Part II: Droopy Heirloom Tomato Plants
- Thread starter Roguejim
- Start date
This happened to me when growing my competition giant tomatoes. I came to the conclusion it was a nitrogen problem. Too much N can make that happen. What do you use to feed?
Too much light makes that happen as well. But I doubt that with yours. It never really hurt the plant when I had that, and it still grew a huge 1 and a half pound fruit.
Too much light makes that happen as well. But I doubt that with yours. It never really hurt the plant when I had that, and it still grew a huge 1 and a half pound fruit.
Okay gotcha, didn't read as thorough as I thought... Well then it may just be an heirloom thing. Since mine happened to be heirloom as well... It has also happened when I trimmed too much.
Have you topped it or done any pruning?
Have you topped it or done any pruning?
Well that's pretty strange then. Hopefully Baker will get back to you soon.
Best of luck my friend.
Best of luck my friend.
Would you feel comfortable sharing the name of the tomato?
I dont know, but I do know I like those stacked barrel pots you got!
St. Pierre tomato - Indet., regular leaf, blemish-free red round fruit, 2.5-5 oz, juicy, with thick walls and very good flavor, with some acidic undertones. 2.5" in diameter. Jointless trusses are very beautiful. Perfect for canning or pickling. (from Tatiana's Tomatobase)
Pantano Romanesco tomato - 80 days, indet., regular leaf plant with a good yield of 8-12 oz, red ribbed fruit, very good flavor, Roman heirloom. (from Tatiana's Tomatobase)
I don't see anything about having wispy foliage, but the plant looks like the new growth is doing very well. I don't usually fertilize for a month, but then weekly add a weak fertilizer.
Since the St. Pierre has smaller fruit, I'd expect the plant to be quite large and am not sure of the size of the pot it's in. The plant looks very healthy so give it a couple of weeks.
Pantano Romanesco tomato - 80 days, indet., regular leaf plant with a good yield of 8-12 oz, red ribbed fruit, very good flavor, Roman heirloom. (from Tatiana's Tomatobase)
I don't see anything about having wispy foliage, but the plant looks like the new growth is doing very well. I don't usually fertilize for a month, but then weekly add a weak fertilizer.
Since the St. Pierre has smaller fruit, I'd expect the plant to be quite large and am not sure of the size of the pot it's in. The plant looks very healthy so give it a couple of weeks.
looks relatively normal to me.
are the plants loosing turgidity? by turgid i mean like an hard cock. plants are like cocks. there is an internal pressure of sap and water and what ever else... plant blood and plant piss.
plants can loose a bit of turgidity without wilting obiviously, when they do this they loose that cool crisp feel of the leaves and they feel a bit floppier and feel warmer?
its hard to explain... when im adjusting my irrigation cycles, i try to wait untill the plants start doing this, checking on them just before a cycle is supposed to start to see if the cycle gaps needs to be narrowed down or increased in duration.
but toms claw down like that as the leaves mature and start getting thicker and the temps start hitting low 90's.
its normal with my plants at least. the lower leaves can be months and months old. your plants clawing does look to be rather... extreeme, but i would not worry atm.
what i usually see is pronounced ridge along the midrib.. like a Klingon for head kinda. the leaf distorts a bit because of this ridge. sometimes it rolls up slightly, sometimes it rolls down a bit.
i question your lack of fertilizer fwiw. ive no idea how much is inside that happy frog stuff, but toms will absolutly destroy calcium and nitrogen at their tender young ages... ive seriously never burnt a tom in my life. ive seen the runoff ec at like 4+ routinely without them even batting an eye...
if i were you id consider atleast a modest regime... maby a lil calcium nitrate? 100mg/l is a low ball figure... but it might be a good place to start?
are the plants loosing turgidity? by turgid i mean like an hard cock. plants are like cocks. there is an internal pressure of sap and water and what ever else... plant blood and plant piss.
plants can loose a bit of turgidity without wilting obiviously, when they do this they loose that cool crisp feel of the leaves and they feel a bit floppier and feel warmer?
its hard to explain... when im adjusting my irrigation cycles, i try to wait untill the plants start doing this, checking on them just before a cycle is supposed to start to see if the cycle gaps needs to be narrowed down or increased in duration.
but toms claw down like that as the leaves mature and start getting thicker and the temps start hitting low 90's.
its normal with my plants at least. the lower leaves can be months and months old. your plants clawing does look to be rather... extreeme, but i would not worry atm.
what i usually see is pronounced ridge along the midrib.. like a Klingon for head kinda. the leaf distorts a bit because of this ridge. sometimes it rolls up slightly, sometimes it rolls down a bit.
i question your lack of fertilizer fwiw. ive no idea how much is inside that happy frog stuff, but toms will absolutly destroy calcium and nitrogen at their tender young ages... ive seriously never burnt a tom in my life. ive seen the runoff ec at like 4+ routinely without them even batting an eye...
if i were you id consider atleast a modest regime... maby a lil calcium nitrate? 100mg/l is a low ball figure... but it might be a good place to start?
heres a pic of my toms from like, 2 years back?
not the best pic... but all i could find.i didnt really take many pictures i guess.
this was in very cool weather, a fall grow from like sept. to like march, then i got lazy and a caterpillar ate the apical growth on one of the plants, and i broke another plant lowering it, so i trashed them.
even with the cool weather you can see abit of the cupping upp and downwards you get with old leaves.
not the best pic... but all i could find.i didnt really take many pictures i guess.
this was in very cool weather, a fall grow from like sept. to like march, then i got lazy and a caterpillar ate the apical growth on one of the plants, and i broke another plant lowering it, so i trashed them.
even with the cool weather you can see abit of the cupping upp and downwards you get with old leaves.
Definitely adding calcium/fert next watering. I'm mistakenly treating them like peppers.
That is one brute bell pepper plant in the background.
queequeg152 said:heres a pic of my toms from like, 2 years back?
not the best pic... but all i could find.i didnt really take many pictures i guess.
this was in very cool weather, a fall grow from like sept. to like march, then i got lazy and a caterpillar ate the apical growth on one of the plants, and i broke another plant lowering it, so i trashed them.
even with the cool weather you can see abit of the cupping upp and downwards you get with old leaves.
That is one brute bell pepper plant in the background.
Roguejim said:
yea, i think the thick blocky one was a triple 4? its a deruiters cultivar, real nice, real vigorous plant. i may have some seeds left over if youd like some? i really have no plans to grow them again.
im sure you know, but that's acutlly 6 plants in 2 rock wool slabs. i think the one on the left was ACE F1? longer more narrow but still a very vigorous plant.
yea me either... just wanted to work with the greenhouse methods of cultivating them. its really interesting if you ever get the inkling... google greenhouse bell pepper production and pull down a few of the production manuals from any of the univeristy websites.
there are a few more piics of those slabs in this thread... i could not hyperlink them from the post for some reason? when i right click to copy the url some other window thing opens up idk wtf thats all about.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/34550-diy-fertigation-controller/
there are a few more piics of those slabs in this thread... i could not hyperlink them from the post for some reason? when i right click to copy the url some other window thing opens up idk wtf thats all about.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/34550-diy-fertigation-controller/
Today, I noticed that the plants seemed a bit large for the #1 pots. So, I looked under the St. Pierre to discover roots growing out the bottom. Pantano Romanesco had roots circling the inside bottom. Transplanted to #2 pots today. We'll see if the fert/cal-mag have any effect on the curling leaves.