Marianna's Peace Tomatoes

[Tutter]

LOL! Oh, that's completely evil....I love it!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

My Monday report has come and gone (mostly gone) largely because there was little to report.

Marianna's Peace is doing awesome! It's great to know that a little weakling can be nursed back to health by using a few tricks and tips! As of Monday, the plant is now 38" tall and is filled with flowers. I still can't tell if any of them will turn into anything, but I have my concerns that the little green critters are still doing damage.

I have a container of Oakland's garlic/onion/pepper concoction brewing right now and once I pick up some Castile soap, the bushes will all get a nice dousing. I can't see how the stuff wouldn't work. It's quite pungent stuff!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Great news! It's funny that you say that, last season we were going to try and keep producing tomatoes through the winter so we started a flat of different varieties. Well, to keep a long story short I got really ill and that didn't work out. The flat of tomatoes was abandoned and put outside to fend for itself, most of the tomatoes died quickly. One little plant however, lasted the entire winter outside and is now growing in the main garden and producing nice sized tomatoes! Goes to show you don't sell tomatoes short!

Yeah, that stuff is really strong and I hate getting it on my skin because it smells and kind of irritates. If you do spill some on yourself just wash up with some toothpaste. Takes the smell right out.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

It's true, isn't it?! In our weather, tomatoes can be quite an efficient little plant. I found a website recently for a company that sells heirloom tomatoes and they actually recommend planting some late season tomatoes and over-wintering them. If you're interested, I'll see if I can dig that up again.

I hope you're feeling better!

Thanks for the warning about the stuff getting on the skin. When I chopped the peppers, I threw them in, seeds and all.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Here it is:
http://heirloomtomatoplants.com/

And, I did a typo in my previous post, Marianna's Peace is not 38" (that was last week). Marianna is now 47"!!!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

It really was amazing because we had some really cold weather over the winter.

Wow 47"! Now that's cool!

That's a pretty nice website, in the past I've ordered from Tomato Growers Supply and Heirloom Seeds both pretty good sources. I'll have to try the website you recommended. We're always on the look out for more varieties. Although I should probably plant some of my own seed stock next year.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Well, I'm not sure why it is that some plants just survive over the winter in our weather. I have three plants going now that were from last year. I left them in, just to see if I could. The patio tomato (in a container) is still alive and has numerous tomatoes on it right now. I leave that one for the chickens to snack on. A German Queen in the backyard (in the ground) is also coming back and has flowers. Another German Queen on the side yard isn't doing as well, but I've pretty much ignored that one so it doesn't get much water.

Out of curiosity, what kind of tomato is the one that survived in your garden?

The place that I provided the link for is located in Lomita, which is in the South Bay area near Torrance.

Although I've never ordered from any of the places we've mentioned, I've had my eye on some pepper seeds from Tomato Growers Supply. I will be ordering from them for next year, so perhaps I should pick your tomato brain before then!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Great news and not so great news. . . . . . . .

Marianna's Peace now has tomatoes - three that I've counted so far! But, I still have the dang bugs and now there's a new problem with all of my tomato plants.

First - two pix of the new tomatoes!

And another. I'm leaving this pic a bit larger so you can see the bug just under the tomato. Can anyone ID that bug?

And the other problem. In the past week and a half, some of the leaves on my plants have been yellowing, then dying. Here's a picture of the Marianna's Peace. What is causing it and how do I fix it?

The plant that has the worst case of this is the Howard German. It's not looking good at all.

This all happened so quickly so I'm afraid that if I don't nip it soon, it may be fatal.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Well the challenges keep on coming.

Looks like a wilt to me, either Verticillium or Fusarium. Are there black areas on the stems near the leaf nodes?

It's a fungus. Although some fungicidal sprays like copper and sulfur can help in this it will not solve the problem since this cannot be cured. This won't really kill the plant but it will stunt the growth and make for smaller harvests. I would recommend using a sulfur spray weekly up until you end harvest.

Those tomatoes look nice, hopefully they come out!

Good luck!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

The Howard German has one darkish stem, but the other plants don't seem to have that. Could it be that I have two things going on?

I did some reading on the sulfur. . . Do I want plain sulfur or the lime sulfur?