Update: 2016

Here's where I came from:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1402155/?page=2

Everyone was so helpful last year with my tomato problem. I wanted to let you know the status of my tomato garden this year.


We have had a decent tomato season this year. I am satisfied. Although, it's not "abundant and over flowing", it's definitely enough to keep us satisfied with fresh, home grown, garden tomatoes.
We planted our plants the third week of May ( a little late.)
We got our first tomato, Kellog's Breakfast, July 26th which is later than what we used to get (July 8th or so), but it wasn't the last of August either!

Here are a couple of pictures of our tomatoes:
First picture: Last week in July
Second picture (today): left row is Gold Medal
then (red) is Mortgage Lifter
then gold ones are: Kellog's Breakfast
then the two pink ones are: Cherokee Purples
then, the last row, bright red is hybrid, Jet Star
Third picture: Kellog's Breakfast 1# 1.5 oz.
Fourth picture: Gold Medal: 1#

Here are the things we did differently:
1. The main thing we did was plant the tomatoes 48" apart instead of 24". So, fewer tomatoes.
2. Eleminated the over head watering and did a soaker hose.
3. No new soil, no amendments to the soil.
4. Tomatoes are in same location, I lost out on moving them. We did plant a couple on the opposite side of the yard (south side). We have gotten one tomato and plants look unhappy.
5. We put straw down right away on some of the plants and black garden cloth on others. This did't seem to make any difference. The plants grew faster on the black cloth, but didn't put out tomatoes any earlier.

I just wanted to report back to everyone.
Beth




This message was edited Aug 6, 2016 8:02 PM

Birder, your spots on the tomatoes look to be typical of later season tomatoes getting insect damage or fungal diseases. Even when I spray (very late afternoon/evening) I still get that sometimes.

I don't do a lot of rotation due to garden size, but next year try incorporating some compost into your planting holes. I buy a bag of Composted Cow Manure (Black Kow) you can buy at HD or Lowes. I put a big shovel full in each hole and work it in with the other soil I put in the hole. Also, this fall, put all your leaves, grass clippings, kitchen compost, etc in your soil. No need to till in, just put it on top of your soil and let it do its work. I don't till my garden at all, just plant it next spring, trying not to plant in the same 'hole' as last year. Good luck!

The last two pictures of our tomatoes look kind of bad, but I'm just glad we're getting tomatoes. We get rotted horse manure locally. We'll toss some of that in next year. Maybe I can get hubby to take the scraps out to the tomato garden. He takes them out and piles them on our compost pile. I think it's a good idea to put scraps right on the garden.
I don't use insecticide on our tomatoes.