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drfugawe

Clear Plastic over Tomatoes?

20 years ago

I have been gardening in the NW (actually, SW Oregon) for about 5 years now, and frankly, I'm tired of watching nice tomato plants succumb to late blight and other viruses as the rains return in late Sept/and Oct. In my garden, it's not the cold which does in the tomatoes, it's the rains!

Additionally, this summer has been weird here, in that the temps have been unseasonably cool - in fact, the night temps over the past two months have seldom gone above 50, thereby causing my perfectly healthy tomatoes to fail to set fruit. Day temps often go into the high 70s/low 80s, but the nights are just too dam cool for the heat lovers. My most beautiful tomatoes (plums) have maybe 5-8 on each plant! And they are just now starting to ripen.

So this year I think I'll try and extend the season a bit by covering my best 25' row with clear plastic sheeting, and see if that will shield the tomatoes from the rains, and increase the temp a bit to aid in ripening them too. I'm sure some of you have tried this, or something similar - what's your experience? If this won't work, are there other ideas worth trying?

Thanks much for your response.

John

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