Not much garden work done today because I had 3 long meetings to attend connected with my volunteer work with our local library.
But I did notice that some of my tomatoes are beginning to turn red and my plants have been in the ground since early May.
My neighbor has several tomato plants and they are no where as big as mine, but she does not have any sign at all of whitefly damage or blossom end rot. In fact, BER only seems to show up on my San Marzanos. Also, my neighbor has resigned herself to not having very much of a harvest. Elsewhere, people seem to be having a great tomato harvest and the tomatoes I saw growing at Harmony Farm Supply (my favorite nursery) on July 18, 2015, when I attended their Customer Appreciation Day and gardening workshops, were healthy and beautiful. I have no idea what they are putting into the soil, but they are using drip irrigation.
So what do I do to crack the tomato code?
1. Am I growing the right tomatoes for my area? I seem to remember reading somewhere, a long time ago (I hope I can find that article), that we should only be growing cherry tomato varieties up here on the North Coast.
2. What kind of fertilizer should I be using?
3. Are my tomatoes getting enough sun?
4. Do I have to install a trip irrigation system?
5. I have had a serious whitefly problem (on all tomato plants) and BER problem (only on the San Marzanos) two years in a row. What do I do to stop these issues in the future?
6. Are heirloom tomatoes turning out to be really better? Or, have we been sold a bill of goods again by marketing hype?
I just do not know what is going on here but Iam determined to find out.
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