DFW, TX area people, how's everything growing?

Mallori · May 19, 2015

Hi all! I have a small backyard garden near Fort Worth, and in the last two weeks or so, I seem to be having a lot of blossoms dropping from my tomatoes and eggplant. As I'm sure many of you know, there has been a lot of rain and cooler weather lately, and I'm wondering if these two things are related. My poor Pineapple plant has not set a single fruit yet

Cherokee Purples are doing the best, but most of the new flowers are shriveling up and dropping. If this continues I will only get a few toms per plant! Any insight is welcome.

Dewayne mater · May 19, 2015

Are the flower stems turning yellow and/or brown and then dropping? Better yet, post a picture of some flowers that aren't going to produce fruit and are going to drop. I think you have something going on because in this cooler weather this spring, I would expect significant fruit set at this point.

My number one suspicion is thrips (western flower thrips). I say that because I am battling them this year like never before. I had a strong early fruit set, then none. Then I started the war and have had more fruit set, but, not as strong as it could have been under these conditions. I have tried several things, but, these guys are tough to deal with if that is what you have.

To check, go out when there isn't much wind, put a white piece of paper under some yellow flowers, then firmly tap the back sides of the flowers several times. Look closely because thrips are incredibly small, so small they are difficult to see. If you have them, they are responsible for your blossom drop. There are several things that treat them, but, I have at most managed to decrease their population so far.

Dewayne Mater

Mallori · May 19, 2015

Thank you!! I will check for thrips as soon as the weather cooperates. The flower stem does often yellow, but not every time. I hope its something that I can fix. It makes me so sad to see them drop.

Rfdillon · May 19, 2015

What are effective treatments for thrips?

Dewayne mater · May 19, 2015

None that I have found so far and chemical resistance is apparently a significant issue in control. I believe that botanigard, a product recommended on Tville that is a fungi has decreased my population, but, definitely not eliminated it. I have sprayed it twice and will use it at least 1 or 2 more times and then evaluate. If you want to become more of a thrip expert that you ever thought you might be, check out this article that talks about thrips and all of the possible means of control from chemical, to predaciuos bugs to fung to mitesi: http://biocontrol.ucr.edu/wft.html

DM

decherdt · May 19, 2015

I have been keeping up a fruit set count in my "2015 pictures" album. Except for the cherry types and saladettes, almost all of the fruit is set in the bottom half of the our vines, and none at all on our one Wes. Missed (dropped) a couple of big, eye level "generations" pretty much across the board, and I'm not even trying for Brandywines. I did have to treat a big flush of EB, wonder if it could be contributory to blossom drop? Don't recall having to deal with a FT. of rain and its humidity in a month before either.

AlittleSalt · May 19, 2015

Here in lower Johnson County, we are trying to teach the tomato plants - the backstroke. The National Guard is here today through the weekend just in case of major flooding.

Dewayne mater · May 20, 2015

Decherdt - nice graphics. Wondering about one of those tomatoes with 80 fruit set on one plant?

Well, I sprayed round 2 of bleach spray yesterday morning because, no surprise in all this rain, I spotted some gray mold on some black tomato plants. This morning, I had a substantial number of dying leaves that I removed, proving Bill in Alabama right once again when he says by the time you spot gray mold, it is already much more advanced than you see. I removed a bunch of leaves and hope I don't lose significantly more than I have already. This was all in containers.

Interestingly, my plants in the ground are not showing any dead leaves from the same bleach spray at the same time. I am attempting to prune them this year to a 2 or 3 stems and right now, they are not crowded at all, unlike the ones in containers. Anecdotal evidence that good air circulation is very good for suppressing disease.

D.M.

decherdt · May 20, 2015

That's one of Ron's Carbon Copy F6.
7 or-8 ft tall, never missed a chance to set or lost a leaf to fungus. Beautiful deep maroon
1-1/2" fruits. The first 3 at the very bottom turned and split in a storm last week, saved the seeds from them. There's a couple on the table nearly ready for sampling.

Fiishergurl · May 20, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rfdillon

What are effective treatments for thrips?

Yellow sticky traps will reduce them tremendously.

Also if you are getting more humidity than usual from all the rain/heat combo, using an electric toothbrush on the blossoms will reduce the blossom drop a lot. The pollen gets sticky and buzzing the flowers with an electric toothbrush helps the pollen drop to where it needs to be. I live on the intracoastal waterway and have high humidity year round and if I don't do the electric toothbrush trick I get lots of blossom drop. Assuming other things are ok and the plants are healthy and producing blossoms, this is something that it wouldn't hurt to try. You can pick up a cheap battery powered electric toothbrush at a dollar store for a few bucks.

Watch the video below...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFzyIi6yn8Q

Ginny

Dewayne mater · May 21, 2015

Well, my container plants continue to suffer from the bleach spray killing off the gray mold that was more advanced than met the eye. Of course, now they have been rained on all night and the temp is 56. I need to do something to try to prevent this stuff from coming back and will apply some daconil tonight if it stops raining at some point. Always a challenge! Every year is something different, this year with record setting rainfall that has been heavy and extremely frequent. Farmers must be the most mentally tough folks on the planet to deal with all the things you do every year that is beyond your control! R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Dewayne

decherdt · May 21, 2015

This link is pretty good read on blossom drop, covering temperature, humidity, N fert, wind, and lots more. Touches on the best time range to hand pollinate, and how set spray only works (poorly) in low temperature environments http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1195 I do have a 'letric toothbrush I use on tomatoes, and have seen some pollen puffs, but it has not helped this month.

AlittleSalt · May 21, 2015

This morning at 11:30am, the temperature has risen to a whole 58F...what an odd year so far.

I have noticed a few tomato varieties don't seem to mind it being so wet and humid. The three that have lots of blooms and tomatoes are Sungold, Riesentraube, and Yellow Riesentraube. The latter two are both Multiflora by what I've read and what this picture looks like. If I am wrong about the Multiflora part - please correct me so I'll know what it is called.

decherdt · May 21, 2015

Ramapo, Black Krim, Black and Brown Boar, Carbon Copy, cherry types have all continued to set through it all this month, over here.

creister · May 21, 2015

Salt,

You are correct about multiflora term for your Riesenstrube plants.

May 19, 2015	#1
Mallori Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: DFW, TX Posts: 28	DFW, TX area people, how's everything growing? Hi all! I have a small backyard garden near Fort Worth, and in the last two weeks or so, I seem to be having a lot of blossoms dropping from my tomatoes and eggplant. As I'm sure many of you know, there has been a lot of rain and cooler weather lately, and I'm wondering if these two things are related. My poor Pineapple plant has not set a single fruit yet Cherokee Purples are doing the best, but most of the new flowers are shriveling up and dropping. If this continues I will only get a few toms per plant! Any insight is welcome.

May 19, 2015	#6
decherdt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 329	I have been keeping up a fruit set count in my "2015 pictures" album. Except for the cherry types and saladettes, almost all of the fruit is set in the bottom half of the our vines, and none at all on our one Wes. Missed (dropped) a couple of big, eye level "generations" pretty much across the board, and I'm not even trying for Brandywines. I did have to treat a big flush of EB, wonder if it could be contributory to blossom drop? Don't recall having to deal with a FT. of rain and its humidity in a month before either. __________________ 500 sq ft of raised rows zone 8a

May 20, 2015	#9
decherdt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 329	That's one of Ron's Carbon Copy F6. 7 or-8 ft tall, never missed a chance to set or lost a leaf to fungus. Beautiful deep maroon 1-1/2" fruits. The first 3 at the very bottom turned and split in a storm last week, saved the seeds from them. There's a couple on the table nearly ready for sampling. __________________ 500 sq ft of raised rows zone 8a

May 21, 2015	#12
decherdt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 329	This link is pretty good read on blossom drop, covering temperature, humidity, N fert, wind, and lots more. Touches on the best time range to hand pollinate, and how set spray only works (poorly) in low temperature environments http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1195 I do have a 'letric toothbrush I use on tomatoes, and have seen some pollen puffs, but it has not helped this month. __________________ 500 sq ft of raised rows zone 8a Last edited by decherdt; May 21, 2015 at 11:51 AM.

May 21, 2015	#14
decherdt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 329	Ramapo, Black Krim, Black and Brown Boar, Carbon Copy, cherry types have all continued to set through it all this month, over here. __________________ 500 sq ft of raised rows zone 8a

May 19, 2015	#2
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Are the flower stems turning yellow and/or brown and then dropping? Better yet, post a picture of some flowers that aren't going to produce fruit and are going to drop. I think you have something going on because in this cooler weather this spring, I would expect significant fruit set at this point. My number one suspicion is thrips (western flower thrips). I say that because I am battling them this year like never before. I had a strong early fruit set, then none. Then I started the war and have had more fruit set, but, not as strong as it could have been under these conditions. I have tried several things, but, these guys are tough to deal with if that is what you have. To check, go out when there isn't much wind, put a white piece of paper under some yellow flowers, then firmly tap the back sides of the flowers several times. Look closely because thrips are incredibly small, so small they are difficult to see. If you have them, they are responsible for your blossom drop. There are several things that treat them, but, I have at most managed to decrease their population so far. Dewayne Mater

May 19, 2015	#4
Rfdillon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 121	What are effective treatments for thrips?

May 19, 2015	#7
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Here in lower Johnson County, we are trying to teach the tomato plants - the backstroke. The National Guard is here today through the weekend just in case of major flooding.

May 21, 2015	#15
creister Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Abilene, TX zone 7 Posts: 1,478	Salt, You are correct about multiflora term for your Riesenstrube plants.