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Old December 8, 2016   #2326
Barb_FL
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Yesterday DH and I took more of the casters off the EBs. This has to help with the winds gusts.

Ginny - I'm picking my big tomatoes earlier than I usually do also. Mainly to get the weight off the plant (for wind) but I think it will really help with the splitting - more likely in the spring.

RE: experiment - I'm interested but 6 plants in an EB?????? I have big problems staking 2 plants. What about pruning the 2 plants in an EB to 2 stems, and have 1 plant in an EB go free? Would need 2 of everything so 4 EB, 6 total plants.

RE: Staking - On Cyber Monday (Free Shipping) I took a chance and bought a set of cages from Harris Seeds. They are too large for EB, but will be great for 15 G Root Pouches. They are square, green coated, 18" wide, 58" tall with 16" leg spikes. They are really nice. I'm saving one for the Esterina tomato this spring. There were 3 cages to a set.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2327
Fiishergurl
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Barb can you post a picture of the cages?

Larry - you expressed and interest when I mentioned this before so Im letting you know that I am doing a test of topping two of my plants. I have Sgt Peppers and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye in the same EB. PBTD has 31 tomatoes on it, and Sgt Peppers has somewhere between 54 and 58 (I cant get an exact number... I tried many times... lol) and all the new blossoms on both plants have quit setting. So I topped the plants and cut off some extra suckers and cut off as many of the dead or young blossoms I could. Seems like every time I look I see ones I missed. Its not the weather as the other plants that dont have as many toms are still setting.

The intent is to allow the plants to focus on growing the tomatoes they have, and then hopefully set new blossoms. Thats what happened in Philly when I topped my plants there.



I already posted the Sgt Peppers

Ginny

Last edited by Fiishergurl; December 8, 2016 at 08:53 AM.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2328
Zone9b
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiishergurl View Post
Barb can you post a picture of the cages?

Larry - you expressed and interest when I mentioned this before so Im letting you know that I am doing a test of topping two of my plants. I have Sgt Peppers and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye in the same EB. PBTD has 31 tomatoes on it, and Sgt Peppers has somewhere between 54 and 58 (I cant get an exact number... I tried many times... lol) and all the new blossoms on both plants have quit setting. So I topped the plants and cut off some extra suckers and cut off as many of the dead or young blossoms I could. Seems like every time I look I see ones I missed. Its not the weather as the other plants that dont have as many toms are still setting.

The intent is to allow the plants to focus on growing the tomatoes they have, and then hopefully set new blossoms. Thats what happened in Philly when I topped my plants there.
Ginny
That should be interesting. After topping will the plant every produce additional Fruit Branches or does it have to grow more stem or stems to add additional Fruit Branches? Also, if the plant has been completely suckered and it is topped does that terminate all new growth and leave the plant with only growing larger fruit or setting fruit on existing branches?

Can anyone help me identify this insect shown below? I only see them on tomato plants. Sometimes I see many on a single tomato, but to me they don't seem to cause harm. Is that true or are they actually harmful in some way to the plant and if so how do I get rid of them?
Larry
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Last edited by Zone9b; December 8, 2016 at 12:15 PM.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2329
Barb_FL
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Larry - Isn't that the Leaf Footed Bug? (if it is, it's a bad bug)

Similar looking ones are the squash bug (another bad one)

and Assassin bug (a good one)
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Old December 8, 2016   #2330
BigVanVader
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That looks to be an assassin bug. LFB's have feet like little leaves.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2331
Barb_FL
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Ginny - Until I get a picture, this is what they look like:
http://www.burpee.com/gardening-supp...rod001781.html

I didn't buy from Burpee but they had better pictures. They are probably the same cages b/c I've been buying the square ones (48" total including the 6" foot) from ParkSeed and Gurneys and they are identical. I've had the ones from Park Seed for years now.

These big cages were $5 less at HarrisSeeds. I think $39 if you just want the galvanized metal.

I couldn't justify buying the tall cages from Texas tomato cages $169 for 6 and they are Round.

-------
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Old December 8, 2016   #2332
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That looks to be an assassin bug. LFB's have feet like little leaves.
Yes it basically looks like this but without the gold stripe on the back and never with those fancy back legs with wings.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2333
Barb_FL
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Originally Posted by Fiishergurl View Post
Barb can you post a picture of the cages?

..... I have Sgt Peppers and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye in the same EB. PBTD has 31 tomatoes on it, and Sgt Peppers has somewhere between 54 and 58 (I cant get an exact number... I tried many times... lol) and all the new blossoms on both plants have quit setting. ..... Its not the weather as the other plants that dont have as many toms are still setting.

The intent is to allow the plants to focus on growing the tomatoes they have, and then hopefully set new blossoms. Thats what happened in Philly when I topped my plants there.



I already posted the Sgt Peppers

Ginny
Ginny - I have the same thing going one, no new fruit set when lots of tomatoes BUT I don't have 85-90 big-type tomatoes in the same EB.

Was this a hurricane tomato?

Can you tell us again what you are doing? Initial pruning? Feeding schedule?
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Old December 8, 2016   #2334
Fiishergurl
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Barb these were hurricane plants. They were also very leggy and i laid them down in the earthbox so they had more stem to grow roots. I gave them 1 teaspoon of calcinit once a week until the first blossoms. Then switched to continuous feeding of TTF following the directions for container feeding on the back of TTF bottle) for about three weeks and then 3 waterings without food. I didn’t prune any suckers but extreme pruning of leaves 2 times a week because of leaf diseases. They grow back just as fast as I cut them. The flowers exploded in the beginning and if I was home I buzzed them two to three times a day and initially had almost 100 percent fruit set... probably higher than 95 percent. And then one day it quit and dropped to about 5 percent fruit set on these plants but not the others yet. This pretty much happens to my plants every season. Initial boom, then wiped out. The tomatoes on Sgt Peppers and PBTD seem smaller than they should be but they arent ripening yet so time will tell.

I promise I am not making up the number of tomatoes. If there was someway for me to get them all to show up I would. If they didnt set another tomato it would be fine because they are setting enough. Im just wondering why that happens. I do think its because the plant can provide only so much energy at a given time. It would like a dog trying to have 30 puppies in one litter. 10 to 15 for some breeds maybe, but 30, no. So maybe a large fruited tomato plant just cant support more than that at one time? Over time yes, after the ones on there are gone and there is more energy available for new fruit.

Thats why I think with 6 double stemmed plants in an earthbox you could get more tomatoes since each plant could easily handle 20. 12 stems would be less stems than I have in my earthboxes now. I mean no suckers, just the double stems.

Ginny

Last edited by Fiishergurl; December 8, 2016 at 01:21 PM.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2335
Fiishergurl
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Originally Posted by Zone9b View Post
That should be interesting. After topping will the plant every produce additional Fruit Branches or does it have to grow more stem or stems to add additional Fruit Branches? Also, if the plant has been completely suckered and it is topped does that terminate all new growth and leave the plant with only growing larger fruit or setting fruit on existing branches?

Can anyone help me identify this insect shown below? I only see them on tomato plants. Sometimes I see many on a single tomato, but to me they don't seem to cause harm. Is that true or are they actually harmful in some way to the plant and if so how do I get rid of them?
Larry
I thought when we topped the plants and pinched all the suckers in Philly that would mean the plants would be done... NOT! Lol. That just made them mad and they came back with a vengeance. Every place where a stem goes out of the side of an existing branch a sucker can grow. So our plants in Philly kept putting out more and more suckers which put out more blossoms and almost all set and made new tomatoes. I let them do it because the initial round of tomatoes were mostly harvested. In the end because of all the new growth I ended up with 30 pounds of green tomatoes when I cut the plants down and had already harvested all the original ones.

Thats why I wanted to try it here when my plants got overwhelmed. I guess if you think about it, if you keep most of the suckers pruned you get steady production over a longer time. With my wild and wooly method of feeding them a lot and letting all the suckers grow, they produce a lot initially, then burn out. If you have a short season, my way is good for that... lol. But maybe cutting them back now will give them another round. Especially since I dont have the leaf disease issue that I would normally have by now.

Ginny
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Old December 8, 2016   #2336
Barb_FL
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Ginny - I definitely believe you re: the # of tomatoes. You are awesome!!! Applying TTF is so easy. It's so funny, on my RP with the BrandyBoy cluster that had 6 with BER, I ended up feeding it TTF saying I don't care about my experiment and it never had another BER tomato again. I did go back to Masterblend - It's like once you are making the solution for one, it's just as easy for all.

I also feel like if none of my EB or RP sets another tomato I'm more than happy with what I have. It has been one terrific season.

I'm thinking of the variety for the experiment now. Your way involves far fewer EBs.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2337
Fiishergurl
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Marsha,

You are doing two double stemmed plants per EB with no suckers right? Does it seem like you could squeeze in more plants?

Ginny

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Old December 8, 2016   #2338
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Marsha,

You are doing two double stemmed plants per EB with no suckers right? Does it seem like you could squeeze in more plants?

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
Well, I guess the short answer is Nope! Barely room for the 2, even trimmed.
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Old December 8, 2016   #2339
Fiishergurl
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Haha... it seemed like they were pretty full from some of the pictures you posted. I grew 6 tigers/bumblebees one time in one 18 gallon SWC with 2 stems each. They were crowded but were ok. Didnt seem like I got much fruit per plant so I didnt try it again. Still, might have to give it a whirl in the spring just to see what happens. Although probably by then I will be distracted by something else... :-)

Ginny

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Old December 8, 2016   #2340
Zone9b
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Larry - Isn't that the Leaf Footed Bug? (if it is, it's a bad bug)

Similar looking ones are the squash bug (another bad one)

and Assassin bug (a good one)
Thanks but I don't think it is a Leaf Footed bug. It doesn't have the unique looking back legs, it doesn't have the horizontal white strip on its back. Also, if it was I would see tomatoes damaged with soft spots where the bug is located and I don't see that at all.
I also don't think it is a squash bug I had them on my summer squash and when I stepped on them they crunched from their hard shell. This one doesn't crunch at all.
It is not as flashy looking as the assassin bug so I don't think it his him. However, I will have to try to look more cloesly at its beak to rule out assassin bug for sure.
Larry

Last edited by Zone9b; December 8, 2016 at 05:07 PM.
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