General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.
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June 24, 2015 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Round Rock, TX, Zone 8b
Posts: 1,157
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What is going on with my plant?
(Warning: picture-heavy post)
I seem to be having multiple issues going on with my container-grown Tycoon plant. It has several ripening fruits (these pictures were taken a few days ago and even more are ripening now), but the leaves and parts of stems are looking sad. I also noticed a few weevil-like critters crowding one fruit (these have since been blasted off with water and insecticidal soap of dish soap, water, and peppermint extract has been applied) which you'll see in the pictures below. We are first-time tomato growers, growing in a big pot (can't remember the size, sorry) on our apartment porch. The plant was purchased nearly fully-grown at the end of April from a local nursery and appeared to be in great health, with a few blossoms already. It is now about 4 feet tall, and the whole plant was bent over pretty badly by some strong winds we had a few weeks ago (Memorial Day weekend Central TX storms and flooding). We had to removed a few damaged branches, covering the wounds from cutting with masking tape as a type of bandage to prevent infection. All fruit was intact and unbruised, so we got some taller stakes and tied up the plant for support as best we could. We were even able to save one of the branches we had to lop off and rooted it in a smaller pot (see pull-back photo of plant, at right in the corner of the patio is the new little plant with some dead leaves I need to prune off). I guess my point here is that, ever since that storm damage, the leaves of our main plant have been sad-looking, and I can't figure out the cause(s). We water every few days when the soil looks dry (it's a self-watering container), and use the miracle gro packets for watering cans once a week, sometimes alternating with a few tablespoons of liquid fish in the watering can. The growing medium is a miracle gro potting mix, and tomato/veggie fertilizer was scratched into the mix around the plant when we first transplanted it into the big pot. We've had no other pest issues with it aside from one hornworm we promptly removed and sliced in half about a week after planting. Okay, enough rambling, here are the pictures! Like I said, the plant is still producing fruit (and I see a few blossom buds and baby tomatoes as well), but the leaves look like they're trying to tell us something. (Plus, what on earth are those critters??) P.S. We harvested our first two tomatoes from the plant and used them in a pizza sauce last night. They were a little firm, but bright red (see my avatar), and worked just fine for the sauce once cooked. No internal issues aside from a little of the inner "core" near the stem being green, and some green seeds. Last edited by TexasTycoon; June 24, 2015 at 01:56 PM. |
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