Yes, it’s the tomato days of summer. I know some of you heat belt gardeners may be in tomato hiatus, but I’m sure you’ll let the rest of us take a mid-summer pause to celebrate the champion of the home vegetable garden.
Every vegetable garden has at least one type of tomato growing in it. We coddle them, we wait patiently for the signs of first blush and we brag about their size, flavor and productivity. But none of us are immune to the many, many, many problems lying in wait to attack our precious tomatoes. It does seem like if it’s not one thing, it’s another. But for today, let’s just celebrate that first sun warm, vine ripened dripping with juice tomato. Here are the ins and outs of choosing, growing and caring for tomatoes.
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I am craze to eat the tomato which got cultivated in the garden. I am sure the taste of tomato grown in garden has different taste when compare to the harvest productivity!
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I can’t wait for that taste–if I even get to enjoy it! Here in Connecticut,after all the rain we’ve been having, we’re struggling with “late blight”, which is threatening to utterly decimate tomato crops & gardens alike. (It’s the same fungus that caused the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.) The few tomatoes I have are still tiny, but I’m forcing myself to remain hopeful!
A lot of areas are experiencing late blight. All the sadder, because everything else is so lush and green from the rain.
I guessing August will be hot and muggy and we’ll all have forgotten how unseasonably mild June and July were. Let’s hope the tomatoes make it.
I’m in Northern KY with alot of rain in June. I have never seen such blight on the tomatoes! They look as though it is already late Sept – Oct and done! Have some hope for a few tomatoes!
With the temps in East Texas consistently over 100 degrees, tomato season is long over until the fall’s cooler weather! Cherry tomatoes seem to fare well.
Nice to hear that you can still grow cherry tomatoes in high heat. They must be great for snaking on a hot day.
I just came back from a workshop on vegetable diseases. Late blight hit my area too. If your plants aren’t yet touched or aren’t too far gone, you can try either copper sprays or the biofungicide Serenade. They’re supposed to be good for suppressing the spread of the blight. I’m trying Serenade and so far, so good.
They’re working on developing resistance to late and early blight as well as Septoria leaf spot and, according to Dr. Zitter at Cornell, it might not be too many years away. I can barely imagine growing tomatoes without spotted leaves.
I think you mean “snacking,” not snaking, which basically is akin to hanging out with snakes!
Yes, I hope I meant snacking. I’m not big on spending time to snakes.
I grew a tomato plant in a container. All summer long, I’ve been nurturing this plant, but I got exactly ONE tomato, which I harvested and ate tonight…. YUMMY! Is there any chance I’ll have more fruit from this plant? Or, if there’s none now am I out of luck this summer? I live in southcentral Pennsylvania.
I’m assuming you’re pa_quilter on the Forum. Otherwise southcentral PA is having a really bad year for tomatoes.
You should get more than 1 tomato. It could be the fluky, cool, cloudy weather. If the plant is healthy and you’ve been giving it food, it should start setting some more flowers. Be sure to use a fertilizer with a relatively low 1st number. That’s nitrogen and it promotes a lot of leaf growth, rather than flowers. You want something like a 2-5-3.
I love tomatoes, specially the red ones. No matter from where they come from. Just like to taste them.