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Question by Kayla V: Tomato planting this weekend, tips?
My father and I planted out first tomato garden last spring. Though the outcome was more than I had ever expected, the pains of maintaining my sixteen plants and the stress that troubles caused lead me to feel a bit wary about planting again this year. I have a couple of questions that I would *love* some tips and experience on!
1. Our fertilizer (10-10-10) was sparingly sprinkled into our pots and mixed thoroughly. Three of our original plants ended up dying because it burnt right through the roots. Are there any tomato fertilizers besides this one which are gentle enough for the plants?
2. The only spot around the house where we can place our pots happen to be one of the sunniest areas. Because of the heat, I end up watering the plants a lot more then most people. It brings hordes of misquotes, and they took to nesting IN our plants last year. What can kill the misquotes without harming the plants, or making my family sick?
3. The area I live is has always been notorious for blight. The weeds in the neighborhood are out of control, and even though I try to remove them around the fenced area my tomatoes are planted in, the blight still managed to severely attack my plants last year. I know I was lucky to avoid a more harmful fungus, though. Does anyone have suggestions or tips on how to prevent the catch of these sicknesses; or stop them from spreading once one of the plants get them? Five blight leaves last year, in fourteen hours, had spread to seven of my sixteen plants. It was not very pretty. :O
4. Rabbits, the ninja killer. They’re all over my yard. My grandmother built this house thirty-odd years ago, and the rabbits had fostered in the yard ever since. They’ve taken to birthing their babies behind my pots so the dogs cannot reach them (the pots are against a wall), and they massacred my peppers and my Pink Lady’s last year. I cannot keep the dogs out all the time, it gets too hot for them. The little buggers have figured out how to get past my tomato cages. Any help that can be offered for fending them off?
5. Any general tips or advice that you guys may want to add will help me a lot! Thank you ahead of time for your support!
TO DODICO: I can’t remember too exactly, but I am almost positive the blight stuck during the middle of the summer. We rarely see rain, but I suppose it’s possible. Does the wetness in the air make a difference?
Best answer:
Answer by D’Artagnan Pluck
The only thing that stops rabbits are fences and shotguns. Not much else I can tell you. Maybe try “Liquid Fence” and spray it around your stuff.
I use 13-13-13 and put it right in the planting holes and have never had a problem. I usually add a little super phosphate too.
I think your biggest issue is watering. Depending on how many you have, it may be worth your time to rig up a slow drip or soaker hose contraption that you can set on a cheap timer every morning. Anything in pots will need about 1 inch of water a day just to keep alive.
To counter blight, choose varities that have the VFFNT designation.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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I posed a question about squirrels digging in my pots. Heart o Gold said to take some skewers and stick them in the dirt so they stand up. This makes it less comfy. I bought a pack of bamboo skewers for $ 1, broke them in half, and put them around my plants. I hope it works!
Water the plants on a regular basis, I use a piece of plastic pipe into the ground near the roots and add a L of water every 3 days, then liquid fish fertilizer every 3 waterings and that eliminates the standing water that allows the mosquitoes to grow.
Chicken wire or hardware cloth should keep the rodents out of the garden. I use a raised bed not pots for mine. No help on the blight. I let the fertilizer stand a day before I plant anything just to be safe.
The pipe is 1″ and I use a funnel that holds about 1 qt. It seems to work OK.
Rabbit stew?
1. I use Miracle Grow and have ok results. It sounds like you may have used too much fertilizer to me.
2. Try planting a plant that mosquitoes hate by your tomatoes. You could try citronella, catnip, etc. Also, you could do a slow-drip hose to irrigate. Thatway your plants get watered as needed, but you dn’t have any standing waer for the mosquitoes to live in.
3. Water regularly, avoid allowing your tomatoes to get dry or water-logged. Bottom-end root rot will happen due to improper watering.
4. Here are some tips for thwarting rabbits:http://garden-pests-diseases.suite101.com/article.cfm/rabbitproofing_a_vegetable_garden
5. Plant you tomatoes very deep- even as much as just leaving the top few leaves is ok. Don’t smoke before you touch tomato plants- nicotine is poisonous to tomatoes. Try companion planting. Some plants do well next to each other and actually help one another out. From ghorganics.com:
“Tomato allies are many: asparagus, basil, bean, carrots, celery, chive, cucumber, garlic, head lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, pepper, marigold, pot marigold and sow thistle. One drawback with tomatoes and carrots: tomato plants can stunt the growth of your carrots but the carrots will still be of good flavor. Basil repels flies and mosquitoes, improves growth and flavor. Bee balm, chives and mint improve health and flavor. Borage deters tomato worm, improves growth and flavor. Dill, until mature, improves growth and health, mature dill retards tomato growth. Enemies: corn and tomato are attacked by the same worm. Kohlrabi stunts tomato growth. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other. Keep cabbage and cauliflower away from them. Don’t plant them under walnut trees as they will get walnut wilt: a disease of tomatoes growing underneath walnut trees.”
1-The fertilizer should of been fine just don’t over do it and wait till they establish
2-Tomato leaves are poisonous to ingest but as for the misquotes (I live in the misquote capital of the world) Marigold plants in numbers work well (I have 50 seedlings going right now) from my experience they will not cross a Marigold fence also citronella bucket candles.
3-Blight the only way to get rid of this is to cover the entire area with a black tarp and let the sun beat down on it for a couple years (I just deal with it out at the lake) avoid buying tomato seedlings from greenhouses
and lay down some mulch it can help
4-A cat will solve your rabbit problem (Orange Tabby Cat)
5-Just keep them watered maybe install a timer hooked up to your garden hose or a drip system they also sell a gravity feed cheap drip system did you get your blight after a heavy rainfall? if so mulch can help