I'm throwing in the towel!

[riceke]

Okay...I've got to vent! This has been by far the worst year growing tomatoes I have ever had. It all started out great. 99% seeded varieties germinated and grew into healthy stocky transplants. I planted the 1st of May and for awhile grew beautiful plants. Boy was I happy. Then the heat, humidity and rains came. Everything went down hill afterwards. The plants all except Baxters Early got late blight and every virus, disease, fungus known to man. Still I had some fruit, but not for long because when the heat came so did the bugs right about the time of ripening. Bored holes in the stem ends of the tomatoes and the flies did the rest. The only fruit that I got were the ones I picked early and ripened in the house. This past weekend I went out and ripped everything out of the ground. My logic is that if the bugs and disease don't give me any fruit then they won't get any either. After wallering around for 2 days in self pity I bought from the farm store a few more heat resistant tomatoes and replanted hoping things will change for the fall havest. I'm writing this because everyone else seems to be having a good year except me. If anyone else had this same experience I would sure like to hear it 'cuz after 45 years of gardening I'm beginning to doubt if it's me or I must be living in a biohazard area. Besides misery loves company. Oh I could go on but I think I'll just hrumph and read you alls successes.

[efisakov]

Ken, 3 out of my 5 tomato beds have the same thing as you described above: diseases and bugs. And I did exactly the same thing as you, I picked tomatoes from these plants green. I'll post the pictures so you can feel better.

[peppero]

sorry about your plight and many of us have wondered at times whether we actually know anything at all.

i have planted okra twice this year and have had nary a one even sprout. never had much trouble before. radishes sprouted but have hardly produced. squash beautiful plant with almost no bug problems and only five squash. pole beans were PITIFUL. bush beans have hardly sprouted/produced; just enough for one meal. on the plus side, i have lost only a few tomato plants. on the negative side production is so so but the plants are regenerating. maybe, just maybe.............

it could be worse though.

jon

[DRT0MAT0]

Move north, in the last 3 weeks I've picked 5gal. of bush beens and toms are just starting to ripen up. Toms are loaded with fruit. Cukes and zucchini are a little slow but loaded with flowers. Shapeing up to be a really good year. I haven't had to water at all, but spraying for diease every 4 to 5 days since it's been so wet.

[Redbaron]

I started horrible, never gave up the faith, and my plants recovered. Everything is late, but so far looks like it is going to be a good year after all. I have tomatillos, which always got eaten, and egg plant, which always attracted every bug and disease known to man. First time ever.

Strangely I haven't gotten any okra this year. Okra is usually a piece of cake in Oklahoma. Something keeps eating it before it even gets its second set of true leaves. I'll probably plant yet again today or tomorrow.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

I started horrible, never gave up the faith, and my plants recovered. Everything is late, but so far looks like it is going to be a good year after all. I have tomatillos, which always got eaten, and egg plant, which always attracted every bug and disease known to man. First time ever.

Strangely I haven't gotten any okra this year. Okra is usually a piece of cake in Oklahoma. Something keeps eating it before it even gets its second set of true leaves. I'll probably plant yet again today or tomorrow.

I am trying okra first time and it is in a container.

[Tom A To]

Nature threw everything it could at me this season, weather-wise. Still, this being California and all, I still got a few hundred pounds from the plants. They are starting to show their age now and the peak of harvesting is definitely behind me.

[ScottinAtlanta]

I feel you, bro. Tomatoes are TOUGH this year - it rained THREE TIMES yesterday in Atlanta alone. Three separate downpours. More today. We are up to 42 inches so far in 2013, with an annual average of 52 inches. I am pulling yellow fronds off plants as fast as possible. Replanting from my reservoir of reserve plants.

i have planted okra twice this year and have had nary a one even sprout. Same thing for me. Oddest thing I have ever seen. Perhaps too cool?

[Emeoba69]

I too feel your pain. I was probably days away from taking a machete to all my tomato plants so I could have the final say and not let the deer ruin me. My mom had originally forbid me from fencing since she didn't want the unsightly stuff in her front yard. After she saw that my many many months of dedicated hard work were being destroyed she let up and let me fence them off. Of coarse now there has been a heat wave and all of the new buds on my plants have dropped. All of my Olpalkas have pretty heavy blossom end rot (not sure if the heavy rains earlier this season or the drought/heatwave caused this). Basically killed my idea of pasting this year. I also have some septoria going around. This is my first year growing tomatoes. It ain't easy. I also planted a ton of basil and usually the two or three plants I have done were a breeze. This year NONE of them have taken off year and I have about 8-9 tiny plants that wouldn't make a single batch of pesto.

Of coarse I gave my mom and her boyfriend a bunch of left over tomato plants they put in his garden about an hour away in Indiana. They never touched them, no pruning, no fertilizing, no watering besides the rain. Friggin things are monsters with out the slightest hint of disease or pest. Ill probably get more from those plants than the ones I'm slaving over at my house. So it goes I guess.

[NarnianGarden]

Originally Posted by Emeoba69

I gave my mom and her boyfriend a bunch of left over tomato plants they put in his garden about an hour away in Indiana. They never touched them, no pruning, no fertilizing, no watering besides the rain. Friggin things are monsters with out the slightest hint of disease or pest. Ill probably get more from those plants than the ones I'm slaving over at my house. So it goes I guess.

The same happened to me. The 'babies' I gave to my mother are growing happily ever after and pushing foliage & fruit
While my own balcony garden is ok, but has suffered in the heat waves - and showing symptoms of some sort of foliar disease, viral or fungal, I don't know.

It seems always wise to have plants growing in different locations under various circumstances to make sure one will get at least some reward for one's labors.

[discoprincess]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

The same happened to me. The 'babies' I gave to my mother are growing happily ever after and pushing foliage & fruit
While my own balcony garden is ok, but has suffered in the heat waves - and showing symptoms of some sort of foliar disease, viral or fungal, I don't know.

It seems always wise to have plants growing in different locations under various circumstances to make sure one will get at least some reward for one's labors.

Agreed. As I posted under the pests board, I got hit with hornworms last week. Since I also have a balcony garden, I don't have that much space, and a significant portion of my plants (and fruit) have been destroyed. I'm tempted to cut down the remaining plants and just throw in the towel for the season; that's what my boyfriend thinks I should do.

Meanwhile, his plants (which I had given him) are smaller than mine as they were planted later, but aside from some animal chomping down some of the seedlings when they were first planted, the remaining plants don't seem to have been bothered by major disease or pests yet. His next door neighbor's plot has had volunteer grape tomatoes growing there for the past two years and they are even taller and healthier. So unfair.

[ubergoober]

We have had so much rain here. We had horrible weather during the time I usually plant out and get seed in. Everything went in a couple of weeks late. Then had to survive one of the wettest weirdest springs/early summers ever. Then we had record breaking rain a couple of weeks ago. More rain fell in a 2 hour period than we normally get in all of July.

I have fought wet cold weather, then fungus, then heatwaves. I am surprised anything is alive. I am almost waiting for a scourge of bugs next.

[Labradors2]

Originally Posted by ubergoober

I have fought wet cold weather, then fungus, then heatwaves. I am surprised anything is alive. I am almost waiting for a scourge of bugs next.

I'm in Ontario too (Kingston). Same thing here.....

the first wave of fruit set and is fine, but then the heatwave hit and the blossoms must have dropped because there's a lack of fruit higher up in the plants

I can help you with the scourge of bugs if you like. I had MEALY BUGS on one Rose de Berne tomato - that's a first! My neighbour has them all over her hostas and she's on vacation so unable to deal with them. I ripped off the infested leaves on my tomatoes and that seems to have helped, but the RdB's seem to be suffering BER - sigh! Then there's Early Blight. I don't spray but just remove the affected leaves and keep my fingers crossed that the fruit will survive.

Maybe we should all be growing Iron Lady next year {LOL}

Linda

[ubergoober]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

I'm in Ontario too (Kingston). Same thing here.....

the first wave of fruit set and is fine, but then the heatwave hit and the blossoms must have dropped because there's a lack of fruit higher up in the plants

I can help you with the scourge of bugs if you like. I had MEALY BUGS on one Rose de Berne tomato - that's a first! My neighbour has them all over her hostas and she's on vacation so unable to deal with them. I ripped off the infested leaves on my tomatoes and that seems to have helped, but the RdB's seem to be suffering BER - sigh! Then there's Early Blight. I don't spray but just remove the affected leaves and keep my fingers crossed that the fruit will survive.

Maybe we should all be growing Iron Lady next year {LOL}

Linda

So far so good on the bug issue. But I have battled almost everything else this year, I am almost expecting bugs next lol

[ScottinAtlanta]

Ken, I am wondering if you kept up with your spraying this year? I found that it really helped - Daconil in particular.