Often I was
watering too much.

Somebody - sorry, I don't remember who - said here, that in August she doesn't water AT ALL. I think it's a pretty good idea. I will apply the advice this year.

Watering Tomato Plants – How Much Water Do Tomato Plants Need

Well the seedlings don't like too much water or they get root rot.

My biggest mistake was overusing baking soda spray to help fight off powdery mildew and disease. Even one table spoon per gallon was too much. I managed to destroy 80% of all my tomato leaves because of it. It did suppressed the powdery mildew and some other disease, along will killing the plants. The tomato don't react to it over night, but in a few days all the leaves begun to die.

Is this a confession thread ? Haha
MY Mistakes are due to my laziness: Every year I say to myself to be systematic in spraying fungicide but don't follow it accordingly...This year I also have a "MOLD" prevention schedule.
putting off procrastination is my problem . Now I solemnly swear to do it right in 2015 hehe

Sey

You can always post a few... MINOR mistakes.

Buying into all the hyped up claims made by the seed vendors and the so-called experts who have never actually grown the variety.

Dave

I've made all the mistakes posted above but still fall for the last two even though I should know better. My biggest might have been joining the forum or helping my Dad plant tomatoes as a kid. I mean, either I should never have eaten Dad's poison but so delicious love apples or I shouldn't have missed out all these years... I am too susceptible to crowd-think and am batting about 0.333 on being pleased with recommendations. It would be better to research each variety in a cold way, know what I was looing for and do things in a more systemmatic way. That's sort of Dave's post, but I'd expand it to include not only listening to the experts LOL but also keeping up with the Jones's Ha Ha ;-)

PC

I had two trays containing 48 tomato seedlings at about the 5 week stage and decided to give them a nice liberal misting with water. So, I grabbed the sprayer bottle and misted them, but when I got done I realized I had grabbed a spray bottle full of household ammonia instead of the bottle with water.

I almost panicked thinking I had just destined the plants to a certain death. I sprayed all the foliage down with water and attempted to flush each container as best I could. It all worked out okay and the plants were fine.

I later found out that ammonia isn't all that bad for plants and is sometimes used as a fertilizer and pest deterrent, although diluted with water 10:1 ratio.

But I still remember how horrible I felt right after applying it and then realizing my mistake.

Planting my Winter dwarf tomatoes in a heavy type mix I use during the summer when its a million degrees outside. I could easily have had tomatoes all Winter, it was really mild but I should have remembered to use a rapid draining mix during the winter. Cooler temps, plants not growing robustly stalled out and died and they were loaded up with greenies too. =(

I have a few I have made over the years.

Not enough spacing is probably the one I have done the most.

Next would be. Not using potting mix in a container.

Follow with not starting with a good plan.

Being to impatient trying to push planting dates too far back.

This year things are going much better though.

I once didn't clean the sprayer well enough before using Daconil. The last stuff I sprayed before the Daconil was a clover killer! Well, nothing died, but I did get some wilting for a day or two. But I had a nervous 2 days.

Always...planting too closely...usually because I start too many and don't have enough room/containers(because I can't kill my leftover babies).

The first time I planted tomatos I put three plants in one 16" pot. By August it needed watering twice daily and I realized what a mistake I'd made! My sis took care of my plants while I was away for a week -- and although I stressed the importance of daily watering of the tomato planter, somehow she missed it entirely (it was so big she didn't see it?) This is why you should give garden watering instructions in person, not over the phone!

Over fertilizing. Last year I somehow got it in my head that I need to fertilize every 2 weeks until flowering. BIG mistake. My plants grew these horrible fleshy branches and leaves that looked almost like succulent leaves and the branches bent toward the ground, it looked like the plants where folding in on themselves. I stopped fertilizing when I saw what was going on and eventually the plants outgrew the problem and produced but I did not have a very good crop of tomatoes.

I watered tomato plants that came up from seeds in three different gardens. I just had shoulder surgery, but I was determined to water them. I caused myself unneeded stress and pain. They weren't heirlooms and they were bitter and had tough skins.

My biggest mistake was last year. I usually never fertilize, but found this organic mix in a book I was reading. I must have used too much per hole because all but a couple just withered and died within a week. Thankfully my brother grows lots of seedlings and was able to give me eight plants.

I'm back to using nothing in my worm-ridden garden patch this year. I figure if the earth worms like it so much it must be good.

Caryl

Starting plants too early and trying to grow too many for my grow light capacity. It just compounds the problem when too many plants are crowded together under the lights and they keep growing taller trying to compete with each other for light. They also get tangled together if overcrowded. This year I seeded March 23 and began hardening off on April 21 which I think is perfect. All 44 plants are now 6-8 inches and loving the hardening outdoors fulltime where they don't have to compete. Also not proactively using fungicide. Septoria leaf spot came on during a wet/cool spell in early July last year and I began to remove affected leaves on a couple plants. I then went on vacation for a week and when I returned all plants had the leaf spot and looked like hades before I had even harvested a single tomato. Still got a decent yield but had to use shade cloth to protect the fruit on the naked plants. I have copper fungicide spray ready and waiting this year.

caryltoo's comment made me think of another devastating mistake I made at the beginning of my tomato growing career. I started seeds one year, and although I did have a light and had healthy tomato seedlings at one point, I potted them up and used some dry fertilizer that contained blood meal. I tried really hard to calculate the correct rate, which wasn't easy (should have told me something!) And to be fair to my newbie self, the company DID suggest its use on seedlings. But I think they meant during plant out and this was just my first transplant. Anyway, I burned and stunted the tomatos horribly. I think I ended up trashing all my seedlings and just buying some!

My biggest mistake in my first year to grow heirlooms was underestimating the height to which they would grow. With my assortment of cheapie cages....I had some major issues to resolve! I do nothing in a small way so I had over 20 plants to rescue. I used every bar and pair of pantyhose that I could find and a friend to help with the operation. Moral of the story..... Plan ahead and don't be a "tomato pig". You don't really HAVE to have 'em all! Disregard that last sentence, I will be planting out 23 this year but with more suitable supports!

Last year I found some OLD seeds in the garage from a variety I hadn't grown since 2004. I decided to just dump them all into a large pot and see if I could get one or two good plants. I think that every seed germinated and they were all healthy little buggers so I transplanted them. I gave away dozens of that variety last year. :O)

I sprayed my yard with 2-4D for those late winter weeds. About two weeks later I mowed the grass and not thinking clearly, I blew the grass clippings into the first 4 feet of the garden. My entire first row of tomato plants got symptoms of 2-4D poisoning and never did come out of it totally.

Long ago I pruned way too heavy and all my big delicious tomatoes were ruined by sun scald.

Over fertilizing seedlings, TWICE, killed all of both batches :-(

LISTENING to others about taste. Taste is subjective, and varies from palate to palate.