Tomato Leaf Question

[AlittleSalt]

While my ankles were swelling up until yesterday - I didn't go out in the garden that much. It was also raining on and off. The pictures show why I'm asking this/these questions.

I was out spaying insecticide and noticed a few plants with really heavy leaf coverage. One is the VHS Cherry cross and the other is an Umberto. With the cross, who knows how the F3 will grow out, but the Umberto is an older tomato variety.

Things that could contribute to this happening:

It has rained around 7 inches in the past 18 days.
I fertilized right before it started raining 2 inches.

The first picture is just a random picture of other tomato plants. The second one is VHS Cherry, and the third one is Umberto.

[carolyn137]

Can you talk me through that Umberto one since I don't see the problem.

Yes, Roi Umberto, or whatever you want to call it, is an older variety, but I don't think that's the problem at all, since there are many varieties as old as that one , and older,many from the original Livingston Co,that grow perfectly well.

Carolyn

[korney19]

I didn't really see a problem--was one asked? I think the question would be why the growth or leaf coverage is quite full... I don't think it has anything to do with the bushy gene either...

[AlittleSalt]

Carolyn, the plants do look healthy. It looks a lot like some plants did last year when it rained way too much for 7 weeks straight = way too many leaves with little to no flowers or tomatoes.. It looks more like a bush than vines. It has rained an average amount this year - nothing like the floods of last year.

I'm mostly wondering if I should prune some of the stems and any leaf parts?

I have a couple more pictures I took. I'll post all 4 pictures, because my memory is short

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Carolyn, the plants do look healthy. It looks a lot like some plants did last year when it rained way too much for 7 weeks straight = way too many leaves with little to no flowers or tomatoes.. It looks more like a bush than vines. It has rained an average amount this year - nothing like the floods of last year.

I'm mostly wondering if I should prune some of the stems and any leaf parts?

I have a couple more pictures I took. I'll post all 4 pictures, because my memory is short

No sir,in TX I would not take off any foliage. I'm not so sure it's just the rain that's the problem, perhaps too much fertilizer, I don't know for sure.

Do you have just the one plant or perhaps another one in a different location to compare it to?

And I ask since if all your other plants have blossoms/setting fruits, my default answer is that it could be a mule plant, which I just diagnosed someone elses problem as being a mule plant.

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

The two could be mule plants. I didn't think of that. The others to compare them to do have flowers already and are larger.

[AlittleSalt]

Okay, now that our grandchildren are going to sleep, I can type more info.

For the most part, all of the earlier DTM tomato plants are already producing flowers and tomatoes. I even have a CP that has a large fruit on it. The later DTM plants are taking their sweet time as I expected.

Those two plants just look out of place or odd. When I look at them, I instantly think, "Something's not right here." There are three other tomato plants growing very slowly. Two are 1884 plants and the other is in the first picture I posted in this thread - it is a Blue Beauty that is 12" tall but already has a tomato on it.

Out of over 160 tomato plants - you've got to expect a few duds.

As for the Umberto, there is another one planted around 30' away, and it looks very good with flowers. The VHS Cherry and/or Riesentraube - there are 6 others planted that all look fine. 5 of those are plants near 40' away and another one around 100' away in a raised bed.

Korney, I don't think it is a bushy gene either (First time I've heard of it) - I think they are just oddball plants.

[Gardeneer]

Robert, judging from your pictures, your plants are neatly trimmed of lower leaf branches.
If you are getting many hours of direct sun (8 hrs ++) some extra leaves can be beneficial to shade the ground and the fruits. I am like you too . I don't like plants packed up with too much leaf branches I believe that not only you need good air flow under the plans also thru them, to help prevent fungal diseases. Any stagnation combined with rain and high humidity is the place for the fungi to multiply.

Gardeneer

[AlittleSalt]

I agree completely Gardeneer and couldn't have written it better myself.

There will be a layer of oak leaves and cypress mulch on the ground to hold down ground temperatures and help hold in moisture. In the first picture, the back row is already done like that. I don't want any branches lower than 16 inches when they get bigger.

[b54red]

I'm the same way and may be going too far this year. I prune all the foliage up to the first fruit cluster and am keeping all of the 60+ plants set out this year to a single stem.
Since I am doing the drop line and clip support I find it so much easier to lower the plants when they get too tall when pruned to just a single stem; but I'm sure I'll have a bit more sun scald than I would like.

As to your plants that have heavy foliage and few if any blooms it could just be the plant or the variety. I have several plants with little foliage and a ton of blooms and others with just the opposite. I do grow one variety Couilles de Tehreau that always is very late putting on its first blooms and usually the first cluster is no more than one or two blooms but after that it acts more normal. It is also a plant with very dense foliage.

Bill

[Kazedwards]

Not to get off topic but what is a mule plant?

As far as the tomatoes. Are they in a separate part of the garden. Could it be a difference in the soil such as more or less drainage? Perhaps you may have fertilized them twice by accident? Only thing I could think of.

Last year I had one plant that flowered and set fruit very late. It was Cowlick's Brandywine. It had a lot of leaf coverage but was one of the smaller bushier plants. It was planted at the bottom of a slope with very poor drainage. Only thing I could of it being. This year I'm trying it again in a better spot to see if I can get better production out of it.


-Zach

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by b54red

I'm the same way and may be going too far this year. I prune all the foliage up to the first fruit cluster and am keeping all of the 60+ plants set out this year to a single stem.
Since I am doing the drop line and clip support I find it so much easier to lower the plants when they get too tall when pruned to just a single stem; but I'm sure I'll have a bit more sun scald than I would like.

As to your plants that have heavy foliage and few if any blooms it could just be the plant or the variety. I have several plants with little foliage and a ton of blooms and others with just the opposite. I do grow one variety Couilles de Tehreau that always is very late putting on its first blooms and usually the first cluster is no more than one or two blooms but after that it acts more normal. It is also a plant with very dense foliage.

Bill

Bill , that is how they do it in commercial green house. I visited one last October in Canada. This ia how the did it.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Kazedwards

Not to get off topic but what is a mule plant?

As far as the tomatoes. Are they in a separate part of the garden. Could it be a difference in the soil such as more or less drainage? Perhaps you may have fertilized them twice by accident? Only thing I could think of.

Last year I had one plant that flowered and set fruit very late. It was Cowlick's Brandywine. It had a lot of leaf coverage but was one of the smaller bushier plants. It was planted at the bottom of a slope with very poor drainage. Only thing I could of it being. This year I'm trying it again in a better spot to see if I can get better production out of it.


-Zach

A mule plant is a plant that does not make blossoms due to a genetic mutation somewhere in the pathway for blossom formation.

So the plant stays in the vegetative stage of forming new foliage and roots, and gets much bigger than normal.

The energy the plant makes is normally used for the vegetative stage first, then the switch to the sexual phase of blossoms,fruit set and fruit maturation.

In the other thread where I was talking about mule plants I also mentioned that in the growing fields of my farmer friend who grew only F1hybrids,you could spot the mule ones ASAP b/c they were so large.

Carolyn

[Kazedwards]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

A mule plant is a plant that does not make blossoms due to a genetic mutation somewhere in the pathway for blossom formation.



So the plant stays in the vegetative stage of forming new foliage and roots, and gets much bigger than normal.



The energy the plant makes is normally used for the vegetative stage first, then the switch to the sexual phase of blossoms,fruit set and fruit maturation.



In the other thread where I was talking about mule plants I also mentioned that in the growing fields of my farmer friend who grew only F1hybrids,you could spot the mule ones ASAP b/c they were so large.



Carolyn

Thank you Carolyn.

[Gardeneer]

Mules (cross between horse and donkey) are sterile, and cannot multiply.
But the are strong. And thus Mule Team.

Gardeneer.