How often do you spray?
 

This applies to those who [B]do[/B] spray. I don't want to, but I really don't have much choice any more. And do you spray with dilute bleach or Daconil? Bleach is certainly more cost effective, if people are having success that way. I'd like to be able to spray only a few times each season, but others here have probably figured out what works best for them.

-GG

Why do you feel the need to spray? I would think that different diseases would need different sprays and you do not say what the problem is.

I garden organically and only spray Actinovate as a preventative for blights and it seems to work well.

I don't feel the need for anything else and I get plenty of beautiful tomatoes. I had a problem with stinkbugs this year and I don't know if people have a spray for them but I plant 15 plants so if something happens to some of them then I still have enough for our needs. The stinkbugs damaged a lot of fruits but the chickens got to eat them and I still had enough for us. I do not sell tomatoes so it's just for family use.

Praying mantis eat stinkbugs. I put one in my garden that I found chilling on my car.

I'm sorry. I'm derailing this thread. I just wanted to swoon over praying mantis and, in general, carnivorous bugs.

That's a great idea mamaboog. I have lots of praying mantis in my flower gardens. I will relocate a few next year.

My answer to the original question is "never".

Sanitation pruning is part of my daily routine along with opening the greenhouse and watering if necessary. If fungal disease is removed at the first sign it doesn't take long to do the job and it doesn't spread early in the season. If cold stress is an issue, I'll water them with a warm kelp drink instead of foliar spray which (I think) would tend to increase the humidity burden more than watering the roots.

I think the best remedy for foliar disease when the fruit are beginning to ripen is to generously feed the plants. If I started out with a good soil, this seems to be enough to stop the disease that follows ripening, when the plants start to take the nutrients out of their lower leaves.

In cool and wet weather later in the season the pruning is more work but it's better to be ruthless and take out whole stems or plants, improve air circulation and access to nutrients, and let the healthy ones live on without moldy company as long as they can.

I dip my pruners in bleach if I have to remove anything bigger than a leaf, especially if conditions are ripe for disease. The pruning cuts don't get infected if the pruners are bleached.

Afaik people who do spray still have to prune as well and take away moldy or diseased plant parts. I don't think spraying reduces the need to do that, so to my mind it is just another job and unnecessary cost - for me.:)

From what I gather on here, it's easier to get away without spraying at all when you live in a climate with a short season. The longer the plants are alive, the more time they have to get disease.

I tried the no-spray approach the past few years, but my disease pressure gets worse every year. I am going to spray as much as possible next year. If I don't, I'll get one good crop, and then the plant dies, typically of fungal issues.

[QUOTE=mamaboog;596205]Praying mantis eat stinkbugs. I put one in my garden that I found chilling on my car.

I'm sorry. I'm derailing this thread. I just wanted to swoon over praying mantis and, in general, carnivorous bugs.[/QUOTE]
I bought those praying mantis eggs before and let them hatch. When I put them out in the garden I see all the ants ganged up and kill them and drag them to their nests. I hate ants.

I spray weekly and alternate products. It is easier to prevent issues than to treat them.

I never spray.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;596220]From what I gather on here, it's easier to get away without spraying at all when you live in a climate with a short season. The longer the plants are alive, the more time they have to get disease.

I tried the no-spray approach the past few years, but my disease pressure gets worse every year. I am going to spray as much as possible next year. If I don't, I'll get one good crop, and then the plant dies, typically of fungal issues.[/QUOTE]

Over half dozen years, I found that pest pressure increased rather than disease. Disease pressure dropped overall when I adopted the pruning strategy, but otherwise follows the weather. But pests can spread disease (fungus gnats for example) so that might be an issue here too as pests build up and are hard to get rid of. I think gnats played a role in my late season here this year.

You're right about short season too, I'm ready to cut the plants down for the year when someone south is just getting started.

On the other hand, I know another grower here who decided to spray this year, I think it was Actinovate. There was a lot of disease early on, and I heard that the spray helped. But when I saw the plants in August they were pretty much dead of disease. Only some seedlings I grew for them were full grown plants and later I saw them still looking healthy into October. I think something happened at the seedling stage and weakened those poor plants that were so troubled by disease.

My Mom grows some tomatoes outdoors every year and they are normally very ratty looking with disease every time I come around in the summer, and I try to give them a bit of a grooming. This year though they looked fantastic all year. I must ask her what she did differently.

We do have it cool and wet chronically, it's perfect for fungal pathogens off and on throughout the short season.

I spray every 7 to 15 days , depending on the weather. If it is going to rain there no point spraying. So if forecast calls for about 3 or more rain free days then I spray,

I use Daconile,copper formula, Neem and bleach. I have never have had any disease issues in the past 3 years.

[QUOTE=Greatgardens;596178]This applies to those who [B]do[/B] spray. I don't want to, but I really don't have much choice any more. And do you spray with dilute bleach or Daconil? Bleach is certainly more cost effective, if people are having success that way. I'd like to be able to spray only a few times each season, but others here have probably figured out what works best for them.

-GG[/QUOTE]

If you are inquiring about fungicides like Daconil, you should spray every 7-10 days or so, as a preventative, even more if frequent rain. Even commercial fungicides for most diseases except Late Blight need to be applied on a regular basis.

Some commercial strengths are limited to a certain number of applications or ounces or pounds per season. Some you should alternate with a different class so pathogens do not develop a resistance. Some Late Blight fungicides/preventatives/curatives advise to use in combination with fungicides intended for other diseases like Early Blight. (most consumer-grade fungicides don't work on Late Blight)

If you're looking for something that only needs to be applied just a few times all year---let me know when you find it! The nicer the weather, the less presence of most diseases so it seems...

Neem, Daconil, DE are powerful and won't fry your plants.

Copper comes in handy too, as does the bleach.

Try 'em out, see what works best in your garden at different times of the year.

[QUOTE=bower;596209]My answer to the original question is "never".

Sanitation pruning is part of my daily routine along with opening the greenhouse and watering if necessary. If fungal disease is removed at the first sign it doesn't take long to do the job and it doesn't spread early in the season. If cold stress is an issue, I'll water them with a warm kelp drink instead of foliar spray which (I think) would tend to increase the humidity burden more than watering the roots.

I think the best remedy for foliar disease when the fruit are beginning to ripen is to generously feed the plants. If I started out with a good soil, this seems to be enough to stop the disease that follows ripening, when the plants start to take the nutrients out of their lower leaves.

In cool and wet weather later in the season the pruning is more work but it's better to be ruthless and take out whole stems or plants, improve air circulation and access to nutrients, and let the healthy ones live on without moldy company as long as they can.

I dip my pruners in bleach if I have to remove anything bigger than a leaf, especially if conditions are ripe for disease. The pruning cuts don't get infected if the pruners are bleached.

Afaik people who do spray still have to prune as well and take away moldy or diseased plant parts. I don't think spraying reduces the need to do that, so to my mind it is just another job and unnecessary cost - for me.:)[/QUOTE]

It depends on the disease. By the time you see the symptoms of Late Blight, it's usually too late.

[QUOTE=Gardeneer;596312]I spray every 7 to 15 days , depending on the weather. [B]If it is going to rain there no point spraying[/B]. So if forecast calls for about 3 or more rain free days then I spray,

I use Daconile,copper formula, Neem and bleach. I have never have had any disease issues in the past 3 years.[/QUOTE]

On the contrary, if it is going to rain, it's the best reason to spray, if you use Daconil--the latest formula (the last 5-10 years or so) can be applied within like 2 hours of rain and won't wash off. I think the feature's called "WeatherStik" or something like that. If rain is in the forecast, spray the day before.

The things you listed, are you alternating between them or applying combinations or ?

Thanks for the replies with spray recommendations! Good food for thought. My issues are Early Blight and Septoria, so preventative spraying should be of some value for both. In a fairly dry summer, I don't have much trouble with these foliage diseases, but over the past several years, we have had lots of rain and long periods of very high humidity. Still, I'd like to improve a bit if possible.
-GG

[QUOTE=korney19;596319]It depends on the disease. By the time you see the symptoms of Late Blight, it's usually too late.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure you're right. One advantage of being in the woods, I haven't had late blight blow in. We also don't get Septoria here afaik. It doesn't flourish in the North.

Also when we do have hot humid weather, I've had problems with leaf mold (Fulvia fulva) and both types of mildew L taurica and I forget the name of the other one, which blow in the greenhouse window from hosts outdoors. Then the 'sanitation pruning' becomes 'sanitation defoliation'. Especially leaf mold, is simply rampant as long as the heat holds. I can only hope that the plants will survive until the weather changes.
This year I did some sheet mulching to suppress the host vegetation near the greenhouse windows, and was really pleased that this worked as a prevention for leaf mold and for the mildews as well.
I don't know if any of the sprays also prevent leaf mold. :?!?:

I am also a fan of pruning and mulching to prevent blights and other pathogens from splashing up from the ground and onto the leaves. The only reason that I even spray with Actinovate is to prevent Late Blight which can wipe out my plants before I get a harvest and there is no cure for it.

After I get enough tomatoes to make my sauces for the freezer, I quit spraying and then the plants are on their own.

I am sure that the tomato diseases are more prevalent in the South than they are here and I would have to do something if I lived there but I sure would not be comfortable with applying all of those sprays to a food crop.

I mentioned this previously but I do not grow for market, just for home use so I do not make my living from selling tomatoes and if I would have a major crop loss, it's sad but does not impact my income. However, even though I do not spray, I have only ever had one major loss and it was from Late Blight.

I try to spray with Daconil weekly here in Central Florida. Disease is a given here with our humid year-round weather and spreads fast, so if you wait for the disease to show up to start spraying, you're probably already too late.

I've also started spraying with spinosad as needed to control leaf miners and have found it effective.

Curious about the effectiveness of the other things mentioned - bleach, copper - and if they'd be more effective than Daconil.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I am not very knowledgeable on spraying but I do know that copper is a metal and does not decompose in the soil so if you decide to use it be very careful to follow directions and not overspray because it can build up to toxic levels in the soil.

Down here in disease central I use several fungicides regularly. I usually start out with Daconil for the first few weeks and then start switching back and forth with a copper spray about every 7 to 10 days. Despite that diseases still show up eventually in our hot humid climate and then I will use the bleach spray as soon as a problem shows itself then resume my preventive sprays of the two fungicides. I also mulch heavily and keep my plants pruned to allow good airflow and sunlight. I envy people who live where spraying isn't necessary and disease pressure is light; but I wouldn't trade it for my very long tomato season which allows me to start eating fresh tomatoes in late May and right on through November or beyond.

Bill

[QUOTE=b54red;596586] I envy people who live where spraying isn't necessary and disease pressure is light; but I wouldn't trade it for my very long tomato season which allows me to start eating fresh tomatoes in late May and right on through November or beyond.
Bill[/QUOTE]

I was thinking about this thread as I was picking a few tomatoes today. I do not spray and I get a lot of tomatoes (more than I need actually) but I don't get my first ripe tomato until very late in June of early July and my average first frost is October 15 so no tomatoes after that.

I was looking at my plants today and they really do look terrible and have lots of Septoria although there are lots of fresh green leaves growing at the top of the plant and keeping it alive.

So yes, we DO get fungal diseases but the plants produce in spite of them and the plants die before the foliage disease kills them.

I am not trying to keep my plants going until November or even later like some of you so no need for me to spray anything and I am a firm believer that if you don't need it - don't just spray because others do. Location makes a BIG difference.

[QUOTE=b54red;596586]Down here in disease central I use several fungicides regularly. I usually start out with Daconil for the first few weeks and then start switching back and forth with a copper spray about every 7 to 10 days. Despite that diseases still show up eventually in our hot humid climate and then I will use the bleach spray as soon as a problem shows itself then resume my preventive sprays of the two fungicides. I also mulch heavily and keep my plants pruned to allow good airflow and sunlight. I envy people who live where spraying isn't necessary and disease pressure is light; but I wouldn't trade it for my very long tomato season which allows me to start eating fresh tomatoes in late May and right on through November or beyond.

Bill[/QUOTE]
Bill, I think you're right. Our season is too short here to make tomatoes commercially profitable to grow, when you consider it's also a four month investment of time and space before you see a fruit. Adding spray routines would only add to the costs, including labor. We do have fewer diseases but just one disease on a susceptible plant is enough. Tough choices.

I just finished cutting down my last greenhouse plants today. Too cold and short days now.

So I have to make one plug for genetics and growth habit. I had this microdwarf "Red Dwarf" in the greenhouse since I started this spring. It was neglected in a corner next to a cold damp wall, not even proper sunlight, no cage so it sprawled down over its pot, and I never even bothered to pick a sick or buggy leaf off it until today. I cleaned it up and I was amazed. Yes there were some yellow leaves and some dead leaves on it shrivelled up, but no grey mold on the stems whatsoever. Considering every plant in the overcrowded space had lost most of their stems to mold by now, in ideal conditions for disease plus plenty of spores, I am really impressed. The plant has a fair bit of fruit on it and is putting on new leaves and flowers. I managed to get a cage on it for support, and I'll be bringing it indoors for the winter. 8-)

[QUOTE=brownrexx;596622]I was thinking about this thread as I was picking a few tomatoes today. I do not spray and I get a lot of tomatoes (more than I need actually) but I don't get my first ripe tomato until very late in June of early July and my average first frost is October 15 so no tomatoes after that.

I was looking at my plants today and they really do look terrible and have lots of Septoria although there are lots of fresh green leaves growing at the top of the plant and keeping it alive.

So yes, we DO get fungal diseases but the plants produce in spite of them and the plants die before the foliage disease kills them.

I am not trying to keep my plants going until November or even later like some of you so no need for me to spray anything and I am a firm believer that if you don't need it - don't just spray because others do. Location makes a BIG difference.[/QUOTE]

What varieties do you grow and when do you plant out that you are getting first ripe fruits in June?

I cant help myself but ever since this thread started I couldn't help but think of the thread title and what one tomcat would say to the other.:))

Carry on.

Worth

Thank you Worth. I was thinking along the same lines.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;596682]Thank you Worth. I was thinking along the same lines.[/QUOTE]

Glad it ain't just me.
I have a crazy imagination. :lol:

Worth

[QUOTE=korney19;596675]What varieties do you grow and when do you plant out that you are getting first ripe fruits in June?[/QUOTE]

I get tomatoes starting at the END of June so it's really not that early.

This year I grew:

Big Beef
Jersey Boy (a new favorite and it gave me the first ripe toms)
Sun Sugar
Brandywine (produces late like August)
Rutgers 250 (not impressed with this one)
Ramapo (not impressed with this one either)


I always grow Big Beef because it is very reliable and disease resistant. That plant is still putting on new growth right now and I am still harvesting.

Jersey Boy is also a Burpee hybrid and a wonderful producer. It is a cross between an unnamed beefsteak and Brandywine. It gave me my earliest tomatoes this year and everyone loves the taste. I will definitely grow this one again.

I have grown lots of heirlooms in the past but this year I only grew the Brandywine which is a favorite.

I was picking from a few outdoor plants in June. Anmore Treasures came in the first week of June. Then Cole about two weeks after. Both of these varieties are small plants that do not yield a lot, but that's the compromise for being so early.