Start with a new mix and sterilized containers. Tomatos dying from the bottom up are symptomatic of disease. Neves is a really tasty, large tomato, but it is an heirloom and the best advice I can give you is if you have 2 years of plant death in a row, switch to another variety, particulary hybrids with some disease resistance.

Yes, some of the heirlooms are really tasty, but this does us no good if they succumb to disease before harvest each year.

toms were hybreds . how to sterilize containers? what about soil mix?

You can sterilize the containers with a solution of 10% household bleach/water (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) I would probably call that just about a full beer can to a skinny gallon of water. ;o)

The
5 parts bark
1 part peat
1-2 parts perlite
soil will work very well for tomatoes. May I suggest that you add a tbsp of gypsum per gallon of soil as a needed Ca source & to then add 1/2 tsp Epsom salts to each gallon of water each time you fertilize?

Al

hi there bigworld i might be able to give some advice on this
i was living in NV. for a while and what i did was buy some sun screen like they use down here in florida for the screened in porch . I built a frame above and a little fence aorund my vegies because i thought that hot sun might burn them and belive it or not all my neighbors plants died and mine were throwing off maters left and right . could also try home made ebox just they are working super for me down here in fla

a 12 oz can to a 64 oz gallon seems strong al

That's because gallons have 128 oz in them. ;o)

Al

gosh you are soo right al i got a little tired i guess. al i think ill be building soil as u suggest. do u think ill need any lime? ihave some espoma lime on hand. ive not used gypsum before but at your advice i picked up some for the mix. i got one bag from lowes the unpellettized type for veggies. i am thinking of useing miricale grow for tomatoes as my fertilizer. what say you?

The MG for tomatoes is a good choice & it contains most of the important minors. Assuredly you'll need a Ca source. MG 18-18-21 has an insignificant amount of Mg and no Ca (Ca is needed for cellular health & to prevent BER). You can use gypsum for the Ca if you include Mg in your fertilizer water (1/2 tsp Epsom salts per gallon of water each time you fertilize), or just use the garden (dolomitic lime).

Al

ok al one more ? do i need to adjust or raise ph ? the gypsum i bought has 14 percent sulpher with the pine fine and spagnum peat will my soil be to acidic for tomatoes?

The soil above should come in at a pH in the neighborhood of about 5.2 - 5.5 before liming. Gypsum has no, or nearly no effect on soil pH, and tomatoes growing on prefer the soil in the 5.2 - 5.8 range, so it hardly gets any better. When you factor in the tendency for soils to climb in pH as they age, you should be just right.

I never worry about soil pH in container culture. If a hobbyist tells me, "I maintain a soil pH of ______", or even give a narrow range pH and claim to be able to maintain it, I immediately suspect the veracity of the claim, even if I don't challenge it. As hobbyists, we can generally point the pH in the right direction, and that's about as good as it gets. Trying to maintain pH at any predictable potential is an exercise in futility because of the number of factors that vary by the hour and have large sway on container soil pH.

Al

thanks a mill al your very helpful. i started soaking my pine fines and spm tonight to make sure alls wet whehn i plant my toms my fines turned out to have some big chunks ithink wellbe ok not to maney.ill drainfrom soaking water in 1 or 2 day then mix my gypsum and perlite. pretty exciting . im lookin forward to some big tomatoes like i use to grow in rhode island.i feel honored to have had the help from yourself in regards to container mixes and also from carolyn male for sending me her own neves azoren red seeds she told me i would need a big contanier and i do 28 gal and some 18s i feel confident and thankful. Ernest

Since we're on the subject of tomatoes, and I can say this w/o being off topic, I'd like to illustrate the unmistakable difference between tomato knowledge and tomato wisdom.

The knowledge part is knowing that tomatoes are fruit. The wisdom part is knowing enough not to put them in fruit salad. ;o)

Al

ha for real al, ill a have a them with sum ah, basil and olive oil. some ah hot peppers. or a good tomatoe sandwitch, or like an apple rigth off ah the vine i dont ah need help eating them. haaa