I killed my tomato plant

 

   This is a first for me.  I planted a yellow pear tomato, and I
remembered reading that you are supposed to plant them deep.  It was
about 9" tall to begin with, and I planted it with about 4" sticking out
of the hole.  It grew pretty well over the past 3 weeks, and was about a
foot tall.  Then it fell over, and started to wilt every day.  Today I
finally figured out that the plant was rotting right at ground level.
Evidently the daily waterings were simply too often, and so I killed it
with water.  I've never had that happen to a tomato plant before.  Then
again, I'm not certain I've ever watered them that often, either.
During the time the tomato was growing, I kept planting other plants,
and so I needed to get the watering wand out every day.  Since I already
had it out, I went ahead and got the tomato too.

   Now I'll have to decide what other vegetable to put there.

 

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:29:33 -0400, Ohioguy wrote:


You can put another tomato plant in, you still have time. I've been
spraying my tomatoes with copper fungicide spray this year to prevent
blight. Last year was a complete disaster in my area (New England)
because of late blight.

 




late >blight.
    Last year I brought home what looked suspiciously like potato
blight on some commercial cucumber sets; in addition, it took out a
tomato in short order before I got them disposed of. Fortunately, those
plants were in containers so the soil is isolated and I'll grow other
things in those containers for a few years.
    This year, it was a sudden onslaught of downy mildew that caused me
to pull a batch of "little marvel" peas on 1 May, just as they were
their most productive. Since then, I've sprayed _everything_ (well,
almost) with neem oil at least weekly, depending on rainfall. I also
sterilize my trellises, shears, knife, butcher's cotton twine garden
ties, etc. with 91% alcohol.
    This is my first year using neem oil. In past years, I've used
copper fungicides with only spotty, unreliable results so if the neem
doesn't kill stuff outright....
--
the Balvenieman
USDA zone 9b, peninsular Florida, U.S.A.

 

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:35:52 -0500, balvenieman wrote:


I'm using both copper and neem oil.

 

balvenieman@invalid.net wrote:

prevent

late >blight.

I wonder if I should somehow sterilize my old tomato cages?  (made of
rusty concrete reinforcement mesh)  Or maybe discard them and build
new ones?  They are at least 10 or 15 years old.  Do you think blight
(etc) spores could overwinter in the rust?  I leave them outdoors
exposed to the cold and snow, that's one reason they are so rusty.

Bob