This year I am growing 20% fewer plants per bed than previous years , hoping this will reduce the "Jungle effect " . Also , very soon I will start pruning, to keep the things under control. My plants have plenty of flowers already and new buds keep growing.

Of course I am talking mostly about indeterminants. Basically I let the determinants grow as many branches they want but only prune the lower leaf branches.

Sey

Few more of the jungle. The weather has been great with a good rain every week to week and half. Fast moving storms that don't stick around too long so no cracking yet.

Black Krim

princeton701
wrote: > When you say "spray," do you mean spray with copper
fungicide? How often?

Yes,
spray with Copper (Bonide) [organic.]

I spray from
DAY ONE – when I transplant the seedlings – weekly, on BOTH sides of the leaves.
I stop spraying in September / October depending on the weather and plants.

I use
this awesome One-Hand Pressure Sprayer (Solo) who has –
among other goodies - a “Multi-directional nozzle
allows spraying from all positions.”

I
fungicide every year with copper, and I never had ANY kind of problems with my tomatoes.

Immediately
after transplanting the seedlings, I also mulch.

Straw (3-4 in. thick) is
good but I prefer fabric mulch - better, cheaper, easier to get.

Regarding
fertilizers, I would recommend the Tomato-tone (Espoma) [Organic]

I also
used - and liked - Ocean Forest Soil (Foxfarm).

Concentrated
liquid fertilizers I used - and recommend - were:

- Fish & Seaweed Blend Fertilizer (Neptune's Harvest) (18 oz bottle, 1 gl., and 5 gl.) Buy big, it will come cheaper.

- Big Bloom (FoxFarm) (32 oz., 1 gl., and 5 gl.) Again
buying big, comes cheaper.

Fox Farm has a serie of Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula: Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom.

All are good (according to reviews) but keep in mind that –
according to the manufacturer - only the Big Bloom is ORGANIC. The other two - Grow Big and Tiger Bloom - are not. I never used the last two, but I don’t think they contain
too much chemicals (I read somewhere that they are ''natural") so I think it’s pretty safe to use them.

Regarding
foliar fertilizer, I used both of the concentrated liquids listed above –
obviously diluted; VERY diluted - and I was happy with the results.

I used foliar
fertilizing, because I used drip irrigation under the fabric mulch, and it was
not easy to fertilize in those conditions. I'm sure fertilizing in the soil is more powerful than foliar fertilizing, but...

I recommend to use 2 sprayers: one for fungicide and one for foliar fertilizing. Make sure you clean well the sprayer(s) after use. Water is enough.

Dwarf project.

Dwarf Purple Heart

??

Fred Tie Dye

Dwarf Purple Heart

Looking good Daniel. When you say you have never had any tomato disease, do you really mean never? Of any kind? Where are you located? I use Copper too, but may switch up to Bonide, after hearing your responses.

Ncrealestateguy
wrote: > When you say you have never had any tomato disease, do you really
mean never?

By “never”
I meant AFTER starting using copper – like for 3 years.

BEFORE…
oh yes, my plants had many diseases, including one year I had to replant
everything, because ALL the tomatoes… wilted. It happened fast, VERY fast; less than 1
week. And the transplants were beautiful. Oh, that time I didn’t know about…
mulching either.

>
Where are you located?

I’m
located in Long Island, NY.

> I
use Copper too, but may switch up to Bonide, after hearing your responses.

Well,
copper (Bonide) worked for me; most likely will work for you too. Try it. Good luck.

Pcolagrower, do the CDs work for you in deterring birds. They didn't work for me, I must have had 30 hanging all over my small bed 4 yrs. ago. I think the birds enjoyed the light show while they destroyed over half my crop. I've used netting ever since. When I get the first blushing fruit I cover. I never had a bird peck a tomato while gardening in GA. I didn't know what was happening when I moved here.

Hudson, my son would do some damage to all those cherry tomatoes. He's always loved them... Wondering through the gardenwith hands and mouth full at 2 yrs old.

I also spray weekly with bonide copper fungiside, I've still gotton some diseased leaves, I'm guessing that's because being so thick I probley didn't get enough coverage. At least it's not as bad as last year. I also have been cleaning my hands and shears with sanitizer after working on each plant . Anyways here's a couple picks after pruning again

Coming along great Karl. Will you be able harvest through those cages. Openings look too small.

Jon2412 - I'm not sure if the CD's work or not, but I haven't had any bird damage, so either it's working or I don't have a bird problem. My biggest nemesis right now is rodents, they sure do like my tomatoes and beans.

Thanks Jon,

No, I'm not able to harvest or prune through those holes at all, I have cut in bigger holes as needed. I really wanted to get a roll of CRW but didn't need it all and no one around here wanted to go in on it. I should have used my grinder to smooth off my cuts, holy crap the blood I shed pruning looks like somthing from a dang horror movie, oh well I'm up to date on my shots and it was a little cheaper :)

Another submission from E. Tn. This year is behind the curve. I almost threw these seedlings away, but I'm too stubborn to have given up on them. They started out pretty rough - indoor grow area was much too cool, and the potting mix was too heavy/stayed too wet. They've come back now fairly well. Time to blossom set suffered the most. There are a few small fruits, but nothing like previous years. Time will tell.

You can see a row of 'leftover' seedlings in a row to the right, past the blueberry bush, that have not caught up. I've got volunteers doing better. If I get anything from them I'll be happy, If not, oh well, At least the ground is prepped for something to go there next year.

Another view. You can see the different leaf shapes of the nine different varieties squeezed in there...

The plant on this end, left corner of this pic below, is a cutting I took from an indoor volunteer. Last year, while cleaning my saved, heirloom 'Rose' seeds, I tossed a few of the rejects into a potted plant. A few sprouted and have stayed alive all winter. I rooted the cutting in march and it is the strongest of all this year's plants.

Below, the 'Rose' cutting is in the near corner.

Anyway, slow beginnings and one of those years that I'll just be happy with what I get.

rgreen48, nice.
Few comments if I may:
1. I suggest you to mulch. Straw (3-4 in. thick) is
good but I prefer fabric mulch (better, cheaper, and - generally - easier to get.)
2. Prune wisely. ASAP. Very, VERY soon you will have a “jungle” impossible to handle. Start by removing the lower leaves - close to the ground - but do NOT cut the lower “suckers.” Then, move upper and remove a few suckers, here and there. Keep the strongest. Also remove many of the new suckers.

I'm a HUGE fan of NOT pruning, but your case is a little special. You really squeezed in those 9(+?) plants, so you have to be very careful with your "jungle." Lack of air circulation can easily lead to diseases. I like squeezing plants - planting them (very) close - IF they have big "real estate" to spread. In your case, the cages offer very limited options to spread. Have you seen the picture of my 16 ft. wide x 12 ft. high trellis ("frame" is how I call it) ?

I use
these Scissors to cut young
suckers, and these Shears for diseased
leaves or older suckers. I suggest you to disinfect the blades before moving
to the next plant. It takes a few seconds, and you have peace of mind. See the thread Cleaning scissors between pruning.

3. In 2-3 weeks the plants will grow higher than the cages, so think now of a solution. Adding new cages on top of the existing cages could be one of the solutions. Just make sure you anchor somehow the cages, because heavy winds can take down the cages.
4. Hope you fungicide. If you don't, start today. I recommend Copper (Bonide) [organic].

5. Am I wrong,
or you have 3 rows, with no space to walk between the rows ? If yes, I strongly
suggest you next year, to keep max. 2 rows close to each other (preferably one
row.) Soon, it will be impossible to fungice efficiently, the plants in the
MIDDLE row. Don't forget, you have to fungicide on BOTH sides of the leaves. It won't be easy in your case.

While for
most, this fantastic 1-Liter Sprayer (Solo) will be
good enough, in your case I recommend this 2-Liter Sprayer (which has
a Telescoping wand adjustable from 12-Inch to
24-Inch) or much
better this 2-Gallon Sprayer (which has a 28-Inch unbreakable wand.)

Good luck with your "jungle" !

Bellow is a “Rose” I got in my garden (21 oz.) The taste was good.

Ty Daniel. Yeah they are already mulched with hay - actually, I let a good portion of my yard grow up tall and harvest it with a swing blade. The mix of different grasses, clover, weeds, etc... makes an excellent mulch.

I'm not going to prune too much this year. We haven't had rain for 2 weeks, and the humidity is very low, so I'm not going to prune until we see the humidity start to rise as it always does here towards the end of June through the end of August.

I don't use fungicide at all. Yep, I fully expect to have disease issues. It's par for the course here. I'm just a few miles from some of the largest commercial tomato producing areas in the country. To my north is Grainger County... famous for their specialty 'maters, and to the south are the cannery tomato farms. Lots of tomato fun guys around. I know that fungicide can help keep the diseases at bay, but I'll pass.

Last year the plants got hit with septoria (as they do every year here), stopped producing through the August heat - losing a lot of leaves to the disease, then started a new growth spurt in September, outgrowing the septoria problem and producing buckets of Autumn fruits.

Even if the plants get wiped out, I won't worry too much, I have quite a few other crops. The worst problem that my method chances is the development of a soil-borne disease. But, even with fungicide, that can still happen.

Oh, and there's 9 varieties, but there's 30 plants in that space. The bed is 4' x 18'. Yep, I'm a foolish rule breaker lol.

lol Yes you are a rule breaker! Spacing would definitely make your life easier and probably increase your yield by twofold simply due to disease pressure.. I agree with Daniel's advice above in regards to pruning, sterilizing etc.. Although I will say to stick with the straw mulch. Fabric "mulch" does absolutely nothing in terms of improving soil texture, structure or increasing cation exchange capacity. It starves microbes and doesn't encourage earthworms or natural tillage. If you really were bent on going with fabric mulch I'd say to mulch first with organic matter, although the fabric truly isn't necessary. To top it off, it only keeps weeds down for a month or two and then they grow through it, tangle and become a nightmare to remove. To take it a step further blend your straw mulch with 60-70% grass clippings and it will encourage bacterial dominance. Most importantly, just enjoy yourself.. =)

Green Cherokee

Black Brandywine

Mortgage Lifter

Early Girl

Berkeley Tie Dye

Big Rainbow

Yellow Pineapple

Black Prince

Pink Girl

Mr Stripey

Sungold and a few others.

Because I direct sowed the seeds, several took a few weeks to germinate, and in the meantime I became impatient and sowed more, then they all came up. So they are all mixed up, I'm gonna have to wait and see which plants are which are which.

Rgreen, I do not apply fungicide other than neem oil which is not very effective once disease takes a foothold. I too expect my plants to be wiped out, just part of the natural cycle IMO. I don't like the idea of spraying all that fungicide on the very soil I work so hard to keep in balance as I don't fertilize, I only apply compost and I rely on fungus to play its part in the soil food web.

rgreen48 wrote:
> The mix
of different grasses, clover, weeds, etc... makes an excellent mulch.

Weeds
makes an excellent mulch? I don’t think so.

rgreen48 wrote:
> I don't
use fungicide at all. Yep, I fully expect to have disease issues.

It’s
highly likely that your expectations will be meet.

Usually
people tend to avoid their plants to get diseases.

jon2412 wrote:
>I too
expect my plants to be wiped out, just part of the natural cycle IMO.

Me too –
like everybody else - but it makes a huge difference if that happens in June or
October. JMO.

Mike wrote: > To top it off, it [fabric mulch] only
keeps weeds down for a month or two and then they [weeds] grow through it…

It never happened to me. But it did happen with straw.

While I do agree with some of the disadvantages of fabric
mulch that you mentioned, for me it’s still very convenient to use it.

I also have used weeds as mulch. If mulched thick (3-4")weed seeds germinate and then most fail or are easy enough to pull.

My tomatoes are starting to get some size to them now with quite a bit of fruit set. 2 week forecast shows every day above 90 with a few days near 100. I'm thinking that what fruit has already set may be about all I get :(.

I just started harvesting the Leeks along the edge of the bed

Garden pictures · More Info

Same garden bed from another angle.

4 Big Beef and one Black Krim

Garden pictures · More Info

And here is my lone Sungold. Hard to see in the picture but the upright wood frame around the Sungold has coated wire strung up every foot from 4' up. I tie the vines to the wires to support the plant. It work very well. By August the Sungold will fill up the entire trellis and beyond!

Garden pictures · More Info

My husband was out messing around in the "jungle" so I thought it was a good picture for scale. This area is Black Krim, Black from Tula, Berkeley Pink Tie Die, San Marzano and the little guy in the middle up front is my only surviving Marvel Striped, which probably isn't long for this world. Everyone else is doing great, Marvel is having a bad year.

Where's Waldo?

jon2412 - haha- it's a great way to introduce kids to gardening - IMO. Cherry Tomatoes and garden peas! They are a favorite at our house! They love to pick them off the vine too - like your two year old son!

Beautiful jungles everybody! This year was my first one starting seeds & planting almost all Heirloom/OPs, so I was nervous the plants wouldn't fare as well as the starts I used to buy. But everything is growing beautifully! My 'jungle' is still looking pretty manicured- I tried to space them out as much as I could.

I pruned very heavily this year & sprayed weekly with Serenade to avoid the Septoria that hit us so hard last year. I've been lax about it lately, but so far no signs of disease! But from the discussion above, I'm hoping I didn't foul up by pruning off all the lower suckers. I've never really heard that advice before, but it makes a lot of sense.

I've got one plant each of these varieties. Quite a change from only growing 3-4 tomato plants total in years past! I should have tomatoes coming out of my ears!

Nectar (cherry)

Indian Stripe

Paul Robeson

Hawaiian Pineapple

Kellogg's Breakfast

KBX

Dester

Stump of the World

Rebel Yell

Brandy Boy

Gary O'Sena

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Great White

Little Lucky

Large Barred Boar

Solar Flare

Pink Berkeley Tie Dye

My favorite so far is Gary'O Sena (pictured above). I've never seen a beefsteak produce so many blooms/fruit at once! It's a massive plant.. as of today it's already taller than my Texas Tomato Cage & we still have 2.5 months left in the season! I'm guessing I should just let it drape back down over the cage?

Hello, everyone!

Here is my main tomato bed.

Next is Black from Tula potato leaf.

Then there is unintentional hybrid between BFT and Japanese truffle pink. The plant has PL like its parent and the shape of tomatoes close to JTP. I like it very much so far. It set a lot of fruits and it is very compact.

Gribnoe lukoshko has very nice set of beautiful tomatoes.

Mama Alla hearts.

Dina orange tomatoes.

Maksimka funny little guy.

Mine are nothing like yours, but I'm just happy my compost volunteers are now producing. Some plants that had no sign of tomatoes now do. Every day I walk out there and see new tomatoes. Some are plum and some are salad. One has really different leaves (a little frillier than the others). That one is def a plum type.

Here are few pictures that I took today 6/25/16

Getting there.

Sey

Your tomato jungle looks awesome Sey!

Thanks Hudson.

Few more pictures.

and...

They are both flowering like crazy.

Sey

Several nice clusters.

Everything is about two weeks late here this year. I generally only grow three plants. A beef of some sort, a cherry and a test. My test this year is Mr. Stripey. Ugh. I'll grab a photo of HIM later.

Thanks for some great inspiration from a casual grower.

Nice photos everyone! I thought I would join in on the fun!

I am still new to gardening and might have went a little crazy with the planting but all my plants are now fruiting! Any suggestions for me on how I should maintain this cheery tomatoe jungle? I know I need to do some pruning of the lower leaves!

Welcome, fleurs !

Where in WA are you at ? I am in Redmond area. My plants are also setting fruits.

To maintain tomato plant you have to provide one form of support or the other.

Cage is most common. But it has to be sturdy and minimum of 4ft tall. Some good grade 4-ring ones can do.

Staking is another method. That is what I mostly use. Luckily cedar lumber is plentiful at reasonable prices around here. Some times I get the cull ones at 70% off at HD.

Then there is trelissing, weaving, stringing.

Then there is something called trimming and pruning. Some do it some don't. I happen to do it to keep my garden semi-jungle. With cool and wet weather, I have to provide the plant with good airflow to minimize fugal and bacterial diseases.

Sey

Brace yourselves, fellow tomato growers. Not. Here are a few pics of my annual tester variety, Mr. Stripey. It's leggy, rather stunted in comparison to my others and after inadvertantly breaking off a branch (which had three fruits on it), I am left with one golf ball sized tomato that appears to be having the audacity to ripen at its size. Ugh. This guy is a real puss bucket.

Very happy with Big Sungold Select production.

"Welcome to the Jungle"

I'm completely in containers but I expanded a little this year...and then expanded again...

I grew the majority of my plants from seeds this year...had more than I expected germinate, and couldn't bear throwing out the ones I couldn't find homes for....so ended up slap dashing together some planters, etc.

Also we have been having 90 degree weather followed immediately by rain, so I have been experiencing some leaf roll issues not really being able to maintain consistent water levels.

Starting on the back patio I have two dwarves and three "Minibels" (not so sure they are Minibels anymore).

Minibels one and two.

I think it is three fused together.

Moving to the side yard...

Another Dwarf, three cherries, two Principe Borghese, Green Zebra, Japanese Black Trifle, Dr. W, Mr. Stripey, and a Sweet Tangarine.

The Sungold, Sunsugar, Sweet Tangarine, and sadly the Green Zebra and Dr. W (evil squirrels killed/tried to kill my two of my seedlings trying to bury their peanuts so I had to buy a replacement) were purchased as seedlings...the rest are seeds I cultivated

Dwarf Blazing Beauty in a 5 gallon grow bag

Stupid squirrels...this was in with the above Dwarf in the growbag

Sungold...going gangbusters and I really need to get out here with ties

Sunsugar...also growing like crazy and needs some ties

Snow White Cherry, from seed and doing really well.

To be continued since it won't let me add more pictures

...continued

PB #2...half of this plant fell victim to the squirrels..found the main branch broken off yesterday, but it seems to be ok otherwise

Green Zebra plant purchased to replace the seedling the squirrels killed...that's a two year old pineapple sage in front I am thinking of culling and replacing with peppers or basil...I don't use it.

Japanese Black Trifle, potato leaves are so cool.

Mr. Stripey...growing like a weed despite leaf curl issues

Little green Mr. Stripeys

Sweet Tangarine...I have pretty much left this plant to its own devises beyond pruning some lower leaves

Baby Sweet Tangarines

Kellogs Breakfast- This poor thing was another victim of the squirrels..they ripped off everything but the first two true leaves and I thought it was a goner...I bought a plant to replace it...life got in the way, and when I came out to remove it and plant the other one it had spouted a new growing tip. It is way behind where it should be, but I didn't have the heart to rip the little fighter out.

Dr. W's yellow...this was the plant I bought to replace the Kellogs(none of the local Nurserys had the same variety but it ended up being a good thing I guess...more variety)...had to go buy another pot since I had to give the Kellogs a second chance...thought I had another bag of soil...didn’t...I WILL get this planted this weekend.

And that is it...no more...I'm bursting at the seams with tomato plants. Crossing my fingers they all make it as I've been a little hands off this year.

Is it the lighting, or are the leaves of your sweet tangerine a beautiful shade of blue?

@yepperbepper They are actually almost a Teal color. It's a pretty plant.

Thanks. I might just grow one next year simply because of the leaf color. I do a tester variety every year...so what the heck?

Maskota hanging basket

Terenzo and Lizzano baskets

Tomato bed, 16 plants in 16 square feet, because I'm insane.

Front view

Overflow in my coldframe, Chocolate Stripes, which I got as a free seed packet and started one plant and almost gave it away cause I didn't have room... that's the one with all the tomato clusters on it. Hope it tastes good, lol

Community garden bed, another 9 tomato plants in there

Recently acquired 2nd community garden bed. Three more of my tomato plants, plus one volunteer I found in the bed as I was prepping it.

OK, I promised some pics once my patch got a bit more established. Plants are doing well after a rough start a month ago. A lot of them are reaching 3 feet now. I've had to stake just about all of them because they're getting a bit unwieldy.

Wide angle views of the developing forest. As you can see, there's a tape fence, which kept the deer out pretty well, until a couple nights ago, when one got in and chomped on a few plants. Since then I added a second perimeter fence made with 3 levels of fishing line. I figured the deer would try to get thru, but when they encountered some resistance they couldn't see, then that would disturb them enough to avoid the patch. We'll see how it goes. It's like I have to build a high security prison to keep the tomatoes in and the deer out!

A shot of the rows of the plants. I spaced them out at 4 foot intervals. There are 10 rows of 7 for the tomatoes, and there are a couple rows of various pepper plants on the back side. As you can see they are staked, some already have a couple because the plants developed in a V pattern of two main stalks. Those red cups are the cups the seedlings went into after outgrowing their peat pods indoors under the grow lights. I wrote the variety on the cup to identify it. I also have the patch mapped out on a speadsheet. I'm such a geek.

A Watermelon beefsteak in the foreground and Aunt Ruby German Green in the back. Both plants have some huge leaves, the Watermelon has potato leaves.

A Japanese Black Trifele, again with tater leaves

Cherokee Purple

Lemon Oxheart in fore, Pink Brandywine behind

San Marzano

Yellow Brandywine

A Tomatillo plant, I've never seen one before. Very interesting plant, it's like a cross between a pepper and 'mater.

OK, that's prob enough for now. As you can see I need to do a bit more weeding/hoeing, but it actually looks cleaner after I did some yesterday.

Jungle anyone ?

Here you go Daniel...

It's a month and a half later and I tried to get close to the same angles as the last set of pics above...

They are 9+' tall and still growing. It hasn't rained here in weeks and I've stopped watering or they'd be taller yet.

Here are some pics of Rose, the heirloom. Lots of big tasty fruits, even under harsh conditions. The single fruit might be the largest I've ever grown. It'll be ready in a few days, and I am patiently waiting for it to see where it tips the scales.

Btw...like most of the country, it's crazy hot out there. I took the pics, and quickly came back inside lol.

rgreen, you have nice jungle AND good production too. I have bigger jungle but not much fruits on them. My Big Beet, Better Boy, Big Boy are over 10 ft tall. But I trim all the lower growth. Too much foliage near the ground promote fungal disease in my climate.

I will post a picture the next time.

Sey

They're coming along nicely.. Finally harvesting a little..

Thank you Sey. Yeah, by this time of year I too would have been forced to trim off much more disease-affected lower leaves, but we are way under our average rainfall amounts, and the humidity has been much, much lower than normal. I think we are actually under drought conditions. While it is starting to affect some of the other crops, the tomatoes are actually doing quite well. Disease is down, and flavor is up. If we don't get rain soon, the plants will begin to fail, and late production will suffer. Oh well, gardening is that blend of planning, work, and hope.

Very nice set up Mike, that's a lot of plants!

OK. Here is my Jungle 7-25-2016

You can hardly see the tip of stakes that are about 10ft tall.

Sey

More Photos.

These were taken on July 30.

The plants are healthy and have fruits but the are green.

and...

I see some tomatoes ..hmmm

One more ...

My "Hall of Tomatoes" as of 07/31/16. Center posts are 8' tall and there are 8 plants on each side.