Spotted tomato check-in

[beac]

Well, I continue to battle spots on my tomato leaves. I think I've moved on from septoria leaf spot to bacterial speck. :(

Oddly, the lower temps lately have all of the plants making and ripening fruit, but the leaves continue to pop up with damage. Every plant is still making nice, new green leaves too, so I wonder if we'll just keep going this way. The plants don't seem to be dying off, just much less big and healthy than they were last year.

My two volunteer tomatoes under the front-yard tree both turned out to be Black Cherries (as i was hoping b/c I didn't plant any this year) and they are going gangbusters. No spot so far and they are both over 6 feet tall. The branches of the tree are making a great 'trellis' and I think I'll be able to harvest the first tomatoes tomorrow.

So, fellow tomato sufferers, how go your own wars against spots, specks, insects and ground hogs that go bump in the night?

[Denninmi]

1. Believe it or not, pretty well.

Not many diseases here. The 40 day deluge of rain quit just after I planted them out in June, and we had a hot dry spell of about 5/6 weeks, so I think that kept the diseases to a minimum. I picked about 1/2 a bushel last night. I think the excess heat made them set less, not tons on them, but I'll get enough.

I also have managed to keep the deer at bay this year by spreading Milorganite fertilizer and rotten eggs around the garden.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Doing great here in Raleigh - saved seeds from most of my 200 varieties - decline underway.

It is so hot for so long that by mid August, it takes its toll - I am working through pulling most of my plants, but have some healthy later planted back ups coming along. Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Chocolate are still thriving (as they always do here)....right now it is sweet and hot pepper and eggplant harvest time.

All in all, this was the opposite of last year! We got plenty canned, dehydrated, given away and consumed.....just today I started chard, beets and lettuce for a fall garden!

[beac]

3. I swear, I may just have to make a pilgrimage to Raleigh for my tomatoes next year!

I'm really hoping this "spot" is a one-year thing due to our weird weather and not something that I'll have battle every season from now on.

Of course, all weather seems to be weird these days. Who knows what next year will bring!

[WhiteTara]

4. I don't have spots, but I don't have tomatoes

either! I'm battling horn worms but blossoms have been scarce and fruit even scarcer! I'm feeding with fish emulsion in hopes of building blossoms and fruit. Everything in my garden is slow this year.

[beac]

6. Aw....

:hug:

Also try Lyric's milk bath (see the post on this forum). It really helps the plants set flowers.

Hornworms are the WORST. So gross. Oddly, I've only had ONE this year. Very strange. If you see one that looks like it's covered in rice, leave it on your vine. It means that a branocid wasp has laid eggs on it. It will kill that hornworm and hatch new wasps to kill others. I had quite a few of these last year and maybe that's why so few hornworms this year? :shrug:

Icky illustration of above:

[Le Taz Hot]

5. Doing reasonably well but not great.

I have Horned Worms again (always) but those are picked off by hand (I only have about 10 tomato plants) which are then sacrificed to the Hungry Birds God. I've had terrible end rot this year but only on the Celebrities, nothing else. It's been in the mid to upper 90's here, cool for us, so they've stopped producing for awhile. They'll resume again when the weather cools down. The only other thing is that I got much less yield from each of the plants this year. Lots of foliage and buds but few converted to actual tomatoes. The exception has been the Cherry Tomatoes.

[beac]

7. Thank goodness for cherries!

Mine are bouncing back pretty well now, but I'm sure I'll never catch up to last year's levels.

[femmocrat]

8. We have some kind of blight --- AGAIN.

I bought expensive heirloom tomatoes and the leaves are all blighted. I could scream. The plants I started from seed look much healthier although they don't have any ripe tomatoes yet.

The tops of the plants look OK ... setting new blossoms. But the leaves at the bottom are really blighted. So depressing....