Quote:
Originally Posted by Heritage
Scott,
Thank you for the feedback! The "Hillbilly" seeds Ellie sent were from her stash of gift seeds. When her growouts don’t produce the quantity of seeds necessary to list at the site she will often send them as gifts. I'm guessing you have a heterozygous line of Hillbilly (rather than a cross or mutation). If it turns out to be an exceptional segregation then you might grow it side-by-side with "Hillbilly Potato Leaf" to determine if there is a difference. It looks like your plants are doing great with our unusual, hot, humid weather. How are your plants doing in general? Spider mites?
Steve
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Steve:
I moved from the big property in Valley Center and now am about 7 miles from the Pacific Ocean. I went from 2 1/2 acres to about 80 sq feet for my garden. The property is on a canyon leading directly down to the Pacific, so we have almost a constant breeze of 5-10 mph. Summertime highs are in the high 70s to low 90s. Humidity here is way higher than what I am used to. This year has been unusually humid.
This is my first year using grow bags. I have found the grow bags much easier than growing in ground. ProMix HP, a little Tomato Tone and Texas Tomato Food and the plants get just as big as plants in ground. Since I have room for only 8-10 plants, they get more attention and I tend to catch problems earlier. After losing a few tomatoes to BER, I have found that it is necessary to water twice a day in this heat.
The biggest problem here is Tomato Russet Mites. I think the constant wind is a culprit. Here the TRM doesn't start from the bottom up as they did at the old place. They tend to start at new growth. I have lost Momotaro, and Cherokee Purple to TRM. I nearly lost Kelloggs Breakfast and Sungold to a combination of TRM and Early Blight.
Cosmonaut Volkov was a victim of being planted in only a 5 gallon grow bag and not being trained to only a one or two stems. It produced an enormous amount of tomatoes early on, but simply became root bound. Next year no tomato gets less that a 10 gallon bag.
I am treating the TRM with a combo of DE and pyrethrum. It seems to work as a preventative on plants not already affected and at least slows them down on other plants. Just when you think they are under control, they come back. Maybe new one blowing in on the wind. Next year I won't wait until plants start to look distressed.
I saw more Tomato Horn Worms here this spring than I saw in 10 years in Valley Center. I got tired of picking them off, so sprayed a little BT and haven't seen one since.
BTW, the German Johnson Benton Strain and Rebel Yell I got from you are loading up with fruit and look fantastic. I may have to cull fruit from Rebel Yell. Eleven tomatoes on a single truss is too much. I noticed yesterday that TRM is just starting on the GJBT. The first indication is that the sepals turn brown on newly set fruit and the immature buds turn brown and drop off.