Tarping tomatoes -- pros and cons

[feldon30]

Something I can speak from experience on!

That splitting (not really cracking per-se) looks to be from excess rain as the tomato is finishing up. If it really bugs you, tarp. Speaking of bugs, split tomatoes invite them.

If you have tomatoes that are blushing pretty good and the skies are about to open up, harvest! They'll ripen up on your windowsill.

I got so screwed by torrential rains in June and early July of this year that I am erecting a PVC framework over every one of my raised beds with roll-up clear plastic so I can do a partial greenhouse (With a couple of feet of breezeway at the bottom) to keep from having to build an Ark for my tomatoes.

[Reign]

Originally Posted by feldon27

If it really bugs you, tarp.

Odds are a tarp would not have helped this.

Feldon dear - what is it with you and tarping? I don't think you're thinking it through from a logical pov.

[feldon30]

Oh dear, my editor-in-chief has followed me here from that other (upturned nose) forum.

Ok, tarps are opaque which sorta limits sunlight a bit, but when someone asks "what do I do about excess rain?" the answer is mulch and wait. I'm just incredulous by the idea of accepting partial or total loss of their garden just because guy upstairs decides to dump 10 inches of rain in 10 hours.

Keeping rain out of a garden isn't THAT hard. Torrential rains seem to happen about every other June in Houston. June 2001 was Allison, a 100 year flood event for Houston.

Took me 10 minutes to find a good picture of what I intend to do...







Plans

[JBinKC]

I didn't say anything about it bugging me, I didn't get out there to harvest them so they cracked. shrug I didn't notice any change in the taste due to it.
I was rather sick for a few days, I couldn't get out to check the tomatoes let alone put up a tarp

Tarping my tomatoes would be a HUGE mistake, with the storm drain right behind them I have enough problems with fungal diseases without creating a humid hothouse for them.

Back to Harvesting please

[Reign]

Followed you here? Pleeze... 8)

I think greenhouses are fantastic. I plan to get one.

"Choose a level, well-drained plot for the greenhouse."

Drainage is part of your problem. You haven't addressed your drainage issue.

Water is going to run off the side. Where is it going? I suspect it will hit the ground. So you'll be keeping water from hitting the plants and landing directly into the bed, but you won't be solving anything. Diverting the water off to the sides of the beds isn't a solution.

In CIMG0771-barrier.jpg how much of the plastic did you cut out of the bottom of the bed?

[feldon30]

I apologize to JBinKC for going completely off-topic and sabotaging his thread.

Originally Posted by Reign

Water is going to run off the side. Where is it going? I suspect it will hit the ground. So you'll be keeping water from hitting the plants and landing directly into the bed, but you won't be solving anything.

There's no point in building that structure unless the plastic causes the rain to go OUTSIDE the perimeter of my 12" high raised bed.

Originally Posted by Reign

In CIMG0771-barrier.jpg how much of the plastic did you cut out of the bottom of the bed?

I completely lined the "main" garden with that weed barrier. I don't think that was the best solution since it does not improve the underlying soil.

After ripping everything out in the past days, I moved all the soil to one side, extracted the black barrier, moved the soil to the other side, and extracted the remainder of that black weed barrier. I am then replacing the landscaping timbers with 12" high lumber (either two 2 x 6 or one 2 x 12) and changing it from a single 6' wide bed to two 3' wide beds.


The new plan. Due to significant image distortion, it is impossible to tell the scale of anything in that picture. All four of the 'long' beds are 16'.

Spacing Chart for Fall Beds

[Reign]

Feldon - You were trapping water in the bed. Drainage. Think about it. How was all that water suppose to get pass the plastic?

My apologies too, JBinKC et al. I'll let it go.

Maybe someone can delete these messages out of the thread.

[Suze]

Topic split -- carry on.

[MsCowpea]

Tarp away if you want to. Shelters from rain are not something unheard of.

http://www.avrdc.org/LC/tomato/shelter.pdf

I would only do ONE and compare the results with other plants left to fend for themselves.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Reign

Feldon - You were trapping water in the bed. Drainage. Think about it. How was all that water suppose to get pass the plastic?

This is Houston. We have hard clay that does not absorb water. The ground gets saturated and then the water just sits on the surface. But accumulation of water doesn't bother me so much as splashback.

I guess unless you come to Houston you will not experience torrential rains so cold and fast it hurts to be out in it and that last for 12 HOURS straight. Every square inch of the plants gets coated with bits of soil. Any soilborne disease takes up lodgings in the tomato plants and fruit. Straw will help, but there is only so much that can do.

Just diverting the water will help significantly I think. I can always dig a deeper trench at the back of the yard and put rocks or a drainage tube. The main garden has a noticeable slope which I have already used to my advantage in the past by digging a trench and getting the water to drain from the garden (It comes out between the cracks in the landscape timbers).

Out of 9 watermelon plants and 1 canteloupe plant, so far I have gotten 2 decent (but watery) canteloupes, 3 split watermelons, 2 rotten WMs, 2 underripe WMs that split (one when I rapped on it with a knuckle), and 1 watermelon actually worth eating. Still hoping on the last 2 WMs although almost all the wm vines are dead or dying so I don't know how that bodes for what's left.

For about a week there last month, I thought I'd been transported to Seattle. Not more than 6 hours went by without some measurable precipitation. I tarped the melon patch when I could but didn't want to completely block the sun for 5 days straight. That's what the clear plastic partial covers are for.

Based on my results this year I'm tempted to just deal with the roadside stand down the road that is always loaded with both seedless and seeded watermelons from June on. He actually had 4 massive Black Diamond melons there. I should have grabbed it instead of the insipid yellow-fleshed one I got.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by feldon27

Out of 9 watermelon plants and 1 canteloupe plant, so far I have gotten 2 decent (but watery) canteloupes, 3 split watermelons, 2 rotten WMs, 2 underripe WMs that split (one when I rapped on it with a knuckle), and 1 watermelon actually worth eating. Still hoping on the last 2 WMs although almost all the wm vines are dead or dying so I don't know how that bodes for what's left.

Talk to Deer Park about melons sometime; he should be able to give you some tips for growing them in your area.

[Mantis]

Go with your ideas Feldon. I have aired my ideas on threads here and there and been told I was an idiot. Well, I grow some pretty nice tomatoes in my homemade greenhouse and pots and things. I thought my idea of growing tomatoes in bottomless black plastic pots was my own until I came across another on this very site who does the same. He also swears by the method.
If you reckon your on a winner. Go for it. If it stuffs up , don't tell anyone

[landarc]

Feldon,
There are better things than tarps. I would look into the UV resistant Poly films being used for greenhouses these days. They will last 2 to 3 years in sunlight. They also stand up to torrential rain and snow (so says my sisters year round SunGolds in Humboldt County, CA). She has hers stretched over a cheap portable garage frame from Grand Auto. Better light transmission and better heat gain.

As for drainage, I am a big beleiver in putting a 6" layer of drain rock into the bottom of any raised bed of pot to insure getting water away from the soil in the event of any deluge. hat would be one layer of drain fabric (not weed barrier), 6" drain rock, another layer of drain fabric and then soil of your choice.

That was a huge bummer about your plant loss, hope your new idea works.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Suze

Talk to Deer Park about melons sometime; he should be able to give you some tips for growing them in your area.

I think I must have brushed Michael the wrong way in one of my posts. He doesn't talk to me. ;( Michael, whatever I said, I'm sorry!

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by kctomato

Feldon

why don't you just turn that pool into a "grow room" like in the Cheech and Chong movie "Nice Dreams"?

I mean aren't you swimming in sweat down there anyway? :wink:

If it weren't for the pool, I don't think I could survive the gardening. I garden in swimming trunks and after about 30 minutes, I just sort of fall in the pool and refresh myself. When my vision clears , I get out and chug a Gatorade and get back to work. Rinse, repeat.

If we get someone to come out and trim back the trees there really is plenty of gardening space back there without losing the bathtub.