I had a bad year too. But it was related to something that I couldn't do anything about it.: WEATHER

But talking about drought , we get in average 1 " of rain in 30 days, from late June to late September. So you cannot depend on rain to water your tomatoes for you.

On the disease front , I believe in regular spraying with fungicide from early on , as a preventive measure. jmo

Sey

Yes, this has been a disappointing year for tomatoes (and eggplant, and peas, and cucumber) for me. Normally I get one or two plants that struggle and the rest do fine, with plenty to harvest. This year, the majority of my tomato plants have given no fruit. One stopped growing and then slowly died. I suspect it was in part due to the pillbugs that also took out two of my eggplant seedlings. Another two tomato plants have grown, but look terrible (one wilts every day, the other has leaves that have turned so their bottom surface is up) and have not set one lousy tomato. The lone semi-determinate I am growing (the same plant that last year gave me nearly a bushel of fruit) has not grown all that much and has given me maybe a handful of fruit. Same disappointing yields from my two other reliable repeat indeterminate cherrys. I've gotten the most fruit (which still isn't anything to write home about) from a new-to-me cherry variety, but it's been slowly succumbing to blight and maybe stinkbugs. One of my container plants got something that caused the branches to turn slimy brown and die. The other limped along and might have set fruit but for the heat and possibly stinkbugs.

Some might be due to the weather; we're going on 85 days with no rain, which even for here is pretty unusual. We set all sorts of new high temperature records for June and July, and I expect that August will also be one for the record books. The rest, I just don't know. There are too many variables involved. The only thing ideal for growing tomatoes here is the sunlight. Everything else (the soil, the water, the weather, the pests) is a constant challenge.

I think next year I will not grow from seed, and try to buy seedlings (hybrids, maybe) that have some disease-resistance. That and try not to put tomatoes in the same location, but it's hard to do when all I have are two 4x8 raised beds and a half-dozen sufficiently large containers. Very frustrating, and if I had the time and energy I might even cry a little.

Also a bad tomato year for me. I don't think I replenished the soil enough, bad weather, early septoria, and my tomato transplants didn't get the same care as everything else and were kind of poor this year.

I am also in the midAtlantic region. This year we had that really wet month of May, a short period of normal summer weather and then off to really hot days. Even the local farms were late with the tomatoes this year.

So, the plants were late in getting started with little sunshine in May and they will not set fruit if the temp gets too high.

I read on an ag report of some blight in the Delaware and Jersey area.

My cherry toms are just now coming right to pick. Normally we have tomatoes from the local farm much earlier that we did this year.

Mine are late..just got my first ripe ones last week...but I planted 2 weeks late due to weather. Plants are loaded with green fruit, and look healthy so far...but cold nights are not far away, and that's usually the kiss of death here

"I used to grow Celebrity, but could not get them this year. They were very resistant to all types of disease."

Burpee Best Boy is a much better determinate than Celebrity, disease resistance included. It is sold in big box stores and in the sales insert of the Burpee catalog but not on its main pages.

I see the light ! My weather has gotten very nice lately. Tomatoes are getting bigger faster. Forecast calls for the same til the end of August and beyond. I.ll be more than happy if all the existing tomatoes ripen before the end of season.

Sey

Aruzinsky

Will try them next year as I do get my plants from Burpee. Thanks for the tip. I have to buy plants as I do not have the facility for starting seeds.

"I do not have the facility for starting seeds."

Right now, Menards is advertising a fluorescent shop light for $9.99 after a $5 mail in rebate. This is in the Chicago area, check yours. Often, at different times, you can find fluorescent bulbs for sale for less than $2.