Be prepared for common tomato diseases

[boggybranch]

http://aperfectgarden.net/Tomato Diseases.htm

 

[hikerchick]

Last year I lost most of my tomatoes and all of my peppers to some kind of blight. It was heartbreaking. The plants would be fine one day and pile of mush the next.

this year I will be gardening in containers since I no longer have the garden. I am hoping the new locale will help.

 

[lesa]

Oh great! More things to worry about!!I am trying crop rotation, mulching, pulling off bottom leaves and praying..Interesting point, about the volunteer plants- I often let mine live, I guess they have to go. If we have as much rain, as we did last year, I don't think there is much hope...Thanks for the info, boggy!

 

[ducks4you]

**ducks4you grabs ALL tomato seedlings and hides them in the basement**

 

[Greenthumb18]

**ducks4you grabs ALL tomato seedlings and hides them in the basement**

Yep as if we dont have enough to worry about. I hope this year will be much better for all of us without the blight or other diseases taking over our gardens. Just what we need more problems .

 

[desertgirl]

After reading the replies, I'm too freaked out to open the link.....

 

[Whitewater]

It's just a list of tomato diseases . . .

I found the pictures of each issue very helpful, though, I've never experienced any of this stuff and sometimes it's hard to get an accurate mental image if words are all you have to go on.

Last year I did basic disease prevention by severely pruning the bottom 18" or so of my plants, so that I wouldn't get backsplash up from watering, and I pruned the entire plant so that there would be good air circulation (particularly important if you plant close together, like I do) and shade for the fruit, but I didn't do anything else, and my tomato plants thrived.

This year I intend to prune and I've also moved my tomatoes to another spot in the garden, just to be safe.

I will note, however, that the title of the blog is "A *Perfect* Garden", obviously, if perfection is one's goal, one will have different views of things. Personally, I figure if my plants are still growing and the weeds aren't too bad (defined as whether or not I can still see my actual plants), then I'm doing well. Perfection is not one of my goals, and if I get catfaced or cracked tomatoes, oh well. That's life. I can't control the weather!


Whitewater

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Dang, now I think I know what happened last year. I though may be they didn't get enough sun. I had blossom end rot!!! I planted in containers and they were partially shaded. Very little fruit and what did set had the black spot. I thought Miracle Grow was sufficient for nutrients? I need lime now? How the heck do I do this now that the plants are in the SFG?

ETA: This year I used Top Soil from the nursery who added compost and double sifted it. Whatever that means. I did add miracle grow in the hole I put the plant in and fertilizer called Osmocote which was recommended by the local Plant guy.

 

[digitS']

One of the most common causes of Blossom End Rot is allowing the soil to dry out. It isn't uncommon for the first ripe tomatoes to start off with this problem while the plants are growing rapidly and hot, dry weather is really taxing them. Soil here drains very quickly and BER usually shows up in a limited way early.

The calcium issue has to do with the plant's ability to hold water in its tissue, as I understand it. There can be adequate calcium available but water stress can still result in BER.

BER is almost unknown in cherry tomatoes, those folks with such knowledge tell us. Large fruits put greater demands on the plant for water.

I have had some tomato varieties that are obviously unsuited for my garden. One year, I made a real commitment to Beefy Boy. I don't remember why, I'd never grown one before and didn't know anyone hereabouts who had.

Every.single.Beefy.Boy.plant in my garden died! They could not reach fruiting stage - they just went. Meanwhile, there were plenty of other tomatoes that showed no sign of the problem and did fine. The Beefy Boys were not even all in the same location. I believe it was Early Blight and Beefy Boy must have had zero resistance.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket." I think the disease resistance of some modern hybrids is very important. My understanding is that very few tomato varieties were taken from their natural environment 100's of years ago. Altho' a number of varieties were developed in Europe, they were all very similar genetically. Some of the breeding lately has been to find resistant varieties in South America and get that genetic resistance into our garden tomatoes.

Until recently, I thought there were few heirlooms that had much ability to fight off diseases. Cornell University, however, lists quite a few, however!

Tomato: Disease Resistance Table

I'm very unwilling to give up some varieties that always seem to come thru in my garden. You can find them, too. Your local Cooperative Extension office should be able to help.

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

In Colorado, small tomatoes seem to do WAY better than those big varieties. I have no problem chowing down on a pile of super sweet 100's instead of a slice of beef steak