Just to keep this thread going, and because I plant only hybrids . . . my tomatoes are just starting to set fruit here. I tried with various heirlooms for years and they just don't have enough disease resistance for this part of the country where we harbor every bug, fungus and disease on the planet.

My two grape tomatoes (which the squirrels have stolen the tags from - maybe Sun Sugar) have filled their Earth Box, and are now taking up a space 6ft. wide and 5ft. tall, shading a piece of my raised bed behind them. I may have to prune them if the hot weather we've had keeps up. We are due for our first "cold" front this weekend which should slow them down. Anybody have an idea who might be eating holes in some of the leaves?


Rita, if you haven't found them yet, my local tomato supplier Tomato Grower's Supply in Ft. Myers always has Mountain Magic and a terrific array of other unusual types.. have you tried Momotaro?? www.tomatogrowers.com

Wow, can't think of what would be eating on your tomato leaves other than tomato Hornworms. But usually they eat it right down to the stalk, not just leaving holes.

Thank you for helping with Mountain Magic but I have decided against it as I now have ordered many other smaller varieties of tomatoes.

How great is that to get tomatoes just starting to fruit now. Mine are long gone, pulled out and I was late this year.

Yes, and I usually can harvest all winter and well into spring if I can protect the plants through our few cold nights.

But, and it is a big BUT we suffer all summer with tomatoes from up North because our plants just peter out once the nights get warm.

You're so right, the hornworms usually completely de-foliate a whole section of the plant before you catch them, but luckily my birdfeeder is right next to the tomato plants and those clever blue jays have very sharp eyes for delicious fat caterpillars. I rarely have any problem with hornworms. Think I will take the flashlight out later and see if I can catch the catt in the act.

dyzzypyxxy said:Yes, and I usually can harvest all winter and well into spring if I can protect the plants through our few cold nights.

But, and it is a big BUT we suffer all summer with tomatoes from up North because our plants just peter out once the nights get warm.

We REALLY need to figure out a way to share good northern summer tomatoes and good southern winter tomatoes...

Unfortunately, I imagine we could buy them in the grocery stores if they could successfully be shipped anywhere!

dyzzypyxxy said:Yes, and I usually can harvest all winter and well into spring if I can protect the plants through our few cold nights.

But, and it is a big BUT we suffer all summer with tomatoes from up North because our plants just peter out once the nights get warm.

You're so right, the hornworms usually completely de-foliate a whole section of the plant before you catch them, but luckily my birdfeeder is right next to the tomato plants and those clever blue jays have very sharp eyes for delicious fat caterpillars. I rarely have any problem with hornworms. Think I will take the flashlight out later and see if I can catch the catt in the act.

I have found the local birds help me out a lot. They can find and pick off those things when I just can't find them.

I am really going to be wanting some nice ripe tomatoes this winter but of course nothing doing. Just have to wait for next July.

Elaine, could that be grasshopper damage on your plants?

Hm, not sure but I seem to recall grasshoppers usually eat from the edges of the leaves, don't they? This damage is mostly holes in the leaves.

I haven't seen any grasshoppers, so far but will keep my eyes open.

I hope this helps: https://www.google.com/search?...

Hi, I'm Ric and new to this thread. All my tomatoes have been declining for the last 3-4 years, hybrids and heirlooms alike. I'm pretty sure it's due to early blight. I move the site every year in a 4 year cycle. I amend the soil with lobster mulch and compost, plant companions, basil and onions. I have been growing on a wall made from 2 post and 2 cattle panels, and using good watering techniques.
Isn't 3 years rest enough? Should I use a fungicide? I only have so much space in the veggie garden and considered either using containers, 5 gal. buckets, or just moving them out for a few years.

Beautiful garden Ric! I've been having the same issues, I'm just solarizing a new place in a different area. I have enough space to do that. We'll have to see what next year brings. I guess there are some varieties that are more blight resistant, but I haven't tried them. We had such a long cold and wet spring here this year, that it wasn't a good year for tomatoes.

I just searched for some blight resistant varieties and found this article which lists some resistant varieties at the end. The only one of these I've ever grown was Mr. Stripy, and I didn't like it. It has a soft and mushy texture, and not much flavor to my way of thinking.
http://www.growveg.com/growblo...

I'm not sure what disease always gets to my tomato plants -- for a long time I thought it must be blight, but now I think it's probably verticilium or fusarium wilt -- but whatever it is, none of the supposedly resistant varieties that I've tried have ever done any better than any other varieties. Plants that I've tried growing in containers did even worse than those in the garden. Determinate varieties always succumb much more quickly for me; the indeterminates grow so tall that they are able to kind of out-run the disease. This past season I grew Viva Italia (determinate) plants, which are always the first to die for me, inside a hoop house -- where they did much better. (The HH is in an area of the garden where I've grown tomatoes before, so it wasn't a case of the soil being any different.) I believe that the reason was a combination of the plants being in a generally warmer spot, and they weren't getting soil splashed on them from the rain -- it seems that the disease really takes off in my garden as soon as we get some cooler, rainy weather, usually around the end of July or beginning of August. Very frustrating!

Hi Ric, and welcome. I've had some problems with blight, although I do grow my tomatoes in Earth Boxes here. I don't always start with fresh soil, just rotate and I do solarize in summer (which must be tough to do up north since that is your growing season).

I would think if you get a good hard freeze or two, most of the fungal blights would be killed in the soil. Maybe the winters have been too mild or the freezes too short recently?

But, here's another solution - this year I planted my first two tomatoes in an Earth Box and one of them immediately started showing signs of blight. I doused the whole box, soil and all with a mild hydrogen peroxide solution. Took the 3% H2O2 that you get at the drugstore and diluted it at 4oz. per gallon of water. Worked great and the two plants are those in my picture above.

Not sure about how big an area you are planting, but this might be worth a try. It would decimate a lot of the good organisms in your soil, but if you do it before you put in your amendments, you'd then replace a lot of the goodies.

Another tip - I've been using alfalfa pellets (horse food), an absolutely wonderful amendment, as our soil here in Florida is just sand, sand, sand. It's full of good micro-organisms, plus nitrogen and not expensive. A 50lb. bag here is about $16 but be sure to get just plain alfalfa without any vitamins or additives. We bolster our raised beds at the local school garden with it every 6 months as we re-plant a new garden that often, and I even amend the potting soil in my Earth Boxes with it. We use 1/2 a bag for a 4ft. x 8ft. bed. You can dig it into the soil straight from the bag, or make a porridge of it by adding a cup to a bucket of water and letting it 'steep' for a few hours, then side or top-dressing with it. Beware, though, if you have bunnies in your area they will be attracted by the (nice, grassy) smell for a week or so.

The one thing I can say with certainty is that whatever disease affects my tomatoes, it isn't killed by freezes! (During the winter of 2013-2014 we had frost over 6 feet down in the ground )

So sorry for everyones tomato growing fungus issues.

I use Dracil of needed but that is about my only advice.

Thank Ya'll for the help.
For one thing how have I not seen the term solarize. After researching it I believe that was what I need to rid myself of weed seed among other things. I have been trying to figure out how to steam treat my beds like we used to do in commercial GHs.
Do Ya'll use black or clear plastic to do it? Also I have a bunch of black rubber roofing around I could use if anyone would think that could work. I could turn some of those beds now and cover them as soon as the frost breaks.
I have tried VFN as well as other resistant hybrids to no success. I think this year I will definitely go with containers, 5 gal. buckets,
As little as 5 years ago I had staked tomatoes so robust you couldn't reach your arms around them and 5' tall.
Sandy, I've heard about your freezes up north. It was scary. My water lines are only down 3-4' and we had your temps the past 2 seasons. If you get much deeper you'll have permafrost while Alaska looses theirs. The last Arctic blast we got last year wiped out the lilac and some other spring buds just as they started to swell.
Tom, thanks for the compliment. We have about 1 acre and most of it is gardens. Since Holly and I are both gardeners we have no oversight when we visit a nursery or flower show.

Use clear plastic to solarize your soil, Ric. Down here where it is part of the routine even for the commercial growers, you see fields with rows and rows of clear plastic in the summer, May through July to catch the most intense sun. But any baking you can do will help.

If you can leave one section 'fallow' each year and solarize it in the summer, that will be the most effective time to do it, of course. But such agony to not plant an area, right?

Down here it's too hot to do much gardening outside in the summer anyway, so not as much of a sacrifice. I just barely keep the pathways passable and take care of my orchids in 10 minute intervals until October.

You could actually set up your solarization process now. If you put down a layer of compost first, then your cover, the worms will process the compost and mix it in for you. Leave it covered all next summer, then plant the next year. I used to solarize half of my garden space and plant the other half, and switch every other year, but I've taken a lot of my veggie garden space to plant my iris seedlings. I'm solarized a new area this year for additional space next year. I use the agricultural tarps that I get at the farm store. They are silver on one side, and black on the other. I put the black side up. It gets really hot uner there. The soil doesn't loose moisture under there, so the weed seeds try to germinate and then dye due to lack of sun. I also use the tarps for mulch and cut holes in them and plant tomatoes, peppers and vine crops. Works great. You can put a soaker hose under it if you want.

My tomatoes This year in June

My tomatoes last year in July.

My tomatoes this year in July! Ugh!

I have had good luck with the black plastic here. The sun isn't as intense here as it is in Florida, and the black seems to absorb more heat and not reflect any. Also, I re-purpose the tarps that I use to cover hay, so I get to use them after they aren't good enough to keep the hay dry anymore.

Tom, you're pics are exactly like mine, only for me it's been 3-4 years in a row. I will have to try and solarizing parts of my garden in successive years. I think for the next couple of years I will either move my tomatoes out or use containers. I was about to reseed turf where our old chicken pen stood, that site may be ideal for next years tomatoes.
We crossed post. I will try that, my black rubber may be good.