tomato troubles.

hi only learning i think they are beef tomatoes all the rest seem ok on the plant but pulled 2 off this morning that looked like this.



got another beef plant but that seems ok, any help as to were ive gone wrong.
been watering about 6pm every day the odd days when its been hot ive watered in the morning too, there in black plastic tom pots.

 

hi its the bottom of the tom, when i water i do get a good bit on the floor so will follow your advice and water in morning.
cheers.

 

I agree, it looks like Blossom End Rot - if its the end away from the stem.

Caused by nutrient deficiency I think. Make sure watering is regular and plants never dry out, and use a tomato feed as per the instructions - which may well be every-other-watering. It isn't an infection, so it will go away once the nutrients etc. are right. I get it on some of my Toms most seasons when I am away for the weekend, or forget to pamper them properly!

 

the tomato the bad one came from is behind the cucumbers in the pic three from the right.
so how many litres of water do i give one of those tom plants, if its hot and sunny do i water in the morning and night what do i do if i think they look dry in the early afternoon.
just trying to get this watering thing right, my first year with a greenhouse but im willing to listen and learn.
thanks.
also did a bad thing about a month ago i cut all the stems off the bottom of some tomato plants below the first truss, was i wrong or a very silly thing to do.

 

They look pretty healthy to me.

I would taken the side shoots off mine, and mine are further apart. I don't know if that is important, but it gets them some more air. How big are your pots? they look about 6 or 7 inches. That would cause them to dry out more quickly. (Mine are in 11" pots, and 2' apart - but I have plenty of space in my greenhouse).

I water generously in the morning, check them at lunch time and if the surface looks dry I give them a lighter watering, and again around 6pm.

I'm using Tomarite at 40ml / 10L water every other day. My 10L can does about 15 plants, so I would guess 2/3rds Litre per plant - about a pint in old money - for the morning watering, and half that if the plants need a drink at the other times.

Give one pot a good soak, leave it to drain for a few minutes and then feel how heavy the pot is. Try feeling it for weight later on in the day and see if its getting light - if its light enough that it could just be knocked over then it definitely needs a drink. I'm the other way round, I fall over when I've been given too much to drink!

 

Sorry, my post overlapped with JWK who said all of that much succinctly than my wibble ...

 

thanks for the help, i thought i did remove the sideshoots,thats the ones that grow in between a v from the stem is it.
the pots i have them in measure 10 and half inches across the top and the same depth wise are these big enough.
never thought growing toms was this much fun.

 

"the pots i have them in measure 10 and half inches across the top and the same depth wise are these big enough."

Yes, big enough. Sorry, they didn't look that big in the piccie.

" i thought i did remove the sideshoots,thats the ones that grow in between a v from the stem is it"

Yup, in the "V" is right. Sometimes a flower stem branches out at the end too - you can cut that off, leaving the flowering bit.

In your picture, the tomato on the right seems to have 3 or 4 shoots coming up at the bottom. The ones to its left look to only have one stem.

Basically you want one stem all the way up from the bottom to the top, and anything else should come off (well, that's my method, either that or you grow a "bush" instead, but if you are taking side shoots off I reckon you need to get rid of all of them).

Personally, I do not cut off any really big side shoots that develop (you know, when I'm looking the other way or somesuch!!). [My thinking is that taking out a really big sideshoot, even with a knife, could leave a wound big enough for some disease to attack]. I just pinch the tops out of any such big sideshoots and consider them to be some "extra leaves"! But I am then careful to take out any further shoots that sprout out of them.

I often get shoots appearing at the bottom of plants once the plants are several feet high. I snap them all off too.

 

hi still learning as its my first time with a greenhouse so im going to make mistakes which i hope will not happen again.
think i started removing sideshoots later than i should of, the other stems on the plant in the pic are you saying they were sideshoots.

 

"the other stems on the plant in the pic are you saying they were sideshoots"

Looks like it to me. There should be one main stem up the middle, and anything growing off that started out as a side shoot. I wouldn't remove anything "big" now, but I would cut them back - basically I would remove anything up the the thickness of my little finger. Either way, I would not want the side branches trying to bear fruit.

But that's only my opinion, best wait to hear what others think too.

 

im totally baffled as to what to actually cut off. my tom plants most have 1 stem then about half way up they all fork and have several stems growing upwards so im having to tie several stems to the cane.

i bought most of the toms as its my 1st yr so basicly what your saying correct me if im wrong,when i buy the plant remove any sideshoots in the vs of the branches that are grown and then leave it be.



so what ive been doing by the looks of things is removing sideshoots in the vs of sideshoots.

sorry for being a pain but if i dont ask i dont learn, the pic below see were it forks 3/4 up is that wrong it should not do that, but all the rest of the branches are ok.

 

hi Hammer take out the side shouts you have got them marked with arrow your bottom plant looks ok :thumb:

 

Your first picture, with the sideshoots marked, is spot on. Those need to be removed, and they will easily just break off if you bend them to one side.

Your second picture is exactly what I meant by "I do not cut off any really big side shoots that develop".

Even though I check my Toms every day when I water them I sometimes manage to grow side shoots as big as your picture #2. Sometimes the sideshoots grow so fast, and are so strong, that they get big before I spot them.

Those type are precisely the ones that I think may cause problems if they are removed because they are so big that they may leave a big wound when removed, and that might get infected.

So I just pinch out the tops of those big ones, and treat them as some "extra leaves". But then when side shoots develop on those, usually less vigorously, I spot them in time to remove them. I recommend that you do not let any flower trusses develop on the "big" side shoots - if any develop just remove them, they will be weak enough to just snap off.

This is just my opinion, I don't remember reading this anywhere, so you may want to wait for other opinions before doing anything drastic!