How big is your garden and how many tomato plants?

[troutsqueezer]

I use blood meal, bone meal and Epsom Salts on my tomatoes

You should only use epsom salts if your soil has a magnesium deficiency. Most soils don't. Be careful with it. If you overuse it you will have the biggest, greenest tomato plants that have no fruit.

 

[sixdogs]

I've never had a problem with squash borers until the last 2 or so years. Have they finally moved into the area, or have they always been here?

They have always been there. We grew 8 acres of squash and specialty pumpkins north of Bangor, ME for years and solved it. First you have to rotate your crop and in the fall pick up ALL the old fruit and rip out as many vines as possible. Feed the pumpkins to someone's cows and burn the vines. That's where bacteria and bugs overwinter. If it's a cold fall or winter with no snow it won't matter because the cold temps kill lots of bugs and bacteria.

Second, grow pumpkins resistant to other diseases to have healthy plants. Grow the Howden and mini pumpkins along with buttercup squash and pie pumpkins or gourds. When I rotated ground and picked up the old fruit my problems--well, at least the pumpkin bug problems--were solved.

 

[keegs]

not a farmer but when I've had issues with broccoli cutworm I solve it by rotating and removing the spent plants after harvest.

 

[bigtiller]

Here is the area where I got the most recent loads of topsoil. I had so many good healthy plants that I decided to give a few a try at the farm land. Cattle panels for support, fits right in the the farm theme.



I hope to have five gallon bucket fulls to give away this year.

How does the horizontal tomato trellis work? Do you add another panel a few inches higher later in the season?

 

[TCJatko]

How does the horizontal tomato trellis work? Do you add another panel a few inches higher later in the season?

I think the idea is to just let the vines spread out over the cattle panels. It will keep them out of the dirt and less succeptible to disease.

 

[KenB2920]

So far I have 36 roma tomato plants in the ground. I have a few other tomato plants to throw in yet. So I'll be around 50 tomatoes. Mainly for canning. I don't know my exact dimensions off hand. I am also growing broccoli, a couple types of lettuce, onions, corn ( this is my first year. Wish me luck), a variety of peppers, water melon, cantaloupe, honeydew and a few other things.

 

[kebo]

I put out eight tomato plants at my parents house three weeks ago. That's all we have the time to deal with really, since I live about 75 miles from them and they are in their 80's. The plot is only about 4ft wide by about 22ft long, plenty of room for the 8 plants. Three are better boys, and five are beefsteaks. One better boy didn't make it (I put too much fertilizer on it to start with) so I just replanted it a week ago. Hoping for a nice bunch of tomatos around July 1st!!!

 

[dave1949]

I think the idea is to just let the vines spread out over the cattle panels. It will keep them out of the dirt and less succeptible to disease.

Keeping good air flow through the lower part of the plant would surely be a big advantage. Once they get trained through the panel, it could be less fussing around than stakes, and maybe the tomatoes don't get creases on them as with cages.

 

[dave1949]

So far I have 36 roma tomato plants in the ground. I have a few other tomato plants to throw in yet. So I'll be around 50 tomatoes. Mainly for canning. I don't know my exact dimensions off hand. I am also growing broccoli, a couple types of lettuce, onions, corn ( this is my first year. Wish me luck), a variety of peppers, water melon, cantaloupe, honeydew and a few other things.

Good luck with your corn! Once in a while I grow some sweet corn in the garden. I've found that it really responds well if you side dress high nitrogen fertilizer at the recommended stages--which are a little fuzzy in my memory, so I won't guess at what they are.

 

[KenB2920]

Good luck with your corn! Once in a while I grow some sweet corn in the garden. I've found that it really responds well if you side dress high nitrogen fertilizer at the recommended stages--which are a little fuzzy in my memory, so I won't guess at what they are.

Funny, I just spoke with a local farmer today. I asked for tips. His response was nitrogen nitrogen nitrogen