Thursday, February 16, 2012

2011 Tomato Crop

I had a great tomato crop in 2011.  I decided to keep count of all the ripe tomatoes that a picked from my six plants.  From the first two that I picked on August 4th on through October 16, I picked a total of 683 big, juicy tomatoes.  My tomato plants grew to a height of 7 1/2 feet and continually bloomed and produced right up to frost!

The growing conditions for tomato plants were terrible.  We had a long, cool, wet spring which included a frost on May 17, followed by a hot,dry summer.                                                                            

Cool,wet conditions are perfect for disease pathogens, such as early and late tomato blight, to grow and spread.  I started spraying my plants soon after planting, before any evidence of disease started to show up.  I started out spraying my usual copper based fungicide and when I say spraying them I mean after EVERY rain.  That meant some weeks I was spraying two or three times.  In fact, I ran out of my spray and had to get a different brand at a garden center which worked great. (See Caring for your tomato plants post)

Free $20 off any order of $40 or more!Between sprayings, I could see some of the leaves starting to curl.  That is the most obvious sign of a disease problem and you need to address it immediately.  I could see some spotting start on some of the lower leaves but, as you can see in the above photo taken August 6th, I kept them pretty much disease free all season. 

The wet spring was immediatly followed by hot, dry weather all summer.  I mulched heavily around the base of each plant with grass clippings and kept them watered.  Some weeks when it was in the upper 90s I would water them twice a week.  Large, indeterminate tomato plants that are loaded with tomatoes need a lot of water.  When watering, it's important to water only at the base of the plant and not on the leaves.  I usually remove the spray nozzle and turn the water on to produce a low pressure stream.

Sharing my experiences to help you with yours! 
Tomato Rog

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