Fonesca,
Your setup looks awesome! The plants look healthy and I you've given me some good ideas about an issue I have just been outside dealing with.
Most of all, thank you for sharing the details of your setup. Seeing how other people are growing, especially in troughs, is not only extremely interesting, but so helpful as it gives me ideas I never would come up with on my own. Also, it looks like your plants are spaced far more sensibly than mine are
I'd be curious to know how many vines from each plant do you typically let grow in a setup like this? I would also love to see some more pics as your plants progress, and definitely when loaded with tomatoes!
l think you just convinced me to give my plants a little "haircut" as well. I always used to do it when I grew tomatoes in-ground, but wasn't sure if the soil-less mix and mulch made it safer to leave those lower branches, and I thought the extra leafy branches might help them grow a bit faster. I guess there are bugs and bacteria everywhere though, so I think I'll lose the branches down close to the mulch. Plus, mine are getting big enough that the lower branches starting to get shaded from the upper ones anyway.
Due to the extremely tight plant spacing, I expect I might have to thin some foliage out even more as they grow to maintain ventilation, but I need to find the right balance to prevent inadequate photosynthesis and prevent sun scald. Even limiting to 2 vines per plant, I'm pretty sure some thinning will be necessary later in the season as things get too tight. I am hoping to figure how much foliage I can thin out when the plants are much bigger, with minimal detrimental effect. I got greedy this year, but depending on how it works out, I won't cram so many plants in my container next year. It was just so tempting to keep planting...
I went out to see if I could find what has been eating some holes in my plant leaves, and ended up getting sucked into hunting for and taking pics of lots of the different insects I found on my plants. I plan to post some of the better ones in the "Pests" section in a thread I started over there after I get them downloaded and resized. Hopefully at least some of the insects are beneficial or harmless, due to the sheer variety of different types I found. I think I'll be going to get some DE tomorrow. I don't know much about neem, but I'll check it out.
My wife is getting her PhD in plant science, but she works exclusively with grapes and their genetics, and doesn't take any interest in vegetable gardening; that's my department. Well, at least until its time to pick and eat them for dinner
She brought me some Safer soap insect spray they use in the university greenhouse, but based on what she tells me and what I've read here, it has to sprayed directly on the pests to kill them and spraying all over the foliage wasn't recommended.
I'd prefer to take a more preventative approach with DE and perhaps the neem you mentioned. Any other suggestions from anyone would be appreciated.
I think I did find the culprit that's been chewing little round holes in some of my leaves while taking pictures tonight. All I had was a camera phone, but the patio lights are bright and I had a good flashlight, so I think I got some decent pics. Hopefully someone over in the Pest thread can help identify if its a flea beetle. I've only seen them online, but I think it fits the symptoms. If not I have plenty of other insect pics I hope can be identified and determine if they are problematic or not.
Anyway, It's getting to be time to post some more pics of the plants as they've been growing, but it has been so wet and cool here I am waiting for a few warm sunny days to give really help give them a growth spurt first.
As always. thanks for reading my post. I know I am long-winded sometimes.
I appreciate the thoughts, ideas, pics, and advice. It's always great to hear what others are doing in their gardens.
Cheers!