I am continuously surprised by the ‘summer’ weather that has been so uncharacteristic in our area.  The fall-like weather has been so prevalent  that I am concerned that a few plants (not the tomatoes) are going to start prepping for fall/winter in the middle of August. All this is to say that if this rainy and humid weather persists, it could mean a shortened growing season for tomatoes.

Intermixed with all this humid weather, though, is some beautiful, dry summer heat. Week 17th’s growth was nearly matched by some varieties this week, making trellising a common practice for me. I’m happy to say that a majority of the plants are looking happy and healthy, filling out quite nicely. Large, unripe fruit cover most plants  and over-crowding continues to get worse and worse, so bad that I find myself pruning plants multiple times each week.

This weeks observations: 

Another LB 21-7-4 plant was pulled from plot 1 today, the sickly plant barely clinging to the soil. Once it was pulled I observed that there was nearly no viable root system to the plant, and that what few roots were attached to the plant were rotted and useless. The four plants in plot two, whoever, look as though they added nearly 8 inches of spindly growth over the weekend and don’t look nearly as wilted and deathly. The new leaves are green and healthy for the time being. (The two remaining plants in plot one are on numbered days.)

In looking for signs of verticillium in plants that had shown signs earlier in the season, I was happily let down. The warm and dry conditions seem to have bulked up the plants and for the time being they look to be relatively healthy. With new growth and a nice fruit set, some plants may even produce some nice fruit, only time will tell. I would be surprised if the plants that had struggled with disease earlier in the season yielded equal or higher amounts of fruit that plants of the same variety/growth habit that weren’t sick.

Upon inspection of the plants that I believe to be affected by Pseudomonas spp. I again saw that the progression of the disease has been greatly reduced, if not halted altogether. Growth has continued and unripe fruit are slowly ripening.

I want it to be clearly stated that I don’t believe that the diseases have been eradicated from these plants but that they are just being out competed by the defenses of the plants during the favorable growing conditions. I do expect the plants to show signs of continued stress as the cooler weather becomes more and more frequent.

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A fascinating observation was found in the Crimson Sprinter plants of plot two. Aside from the LB 21-7-4 variety, these three plants have been looking sad and have remained wilted, losing some leaves to wilt every now and then. Today I observed that the plants have begun sprouting large quantities of adventitious roots all along the various stems of each plant. While this trait can be normal in some tomato varieties, the amount at which this is happening is uncharacteristic of a healthy plant. This could be a stress reaction to poor vascular flow and is also common in plants suffering from Pith Necrosis. Since I have first noticed these plants to be sick, I thought that they were suffering from Verticillium wilt as they were showing similar symptoms to the others, now I am not positive that this is the case. Along with the persistent stress I also saw that a few fruit had begun to turn red (earlier than expected) and are rotting from calcium deficiency, aka Blossom End Rot. One thing is for certain, and that is the fact that the pith of each of these plants is rotting out of some stems, and potential obstruction to vascular flow is expected. I will do some more research and talk to some others that know more than myself what their opinion may be for what is going on in these plants.

Aside from all this, things seems to be on schedule. I will continue my observations until harvest time reaches these plants and then it will be time for some completely new fun.

Be sure to stay tuned to what is going on at the Organic Seed Alliance through their website, here.

Best wishes