorontoJoe said:
In the video. Tomatoes disease can be a real problem. I know I fight it. I insist on growing old heirlooms for the flavour so fight pretty hard to keep them healthy. Keeping water off them in the heat helps a lot. Also fungicides. I can't imagine not being able to grow good tomatoes though. I look forward to them almost as much as figs. Not to mention, the raccoons don't touch my tomatoes.
Click to expand...
The only thing that plagued my tomatoes last year was blossom end rot. Then someone told me to mix 2 tbsp of Epsom salt with 1gal water once a week. I’ll give it a try this year
 
Figgerlickinggood said:
The only thing that plagued my tomatoes last year was blossom end rot. Then someone told me to mix 2 tbsp of Epsom salt with 1gal water once a week. I’ll give it a try this year
Click to expand...
From my experience I don’t believe Epsom salt would help, BER is sometimes due to a calcium deficiency and epsom salts are mostly magnesium so it would actually end up causing it in most cases :( a calcium soluble source or even a calcium fert would help best to prevent it like Tomato-tone along with mycorrhiza to help the plant better uptake it. Also a consistent watering schedule, since I started doing these two things I haven’t had an issue with BER! :)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6263.jpeg
    IMG_6263.jpeg
    271.2 KB · Views: 2
  • IMG_7035.jpeg
    IMG_7035.jpeg
    409.1 KB · Views: 2
BNaula1 said:
From my experience I don’t believe Epsom salt would help, BER is sometimes due to a calcium deficiency and epsom salts are mostly magnesium so it would actually end up causing it in most cases :( a calcium soluble source or even a calcium fert would help best to prevent it like Tomato-tone along with mycorrhiza to help the plant better uptake it. Also a consistent watering schedule, since I started doing these two things I haven’t had an issue with BER! :)
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your suggestion. I believe I have tomato tone in the shed. I’ll use it this year.
 
Blossom end rot is a tricky one to deal with. I have my tomatoes on irrigation which is about as consistent as watering can be. I use loads of chicken manure pellet fert that I think helped a lot because of the calcium. Early and late blight is a big issue for me. Trying to keep lots of air flow and removing diseased leaves seems to help. Last year I noticed that the tomatoes that were semi shaded with a bit of canopy from a big fig tree.... they ripened a bit later, but had pretty much no disease. I assume from less direct sun in the peak of summer and from keeping some of the rain off
 
TorontoJoe said:
Blossom end rot is a tricky one to deal with. I have my tomatoes on irrigation which is about as consistent as watering can be. I use loads of chicken manure pellet fert that I think helped a lot because of the calcium. Early and late blight is a big issue for me. Trying to keep lots of air flow and removing diseased leaves seems to help. Last year I noticed that the tomatoes that were semi shaded with a bit of canopy from a big fig tree.... they ripened a bit later, but had pretty much no disease. I assume from less direct sun in the peak of summer and from keeping some of the rain off
Click to expand...
Last year I used worm castings but now that I read this post I will try chicken manure. Thank you. The tomato horn worm doesn’t worry me but not sure if spotted lantern fly likes tomatoes. I never had to deal with them before but one showed up here last September so I’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
 
Figgerlickinggood said:
Last year I used worm castings but now that I read this post I will try chicken manure. Thank you. The tomato horn worm doesn’t worry me but not sure if spotted lantern fly likes tomatoes. I never had to deal with them before but one showed up here last September so I’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
Click to expand...

TorontoJoe said:
Blossom end rot is a tricky one to deal with. I have my tomatoes on irrigation which is about as consistent as watering can be. I use loads of chicken manure pellet fert that I think helped a lot because of the calcium. Early and late blight is a big issue for me. Trying to keep lots of air flow and removing diseased leaves seems to help. Last year I noticed that the tomatoes that were semi shaded with a bit of canopy from a big fig tree.... they ripened a bit later, but had pretty much no disease. I assume from less direct sun in the peak of summer and from keeping some of the rain off
Click to expand...
Yeah rain was my big issue last year, lots of split tomato’s haha especially the beefsteak and brandywine varieties but my San Marzano’s loved it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top