Tomatoes

It sounds like you have a problem with leaf miners. The larvae will tunnel through the leaves and stunt the growth of your plant. Leaf miners are difficult to control without using insecticides. The adult leaf miner flies can be attracted by yellow cards coated with a sticky layer of petroleum jelly. Keep your plants healthy and well watered and they may recover from the infestation. Tomato plants need a lot of sun. If possible move your container to a location where it will get more morning sun.

Usually, the ripening of tomatoes is is related to heat units. Tomatoes need lots of heat to ripen. Vines usually crack due to lack of support. Whether you cage or stake them is personal preference. If you support tomatoes off the ground, they will also produce fruit. If you have tomatoes from that broken vine that are green, pick them and place in a single layer on a counter (NOT in fridge) at room temperature until they turn red. When they are fully ripe, place them in the refrigerator several hours before eating.

Tomatoes need water regularly. Once the fruit begins to ripen you can cut back on watering to get more flavorful tomatoes, but don’t withhold water so much that the plants become stressed.
Does your husband's tomatoes get enough sun? Maybe his plants are growing too close together and shading each other. The soil in containers is usually warmer than soil in the garden and may also make a difference in how the tomatoes grow.

Not sure what type of tomatoes you have. Some varieties don't get very big. Here are a couple of suggestions. Remove the bottom leaves and add some bone meal to the soil around the plants. The south side of your house may be getting too much sun. Try shading the plants during the hottest hours of the day.

Luckily, it doesn't sound like tomato blossom rot.

In this instance, it may just be pests. Try this spray: Stir together 1 quart of water, 1 tsp of liquid dish soap and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Do not dilute before spraying on plants. Useful against aphids and scale insects. Organic controls include alcohol spray (isopropyl alcohol, straight or diluted), soapy emulsion (can be mixed w/alcohol), horticultural oil (read the directions) and pyrethrum spray. Soapy water/alcohol should be reapplied every 2-3 days for 2 weeks.

Thank you for your interest in the Old Farmer's Almanac and our Web site.

A tomato plant with 2 stems is unusual. We suggest removing the smaller stem close to the soil. It is also a good idea to remove lower branches. Rain and wind can cause them to touch the soil where they come in contact with soil born pathogens and fungi.

We envy your success with these tomato plants! You are clearly doing a lot of things correctly.
Both Better Boy and Cherokee Purple are indeterminate tomatoes, and both produce an abundant harvest. They may very well take over your deck. Enjoy the bounty! By the way, in a survey for the 2005 Almanac, readers described Better Boy as “God’s perfect fruit, [with] great taste.”
First, if you have not already done this, make sure that the plants are staked or otherwise supported. (This should have been done when the first flower appears.)
It would be desirable to have only one main stem below the first fruit cluster. Avoid too many stems above the first fruit cluster; aim for no more than four. Fewer stems mean larger fruit. (How do you avoid too many stems? Prune them.)
Continue to prune the suckers, especially those below the first fruit, but get as many as you can and do this by hand, not with a knife or other tool. If at all possible, do not prune suckers when the leaves are wet to avoid any risk of disease to the plant.
If the suckers get out of hand and become especially large and leafy, consider removing only the leaf cluster at the top of the sucker. This is less of a shock to the plant.
About a month before the end of the season (but who is thinking about that in June?), do a ruthless pruning, or “topping,” of all of the growing tips so that the remaining fruit can mature properly.
We hope this helps. If you are looking for ways to use your harvest, we have more than 400 recipes for tomatoes at Almanac.com/Cooking.

Although several conditions may cause yellowing and wilting, the tomatoes may possibly have a type of wilt, perhaps fusarium or verticillium wilt. Symptoms begin as yellowing and wilting of lower leaves (verticillium often shows up as wedge-shaped yellow spots on the leaves). Plants can be stunted or not recover from wilting after being watered. To check for verticillium or fusarium wilt, cut a troubled stem by the base and look for brown discoloration inside the stem.
Fusarium may affect just a few shoots in the beginning. It only attacks tomato plants, reduces vigor and yield, often killing the plant.
Verticillium may affect whole plants and can travel to other types of plants. It may not kill tomato plants but will reduce vigor and yield.
It’s best to destroy the plants (do not add to compost pile). In future, plant resistant cultivars. Sanitize tools.
Rotate crops—avoiding any in the tomato/potato family in the same spot for the next few years. One can try soil solarization to try to get rid of the disease in the soil. Hope this helps.
For more info and photos, see:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html

Fresh garden tomatoes do NOT naturally contain bacteria that can make you sick. Possibilities: Contact with raw food on cutting board, bacteria on your hands or in your sink, contaminated water or soil, improperly composted manure, etc. If you are still sick, please see a heath professional and take care!

Celebrity tomato plants can get very tall (5 to 6 feet) and will get lots of tomatoes. Just make sure all the weight is supported with stakes/wire mesh or cages, preferably strong caging if budget allows.

If you're growing tomatoes on a patio, it sounds as if you'd grow them in pots? You can certainly grow tomatoes in containers. Plant one tomato per container and make sure the container has holes in the bottom. Cherry tomatoes are great in containers and here are a few other smaller varieties to try: Early Girl, Patio, Small Fry, Sweet 100, Tiny Tim. Ask your garden center to advise on size of pots. Most tomatoes use large containers (18-gallon). Use potting soil (such as Miracle Grow), 1 cup of Osmocote slow release 13-13-13 and 1/4 cup of lime. Every 12 days, feed with a high phosphorous fertilizer. You can also add some mulch on top to retain moisture. Make sure your tomatoes are in a location where they will get 6 hours of sunshine daily. Water after planting and then consistently. When to water? If the soil is dry on the top, but you can feel moisture further down, you probably don't need to water them yet. If it feels dry all the way through, water them until the water leaks through the holes. You'll need to stake the tomatoes for support. You can find more detail about tomato plant care and harvesting on this page. Good luck!

Don’t get discouraged. All beginner gardeners have learning hurdles and even experienced gardeners never stop learning! We’re not sure where you live—and we wonder if it’s in a warm place. Here are a few common reasons for soft tomatoes:

1. If tomatoes are soft, usually it’s just overripe and you want to harvest sooner.
 

2. Or, if the temps have gone over 90 degrees and you let them fully ripen on the plant, they can become mushy.

3. Did you overfeed the tomatoes?  This is most likely is a nutrient imbalance, most likely too much nitrogen. Too much fertilizer with nitrogen or not enough potassium can be an issue.  If you buy a fertilizer, be sure to apply a 1:3 nitrogen-to-potassium liquid fertilizer.

We’re not sure why the tomatoes are smaller than you expected. Is it a ripening issue? Temps above 85*F and under 55*F will affect the ripening of tomatoes. If the temp is too low, the tomatoes can freeze overnight, causing them to become mushy as they thaw the next day (this is a sign of decay and means they are not safe to eat).

Did you get enough sun?  Tomatoes need a LOT of sun: 6 to 8 hours a day. Or, if it’s just size, that could be due to lack of moisture. You could also help growth by removing the small tomatoes and the stems and leaves that are offshoots to help channel energy into the rest of the tomatoes.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/yard/2004/110604.html

if you don't see any insects, then it is probably a phosphorus deficiency that is causing the purple tinged leaves. This problem can be fixed by amending your fertilizer accordingly. Good luck!

Once a tomato seed has sprouted it doesn't need a lot of water. You are probably watering too much and this causes root rot. also they don't need a lot of fertalizer until about two weeks before you want to pick fruit. When seedlings get too tall they are reaching for light. Your light source should be 2 inches above tops of seedlings. Moving as they grow. Also a bit of a breeze on seedlings helps make their stems grow stronger. a small fan is useful. Good Luck, it's always trial and error.

There are a few things you can do to help your tomato plants.
-pinch them back
-water them more often
-take the plants and lay them on their sides for about 1/3 of the plant. This was in a local article by a master gardener. He claims that 'we' don't plant enough of our tomatoe plants in the ground. You can plant up to 1/2 of the plant into the ground to encourage better root growth. The same can be accomplished by planting the plant on its side and leaving the top 1/3 above the ground.
-increase the amount of sunlight. Lack of sunlight encourages leggy plants, so you'll have to pinch them back to encourage good bushy growth.
-also you should only be watering them in the mornings, watering them later in the day encourages rot and fungus as the plants don't have sufficient time to dry off before dark.

Keep us posted as to what you do and how the plants are doing. ~Nanette

You're plants could be 'wilting' due to lack of water. Once the plants begin to flower it takes more energy to produce flowers and fruit. You'll need to fertilize now and increase the water you give. Tomatoes LOVE water, they are mostly water so you have to give water and fertilizer to get good tomatoes.

Also if they are really 'tall' they may be 'leggy' and need pinching back. Bushy is better than leggy in this case.
Good luck~Nanette

How often do you water? Are there any bugs on or under the leaves? Has it been really hot in your area?

If they are getting enough water, there are no bugs and the weather has not been too hot, then look at how much fertilizer has been used. Has anyone been spraying weed killer in the area? I hope some of this helps.

i have over 15 tomatoe plants no tomatoes on the vines yet i have a couple of flowers on the vine should i separate the plants?do i lay the plants on the soil or use wire cage to support the vine?

Hi Last year I used topsy turvy to grow 2 tomatoes and a green pepper on my porch. It was an experiment. I wanted to see which did better, this or the garden.

Well, I have to say my topsy did best. I used a home-made recipe: 1/2 compost, 1/2 light soil mix and some fertilizer. I mixed it all together and then put it in my planters. My tomato plants were over 7 ft long and had mulitple 'vines' I kept pinching and got some tomatoes and pepper from each. Because they were hung on the porch, I had tomatoes and peppers until december until the frost came and eventually killed them off.

Stop fertilizing every time you water. Too much is NOT a good thing. If you mix in a good fertilizer when you pot up, you won't need any more for the growing season.

Good luck~Nanette

keep in mind that if you are feeding your tomatoes miracle gro, then you will be feeding yourself that as well when you eat the tomato.
an excellent fertilizer for anything you grow: get a bag of dehydrated manure, or any form of bagged manure (it isn't gross and doesn't smell) - MOO DOO is a good brand. if you take a couple good handfuls, as big as you can scoop between two hands, put it in a five gallon bucket (for smaller containers, adjust the amount of manure), fill the bucket with water, let it sit for a day or however long to make "tea". use this tea for watering your plants and your plants and your body will be much happier.
you can keep refilling the bucket with water as you use it up without needing to add more manure until the tea looks really weak. then you can add the manure on the bottom of the bucket directly into the soil around your plants and start over.
one of the problems with chemical fertilizers, one of the many problems i should say, is that the plant becomes addicted and therefore dependent on them and can suffer from its use just as people suffer from chemical addictions.
sometimes the chemicals are too much for the plants and they may start out well, but don't do well if they have been fed nothing but that.
i would try switching to the manure tea. if you have ONLY been feeding it miracle gro every time you water, that is definitely too much...you may have to wean it off miracle gro rather than going cold turkey, and introduce the tea into it regularly to help balance out the tomatoes' withdrawals.