Lessons from 2024
Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 9:27 am
Hello all,
Just thought I'd post some of the lessons I've learned from 2024, in case it might help someone:
1. There's a good reason some people just use tomato cages! I've used cages, florida weave (for bush tomatoes), poles and string, netted trellis, and finally this year the ultimate - strings and hooks, just like a greenhouse, pruning to two leaders. I found that no matter what support I used, blight would appear at about the same time and kill the plants at about the same time. Pruning to a few leaders makes no difference in my garden when it comes to disease. So from now on, I'll just use cages.
2. Bush tomatoes and determinates are very useful. If you have the normal small four foot cages, then you can't grow large intermediates, but bush tomatoes do well, and they require little or no pruning.
3. Staggered planting is good not only for staggered harvests but to delay disease.I found that plants start to succumb to disease not at a certain time of year, but after their first round of production. So the tomatoes I planted late stayed healthy through mid September.
4. If you have time to experiment and observe, you can find varieties that are more disease resistant and productive in your environment. In my case these are especially Black Cherry and Moscvich.
5. Ripening can be a difficult problem because weather is important for ripening. By planting in low tunnel a month before last frost, I've been able to get full size fruit in late June. However, they won't ripen because it's too wet, or too cold, or too hot. As we get into July, it often becomes too hot. Mid August is usually the best weather for ripening, no matter what the year. Then in September, nights start to get too cold. So it seems that for tomatoes, if you try to cheat the seasons, you can get green fruit, but ripening is a big problem. I was told feeding 0-8-8 helps, so I tried it in pots, and it worked just a little (I don't put conventional fertilizers in ground).
Hope this helps someone!
Photos are from June 25 to July 1.
Just thought I'd post some of the lessons I've learned from 2024, in case it might help someone:
1. There's a good reason some people just use tomato cages! I've used cages, florida weave (for bush tomatoes), poles and string, netted trellis, and finally this year the ultimate - strings and hooks, just like a greenhouse, pruning to two leaders. I found that no matter what support I used, blight would appear at about the same time and kill the plants at about the same time. Pruning to a few leaders makes no difference in my garden when it comes to disease. So from now on, I'll just use cages.
2. Bush tomatoes and determinates are very useful. If you have the normal small four foot cages, then you can't grow large intermediates, but bush tomatoes do well, and they require little or no pruning.
3. Staggered planting is good not only for staggered harvests but to delay disease.I found that plants start to succumb to disease not at a certain time of year, but after their first round of production. So the tomatoes I planted late stayed healthy through mid September.
4. If you have time to experiment and observe, you can find varieties that are more disease resistant and productive in your environment. In my case these are especially Black Cherry and Moscvich.
5. Ripening can be a difficult problem because weather is important for ripening. By planting in low tunnel a month before last frost, I've been able to get full size fruit in late June. However, they won't ripen because it's too wet, or too cold, or too hot. As we get into July, it often becomes too hot. Mid August is usually the best weather for ripening, no matter what the year. Then in September, nights start to get too cold. So it seems that for tomatoes, if you try to cheat the seasons, you can get green fruit, but ripening is a big problem. I was told feeding 0-8-8 helps, so I tried it in pots, and it worked just a little (I don't put conventional fertilizers in ground).
Hope this helps someone!
Photos are from June 25 to July 1.
