December 8, 2016 | #2326 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Indialantic, Florida
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Yesterday DH and I took more of the casters off the EBs. This has to help with the winds gusts.
Ginny - I'm picking my big tomatoes earlier than I usually do also. Mainly to get the weight off the plant (for wind) but I think it will really help with the splitting - more likely in the spring. RE: experiment - I'm interested but 6 plants in an EB?????? I have big problems staking 2 plants. What about pruning the 2 plants in an EB to 2 stems, and have 1 plant in an EB go free? Would need 2 of everything so 4 EB, 6 total plants. RE: Staking - On Cyber Monday (Free Shipping) I took a chance and bought a set of cages from Harris Seeds. They are too large for EB, but will be great for 15 G Root Pouches. They are square, green coated, 18" wide, 58" tall with 16" leg spikes. They are really nice. I'm saving one for the Esterina tomato this spring. There were 3 cages to a set. |
December 8, 2016 | #2327 |
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Barb can you post a picture of the cages?
Larry - you expressed and interest when I mentioned this before so Im letting you know that I am doing a test of topping two of my plants. I have Sgt Peppers and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye in the same EB. PBTD has 31 tomatoes on it, and Sgt Peppers has somewhere between 54 and 58 (I cant get an exact number... I tried many times... lol) and all the new blossoms on both plants have quit setting. So I topped the plants and cut off some extra suckers and cut off as many of the dead or young blossoms I could. Seems like every time I look I see ones I missed. Its not the weather as the other plants that dont have as many toms are still setting. The intent is to allow the plants to focus on growing the tomatoes they have, and then hopefully set new blossoms. Thats what happened in Philly when I topped my plants there. I already posted the Sgt Peppers Ginny Last edited by Fiishergurl; December 8, 2016 at 08:53 AM. |
December 8, 2016 | #2328 | |
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Location: Central Florida
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Quote:
Can anyone help me identify this insect shown below? I only see them on tomato plants. Sometimes I see many on a single tomato, but to me they don't seem to cause harm. Is that true or are they actually harmful in some way to the plant and if so how do I get rid of them? Larry Last edited by Zone9b; December 8, 2016 at 12:15 PM. |
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December 8, 2016 | #2329 |
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Larry - Isn't that the Leaf Footed Bug? (if it is, it's a bad bug)
Similar looking ones are the squash bug (another bad one) and Assassin bug (a good one) |
December 8, 2016 | #2330 |
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That looks to be an assassin bug. LFB's have feet like little leaves.
Last edited by BigVanVader; December 8, 2016 at 12:31 PM. |
December 8, 2016 | #2331 |
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Ginny - Until I get a picture, this is what they look like:
http://www.burpee.com/gardening-supp...rod001781.html I didn't buy from Burpee but they had better pictures. They are probably the same cages b/c I've been buying the square ones (48" total including the 6" foot) from ParkSeed and Gurneys and they are identical. I've had the ones from Park Seed for years now. These big cages were $5 less at HarrisSeeds. I think $39 if you just want the galvanized metal. I couldn't justify buying the tall cages from Texas tomato cages $169 for 6 and they are Round. ------- |
December 8, 2016 | #2332 |
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December 8, 2016 | #2333 | |
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Was this a hurricane tomato? Can you tell us again what you are doing? Initial pruning? Feeding schedule? |
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December 8, 2016 | #2334 |
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Barb these were hurricane plants. They were also very leggy and i laid them down in the earthbox so they had more stem to grow roots. I gave them 1 teaspoon of calcinit once a week until the first blossoms. Then switched to continuous feeding of TTF following the directions for container feeding on the back of TTF bottle) for about three weeks and then 3 waterings without food. I didn’t prune any suckers but extreme pruning of leaves 2 times a week because of leaf diseases. They grow back just as fast as I cut them. The flowers exploded in the beginning and if I was home I buzzed them two to three times a day and initially had almost 100 percent fruit set... probably higher than 95 percent. And then one day it quit and dropped to about 5 percent fruit set on these plants but not the others yet. This pretty much happens to my plants every season. Initial boom, then wiped out. The tomatoes on Sgt Peppers and PBTD seem smaller than they should be but they arent ripening yet so time will tell.
I promise I am not making up the number of tomatoes. If there was someway for me to get them all to show up I would. If they didnt set another tomato it would be fine because they are setting enough. Im just wondering why that happens. I do think its because the plant can provide only so much energy at a given time. It would like a dog trying to have 30 puppies in one litter. 10 to 15 for some breeds maybe, but 30, no. So maybe a large fruited tomato plant just cant support more than that at one time? Over time yes, after the ones on there are gone and there is more energy available for new fruit. Thats why I think with 6 double stemmed plants in an earthbox you could get more tomatoes since each plant could easily handle 20. 12 stems would be less stems than I have in my earthboxes now. I mean no suckers, just the double stems. Ginny Last edited by Fiishergurl; December 8, 2016 at 01:21 PM. |
December 8, 2016 | #2335 | |
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Thats why I wanted to try it here when my plants got overwhelmed. I guess if you think about it, if you keep most of the suckers pruned you get steady production over a longer time. With my wild and wooly method of feeding them a lot and letting all the suckers grow, they produce a lot initially, then burn out. If you have a short season, my way is good for that... lol. But maybe cutting them back now will give them another round. Especially since I dont have the leaf disease issue that I would normally have by now. Ginny |
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December 8, 2016 | #2336 |
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Ginny - I definitely believe you re: the # of tomatoes. You are awesome!!! Applying TTF is so easy. It's so funny, on my RP with the BrandyBoy cluster that had 6 with BER, I ended up feeding it TTF saying I don't care about my experiment and it never had another BER tomato again. I did go back to Masterblend - It's like once you are making the solution for one, it's just as easy for all.
I also feel like if none of my EB or RP sets another tomato I'm more than happy with what I have. It has been one terrific season. I'm thinking of the variety for the experiment now. Your way involves far fewer EBs. |
December 8, 2016 | #2337 |
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Marsha,
You are doing two double stemmed plants per EB with no suckers right? Does it seem like you could squeeze in more plants? Ginny Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk |
December 8, 2016 | #2338 |
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December 8, 2016 | #2339 |
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Haha... it seemed like they were pretty full from some of the pictures you posted. I grew 6 tigers/bumblebees one time in one 18 gallon SWC with 2 stems each. They were crowded but were ok. Didnt seem like I got much fruit per plant so I didnt try it again. Still, might have to give it a whirl in the spring just to see what happens. Although probably by then I will be distracted by something else... :-)
Ginny Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk |
December 8, 2016 | #2340 | |
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I also don't think it is a squash bug I had them on my summer squash and when I stepped on them they crunched from their hard shell. This one doesn't crunch at all. It is not as flashy looking as the assassin bug so I don't think it his him. However, I will have to try to look more cloesly at its beak to rule out assassin bug for sure. Larry Last edited by Zone9b; December 8, 2016 at 05:07 PM. |
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