I'm throwing in the towel!

[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

[gardenhappy]

I feel for you to. Florida has had a hard summer, fall and spring gardens were wonderful !
I can't wait to get going again this fall
My hot peppers have done awesome! If only I had some fresh tomato's to go with them
We had 3'' of rain just the other day. We have drained the pool down twice 1 foot so it did not overflow the whole porch area we have had so much rain.

[ubergoober]

Originally Posted by gardenhappy

I feel for you to. Florida has had a hard summer, fall and spring gardens were wonderful !
I can't wait to get going again this fall
My hot peppers have done awesome! If only I had some fresh tomato's to go with them
We had 3'' of rain just the other day. We have drained the pool down twice 1 foot so it did not overflow the whole porch area we have had so much rain.

we too have had to drain water off of the pool for the first time ever. Normally it is us throwing in the hose to top it off. lol It has been a very wet summer.

[KarenO]

Sorry for your troubles, that would be very discouraging
I find tomatoes picked green or just turning will ripen fine indoors. it's better than letting the diseases, bugs, birds, squirrels and other critters have them as I see so often in various TV posts. In my neck of the woods I often have to pick lots of green tomatoes early and allow them to ripen indoors, not for the same reasons as you but because of threatening early frost. "vine ripened" isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes if it means losing many good tomatoes. I advise if there are threats in the forms of disease, frost, bugs or critters then pick early, bring them indoors where you control the environment and you will lose less of your crop.
KarenO

[livinonfaith]

I feel your pain, brother!

I actually, finally, have a decent set of tomatoes on the vine this year. (at least for me. It would still be considered piddly for a lot of the growers on here) But the plants are quickly dying and the tomatoes that have ripened have had very little flavor. Aaaargh!

Too much rain.

But the hope is that next year, I'll get a little better, and the next year, I'll learn a little more. And some year, one incredible year, the stars in the heavens will all line up correctly, and the sun will shine on me kindly, and there will be so many beautiful, delicious tomatoes that I won't even know what to do with them!

So, I can't tell you that you should keep investing your time in this, but that's what keeps me from giving up. (Also, I'm pretty darn stubborn..... and probably a bit delusional.)

[riceke]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

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

Hey Scott...no I couldn't find a dry enough day to spray daconil or any pesticide. I sprinkled a little 5% sevin but it washed away. Gave up on it.
But usually on every other year I spray only when there is a major problem, but this year it was a major problem everyday.

[doublehelix]

It seems to me you just planted too late. I set out around April 10th and you are more south than I am. Your historical last frost date should be somewhere around the last week of march. A month makes a lot of difference in production. Get an earlier start and begin a fungal spray program at 10 day intervals next year and you will have more tomatoes than you can eat.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by doublehelix

It seems to me you just planted too late. I set out around April 10th and you are more south than I am. Your historical last frost date should be somewhere around the last week of march. A month makes a lot of difference in production. Get an earlier start and begin a fungal spray program at 10 day intervals next year and you will have more tomatoes than you can eat.

I am south of you too, and if I set everything out on april 10, I would have nothing this year. We had several hard frosts well after that.

[b54red]

I haven't thrown in the towel but I sure have to use one every time I go outside with the constant rain we have had for seven weeks now. Fungicide spraying has been almost futile since we have only had one two day period without rain in the last seven weeks and I'm not talking about a little shower in the afternoon. Without the use of the bleach spray I think most of my plants would be dead now. Many days I wake up to the sound of rain and go to bed with the sound of rain. It makes for good sleeping but the veggies don't appreciate it.

My early tomato crop was fantastic and a lot of my plants are still alive but with very little foliage except at the very top. The plants I have set out the past couple of months are looking a little better so there is some hope for a decent fall if the rain ever lets up. Years like this just reinforce my belief in the benefits of staggering my planting from March til early August. With such a long growing season it is crazy to put all my eggs in one basket. Putting all my tomatoes out at the same time sometimes works out but more often than not it doesn't.

Bill

[Father'sDaughter]

I'm having a gosh darnoodleyed if you do, gosh darnoodleyed don't kind of year.

If I hadn't set out earlier than normal, the plants might not have started falling to disease so early.

If I had set out when I usually do (end of May), the plants would not have had time set any fruit before the heat waves in July came in on the heels of the cooler temps and heavy rains of June.

While I am picking tomatoes from those that set in early June, there has been almost no new fruit set since. And now that the weather has improved, I have several plants that are too far gone with disease and will need to be pulled once the fruit they have on them is ready to be picked.

On the plus side, those plants that are showing some resistance to disease look as though they are getting ready to set new tomatoes in the last couple of days.

[efisakov]

No, my garden is not healthy and all perfect, but in the most infected beds there are few varieties that year after year hold on the longest. They are Carbon, Black Cherry and Cherokee Purple.

[jennifer28]

Originally Posted by efisakov

No, my garden is not healthy and all perfect, but in the most infected beds there are few varieties that year after year hold on the longest. They are Carbon, Black Cherry and Cherokee Purple.

Ella

If you like Cherokee Purple then I recommend Indian Stripe. Incredibly prolific and extremely hard to kill.

[Dewayne mater]

I'm astounded that black cherry holds on the longest! It is consistently the most disease laden plant I plant every year. It is amazing susceptible to mold. Other disease don't bother it as much, but year after year, molds are what eventually takes down black cherry. And, before I got more proactive on fungicides and Bill's bleach spray, it was typically done months before any other plant. I still think its worth it for the great tasting prolific fruit set, but its a weakling in my garden!

D M

[adkspackler]

I feel your pain! What doesn't kill us makes us stronger! There's always next year