How's everyone's tomatoes doing?

[jcam222]

The last few years my tomatoes have not done well. Tons of wilt and diseases issues along with very low production. I just do a raised bed and they simply haven't done well since the first year. I do refresh soil with Pro Soil mix etc. Maybe just bad years as I know others who didn't do well especially last year. Well this year man mine are going bonkers! This is a pic of the main raised bed with a yardstick in it for reference. If you zoom in your can see a ton of tomatoes and blossoms too. These are all Sun Sugar Cherry. I have a couple smaller beds on the ends just built with blocks for some larger tomatoes.

.This year when I planted I used root blaster in the transplant hole like I always do but also used this. I think it may just be amazing.

All I've done other than that is 3 times fertilized with Miracle Grow tomato formula. Pretty happy with these and gonna be a great harvest unless something goes haywire.

 

[Brokenhandle]

We just had a small tomato for blts last night... taste was amazing! Picked green because of a split and let ripen on a counter. Best time of the year... well it might get a lil better when sweet corn is ready!

Ryan

 

[indaswamp]

Mine are done. I picked the last fruits yesterday. I agree with you though, last 2-3 years have been rough. For me it was splitting from rains and the fruit rots on the vine in no time. I actually got a crop this year by switching from celebrity to Creole tomatoes. Not nearly as much cracking and splitting. For me, fertilizing with 5-600# of fish carcasses trench composted annually in my beds, along with hot compost on top with added wood ash gives me all the fertilizer I need for a growing season. My super soil is 2' deep and very friable in my raised beds. Worms love it. I got about 60# of tomatoes this year off 11 plants. Best Ive ever done was almost 300# off 21 plants.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Tomatoes are doing good. Last picture is our okra.

 

[jcam222]

All looking good. Looks like I'm about a week or two from starting to pick some. Can't wait! I do have some mystery tomatoes too. I bought two big boy and two golden jubilee but one of the two appear to be some type of paste tomato. Not happy about that. I also had a random plant sprout up outside the raided bet and it's about 3 feet tall and fruiting. No idea what that one will be haha.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Mine have done really well. Once my plants started setting fruit, I switch to Cal-Mag instead of Miracle Grow. Applied as recommended.

Trim all the lower limbs and suckers. My plants look spindly because of all the trimming, but have really produced.

I'll have a ton of eggplant if I can keep Lucy from eating it. Had to put chicken wire around the plants to keep her away from them. Sounds crazy, but she was picking them off the plants when they would get about 1" long. Cukes too.

What hasn't done good is my zucchini and crook neck. Not sure why, but they just never produced...

 

[voyager 663rd]

We also had a bad year last year--not ONE !

This year, I'm adding some dehydrated chicken shi errrrr manure around the base --- but not too close because it can burn them.

Flowers are abundant now (again, way better than last year) just waiting for the bees to show up--or I'll need to be the stork again and do some dusting.

 

[normanaj]

We gave up on tomatoes. To easy to just hit up the local farmstands. I miss it but don't miss it.

 

[Brokenhandle]

We gave up on tomatoes. To easy to just hit up the local farmstands. I miss it but don't miss it.

That's us with potatoes!

Ryan

 

[Fueling Around]

I've had many talks with a local (MN) organic farmer. We decided that plant health starts with soil health.
He picked a product called D-Comp that contains a mix of fungi, enzymes, and bacteria to do the magic.

Jeff, you picked a great product to really jump start the soil health. The only thing I can recommend adding is humic acid to round out the fungi.
I get a good dose of fungi in the garden from my compost pile.
Tomatoes are just starting to turn. I need to apply more calcium acetate this week. Calcium acetate is ground eggshells with vinegar to make it plant ready.
My tomatoes never fail to produce bumper crops

That's us with potatoes!

I have alkaline soil, but somehow get a great crop of spuds.
My wife likes purple potatoes and we never see them in the markets.
I have red, purple, and russet varieties. They all go south with us.