Tomatoes And Fog

[Worth1]

The originator of the thread.
That Dennis I thinks DennisH said they put out plants in April.
I don’t know how big they were or anything, at this point I am grasping at straws and only making suggestions from what I have read.
For years I put out tomatoes with my parents in Mo and Ok we would put them out early and we started from seed.
We would then protect them from frost with coffee cans.
We always got a ton of tomatoes.
Later in life I got onto gardening again and never got anything but cherry tomatoes to put out.
The reason being is the stores didn’t have plants till it was too late to put out tomatoes.
I tried all f the sprays to no avail still bloom drop.
Then one day I noticed a gardener had huge plants of 2 feet or more in February and they got large tomatoes to set.
Until I started reading on garden web about temperature and bloom set and how sprays did nothing to help I was clueless.
I just put out tomatoes earlier with better luck.
Now I know why my parents started from seed and planted early.
To this day I will put out tomato sets hope for the best and keep plenty in reserve just in case of a late frost or freeze.
I have Carolyn and the rest of the good folks here to thank for this information.
Worth

[mtbigfish]

Worth
My parents and 90% of my relatives are from Missouri the show me state - also some in Ak and Ok Oh Pa Iowa
My moms (one of 10 children) grew up on10,000+ acres in Mo - my dad 80 acreas - my moms parents had 2,000 acres left when her mom did a reverse mortgage and went into a rest home - wish we had all just chipped in and paid her rest home - would be nice for 2,000 acres of Mo farmland

As I mentioned I too set out early (also late) and all season from feb, mar, april May - then in mid to late july for late fall crop

I give maters away all season - and plants at the start of season to friends

I think DennisH will be OK if he has good sized healty plants to transplant and does timely plantings
DennisL

[Dennishorlick]

I have always put plants out April 1st. When I put them out they are about 6-8 inches. I have toyed with the idea of putting them out Mid March, but the temps, while not freezing, can get down to the mid 40's. I like DennisL's idea of using some sort of cover (maybe red plastic?) for the night and then maybe a cover through End of July/Aug. That becomes a real problem here also because all of a sudden the temps go to 100+ and the sun is really harsh. At 2500 feet, I'm above the clouds often and I find myself watering every day! Which, of course, is ridiculous and can cause blossom end rot and stress the plants. What do you use as a cover to protect from the sun? I can string whatever it is over stakes and remove on overcast days. Maybe the same material used to keep birds off trees?

Also, as the song says, "It never rains in Southern California. It pours!" So, we get rain, but it happens in a two month period and thats from Feb-March and it comes down in buckets. I've always been affraid to put plants out then because they could get washed away. Also, if I want to get nursery bought plants, they really don't start selling them until end of March. I do have a small greenhouse and have grown from seed many seasons, so I guess I could time that properly.

Anyway, thanks for all the good advice. You've given me plenty to think about.

DennisH

[mtbigfish]

DennisH
Are your plants in pots or ground? even with 100+ F my mom never had to water daily - early in the morning see if your plants are asking for a drink ie branches drooping - do not gauge this in the afternoon as it is normal to see some drooping then and the plant recovers overnight - the most she ever watered was 3 times a week ands that was with extended 110-115 degrees days
Agribon works for 10-20 degree variance warmer - frost covers can go down as low as 24 degrees I believe for some - shade cover for during the heat use shade cover - my mom used that green colored stuff you see at greenhouses but I would check and see which fits your need to protect from heat during 100+ days - I do not know how much they will drop the temp to the plant though
http://www.groworganic.com/browse_329_Row_Covers.html
http://www.groworganic.com/item_SER1...bric_78_x.html
http://www.groworganic.com/browse_32...ason_Exte.html

DennisL

[amideutch]

DennisH. You should be able to grow about any variety of tomato your heart desires. When i was growing up I used to plant tomato seedlings for my grandmother who had a house in Newport Beach. As the backyard was on a slope she would have me dig little canals between the plants and when she watered she would stick the hose on the plant at the top of the slope and the water would run down the canals to each plant.
As said before timing your plantouts is the key and if planted early enough you should have ample fruit set and be getting your first ripe tomatoes before the high temperatures set in which I remember as being in August when growing up in Whittier.
When I was living in Crete I had a small garden and was growing tomatoes, eggplant, melons and peppers. The problem I had with my tomatoes is I didn't get my tomatoes planted early enough and when they flowered it was already to hot for descent fruit set. What the locals did was dig a "V" trench and plant their tomato seedlings in the bottom and then cover it with clear plastic. After the temperatures outside stabilized they would remove the plastic. They did the same things with melons but ran a drip line down the middle of the "V" trench and thats how they watered them with the plastic on and when they removed it.
Another advantage of the trench method is the temperature of the earth at 12"-18" deep should be in the 50's. This is the temperature that commercial tomato growers use to give their seedlings the "Cold Treatment" which will give you stalkier plants and induce more flowering and fruit set. Ami

[carolyn137]

Ja Dennis, I'm here, I've just been spending almost all of my time with this seed offer I just posted last night.

And yes, I have been to your gorgeous home in Pacific Palisades and when I was there several years ago your tomatoes by the side of the house looked fine to me.

And yes, I was there and yes, it was foggy and I couldn't see the great view you kept talking about.

But I'm not getting it. As in, most folks I know in S Cal have fungal foliage problems from fogs which show up as the June Glooms.

When you say your plants don't make it or don't do well, what are you really taking about? Struggling, not vigorous, no fruits, or problems with fungal foliage diseases, or what?

Changing the topic, I've known Dennis since about 1990 when both of us were posting in the AOL Tomato Forum. He's the one who knows I love tennis and sent me a fan with Anna Kornikova pictured on it b'c he's in the ad business. I never liked Anna Kornikova. He's the one who came East with his one daughter to scout out colleges, Dennis is an Easterner anyway, and he and his lovely daughter stopped by the old farm where at the time I was living nearby, not in the old farmhouse, and actually I had sold the farmhouse/property and my brither and I were in the process of cleaning out.

So what does he see on the couch in the LV but a jar of Ragu tomato sauce and me with hundreds of tomato plants out there. He's never let me forget that.

So Dennis, why don't you tell them about the time you went to buy your tomato plants, reached for your wallet and it wasn't there.

Summary; if the problem isn't fungal foliage diseases I'm going to let the good folks here who have more experience with your area give you the best of their advice.

Deal?

[Dennishorlick]

It's a combination of fungal disease (which I've learned to deal with) caused by fog and temp shifts and some fruit never even setting.

The year I found you sitting on a pile of manure bags in Pasadena, you came to my house and gave me a list of tomatoes to grow at that altitude. Druzba and Stupice were among them and did great but I cannot remember the rest. The large beefsteak varieties just will not set fruit. If I do get a few pathetic fruits, they stay green forever. They will not ripen.

I can't even make sauce, let alone Ragu. If you happen to have that bottle, send it on, I could use it. That sauce you had for dinner was the last sauce I canned because since then I can't get fruit to mature.

And, yes, I definitely showed up at that nursery without my wallet. The lady was so impressed that I knew you that she allowed me to leave and send a check. She even gave me $2.00 in case I needed gas on the way home! Not only that, my dear, but that encounter supplied you with some Russian seed varieties that her husband, a CIA agent (for real), sent you from the Gulag! So, yes, Lady carolyn and I have had an adventurous past. Walking through her tomatoes was the highlight of my tomato growing life. I have NEVER , and i do mean never, tasted a tomato like the ones she loaded me down with for the trip back to the city. And almost all of them were the size of a small cantaloupe.

So, do you think you can remember, or recommend the varieties that will do better in these conditions?

Who knows, there may be more Russian seeds in it.

Dennis

[ddsack]

Great stories from both Carolyn and Dennis H. You'd probably never hear those on another forum.

Dennis, you might also want to try Azoychka, it starts ripening not that much later than Stupice for me, especially if I have it in a pot. Though most tomatoes are medium sized, I do get a few that are a bit larger. The taste is tart and citrusy, if you want a sweet tomato, this is not for you. Though they do get mellower the riper they are.