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Kilersquirrel posted:Tomatoes will sprout roots wherever a stem touches persistent dampness, so you could probably just plunk the broken end into some water with flower food in it and place in a sunny location until the roots start to sprout. cowofwar posted:If it's indeterminate it will create new stems at every branch so as long as the break happened after the first branch you'll be fine. I'm also not sure what qualifies as a branch in the case of a tomato plant. Here's what it looks like right now:  I guess those are branches because they have more than one leaf on them?
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Jun 16, 2013 17:05
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Kilersquirrel posted:Human Tornada, you probably have something small chewing on your plant, and possibly some sunburn developing on the leaves as well. Those holes look like they were made by bugs to me, and I had similar discolorations start forming on my potted thai and cayenne peppers in Orlando when I moved them to a spot that got full sun all day. It seems like if you're below a certain latitude they like to have a little shade during the day - I'm not sure where you're located but you could try putting something up that shades one plant for part of the day and then compare after a week or two. Sorry for the low information post earlier, I was running out the door. I'm in the Cincinnati area, so the sun hasn't been super intense and we've had a ton of rain lately. What's confusing is the jalapeno plant is next to two identical perfectly healthy plants, which should be getting the same sun and water. It's hard to see in the pictures but all of the newer leaves are dry, bumpy, and covered in black spots.   Healthy jalapeno for comparison  My lemon drop peppers, which are looking really nice. 
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Jun 16, 2013 17:11
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Flipperwaldt: Indeterminate just means that it will continue to grow longer and branch out until conditions are no longer favorable/possible to grow in. Tomatoes naturally are vining plants a la kudzu, squashes, and peas/beans, they just grow and branch and grow. The "determinate" varieties are ones that have been specifically for a mutation that makes them stop growing longer after a certain length. Tornada: I just wouldn't worry about it, I think some varieties just do that. Fertilizer however you prefer and see what happens. If it's been seriously wet for a while, it could always be a microbial disease like Black Spot taking advantage of conditions. If you're all the way up in Cincinnati I'd just do full sun all day and not worry about shade unless you start getting obvious sunburn symptoms. I'd also move the healthy plants away from the wonky-looking ones just in case it is something microbial, it will help decrease the chance of enough cross-contamination occurring to start something in your healthy plants. Now that I think about it some more, if you're worried enough you might try moving the wonky plants inside and putting them up against a sunny south-facing window for a while and see how they do. That way they'll have the chance to dry out some and make conditions unfavorable for microbes. But don't stress over it, they're just plants - give them sun, water, and at least moderately decent growing medium and they'll do their thing. Fussing over them too much is generally worse than not fussing at all(this does not apply to orchids, those prissy little bitches). There's also a chance that those particular pots might not be draining well enough, or their variety is just bitchier about wet conditions than the other ones are. My thai bush absolutely loved having soaking wet soil, but my poblanos (aside from drawing in EVERY GOD DAMNED APHID IN THE COUNTY) got all kinds of pissed off and yellowy if they didn't drain out immediately and get some air back around those roots. Kilersquirrel fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jun 16, 2013 |
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Jun 16, 2013 18:07
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I've been in a kind of uneasy detente with a rabbit that keeps getting through my fence. Up until last night he had been content to eat the clover that is all over the drat place so I've let him be and kept my dog from chasing him. Little poo poo ate at least 16 bean plants last night. rear end in a top hat.
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Jun 16, 2013 19:09
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This is the first time I've tried growing tomatoes. Went from seeds, and fear kept me from pruning at all until it was WAY too late. So long after (according to the seed pack) I should've been harvesting, I had way overgrown (but happy) big green leafy tomato plants with the tiniest starts of fruit. Have since been trimming as best as I can figure out, but the stalks are so overgrown at this point (it's pretty ridiculous) and I've taken off so much green that I don't know if there is enough shade to keep the tomatoes themselves happy. So I've already hosed up badly - and this will never be a good yield, it'd be nice to salvage SOMETHING though. My question is if I were to do something like loosely tie white plastic grocery bags around the tomato clusters to keep them from getting too much direct sun (they're in California), would that hurt them somehow? Do they need airflow?
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Jun 16, 2013 20:52
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Shoot him and prepare some lapin a la moutarde. It is quiet comfort that rabbits at least can't get into my rooftop garden. I didn't know tomatoes could get too much sun. Mine seemed to thrive on the tropical sun on the last 3 months of summer we had. As long as I kept their soil moist, they enjoyed the nice UVs. Until they grew and started smothering the smaller tomato plants. Make sure there is enough space between them.
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Jun 16, 2013 21:03
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There shouldn't be any reason to shade your tomatoes. I think you would create a whole bunch of other problems by doing that. Also, rabbits are yummy.
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Jun 16, 2013 21:06
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I'm basing the "the fruits can't handle direct sun" assumption on a random youtube video from a lady who seemed smart. If that isn't true then I guess there's nothing to worry about. Even after all the trimming and stupid looking stalks, the plants still seem happy and the fruit is growing at a much quicker rate. Thank you both for the quick feedback.
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Jun 16, 2013 21:18
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If they have insufficient shade, tomatoes and peppers can develop sunscald which will pretty much ruin the affected fruit.
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Jun 16, 2013 21:50
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I dunno -- it probably depends on just how much sun you're getting, but I know a lot of sources seem to recommend for late tomatoes that don't ripen before the first frost to leave them indoors on a sunny windowsill to ripen. But I think they only actually need the heat, not the sun itself. I would just try it. If your tomatoes start to look scalded, then rig up some lightweight shade cloth or something (and be ready to take it down as the days get shorter and cooler).
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Jun 16, 2013 23:49
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Same Great Paste posted:I'm basing the "the fruits can't handle direct sun" assumption on a random youtube video from a lady who seemed smart. Link the video, she sounds like a loon. Plastic bags on fruit would impede airflow and they would probably feet moldy or some poo poo.
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Jun 16, 2013 23:58
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Thinking of trying the coffee grounds slug remedy, how much should I be using and where should I be putting it? My allotment site is literally backing on to a nice local cafe and the lady there said she'd save all their coffee grounds so I can get pretty much whatever I need. I plan to use it on the lettuce, caliuflowers and beans, since those are the ones they're doing the most damage on
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Jun 17, 2013 00:37
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Take all the grounds, they're good in a compost pile.
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Jun 17, 2013 01:46
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mischief posted:Take all the grounds, they're good in a compost pile. I put about a gallon in the compost every week. Now I have to do a combo of my rotator composter to the normal bin , mix the two, and get a bigger pile( I don't think the rotating bin is working well, but it is doing okay. It's been really cold here until this weekend.) I have noticed worms and wood bugs in my bin, besides ants. I think it might work out well.
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Jun 17, 2013 02:25
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coyo7e posted:Link the video, she sounds like a loon. Plastic bags on fruit would impede airflow and they would probably feet moldy or some poo poo.
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Jun 17, 2013 02:46
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cowofwar posted:Peppers and tomatoes definitely sunscald on the fruits if insufficiently shaded. You want to have the right spacing so that the fruits are shaded by the plants in adjacent rows. Last year I had a bunch of peppers that scalded on me since they were getting full sun all day. The general idea around me (North-Central US)is that both need full sun at all times and scalding is completely unheard of. You must live in a place with an amazing amount of sun.
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Jun 17, 2013 02:53
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theacox posted:The general idea around me (North-Central US)is that both need full sun at all times and scalding is completely unheard of. You must live in a place with an amazing amount of sun. High elevation Utah and our peppers are getting the poo poo kicked out of them by the sun. When I get back in town next weekend I am going to have to jerry rig some partial shade for the little buggers. Funny thing is, in our boxes, the soil is like dust on the surface and pegging wet when you get down an inch or more. When they began to look wilty and dry, I thought they were lacking water. Anything with a dark leaf is absolutely devastated at this point (example: purple basil). We could really use a week or so of cloudy days.
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Jun 17, 2013 03:02
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I need some advice on pole beans. I planted them along a 4 ft trellis which I now know is not nearly tall enough. Should I try and extend the height of the trellis or will they do okay just hanging off of the top of the trellis? Also, they're over 4 feet tall now. When will I start to see beans growing?
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Jun 17, 2013 17:38
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Thanks for the replies, the soil in the healthy plants was dry today but in the two messed up ones the soil was pretty damp, so I guess they aren't draining properly. I've separated them and will try to dry them out but might just accept them as losses. I'm definitely not one to futz around with my plants. The habanero might bounce back but I don't think the picture (the first one of my last post) conveys how bad 85% of the leaves on my jalapeno look.
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Jun 18, 2013 02:58
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I just wanted to post a picture of one of my tomatoes. This is a Black Krim indeterminate heirloom, which should produce normal-size/6oz tomatoes...the first flower cluster that came off of the main stem has like 30+ flowers on it. It looks insane. Even on my cherry tomatoes I have never seen one cluster be so crazy!
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Jun 18, 2013 06:00
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Human Tornada posted:Thanks for the replies, the soil in the healthy plants was dry today but in the two messed up ones the soil was pretty damp, so I guess they aren't draining properly. You'd be surprised, my Black Pearl pepper has survived 2 winters and 3 hard freezes (2 of them within weeks of each other with unseasonably warm weather inbetween), being overwatered, underwatered and baked to poo poo last summer, underwatered and chilled badly this winter with a nasty bout of spider mites and it's still alive and kicking. It even kept sending out flowers and fruiting with the spider mites. Peppers are tough little bastards, there are even some tree-form ones from the Andes that take a full hard freeze as well as any apple or cherry tree. Whenever I get to the point of buying a house, I'm sticking those things out in front instead of holly bushes or whatever.
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Jun 18, 2013 06:37
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Kilersquirrel posted:You'd be surprised, my Black Pearl pepper has survived 2 winters and 3 hard freezes (2 of them within weeks of each other with unseasonably warm weather inbetween), being overwatered, underwatered and baked to poo poo last summer, underwatered and chilled badly this winter with a nasty bout of spider mites and it's still alive and kicking. It even kept sending out flowers and fruiting with the spider mites. Peppers are tough little bastards, there are even some tree-form ones from the Andes that take a full hard freeze as well as any apple or cherry tree. Whenever I get to the point of buying a house, I'm sticking those things out in front instead of holly bushes or whatever. Rocoto peppers. My coworker last year gave me one from Peru. I didn't like it, very thin and leathery pepper you'd want to grind up or something.
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Jun 18, 2013 15:18
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Kilersquirrel posted:You'd be surprised, my Black Pearl pepper has survived 2 winters and 3 hard freezes (2 of them within weeks of each other with unseasonably warm weather inbetween), being overwatered, underwatered and baked to poo poo last summer, underwatered and chilled badly this winter with a nasty bout of spider mites and it's still alive and kicking. It even kept sending out flowers and fruiting with the spider mites. Peppers are tough little bastards, there are even some tree-form ones from the Andes that take a full hard freeze as well as any apple or cherry tree. Whenever I get to the point of buying a house, I'm sticking those things out in front instead of holly bushes or whatever. Sounds like my jalepeno plant, Helen:  The poor thing has gone through so much abuse in the last two years. Over-watering in the summer, complete neglect during the winter, two main branches broken off by my neighbors (moving a couch and dropped it on the plant), under-fertilized, over-fertilized, too small of a pot, living in the shade at my old apartment, moved across town in my front seat sticking out the window (ripping a bunch of leaves off), now roasting in full sun on my driveway. Despite that, she keeps producing more jalapeņos than I know what to do with. I love you Helen  Basically, you can't kill pepper plants.
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Jun 18, 2013 15:30
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polyfractal posted:Sounds like my jalepeno plant, Helen: Helen is tough! You mentioned overwatering and underwatering. How does one determine how much water should plants get? I live in a tropical country with a constant 26~30C temperature throughout the year and maintaining a 70~80% in humidity. I think I may have overwatered my lettuce.
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Jun 18, 2013 16:42
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TerryLennox posted:Helen is tough! If the plant is in a planter give it a nudge with your foot. I can tell whether it needs water by its weight.
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Jun 18, 2013 18:11
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coyo7e posted:Rocoto peppers. My coworker last year gave me one from Peru. I didn't like it, very thin and leathery pepper you'd want to grind up or something. I mainly want them to see the neighborhood kids dare the dumb kid/each other to eat them. I've had them pickled and stuffed with ham and some kind of Mexican farmhouse cheese before, and they were fantastic. The ones I had were pretty fleshy, they looked just like the ones pictured on the Rocoto wiki page.
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Jun 18, 2013 19:56
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Maris Stella posted:I need some advice on pole beans. I planted them along a 4 ft trellis which I now know is not nearly tall enough. Should I try and extend the height of the trellis or will they do okay just hanging off of the top of the trellis? I planted my asian yard long beans on 6 foot trellises. They went over that in a matter of weeks, so what I did was loop them back down and trained them to grow back down another piece of the lattice, then let them grow back up it and so on forever. I think I am at loop 3 now and they are crapping out giant beans all the time. GO BEANS!! I literally can grab 6-8 18 inch beans every day. these things are crazy.
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Jun 18, 2013 21:12
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cowofwar posted:Stick your finger in the dirt down an inch or two. If the soil sticks in small bits to your finger it's good unless the plant is droopy. If the soil sticks all over it's wet or too wet and if the soil doesn't stick it's too dry. What he said. A planter pot that is wet/damp is noticeably heavier than one that is bone-dry. I live in South Carolina, which has similar temps for most of the year (26-30C) and usually pretty humid. I judge watering levels in the morning/evening, because plants can look droopy simply due to the heat of the day (even if they are sufficiently watered). If a plant looks droopy in the morning AND the "finger check" comes back dry, its a good sign your plants need water. It also depends on the plant. My aloe prefers to live in arid soil. My pepper likes a deep watering and then being left alone for a few days, usually to the point where it sits dry for a day. Basil likes to be well watered at all times because it loses a lot of moisture through its leaves. Lastly, if your plant stays droopy for long periods *despite* watering, and starts showing other stress signs (usually yellowing leaves), that is a good indicator that you are over watering and are actually causing root-rot or some other unpleasant malady. Give them a few days to dry out and see if the plant perks up.
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Jun 19, 2013 15:39
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I glanced at a post from a couple weeks ago with pictures of my garden, and was pleasantly surprised by how much bigger most of the stuff is. My patty pan squash suddenly developed something and one leaf half-wilted, then the next day I noticed that some critters had been chewing that leaf, but apparently none of the others. Right now I'm just going to observe it for a bit.      Also, my scarlet runner beans are looking a little pale, I'm not sure if they're naturally like this or if they just want more nutrients than the rest of my stuff (the runner beans I did last year also had pale-ish leaves). Anybody with experience with them who might weigh in?
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Jun 19, 2013 22:13
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Keep a close eye on the garden. My aforementioned hornworm invasion took place in less than 3 days. I hadn't gone to the rooftop to water the plants as we had gotten some rain those days. Three days later, every one of my damned tomato plants has had their leaves eaten.
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Jun 20, 2013 02:51
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TerryLennox posted:Keep a close eye on the garden. My aforementioned hornworm invasion took place in less than 3 days. I hadn't gone to the rooftop to water the plants as we had gotten some rain those days. Three days later, every one of my damned tomato plants has had their leaves eaten. I've had a single hornworm completely destroy a whole fully-grown tomato plant within a day FWIW. Keeps your eyes peeled.
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Jun 20, 2013 03:58
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If you have friends who keep things like geckos or other reptiles, you could probably get free worm checks/removal if you let them pick through your garden regularly. I know I would love to have a source for free hornworms or other things like them - Beldar (my chameleon) goes absolutely nuts for any kind of caterpillar or grub(and they're decently good for him so long as they haven't been eating anything poisonous), but they're too pricey to buy+ship constantly.
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Jun 20, 2013 06:16
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TerryLennox posted:Keep a close eye on the garden. My aforementioned hornworm invasion took place in less than 3 days. I hadn't gone to the rooftop to water the plants as we had gotten some rain those days. Three days later, every one of my damned tomato plants has had their leaves eaten. I skipped checking on the garden for a couple days and an army of the little green bastards had eaten their way through one of my tomato plants. Six decapitated hornworms later, we are at a temporary detente. I know there will be more. And I know there are more because I went out today and another branch was denuded. Can't find the culprit, though. They've been oddly selective this time around. Brandwine leaves are apparently delicious, yellow oxheart leaves are acceptable, and Sweet 100 leaves are unappealing. That brandywine was just setting fruit before it got eaten to death and dropped everything, too! 
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Jun 20, 2013 07:12
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My brand new and formerly pristine garden has, over the last month or so, sprouted about a billion of these buggers: I think it might be some sort of knotweed. Anyone know? Is there anything to do other than pull them up?
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Jun 20, 2013 15:14
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TerryLennox posted:Keep a close eye on the garden. My aforementioned hornworm invasion took place in less than 3 days. I hadn't gone to the rooftop to water the plants as we had gotten some rain those days. Three days later, every one of my damned tomato plants has had their leaves eaten. I planted borage all around my tomatoes this year... I will be interested to see if it keeps the hornworms away. If it doesn't... well, the blossoms are neat looking. 
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Jun 20, 2013 16:40
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Frilled Lizard posted:I planted borage all around my tomatoes this year... I will be interested to see if it keeps the hornworms away. If it doesn't... well, the blossoms are neat looking. You can use them in a traditional pimms cup too. The modern garnish for them is cucumber which is used because no one knows what borage is. You can also cook with it and add it to teas, salads, etc. You can also use Bt if you see some hornworms. Works really well and isn't toxic to humans and most insects iirc. Doesn't harm bees or natural predators.
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Jun 20, 2013 16:56
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GrAviTy84 posted:You can use them in a traditional pimms cup too. The modern garnish for them is cucumber which is used because no one knows what borage is. You can also cook with it and add it to teas, salads, etc. The Pimms Cups that I drank in England had cucumber & borage leaves. Maybe they were just overachievers, but it was delicious. The blossoms also attract bees, which is great for obvious reasons.
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Jun 20, 2013 16:59
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GrAviTy84 posted:You can use them in a traditional pimms cup too. The modern garnish for them is cucumber which is used because no one knows what borage is. You can also cook with it and add it to teas, salads, etc. Awesome, thanks for the tip.  I knew they were cucumber-flavored, but hadn't thought of what to do with it. I grew it from seed, and it looked real rough at first so I thought it wouldn't survive. Little did I know. I kinda want it all around my house now.
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Jun 20, 2013 18:17
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Frilled Lizard posted:I kinda want it all around my house now. Give it a few years and you will. Borage reseeds like crazy but the seedlings are easy to identify and pull.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:03
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Kilersquirrel posted:If you have friends who keep things like geckos or other reptiles, you could probably get free worm checks/removal if you let them pick through your garden regularly. I know I would love to have a source for free hornworms or other things like them - Beldar (my chameleon) goes absolutely nuts for any kind of caterpillar or grub(and they're decently good for him so long as they haven't been eating anything poisonous), but they're too pricey to buy+ship constantly. Tomato leaves are pretty poisonous. GrAviTy84 posted:You can also use Bt if you see some hornworms. Works really well and isn't toxic to humans and most insects iirc. Doesn't harm bees or natural predators. Bt is very good in general for caterpillars. It only harms caterpillars (not other insects or humans), and it only works by being ingested, so if you're selective about which plants you spray it on, it will only harm the caterpillars that try to feed on the plants you care about. The downside is that it only lasts about a week, but it's fairly harmless to preventatively spray your plants with. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05556.html
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Jun 20, 2013 23:05
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