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General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.

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Old February 11, 2017   #211
MissS
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I know that Sweet Scarlet has very dense foliage as do most dwarfs. You should prune out some of the leaves that are touching one another to open up the plant if necessary. Also look at the other plants density of growth to see if it is inhibiting air flow while you are noticing the soil. Powdery Mildew is spread by spores. It is possible for the soil to have the spores, but more importantly is keeping conditions unfavorable for them to grow. Keep plants pruned and spaced well apart. Keep the humidity as low as possible. Keep fans or doors open to facilitate ventilation.

Marks link is a very good reference. There are other sites listed at the top of the disease forum that are also quite good. Read what you can and then we are here to help you too.

Regards ~ Patti
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Old February 12, 2017   #212
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Patti..Its 7.49pm and I have had it....I have just finished spraying with Natures Way and potashing the ones that i thought were ready for it ...Individually put up on the work bench and sprayed etc plus the leaves checked and then put back again where they came from....What happened to the days of just directing a hose at everything ...........The worst thing that could happen is if in the morning when I wake up and go out and 1/2 of them are dead cause there is some guess work with me and the potash.......I really do have some nice plants out there and I have 25 beautiful young ones still in the house under Led Lights and fans...If Myco is what everybody says it is goodness knows how much fruit I will get....

I presume I wait now to hear about the myco ..It will not be far away ....My next watering is supposed to be calmag...

Its just a pity that I have a problem of some sort but I hope to keep on top of it..Thats all I can do...everybody tells me...WE just break the branch off?? .....I can open the back door (now that I have one) it will let the prevailing wind go through and I still have fans I can set up....I will have a tomato to eat in a few days....Goodness know what will happen if we get a week of summer or worse 2 weeks?? There will be Tomatoes everywhere ...The Early girl inside is going to be cut off at the stem ....The #3 TT can still soldier on....Its got several beautiful red tomatoes on it....Small but will be very eatable...

I presume I could set my greenhouse up quite easily to grow tomatoes through winter......???

The help I was promised never arrived to get the glass door on the roof replaced so I will put an extra rope on each end which should allow me to get it down safely....on the next fine day....
I still have the mystery of the lost Rootstock seeds and the NFBT seeds ....They just have not appeared yet they must be in the house....Somewhere...

REgards Ron
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Old February 12, 2017   #213
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Patti...Before I forget ..I have a question re planting young plants....Mine have grown very spindly ...Now I think they must be transplanted deep IE above the growing leaves ...Should they be removed first or just cover them within the soil....Thanks Ron
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Old February 12, 2017   #214
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Hi Ron, when I transplant deep I always remove the leaves before placing them in the soil.

What happened to the days where you just directed the hose at the plants? You can still do that if you want to. However, then your plants would look like they did last year... It is much easier to grow the plants outside, but once you can mimic the natural conditions minus the wet foliage, then it is actually easier and less work to grow them inside a greenhouse. Keep your doors open as much as possible to keep the ventilation going. That is crucial for this many plants.

Do not give your plants the Calmag until we see how your plants have done with the new feed. Things may need to be modified, tweaked and re-adjusted until we have it right.

I'm glad to hear that you are so accomplished at starting tomato plants... The problem is, WHERE are 25 more plants going to go??? Tomatoes do not stay small for long. They take up a lot of space.

Cheers ~ Patti
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Old February 12, 2017   #215
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Patti...I Have just inspected my Tomatoes and everything looks to me as being pretty good...The new feed has only been applied to the WM Drums IE the Super TT's .....and they have always looked good....I do see a tomato that is changing colour so we are not that far away from a "Super cRop" .....Now I do not know exactly what I should be looking for ...If its colour well that looks alright on my youngest plants .....I have changed my order to 500G of Myco and the 10/25 mix......

AS before the milk has done wonders to my Powdery plants ...they look great but I presume one has to keep the treatment regular.....

My main concern at this stage is watering ....My Super plants were watered 2 days ago but not the rest and it could be hot today and they will need watered and to be honest I would not have a clue what to water them with ....Plain water or one of the fertilisers I now have...We have basicly 3 crops of Tomatoes and each is in a different stage of growth ....The previous crop is IMO of main concern so I have posted a photo of the stage they are at...my small Campari is a concern but I will get it right...

Yes I am well aware I will have a problem later ....I will manage it and do what is necessary...One point re the hose ...I have never hosed my plants ...I have no idea what caused all the diseases of last season ....I still think there was a seed problem ..none of that companies seeds were used this season......I am using underwatering just as a backup to my normal manual watering and am watching that ....Next season I hope to work out something better...and I should have fewer plants as by then I will have worked out exactly the varieties to grow...

REgards Ron
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Old February 12, 2017   #216
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Ron water with just plain water between your regular feedings.

We are looking for signs that the plants are being over fed with nitrogen. This could cause burning of your plants and excessive plant growth at the expense of blossoms and fruit. We do not want your plants turning a blue/green or having their leaves turn under. This would be a sign of too much nitrogen. The Calmag is really going to boost the plants uptake of this and have them greening up for you. We may have to adjust your feed by either decreasing the Calmag or cutting the use of your fertiliser in half and then maybe both. Not a bad problem to be spending less on your fertilizer.

Yes you need to keep applying the milk spray just as any fungicide. Your new growth will not have any protection if it is not sprayed.
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Old February 12, 2017   #217
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Patti..I am looking at Phostrogen ...I never realised it was made by Bayer....I am trying to set up one WM drum for self watering.....Do you know that the white plastic on the top and on the the bottom are separate compartments for water ....It keeps the drum in balance when its spinning...Of course the water makes the drums very heavy so i drill holes and release the water but maybe I could use one or both of these compartments for water storage ....At the moment I am working out a way to hold the wicks in place prior to the soil being put in the drum.....Its raining again ...never stops... found some more red TT tomatoes ??Cheers Ron
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Old February 12, 2017   #218
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Patti...This is what I have done....I have tied 4 lengths of twine to the top of the WM Drum secured by screws.... then tied the twine to my wick material which is fed through to below the drum ......this is to help keep the wick in place when soil is put in the drum.....The drum itself will sit in a steel warming tray from an electric range which is about the perfect size...and that is my reservoir...It will have a hole in it to prevent any overfilling..so it can easily be fed by a hose or bucket...

The wicking rope will certainly draw water....I will ensure the gaps will be covered to stop any soil getting through to the reservoir ...I want it clean down there...so the only question mark is will a plant get the sustainance via the 4 x wicking ropes....I presume I give it a try and see what happens...

The Myco company has some more tomato products coming online later for the next season??

Regards Ron
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Old February 13, 2017   #219
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Patti..I finally transplanted the 25th seedling out of the propagator....But as usual I still have a couple of questions....I wonder if there is any way to give this seedling the cold treatment ...I am still not sure of what this actually involves ...I presume it needs light ?? and cold..The cold I presume is to close the growing progress down so that the stems etc thicken...
Also
I still have the Super TT cuttings in their water (with Seasol??) ....with some great roots on some of them .....With the impending arrival soon of the myco products I would like to try a couple of the cuttings ...innoculate them as per your instructions and then wait and see how they respond...and if I can visibly see changes in the growth pattern...for future reference..

Earlier today I posted that "it could be hot" ...well just after lunch time the dark clouds rolled overhead and it suddenly turned cold ...I had to bike uptown and it was like a bad winters day...I was freezing but there was not much rain thank goodness....but 140 miles away north in Dunedin they had hail,wind unbelievable torrential rain and of course flooding.... ..The top of the North Island is just the opposite and has been for some time ...They are in a heat wave while the rest of the country think we should just swap our seasons IE make Winter our Summer...People have just about had enough....If the heater had not been put away I would have set it up to heat my room and myself..
I had hoped summer may be late but we may not get summer at all..

Cheers Ron

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Old February 13, 2017   #220
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Ron it really is not practical for you to make some contraption to give your plants the cold treatment this late in your growing season. If it is that cold there today it would be far easier just to place it outdoors in a protected spot. Since it is so late there, I would just pass on the cold treatment. The plant will still grow and produce for you. Yes, the plants still need light to photosynthesize. If you are hardening them off during the process then keep them out of direct sunshine.

The mycos will help your plants with the uptake of nutrients and allow for a healthier root system. Healthy roots mean healthy plants, provided that you keep the diseases at bay.

We have had strange weather here as well this winter. Time will tell what summer brings.

Regards Patti
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Old February 13, 2017   #221
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Patti..Two more photos of a drum... as you can see its now in a tray and I have added some cloth to stop the soil going into the tray ...I have put two buckets of soil in it and i will now put water in the tray and see what happens over the next 5 days...by testing the soil by touch for water ......Nothing fancy but I think it will do the job...
Cheers Ron..
PS...Would be pefect if the fertiliser could be included in the tray and be drawn up to the roots..
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Old February 13, 2017   #222
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Patti..I knew McGregors were useless...I have an email from them re a data sheat for Wuzul K....its "priviledged" Information ....Ron
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Old February 13, 2017   #223
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Patti...Now I have another Email from the prospective Myco seller...If i do not get it soon my seedlings will be dead ...I will have to water then now and wonder what to do with the Myco when it arrives...Cheers Ron
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Old February 13, 2017   #224
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Ron, of course go right ahead and give them some water if they need it. Since it is so cool, they will not be needing much. After the mycos arrive, all that you have to do is place some of the myco material in a shallow bowl. Remove the seedling from the pot. Dab the root ball into the myco mix and then plant it in it's new pot. You will not be needing to use a whole teaspoon. Just a dab will do. I use mycos every time that I pot up a plant whether or not I did it as a seedling before.

I wonder if this is the McGregors that I have done business with before in importing amaryllis bulbs. It's OK if they do not want to declare what is in the package. I find it strange though. It sure would not work here in the USA though.
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Old February 13, 2017   #225
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Patti...I gave them a Teaspoon (1/4 of the spoon they provide )of Phostrogen with 4.5 L of water .. and gave each two 1/4 cups of the mix...About 3 lent over on me but I hope they will come right in a Day or two....I am now out in the greenhouse giving 2 - 4 cupfuls ( depending on the pot size ) of full strength Phostrogen so I wonder if they will enjoy that .....that is the tomatoes that have flowered and most of them have fruit....I will also do my "hospital" corner with the same mix then spray them with milk again...

Then I will look at the buckets that basicly contain my 2nd last lot of propagated seeds ...I will probably give them 1/2 a spoon in 4.5 litres of water..IE 1/2 strength ...and then relax for the day ...The watering does not take long and I know I am doing a good job.to the best of my knowledge ...I will also check my WM drums but they had 2 litres of Wuxal K the other day so they should be all right...If there is any sign of wilting I will give them water....

After telling me a few weeks back that his tomatoes were great the Lawn Mower man has leaf problems and also some of his friends have the same..They do have Tomatoes though??? I actually welcomed his enthuiseastic comments on mine... ....Awwww!!!!! There looking Great????

Of course I said.."wait till I have applied the Myco thats coming down from the North Island??"...of course he never knew what I was talking about but I enjoyed making the comment....hopefully it shows I am learning...

Regards Ron

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