Anyone on here in Columbus Georgia area?

[edweather]

Ed how are your tomato plants doing? You must have a lot of beautiful ripe tomatoes. Mine have held up well considering I was 2 months late in planting them and it poured every day for 3 weeks and still raining quite a bit.

No ripe ones yet but have quite a few producing and getting close...

Ginny

Ginny, Thanks for asking. Just got back from vacation, and saw your message. We were gone for 2 weeks, and had someone watering the plants. Yes, we have had had a very good harvest. The pruning this year and vigilant spraying has made a big difference. Still picking tomatoes, and still setting some with a heat index over 100F. A little disease was present when we got back, but I made quick work of pruning and spraying this am. Our rain gauge had 5.83" in it for a 16 day total.

Hopefully you will have some ripe ones soon. Your plants look great. Keep up the good work. Best, Ed

[Barb_FL]

Ginny - they look so good ; you always get a great harvest. What are they?

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Ginny they look quite wonderful. What is the multiflora? Actually what varieties are all?

Hi Marsha,

I didnt have time to start from seed so when I found out we would be in Columbus for the summer I bought some plants online. They didnt have my favorites but I ended up with Red Zebra (the striped tomatoes pictured), Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Russian 117, Beefsteak and Reisntraube for the multiflora. I brought 2 earthboxes and some emply 7 gallon pots with me and planted them when we got here in early May. Looking forward to starting the fall seeds in late July.

I am surprised at how well they are holding up with rhe daily rains and scorching heat and humidity. But we are enjoying having tomato plants again... :-)

Ginny

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[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by b54red

I'm two hours south of you just across the state line in Alabama. I planted my second and third plantings of tomatoes on May 14 and again on May 25 and they are doing fine. They won't set as many as the ones I put out in March but what can you expect in this heat. Keep them sprayed with fungicide and watch out for spider mites about now. I found my first ones just last week in my greenhouse and also outside on my hardening off table which had the few seedlings I had grafted for fall tomatoes. I also found one plant in my garden that had them and pulled it since it wasn't doing much anymore and only had two small greenies on it. I sprayed all my tomato plants for spider mites a couple of days ago and they already look much better so there must have been some mites starting on a lot of the plants although the damage and obvious symptoms had not shown up yet.

Good luck with your growing in Columbus you should do fine.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Are you in Dothan? We've been going to Eufala area on weekends boating on the river from Florence Marina and Lake Pointe Marina.

Thanks for the pointers. What do you use for spider mites?

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by edweather

Ginny, Thanks for asking. Just got back from vacation, and saw your message. We were gone for 2 weeks, and had someone watering the plants. Yes, we have had had a very good harvest. The pruning this year and vigilant spraying has made a big difference. Still picking tomatoes, and still setting some with a heat index over 100F. A little disease was present when we got back, but I made quick work of pruning and spraying this am. Our rain gauge had 5.83" in it for a 16 day total.

Hopefully you will have some ripe ones soon. Your plants look great. Keep up the good work. Best, Ed

Ed,

So glad to hear it has been a good year. I cant believe how well mine have done with all the rain. I prune mine also to thin them out so they will dry faster. I picked my first tomato today but will be a few more days before it is fully ripe.

Thanks again for the advice!

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Ginny - they look so good ; you always get a great harvest. What are they?

Hi Barb,

I think it's the Texas Tomato Food that brings me lots of tomatoes.. :-)

I bought the plants from chileplants.com because I didnt have time to start from seed so its not my faves but the plants came in healthy and seem to be doing well so far. The list of types is a couple posts above in my response to Marsha. :-)

Ginny

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Hi Bill,

Are you in Dothan? We've been going to Eufala area on weekends boating on the river from Florence Marina and Lake Pointe Marina.

Thanks for the pointers. What do you use for spider mites?

Ginny

I don't fool around with them anymore. I use a mix of Permethrin 10% farm and vegetable one tablespoon to the gallon along with a teaspoon or two of Dawn depending on whether they have a lot of webbing and about 3/4 cup of food grade DE mixed with water and strained into my sprayer. I spray all parts of the plant and even the mulch under them. If it doesn't get rinsed off with a heavy rain it keeps on working because of the DE. It will kill both friend and foe alike so I only use it for spider mites or bad infestations of stink bugs, leaf footed bugs or a massive aphid attack. So far it is the least poisonous mix I have found that is effective but it needs to be applied late in the day to avoid killing bees.

Bill

[Fiishergurl]

How's it going for you all in this area now? I cant believe how well my plants have done with the high temps and all the rain.

Black Krim and Cherokee Purple quit setting fruit a few weeks ago but Red Zebra, Russian 117, Beefsteak, and Reisentraube are still pumping them out.

Pepper plants did well early on then wiped out so I pruned them, moved them to more shade, dosed them with epsom salts and now they are starting to explode with new baby peppers.

Have to say. I couldn't have grown these where I live in Florida during this time of year.

Photo 1 - a few tomatoes
Photo 2 - pepper plants going another round
Photo 3 - a cluster of Reisentraube

How about the rest of you near here?
Ginny

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[edweather]

Wow, your tomatoes look great! Am still picking a few here, but not setting many new ones. My Indian Stripe PL and Rutgers have a couple of small ones, but am basically done for now, and keeping the plants alive and hoping for the best. I should also say the Black Cherry is still in business.

[b54red]

Surprisingly I am still getting a lot of ripe fruits off my plants despite the high heat. Many of my older plants are suffering from spider mites which I am diligently trying to keep under control. I just planted a small bed of a dozen or so plants a week ago and they are slowly growing and hopefully be supplying me with some fresh tomatoes by the end of August and well into the fall if I can keep the spider mites off of them.

I grew Cherokee Purple for years but replaced it with the potato leaf version Spudakee because it consistently produced better and survived diseases better.

Bill

[edweather]

Congrats on your continuing tomatoes. Am still setting a few on my Rutgers, Indian Stripe, and Big Beef. The Black Cherry is doing well. When I say a few, that's it, but a few is better than none. Actually the plants are reviving and getting healthier, and flowering nicely, but am only setting one tomato for every 30 blossoms or so.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by edweather

Congrats on your continuing tomatoes. Am still setting a few on my Rutgers, Indian Stripe, and Big Beef. The Black Cherry is doing well. When I say a few, that's it, but a few is better than none. Actually the plants are reviving and getting healthier, and flowering nicely, but am only setting one tomato for every 30 blossoms or so.

I am still surprised that they grew so well in this heat, humidity and rain. It must be just enough more humid in Florida because these plants wouldnt have stood a chance there in June and July in central Florida. It's been a great bonus. Now I'm just starting my seeds ro take home for my Florida fall crop.

Thanks for the help and advice from you and Bill. We are going home in Sept so I topped all my tomato plants to get them to finish off the tomatoes they already have on them. I was going to pull my pepper plants but after I dosed them with calcium and magnesium the last few weeks they they started looking so much better and seem to be setting a lot of new peppers again now. Must have just cooled off enough

Ginny

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