Same here in Little Rock. Way too much rain in May caused my plants to just hang out in the muddy garden. Then June hit with major heatwave. By the time my plants were big enough to bloom, they didn't set in the high heat. The plants look great, but fruit is few and far between. Hopefully, this past week will produce some fruit set. I figure I'll just keep the plants alive as long as possible and hope that they can give me some maders later on in the season.

As to diseases, some are treatable, some require that the plants be pulled up and bagged into the trash. Crop rotation is also a good plan (3 year cycles). It's also a good idea not to compost tomato plants at the end of the season. When buying tomato plants from a very large unnamed commercial producer, inspect the leaves and stems carefully. Here's a link on tomato diseases to which I often refer.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/

Good luck, and hope you get some fruit eventually!

Some states are getting hit hard with early blight from tomatoes sold at box stores. I haven't seen anything about blight in Missouri or Arkansas. Hope it doesn't include us. It affects other plants too. There have been several posts about it in other forums.

Oops Late Blight not Early Blight. Here's a good discussion with a link in the Ok. Forum

Here is a link that might be useful: News Story About the Tomato Late Blight Outbreak

paul, I raise my own plants. I think the crop rotation is the real answer. This is the 2nd or 3rd year in the same spot, but the four plants I put on the outside garden fence are looking super...no disease. I will be checking out your link.

That sort of puts the cattle panel idea out the window unless I can get DH to move them every year! May have to.

Christie, I have been following the Ok Forum's discussion and am looking for Daconil. I used to use it all the time, but haven't for several years now. Probably too late for these tomatoes, but will have it on hand for next year.

I had trouble for years with tomato blight, then I started using "Soap Shield" from Gardens Alive and it has solved the problem. Soap Shield is a copper based organic fungicide and I use it on every thing. My tomatoes look great right now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and watching them very carefully. Last year they were ruined by cloudy spot (which I read is caused by stink bugs) so I'm spraying and holding my breath this year!

gldno, many tomato diseases are seed-bourne. I also started my heirlooms from seed. I chunked a few that had bacterial speck on them.

The big box stores mostly get their plants from the same producer. If one has bad plants, chances are that the one on the other end of town has them too. I just got fed up with mis-labeled plants, so I started my own.

Describe the disease please. I have some with yellow leaves on the bottom. How sick do they look to make you alarmed. Mine don't look sick. I have a jungle. I planted too many too close and ran out of hog wire circles. Someone gave me some hogwire but I haven't cut it up or made more circles yet. These monsters are still growing. Black Cherry is especially big. I am getting a few tomatoes from Glacier, Sophie's Choice and Eva Purple Ball. All are small tomatoes but bigger than cherries. I found a big gray horned caterpillar on a weed and let it live thanks to the butterfly house experience. It was on a weed and was not green like the tomato horn worms so I spared it. It made me think I should spray Bt on my tomatoes though although I have not seen any worms.

helenh,

Yellow leaves are not an indication of blight. You should actually remove any stems off the bottom of the plant that are below the lowest branch that has fruit on it. This will prevent soil from getting on the lower leaves during inclement weather which can lead to soil borne diseases.

Tomatoe plant can be affected by several diseases, many of which look similar by appearance. You can easily search for photos of late blight on tomatoes. Here is one example that has photos:

Here is a link that might be useful: Late Blight in Tomatoes

gldno1,

I am wondering about our 'too hot, too soon' weather.

Most vegetable plants will stop flowering when temps reach 96ËF and higher. This is a natural defense mechanism. Don't worry, so long as your plants remain healthy, they should reward you if you're patient.

I just finished tying them up for the last time. I see lots of tiny ones up higher, so am feeling a little better.

I wouldn't call them all healthy though!

First ripe tomatoes this weekI used to worry about every disease on my plants that I heard of, finally learned to ignore and do What Ruth Stout said--"thats just the was they're acting this year".
Glenda, the way I plan on rotating my cattle panels is by having several panels up, and rotating where I plant what each year.

helenh,

I want to correct what I wrote earlier this morning...

Yellow leaves are not an indication of blight should have been:

Yellow leaves are not an indication of late blight.

Yellow leaves on tomatoes which then drop off (and have brown spots) can be in indication of early blight.

ceresone, I am still working on a rotation plan. I have three panels up now....so if you need to wait two years before planting again, that's a lot of panels. Maybe I need to just cut back the number of plants.

My sis in Iowa always talks about planting 6-10 plants and canning all she and her husband need. I barely do that with 24 plants. Must be that rich Iowa soil!

I tied mine up for the last time this morning, reached way over the panel top. I did find lots of little tomatoes further up so was happy about that.

I do think in the Ozarks we just have to accept some disease and live with it. In the past I have sprayed regularly and still had leaf disease.

I have one more Granny Cantrell ripening and am watching it like a hawk. Something ate the back side off my last ripe one! It wasn't the usualy terrapin, but tiny little nibble edges. Maybe rabbits; we have lots of them all over the yard and garden.

I am spraying for horn worm. I found several big fat guys. I don't mind picking them off - kind of a game spotting them. I am spraying a liquid Bt type thing that is not a poison. I have some huge pink tomatoes; I hope when I pick them there are no rotten places.

Helen, what is that "Bt-type thing" you are spraying? I'm ready to try something
Thanks
Sunny

It is thuricide concentrate. I am not sure where I got it, but I think it was either a feed store or Ozark Nursery. I have used Dipel dust in the past, but I don't care for dusts. I think the white residue is probably just filler. I guess you could spray it off with water after it did its job. Bt is supposed to just affect caterpillars. I accidently sprayed some dill with the thuricide. I washed it off; hope that works. You don't want it on your butterfly larva food.