Tomato Adventures - Part 3

That is so funny Horn.

Outsideplaying......there are many bugs that resemble the squash bug. I remember the soapberry bug cause it is red and black and it was called a berry of all things. I can't think of another bug with your description that is red and black.

I sprayed everything down with Daconil. I don't think it will do much good. Tomorrow I have to start pruning off all the yellowing leaves. It will take me two whole days to prune and clean. Two plants are complete gonners and they are located in the back yard. They have spots all the way up to the top of the plant and they are 5 feet tall.
All the tomato plants in the garden look wonderful. All the Better Bush in the raised beds look wonderful. Time for them all to get a dose of fertilizer. Even the tomato plant in the 50 gallon barrel has a few spotted leaves. All is not completely lost yet. I will just have to work a little extra to keep the fungus issues under control for as long as I possibly can.
My camera has dead batteries........ will post pics soon.

Box elder bug? http://www.google.com/search?q=box+elder+bugs&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=thq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oA6tT6KvPMqCgwel-NnVDA&ved=0CIABELAE&biw=953&bih=467

strange looking link; hope it's ok...

Maybe the bugs are stink bug nymphs. Usually when I see stink bugs around I find their nymphs about on squash and they are redish orange and black.

This message was edited May 11, 2012 7:28 AM

I don't think it's the box elder bug either. I think it looks more like the 2nd one in the photo in this link: http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg65.html
Kicking myself for not trying to get a photo but didn't think it would be so hard to find online.

Cricket, sorry you have so much work ahead!

Horn and Ernie - you guys are too funny!

Texas - that was exactly one of my first thoughts but I couldn't find a photo.

bad mater plant
fair mater plants
good mater plant

The better bush in the block raised bed have fallen to the side. That is kinda good cause they needed some air circulation between them and the 3ft eggplants behind them.

Dodged a serious bullet last night. We had a pretty decent storm push through, with lots of wind and over two inches of rain. Every one of my regular tomato cages was blown over and most of the cherry cages, too. Luckily, the plants were soft (well hydrated) since we had a rain the day before. I don't think any of them were broken, though a few green tomatoes were knocked off. I usually secure the cages with an overhead wire, stretched tightly between the ends of the rows. Didn't do that this year, and I may pay for it if we keep having wind storms.

I also picked the very first ripe tomato. A lone Sun Sugar had somehow managed to make it to ripeness. I also picked an Indian Stripe (bruised from falling) and a Big Beef that were both showing a lot of color. Several tomatoes are starting to show a little color. No time for photos, though. I have to catch a plane to get to my daughter's college graduation tomorrow. Maybe more ripe tomatoes when I'm home on Sunday!

David

Glad you dodged a bullet David. Congrats to your daughter for her great achievements. Hooray for your ripe maters..

I ate a Sun Sugar yesterday. I think it was over ripe. Too mushy. Sweet.

Question?? Is it true that it is the White Butterfly that is the mother of the tomato Horn Worm? I heard that recently and saw a white butterfly heading for the tomato plants.


Lisa, I agree with you about cold ground slows growth and warm ground speeds it up. I had to replace a few tomato plants for septoria, and the replacements were 1/3 or less the size of the older ones, but now the replacements are nearly as large as the originals.

Ernie

I echo what Cricket said, David. Congratulations to your daughter on her graduation and enjoy your weekend! Hope your maters didn't sustain damage, but that's a lesson for me to get some of my regular cages ready for the storms that eventually will come! Mine are beginning to set fruit!!

Ernie: - The tomato hornworm's mother is a moth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_sexta

The white butterfly you saw was probably looking for something in the cabbage family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieris_brassicae

Honeybee, Thanks, Mark told me it was a Hawk Moth, and it does not come to this area until late June or July, so i will not worry about the butterflies.

I have been seeing tons of those white butterflies too they are everywhere. Not just in the garden. I dont ever remember seeing this many.

Typical Texas. I had only one white butterfly and you have a hundred of them. LOL.

Ernie

Ernie,

Haven't you heard, EVERYTHING'S bigger here in TEXAS!!!!LOL...

I have seen more butterflies this year then ever before. But, like my boyz said, their babies are eating mom's plants. Lol

Alaska has many more Mosquitos then Texas and they are the size of Lear Jets. It's truly amazing, and gross.

Kev, Yes, I have heard that, and after driving across it a few times, i think everything is farther apart, too. LOL.

Lisa, Wyoming has a lot of big mosquitoes, too. I was fishing with my brother one time and there were so many mosquitos on his head i thought he was growing hair again.

Ernie

Well. ... It seems I have two soil borne diseases in the tomato greenhouse. Fusarium Wilt and Verticillium Wilt. Which means I can't grow tomatoes in that soil for 5 to 7 years. Deep disappointment. I could try raising the pH and solarizing the beds but chances are it will still be there. So......I will have to grow in containers and the containers will have to sit on plastic so the roots do not enter the soil......for at least 5 years. Seems like forever and such a wasted grow bed space. I can't grow eggplants, no peppers, no potatoes, no tomatoes and no beans. GEEEE
What is left???????????????
Okra?
Corn?
greens- turnips, lettuce, ???
Would Squash be ok? or Pumpkin patch--haha
I am just strucken with disappointment.

I have another greenhouse frame that I can put up somewhere for container tomatoes...................gosh that really sucks!!!

Cricket - I am so sorry for the problems you are having with your tomatoes. The only thing I can think of is for you to move the greenhouse - but I assume that is not feasible.

Oh, Cricket, that really stinks!! So sorry!!

greenhouse is wooden framed and concreted. 24x 75.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/fusarium-wilt.html

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/mycostop-fungicide.html

I can try solarizing for 8 weeks this summer. Some claim that it works wonders.
Meanwhile.....the house is loaded with plants. Don't know if I have the heart to pull them up just yet. Maybe 1st of July.

If I lived close by, I'd come right over and just hold your hand....and then I'd help you start on phase 2 of your growing operation.

So, so, sorry, my friend!

cricket - that just stinks! What a shame and waste of your time and energy. I too am so sorry for your troubles.

That stinks! I wonder how they got there?

How it happened:::: Growing during cool season with no heat and no air circulation and wet soil with poor drainage.

Cricket, are you sure about the diagnosis? Not to question your wisdom, but from what I have read there are many ailments that can resemble each other's symptoms- maybe what you have is not that serious? (just hopeful thinking for you) Since you are a commercial grower I'm sure you know worlds more that I do, but just in case ?

I am 99 percent sure, but I am human so there is room for error.

I just used some BioGrow Endo in some soil for 9 potted tomato plants. These plants go in the ground somewhere but I haven't decided where yet. The holes that I dig will also be treated with the same stuff. Just experimenting with these plants.

http://www.hollandsgiants.com/mycorrhizae.html

Cricket,
You may not be in the mood for an old man's advice, but in my 86 years i have had my share of ups and downs, and nearly everytime disaster has struck, it has opened up a new door, or path, to an even better situation. So, while i do know how sick this makes you feel now, there well may be some real, but yet unseen, benefits from this in the future. I have enjoyed very much reading and learning about your accomplishments, and am sure you will fully recover from this.

Ernie

thanks everybody....and thanks Ernie..

To make a long story short

Mycorrhizae fungi enhances the health of plants by colonizing the plant roots with sticky hyphae making it difficult for disease to get into the plant roots. It is a good fungi that blocks the bad fungi such as Fursarium, Rhizactonia, Pythium, and Tricoderma. Mycorrhizae and other good fungi are destroyed when heavy chemical fertilizers and fungicides are used in the garden. Mycorrhizae fungi thrives in organic rich soils but deteriorate when the soils are tilled. It is important to add this fungi back into the soil at the root zone when transplanting into the garden or when you sow seeds.

This information and a lot more is in the book Giant Tomatoes by Marvin H. Meisner, M.D.

My plan is to solarize the beds for 4 weeks instead of 8. It only takes 4 to 6 weeks.
Then I will amend the soil and add fresh organic matter along with mycorrhizae fungi and other good fungi.
I want to add worm castings to the beds cause they are loaded with natural micro nutrients but I don't know how much to add. They say you can never add too much but they never say how much is needed to begin with.
I have my chickens and my rabbits for compost. Now I need a worm farm. I think I read that it takes 2000 worms to produce 7 lbs of casting per month but I have no idea how much that is by cup measurements. I know it doesn't take as much micro nutrients as it does regular NPK. And you only have to spread the worm casting every 3 months or so. But how much?

The other great thing about all this is.......they say one plant will produce more tomatoes than you can imagine which cuts down on how many plants you grow............ 10 to 1. If you grow 10 plants using heavy fertilizers and end up with disease and fungus then your production is low.....of course. But if you grew just one plant using balanced organic amendments and fertilizers such as kelp and fish emulsion, then your production will be more and last longer than those 10 chemical plants. Most people grow many many tomato plants just so they can get enough fruit before disease takes over. (like me)

I am loading the compost tumbler today. It is barn litter full of hay and chicken manure. It should be ready to use by the time the beds have been solarized.
I have a lot to do and will plant in the beds in about 8 weeks and see what happens.
I won't be growing the single vine plants. I will be growing whole plants with some pinching and pruning. I don't want to waste all my time tieing up single vines only to end up with a disease a few weeks later. Using reinforcement wire cages that will be torched to burn any disease that may be on the cages. I am only growing 24 plants.

That sounds like a workable plan- good luck. It is so sad that you had all the problems this year after your hard work. I think the challenge of gardening is what makes us keep going when we have setbacks. I'll be looking for your progress reports.

I always knew that organic gardening was better for the plants and the earth but I never had a resource for organic but I have been working on that for a couple of years. I started out with cow and switched to goats and chickens but gathering goat manure was difficult cause they walk all over the place so I sold the goats and bought rabbits cause their poo is right there and easy to gather. Chicken litter is easy to gather too and I have a years worth to compost. On the normal average, if a chicken or rabbit eats 1/2 cup of feed per day then that is "about" how much poo you get in return or just a tad less.

Cricket-adding Organic Material to the soil improves the health of the soil but you can still use man made fertilizers, as the plant can not tell the difference between synthetic or natural N,P, or K. There was a thread on this topic on the Soil and Compost forum. When you use synthetic fertilizer you have a lot better idea of exactly how much of these major amendments you are giving your plants.

That being said I do lasagna gardening meaning that I add OM to my garden year round and hardly ever till. I can tell the soil is healthy because there are a ton of earthworms. The soil around here is terrible but after many years of adding OM I can now dig with a hand shovel. And the micronutrients are very important too, its not an either or, its a balance.

Thank you for pointing out that solarization is great but it does kill the good as well as the bad (like antibiotics). So the good needs to be replaced for optimal results.

YOu dont think I should solarize?

I knew i could use some syntheic fertilizers but heavily and I have to wait 2 weeks after adding mycorrhizae fungi to give it a chance to take action which has antibiotics.

Thats not what I meant. Youve done a lot more research and have a lot more experience then I do. All I meant was that solarization kills the good and the bad but it sounds like your going to add the good back in. I think you need to do whatever works and it sounds to me like you have a good plan. : ) By adding the Organic Material you will improve the overall health of your soil, but that doesnt mean you cant use other fertilizers as needed.

I think you should do whatever you were going to do, I apologize if I implied other wise. Good Luck!

I feel like somebody cursed me......you know.......a hex.
I saw that there was a few fungal problems still showing up here and there so I pulled out the hose and the hose end sprayer and I sprayed everything with with Daconil.......from top to bottom and side ways. Three days later Everything had powdery mildew from top to bottom.
It was like the fungicide drench gave them a fungus...... A few days later......today.......they look like they have yellow chicken pox.
This has been by far the worse year for me.

All the tomato plants in the greenhouse, in the grow beds in the back yard , in the table top gardens , the squash in the backyard , all have powdery mildew. Even the better bush in the garden had powdery mildew. (i got mad and ripped those out of the ground) On the other end of the garden, There is 6 Celebrity tomato plants, One sunsugar, and one sweet million cherry and non of those have any issues at all. Somebody knock on wood.

I need to know something.
If a tomato plant starts having a few fungal problems rather it be mildew or whatever, will it always have that problem? Is it running through its veins? so that even fungicide will not stop it? I have never seen so much fungus in my life and spraying them with fungicide didnt help.

http://powderymildewremover.com/

hmmmm