Oops! Novice mistakes

[MuddyToes]

Originally Posted by gorbelly

If your clay under the beds is so hard that plant roots can't get into it, though, you might just have to live with more shallow-rooted plants.

Thank you for all the great info, Gorbelly and DMF!

I lived in the northern part of New Castle County for 16 years and now am in the southern part of the county. We definitely have a different microclimate here. The air is much more stagnant.

I do notice almost all my my plants go dormant during the July/early August heat, but they come back strong if they don't fall prey to fungus, disease and pests.

Maybe I could build up the soil around the tomatoes more, give them more depth to grow. What diameter do you think they might require?

The only thing that seemed to love the heat was the San Marzano. I almost pulled it up when I tasted one of the tomatoes. Yuck! But I have to admit it made a good base for sauce when I blended in some better tasting tomatoes. And, oh my goodness, I can't believe how many tomatoes it pumped out!

[MuddyToes]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Bunch of stuff. Disease/pests. Over-watering. Bad dirt. Bad karma.

Poor tomatoes probably suffered from all the above.

But sounds to me that your plants really aren't "in-ground". The raised bed seems more like a big common pot.

yes, more like a common pot.

[Black Krim]

One of the big issues in 2016 was at a new plot. Very sandy compared to soils I have at home. ANd watering limited to a barrel filled with water. Given the hot dry summer, the plants sure didnt get enough water.

The second difficulty was planting late at t he home garden....san marzanos had one orange fruit, not ripe, and tons of green fruit. Ducks enjoyed them.... sure wish they were in my kitchen instead.

Keeping tomatos home in 2017.

[MuddyToes]

Originally Posted by Black Krim

The second difficulty was planting late at t he home garden....san marzanos had one orange fruit, not ripe, and tons of green fruit. Ducks enjoyed them.... sure wish they were in my kitchen instead.

Keeping tomatos home in 2017.

I threw away a lot of green tomatoes, too. I tried bringing some in to ripen on the counter but they just shriveled. They went to compost. Sorry to hear you only scored one tomato. That stinks.

I had no idea how heavy the Marzano plant was going to get. I had it caged and I kept having to reinforce the cage with metal stakes.