Tomatoes in Texas

[Vespertino]

Hey Dewayne,

I think you mentioned in the other thread that you had to get some sort of permit for the raccoon traps and that there was something about the regulations that made it a pain. If the fencing didn't keep them out, are you considering getting the traps? I feel so bad that they're sucking the fat from your bountiful tomato garden. You must have the patience of a saint, if it were me I'd lie in wait at night with a rifle!

I have BBB & SCP seedlings to replace the brandywine, since I only have room for 4 plants in hindsight I should have gone with a high-yield tomato plant. If the big brandyine plants hadn't been giving me so much trouble I'd consider keeping them, but they really don't seem happy on the patio and I think they're a bit root crowded in the 18 gallon 'tainer. Although this cool break we've gotten over the past couple days really seem to be helping them, some set fruit that have been stunted for a while are finally swelling up.

On a sad note all this dampness may be endangering my seedlings, one of them damped off this morning. I got them mixed up so I don't know which are SCP and BBB.

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks V. No patience here, just mounting frustration. Yes, I bought a have a heart trap, but so far, it sits empty, just like the rat traps. Whatever it is, it prefers tomatoes over peanut butter and cat food. So, in that sense, it has my respect. The more you do this, the more you realize that there are always new challenges. It makes it fun, but some years, it is maddening. I think the main reason for all the pest troubles this year is our cold spring meant ripening tomatoes at least 1 month late and more like 6 weeks. This means that by now, the usual foraging materials available are dried up, eaten up and gone. So, the critters are all too happy to have another option...my tomatoes.

I have thought about sitting out all night, but, I'm not gonna do that in the rain, LOL! (but, of course no guns...my next door neighbors would not appreciate that!)

I am looking for the motion sensing sprinkler system to see if that helps.

Finally, I have to evaluate whether next year I do something some other members do and put up center posts and wrap the entire operation in chicken wire. That should keep out raccoons, but, if it is rats, that isn't going to help. The 5' wire fence I wrapped everything in has done a good job keeping me out of the garden, but, hasn't seemed to bother any critters. D'oh!

Dewayne mater

PS sorry about your seedlings! You might call Mike's in Southlake. They have had some fall tomatoes in the past. Probably not many varieties, but something.

[Annie]

I have cut my tomatoes back and hopefully will get some fall tomatoes. One of my biggest problems are stink bugs. I have sprayed with everything that has been recommended and nothing gets them. At one time we lived in the Brenham area, had a wonderful garden, never saw a stink bug. In fact we had a great fall garden and they predicted a freeze. Our tomato plants were loaded with green tomatoes. We picked them, wrapped them in newspaper and we were eating tomatoes in December. They were not like a vine picked but were a lot better than what you buy at the store. Annie

[Ken4230]

I have really enjoyed reading this thread about the trials and tribulations of growing tomatoes in Texas. I even have it on my bookmark bar. I think that i have read all of it at least twice.
A lot of the information is pertinent to my area,Western KY, and i hope to put it to good use next year.

Dewayne:
Gamo makes a 1200 fps. air rifle that is good for raccoons out to 30/35+ yds. It's around 100 bucks and extremely quiet. I think you ought to ambush the thief in the middle of the night and bury him in your garden.
We have a riverbottom farm with a small oxbow lake on it that the deer and coons ran me completely off of. Beavers would occasionally cut a couple of stalks of corn and drag it to through the garden to their den on the bank of the lake.
I got tired of killing something every day, so i surrendered that garden spot to them.

Ken

[Vespertino]

Hi Annie,

I didn't know what a stink bug looked like so I googled it I also noticed that the Praying Mantis like to eat them! Yum yum. I've seen a few gardening places that carry them but I think you can order them online as well. Here's a video of a Mantis chowing down on a stinker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=960iuqEfltc

[Annie]

You mean you don't have stink bugs up your way. I would need1,000 praying mantas to get rid of them. I went out today and had 5 on one small tomato. My land used to be rice land, maybe that is why there are so many. They sting the tomatoes and that part they sting is hard and uneatable. Annie

[Annie]

I see where they have a stink bug trap. I will have to order one or two. Thanks Annie

[unless]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

It is possible to keep them alive even through a long hot Texas summer. If you do, the rewards can be large plants that kick back into action in the fall season. I didn't think you could do that, but sunshade cloth and remaining vigilant about disease has proved to me it can be done. This year, I've got a few plants that disease will beat soon, but, most are still salvageable and this break in the heat may do wonder for their viability.

i shall try and do the same. can't bring myself to destroy the plants. i think they will make it 'til fall. i believe in them.

Originally Posted by Annie

I have cut my tomatoes back and hopefully will get some fall tomatoes. One of my biggest problems are stink bugs. I have sprayed with everything that has been recommended and nothing gets them. At one time we lived in the Brenham area, had a wonderful garden, never saw a stink bug. In fact we had a great fall garden and they predicted a freeze. Our tomato plants were loaded with green tomatoes. We picked them, wrapped them in newspaper and we were eating tomatoes in December. They were not like a vine picked but were a lot better than what you buy at the store. Annie

I HAVE A SOLUTION FOR YOU. or, it worked for me, after nothing else did. my first-year garden has seen a scourge of stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs like nothing i have ever seen before. after exhausting just about every organic trick in the book to control the little devils, i invested in a cordless handheld vacuum and haven't looked back.

this little thing really sucks. powerfully. this is the model: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-C...andheld+vacuum

it's an investment that pays off quickly in beautiful unblemished tomatoes. plus i am no longer pulling my hair out and acting a crazy person over these bugs. (it's also a good all-around hand-vac for small messes indoors--i use it to pick up dead roaches.)

anyway, i fixed a shoulder strap to it and took it with me every day i went out to harvest. this thing is powerful enough to suck the bugs right off the plant from up to 1" away. THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S COMING. the cyclonic force of the vacuum suction tears their appendages off, and they die in the canister (which is conveniently see-through for pest sadists) within a day. there's a slide-out crevice attachment that is plenty long enough to reach all the way through dense foliage to the center of your plants quite stealthily and without alarming the bugs.

after about a week, i noticed that i was picking up less and less on my daily rounds. now i am lucky (unlucky?) to find only one or two.

it doesn't stop them from migrating in from elsewhere, but it helps to nip these buggers in the bud before they have tons of babies that stick around and ravage everything.

let me know what you think of this or if it works for you!!!

[OldHondaNut]

Dallas area - Porters Dark Cherry is still going, picked 6 today. About a dozen almost ready. One 3 ounce green tomato on a Bush Big Boy F3, all others are pruned back and ready for round 2 or have been pulled.

[Urbanfarmer]

Even though we still have setting JC's and Champion II, we'll be pulling soon and replanting for Fall. We like starting from seed because the young plants produce the larger tomatoes.

Black King eggplant, green chiles, and cukes are in their prime. Zuke plant was 7' tall with elephant ear leaves until the wind got the cage and dumped it.

Had a bad hatch of aphids in May on the chiles, but then they left. Nothing else has shown up.

[Keger]

Originally Posted by Annie

I have cut my tomatoes back and hopefully will get some fall tomatoes. One of my biggest problems are stink bugs. I have sprayed with everything that has been recommended and nothing gets them. At one time we lived in the Brenham area, had a wonderful garden, never saw a stink bug. In fact we had a great fall garden and they predicted a freeze. Our tomato plants were loaded with green tomatoes. We picked them, wrapped them in newspaper and we were eating tomatoes in December. They were not like a vine picked but were a lot better than what you buy at the store. Annie

I am down the road from you. At July 4th or so I just pull tomatoes because I don't want to feed stink bugs all summer. There is no option.

Down here I think fall is a waste of time. I may try a few.

BTW, do you go to the Katy farmers market? I am there on Saturdays.

[Dewayne mater]

At this point, the pest/thief of another topic has continued to prefer tomatoes over all other options offered (cat food, peanut butter both in traps) and the dude LOVES black and brown boar. That plant is still setting some but, all are being eaten green now.

Big beef is still setting some as are sungold and black cherry. The shocker of the season is turning out to be Cowlicks brandywine. I lost count at 25 on one plant and it is still setting. Sure, those tomatoes setting now turn out smaller and with thick skins. In fact, they are so thick, I've been peeling them like a peach before slicing and that seems to work well. This is my 3rd season with Cowlicks and it has never performed like this. Weather is different this year for sure, but, I'm thinking TTF gets some credit as well. So far, it looks like I'm going to be able to keep 80% of plants alive through the summer and see what they do in the fall.

One last tid bit. Since we had so many black and brown boar, we made a salsa with that as the only tomato. Absolutely terrific flavor! If you get a surplus of them, give it a try. Some reds and pinks result in a salsa with too much sweetness for me, but BBB delivers tomato taste without tasting like sugar was thrown in.

Dewayne Mater

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

At this point, the pest/thief of another topic has continued to prefer tomatoes over all other options offered (cat food, peanut butter both in traps) and the dude LOVES black and brown boar. That plant is still setting some but, all are being eaten green now.

Big beef is still setting some as are sungold and black cherry. The shocker of the season is turning out to be Cowlicks brandywine. I lost count at 25 on one plant and it is still setting. Sure, those tomatoes setting now turn out smaller and with thick skins. In fact, they are so thick, I've been peeling them like a peach before slicing and that seems to work well. This is my 3rd season with Cowlicks and it has never performed like this. Weather is different this year for sure, but, I'm thinking TTF gets some credit as well. So far, it looks like I'm going to be able to keep 80% of plants alive through the summer and see what they do in the fall.

One last tid bit. Since we had so many black and brown boar, we made a salsa with that as the only tomato. Absolutely terrific flavor! If you get a surplus of them, give it a try. Some reds and pinks result in a salsa with too much sweetness for me, but BBB delivers tomato taste without tasting like sugar was thrown in.

Dewayne Mater

Dewayne,

This has been a crazy year. I really thought all hope for a decent tomato crop was lost with the late frosts and freezes. It has turned out to be a very decent year with good production on most plants. Like you, most of mine are producing new growth for a fall crop. I started trimming some back this morning before it got to hot to work in the garden. I did lose quite a few large tomatoes to splitting from the rain we have been getting the last couple of weeks. It's okay because I was getting a little tired of harvesting in the heat.

I picked up a few plants at Dennis Farm Store in Denton today to fill in a few spots where some determinate varieties finally died.

One weird thing in my garden this year was my KBX plant not producing a single bloom. It is usually one of my most productive and best tasting varieties. It was planted between my Orange Minsk and Dagmas Perfection. Both of those produced abundantly. The plant is doing very well and may bloom and produce in the fall.

I bet you have a rat feasting on your tomatoes since most of the damage occurs at night. I always have a lot of birds building nests and raising young in my garden. Most years, only a few make it long enough for the young birds to fly away. Most simply disappear in the night. It almost has to be rats getting them because anything larger would at least move or break some plant stems

Ted

[Rockporter]

Yes, I have a huge rat coming into my garden at night, Possum, he is eating my peppers and breaking the plants. I thing he is the one attacking my tomatoes too. I also noticed something tromped on my scallions.

[Cindyb1969]

I'm a bit perplexed. I have been out of town for a week. (my plants are on automatic water). I have more fruit set than ever. A few plants have died or look sickly, but for the most part, they are going stronger than ever!!! My homestead is HUGE!