Spudakee

[lefty_logan]

This is my first year growing spudakee and my plants are very strong.

[tuk50]

Thanks guys, for this discussion... My problems are about the same as yours and I've never tried the bleach solution before.. I'll try the 6% solution this evening... appreciate it ...

[b54red]

I got to eat my first tomato from my Spudakee yesterday and it was terrific, with a luscious rich flavor that made it by far the best tasting so far this year. I sure hope some of the tomatoes on the plant will survive so I can eat a lot more of them.

Even though I hate doing it, I went out this morning and sprayed everything again with the bleach solution. It was still close to 100 degrees yesterday at sundown and the wind had picked up again and was really blowing and they are forecasting 102 for today. I'm afraid I may have some leaf burn but hope it won't be too severe. I'd rather have some leaf burn than no plants. Of course if we don't get some relief from this heat soon it won't matter. The only thing that doesn't seem to be suffering is my okra.

Oh another bad thing about having so little leaf cover left is the squirrels are eating on many of the exposed fruit. I lost a half dozen this morning.

[cloz]

Originally Posted by b54red

Oh another bad thing about having so little leaf cover left is the squirrels are eating on many of the exposed fruit. I lost a half dozen this morning.

Squirrels can be managed with a pellet gun. One year I only got 5 tomatoes from 18 plants. After squirrel management, I only lost a handful of tomatoes to the squirrels. This year my biggest problem is going to be chipmunks. I am infested with them. My cat is helping out, but they rarely sit still long enough to get a bead on them. They devastated my cucumbers last year. Ate them when they were only an inch long.
I set up my 5 gal bucket mouse (chipmunk) trap this year, but the raccoons eat my peanut butter bait every night. I can't use regular mouse traps for the chipmunks because my cat roams around all through the garden.

[b54red]

I've been shooting squirrels for two years now and they seem to multiply faster than I can subtract them. They are also becoming very wary of me. If I step out into the back yard they all run to the neighbors large trees and hide very effectively. They absolutely have my dogs figured out. When the dogs are sleeping then they come into the garden and feed on the wonderful salad bar that I provide each year for them. This very hot dry weather is probably contributing to them eating so many of my tomatoes. They are even eating green ones this year while last year they usually waited until they were at least half ripe.

[cloz]

The squirrels I am able to keep under control, but the chipmunks are a big problem this year. They are new here. Up until 3 years ago it was rare to see a chipmunk here. Now they are everywhere. They dig new holes as fast as I can plug them up. They are in my flower garden, in my stone walls and in my leaders for my gutters.
I just checked my 8' by 10' strawberry patch which was loaded with berries waiting to ripen last week and I will now be lucky to get one quart of ripe strawberries. The thieves are the chipmunks and catbirds. I have not bothered the catbird population, but they are now on my most wanted list.

[b54red]

Well despite the horrible gray mold which took all my leaves off my Spudakee plant, I was still able to get 37 good tomatoes off of it before it died. I have another plant that I set out on April 28 and despite record heat the thing has set fruit like crazy even with days topping 100 degress. I have tried keeping it pruned a little better and it is receiving a weekly bleach spray along with Daconil so maybe I can avoid the gray mold problem with this one. I am starting to get worms in my tomatoes and am losing more every day so I will probably hit them with a little Sevin before I lose too many. It is almost time to spray with Daconil again and I was wondering if it is alright to mix Sevin in with it so I only have to spray once?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by b54red

Well despite the horrible gray mold which took all my leaves off my Spudakee plant, I was still able to get 37 good tomatoes off of it before it died. I have another plant that I set out on April 28 and despite record heat the thing has set fruit like crazy even with days topping 100 degress. I have tried keeping it pruned a little better and it is receiving a weekly bleach spray along with Daconil so maybe I can avoid the gray mold problem with this one. I am starting to get worms in my tomatoes and am losing more every day so I will probably hit them with a little Sevin before I lose too many. It is almost time to spray with Daconil again and I was wondering if it is alright to mix Sevin in with it so I only have to spray once?

About 10 years ago I called the Ortho Co whose Daconil I was using at the time to ask them if it was OK to mix anything with the Daconil. They connected me to someone who really knew what he was talking about and he said, no, don't mix anything with it. Like you, I wanted to add something else, in my case some fish foliar feed.

His explanation was that the number of molecules/unit if liquid when diluted from the concentrate was devised to block all the attachment sites on the upper leaf surface and if there were other molecules in there they could bind and interfere with the Daconil molecules making it less effective.

[b54red]

Thanks Carolyn.