Tomatoes

[katiebrock]

i am growing four Roma tomato plants and four Beefsteak tomato plants. There are two Romas that have a tomato on them, but it seems like the flowers on the Beefsteak plants are not developing and are falling off. Is this a pollination problem? What should I do?

 

[Nelson-Collier]

I believe you are right. Since I first posted this thread, I realized they may be getting too much water, and now I water them every other day or so. I added some egg shells I have been saving, and that seems to have done the trick! I have tons of tomatoes! Now I am just trying to figure out how to keep all the bugs off.

Plant some Marigolds in between your tomato plants. They scare away bad bugs. I planted some in my garden and the bugs disappeared! No ghost stories here lol.

 

[RhodeIslandRed5]

Hey, I didn't know there was a gardening spot on this chicken forum! Awesome! I'm a tomato FREAK! Check this out! I dare anyone to guess what kind of tomato this is!

 

[Nelson-Collier]

You can also amend soil with Bone meal, which I buy at the end of the season when the stores are trying to get rid of the surplus amendments. Also, gypsum is another common amendment that provides calcium, without changing pH, whereas Limestone will change the pH. Egg shells are easy, of course.

I have a test plot going with tomatoes and peppers. I planted them in my partially decomposed compost pile. The compost pile is partially degraded mulch, some grass, and nearly a year's worth of whole lot of coffee grounds, tea bags (ripped open), and egg shells. Tons of worms too. I added soil to the holes I dup in the compost pile, and planted a few tomotaoes and peppers. We will see if these do any better than the ones in the raised beds of dirt.



Easily found in the chicken feed aisle. I've added some to the planting spots this year to see if this will help my tomatoes, as they did poorly last year.




LOL! This is a difficult year to NOT overwater. So.Much.Rain.

Thanks for that first paragraph! I forgot completely about bone meal and lime. Never heard of Gypsum! Thanks so much for sharing, God bless!

P.S. Where I live, Eastern NC, the heavy rains have stopped coming for a while. The next 2 weeks are forecasted to be hot dry and sunny, and the same weather has happened about a week prior. So it's pretty bad here if you don't water anything at this time.

 

[katiebrock]

From what I've heard you only need to water your tomatoes every two days depending on rain and how much rain. Is this not true?

I believe you are right. Since I first posted this thread, I realized they may be getting too much water, and now I water them every other day or so. I added some egg shells I have been saving, and that seems to have done the trick! I have tons of tomatoes! Now I am just trying to figure out how to keep all the bugs off.

 

[Acre4Me]

Also, we are growing "Purple Marconi" peppers for the first time. They are green, then turn a deep purple, then turn to red. We have a few turning purple, so I am looking forward to this whole process.

 

[RhodeIslandRed5]

The answer is: Black Beauty! It is an open pollinated variety created by Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms. The flavor is quite unique- mild with a hint of sweetness.

 

[Sueby]

Blossom drop can be caused by so many things but usually it's temp or humidity (both too high or too low). It happened to me late last summer because it was sooo stinking wet & humid that nothing could pollinate so the flowers just dropped. I went out & shook the plants every day, but it didn't help, it was just way too wet to pollinate.

 

[chkva]

I had this problem last year and I got maybe one tomato on my plantbecayde nothing could pollinate with it being so wet out. You can take a qtip and wipe inside each of the flowers gently and it'll pollinate the flowers, I did this with my dwarf Meyer lemon tree and we had lemons growing until the dogs ate them! The woman at the greenhouse advised I did it because we kept it inside so no bugs were available to pollinate it.

Hopefully this year it wont be a wet summer because I had enough of that last year!

 

[Sueby]

I had to hand pollinate my squash last year to get any! Squash is usually something people can't give away by the end of the year! LOL

Here's hoping for a better growing season this year.