My Green Tomato Photos

[Trudi]

I made a new photo gallery album of green tomatoes ;-)

Enjoy!

http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Green_Tomatoes.html

[Kamper420]

Those are some nice pics. What do you use to keep the bugs off and the disease away?

[Trudi]

Hi Kamper,

I don't have problems with bugs because I grow a large variety of flowers in my tomato beds, actually every-other space in the bed is planted with flowers or flowering herbs, and I also use old-fashioned trailing petunias for groundcover. The flowers do more than make the garden pretty, they attract beneficial insects and those control the bad bugs. In the last five years I've only seen two hornworms and those were both studded with wasp larvae.

I do not use any sprays or chems to control bugs--it's a horrible idea as the sprays will kill the beneficial insects. Because I have a few feet of spacing between my tom plants there is good airflow--airborne diseases do still occur with some plants that are prone to that, but it is at a minimum amount. Soilborne diseases aren't a big problem either as I amend the soil yearly with compost and grass clippings and rotate my tomato positions in the beds. The spots that had toms last year have flowering plant this year. Having a healthy growing envirnment with moisture retaining soil and adequate airflow is very important to having healthy plants. Selecting toms with resistance to your regional tomato diseases is going to increase your chances for success.

If I ever have a plant with serious health problems I control the problem by yanking the plant. Several years back I had to yank one that would wilt in midday sun--out it went and I never missed it. I have a few dozen tomato varieties here as well as the rest of the garden to tend, so annoyance plants get the heave-ho immediately. A sickly plant won't be missed, I don't have to give it TLC--which I don't do with ANY plant here (uggghh! that's extra work) and I don't emperil the rest of the plants in the garden by keeping a diseased or weak and pest ridden plant which can A) infect other plants and B) pass its inadequate genetics onto a next generation. Immediate culling assures that infections and infestations have a limited/nil chance to spread and the next generation may not be weakened by genetically passed susceptibility.

I'm glad you liked the photos. I'll be doing many more this coming year ;-)

Kindly,

Trudi Davidoff
WinterSown.Org

[Kamper420]

That's great you don't have to use any chemicals. I am very leery about using chemicals on my plants. I went out and bought Ortho Disease and Pest control but I have it still sitting on my counter debating if I should use it or not. My plants very in size from 6 inches to 2 feet. I planted marigolds but they seem to die off and the ones that do make it are not growing. What flowers or other vegetation do you recommend I use between my tomato plants? What do you recommend for the few that are in pots?
Thanks,
Kamper

[Trudi]

Hi Kamper,

I grow almost all my flowers and herbs from seed, though I do sometimes by six packs. For the holiday weekend, as we were having a family barbeque, I wanted to have something large and very showy for the patio planters and so I bought red flowered New Guinea impatiens, white petunias and purple petunias--there were no blue petunias--so I bought purple ones that have a white star. In the center of the planter went one tall, upright New Guinea impations, and around the edge, so they could trail down, I planted eight petunias, every-other one being white or purple. Nice. It was simple and holiday pretty. A few years back we bought several self-watering planters. They have a reservoir that holds a good deal of water. They are large--maybe knee-high. I don't remember the amount of soil that goes in them but I would like to say 2 cu.ft.

You can do all sorts of combos in your planters--depending upon the planter size you can really go nuts with them.

In my largest ones I've done a mini three-sisters garden with ornamental corn, vining beans and small mini-pumpkins--like Baby Boo, which is not a big wonking vine, it's very demure for a gourd.

For flowers you can do annuals and/or perennials. If you do use perennials keep in mind that they usually have their own particular bloom periods--they don't bloom all season like deadheaded annuals. So, if you choose perennials, choose them first for their leaves, the flowering is the secondary reason to choose them. In other words, they are always in leaf, but not always in flower.

If the planter is up against a wall or fence you can place the tallest-growing plants at center of the very back--the area that is closest to the fence. In front of that you put some plants which are medium to low in height, and in front of them you put the trailers and spillers--the flowing-down plants, like petunias, vinca, sweet potato vine, english ivy, whatever--it's up to you. You don't have to do all flowering plants, visual excitement also comes from plants with dramatic foliage.

In the veggie beds around the edges I put the herbs--the reason why is that I won't have to dodder in on the walking boards to cut some parsley or cilantro--it's right at the edge and easy to get to. Last year I had clumps of Purple Majesty Millet separating the rows in one of the beds--in front of the beds were calendulas, red tassel flower, purple petunias and red geraniums. There were also interplantings of Zinnia elegans "Giant Cactus Flowered", which were incredible eye candy.

This year, I've already planted annuals of marigolds--the gem series I think-from dollar store seeds, there's red flax, there were petunia seedlings but the snails ate them (grrrr), there are calendulas, white baby's breath, pink dianthus, and Lilliput Mix Zinnias--there is also parsley, cilantro, white cauliflower, yellow wax bush beans, lovage and some other stuff I can't remember.

Over in the other tomato bed--the wacky one made up years back from an interconnected series of lasagna beds and looks like a domino game in its layout--I've been planting out flower mixes, hunk-o-seedling style.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Hunk-o-Seedlings.html
I've got fragrant mix, wildflowers for cutting, old fashioned annuals--which appears to have a good amount of amaranths but I don't know yet which ones ;-) I LOVE amaranths, and I've also got single plantings of annuals and perennials. Today went in Salvia farinacea Blue Bedder and a few black eyed susans--Rudbeckia hirta Prarie Sun (?) , pink clarkia, more white baby's breath, and some other stuff I can't remember.

My garden is never the same from year to year. I cull at least a forth each season, either for overhaul or boredom. It's an ever changing scene here as I redo and rework the gardens. I'm in the middle of uploading some flower photos, I've got the underlined links done, the rest will be ready by the end of next month. I hope. I try to do one color a week. A lot of these were in my tomato beds, or very near them. All in all, because of the large variety, the amount of insects I attract assures that there are both pollinators for the plants that need them, and bennies--beneficial insects--to eat up any bad bugs that are in their way.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Flower_Galleries.html

[JBinKC]

I can barely wait for my surprise tomatoes to get big enough to start to try and identify, My ST-1 is the first of all of my plants to set fruit, it has 2 on it now they are about the size of a pea.



It is averaging about 10 blossoms per cluster, Potato leaf variety.

Are there other signs of individuality i can look for plant wise?

[Trudi]

I have a file of some tomato leaf scans that I uploaded last year--a few are PLs, you might be able to see something similar enough to narrow down your probably choices.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Tomato_Leaf_Scans.html

Ten in a cluster is certainly a large amount ;-) It sounds like a cluster tomato or a cherry type, but truth be told, the likely variety will become more and more evidents as the fruits grow and finally ripen.

Tell me about your mystery toms. I also love suprises--in all the sases that I fill I always include a mix of INDs. It's a lot of fun for folks to grow out the mix and get to see and eat all the assorted shapes and colors that toms can be, it's especially nice if someone is most used to round and red as the optimal, if only, type of tomato they know.

[JBinKC]

I went out and did my June first check up on the ST's today, all have buds and or blooms, ST1 is the only one with fruit so far.

They other 9 are Regular leafed and 3-7 blossoms per cluster, My husband went and got 3 bales of straw in the back of his ford taurus today and we mulched them with that.

I took photos of all the leaves, clusters and plants today, but it may take me a bit to organize them. I think I ended up with 35 photos for the 10 plants.

I noticed today my rain meter had 2" of water in it and I had dumped an inch out of it Monday after the hard rain which only lasted about 30 minutes. It has rained off and on since then.

Removed some more lower stems so they wouldn't be to close to the ground, Trying to keep them in the little cages i have is a challenge )

I'm looking forward to more variety in my varieties, I have 13 Varieties other than the Surprise Toms.
Black Prince, Korney's Cross "A", German Johnson, Viva Italia, Delicious, Sweet 100, Earl's Faux, Yoder's German Yellow, Cherokee Purple, Sasha's Altai Pride, Dick's Tomato, Super Marzano, and Heidi.


Here are the ST's in the garden 1-10 closest to farthest

[Trudi]

They look great. While they're still small it might be a good idea to drive a large stake into the ground close to each plant. Later on you're going to need that extra support to tie up the stems, or just let them overflow the cage tops like a green tomato waterfall.

[JBinKC]

Ok I got them organized

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...=ST10leaf1.jpg

Yeah I want to get some more staking, I had to tie one to the cage today to keep it from leaning the wrong direction.
I work on them daily for now to keep them trained up into the cages to go over.

[Kamper420]

Thanks Trudi for your advice. This year I spaced my plants further apart so I hope that the air flow will help.
I planted about 8 plants in about a 4x6 area last year and I had a lot of problems with bugs.

[Trudi]

Thats a very good set of photos--you did a good work with them ;-) I like that you used a white paper under the segment you were photographing--it makes the clarity so much better. They all look very healthy. I look forward to seeing the picts of the fruit. To me, the leaf in the number five photo is very appealing--no particular reason--it just looks wonderful to me.

Trudi

BTW---you've got great nails. Mine are cut very low and usually have dirt under them, lol.

T

[JBinKC]

It looks white but it's a metal clipboard that i was making my notes on, it was handy and didn't fly around like paper hehehe

I wanted clear photos of the leaves for my records, It makes it somewhat easier to compare leaves with possible matches.

I like #5 also it has been one of my favorites it is fairly bushy and about the 3rd tallest. I usually catch myself standing at #5 and 6 the longest looking at them.

Trying to keep them healthy had a bit of blight last year, hoping the straw will help with that this year.

Thanks They break off, grow back, The guys at work are always don't break your nails, I just tell them they grow back, they are in fairly poor shape now between gardening and cleaning :/

off to sleep, I went out at dusk to look over the plants killed more aphids ( I just can't seem to get rid of those things ugh.

[JBinKC]

#2 has set fruit, I hadn't really been looking for it over the last few days, most plants have fruit started now...#5 is being evasive as of yet though )

However #2 Set a pear shape fruit in clusters of 6 or 7.

[Trudi]

Maybe there a cluster of plums or grapes.