were all impatient
:)

Waaaaay too much nitrogen, especially using a 20-20-20 every week. I used a 10-10-10 once when I put my seedlings in my homemade Earthboxes on 3/16 and now some are 10 feet tall and loaded with fruit.

OK - I'll cut back on the fertilizer. Maybe I'll try to get something less potent, or with less nitrogen.

However I now have a bigger problem. I just came home from work, and it's official, Tom now has spider mites. I could see the little things crawling around the backs of some of the lower leaves. Also noticed a few bigger bugs - perhaps aphids? Not as big of a concern because they're big enough to see and not a ton there.

Suggestions on how to get rid of the mites? I'm going to the store soon to get something. I have no problems with chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare if necessary.

Do you mind going organic? I've used Pyola and Spinosad for pests, and I have good luck with it. I don't like using chemical pesticides like Sevin because I don't want to take the chance of killing honeybees. We have few enough as it is.

As for biological, ladybugs make short work of aphids. I tried them on my aphid-caked cherry tree last year. I haven't seen an aphid since, although I've seen a number of ladybugs.

Spidermites: see below for a very recent thread on this topic with some suggestions. you can also do a search and will see many similar discussions. There are several options before you have to break out the chemicals.

Bush tomatoes: Definitely lay off the fertilizer, and always use a tomato specific fertilizer that's lower in nitrogen compared with the generic garden stuff. High levels of nitrogen promote leaf and plant growth at the expense of flowers. This means big plant with little or no fruit. The problem here, is that this is a determinate plant, so even if you back off on the fertilizing, it doesn't produce a succession of crops so you may not be getting much more fruit.

We should start a petition to get Miracle Grow to remove the picture of the tomato from their 'All purpose' fertilizer...

Here is a link that might be useful: spider mite thread

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm determined to save this plant, so that it doesn't end up like our flower plant did. (Dead within a couple of weeks, found them too late)

So I clipped off several of the lower branches that were most effected by the mites. Also bought some "Garden Safe Fruit & Vegetable Insect Killer" (Pyrethin) tonight and hosed down all the leaves front and back. Hopefully that doesn't make it worse by killing too many good bugs. The questionable person at Home Depot recommended that over the neem oil fungicide mentioned in the other thread. Starting to wish I had got that instead though. We'll see.

(Pyrethin) Isn't that the stuff they use to kill cockroaches on that new show "The Verminators". They shoot it out of that vaporizing device they carry to flush out and kill the roaches.

Just watched it last night.

Best defense against spider mite is cold water and a lot of it - use a nozzle that will produce a stream strong enough to knock off a few leaves and direct it at the underside of the leaves to break up the webs and wash off the mites. Do this two or three times a week and the spider mites will drown or come down with pneumonia. There is no chemical you can use on tomatoes that is going to affect the mites and anything that will kill mites you don't want on tomatoes.
Old timers will tell you to be sure and use the stream of water technique when the mites are sleeping bccause that's when their heads stick out and they catch pneumonia - but I wouldn't subscribe to such a notion myself.

Thanks for the water suggestion, I'll try to knock as many off as I can every day. Hopefully the pyrethin dousing from last night will take care of things, we'll see how he looks this afternoon. Unfortunately since I'm in an apartment I don't have a hose to spray them off, but perhaps I sould buy a super soaker and that would do the trick.

Never thought I would have so much trouble with one measley tomato plant...

Just an update, the spider mites seem to be taken care of now. I do see what appear to be a few white flies (?), but not enough to be too concerned.

My biggest tomato is finally starting to ripen, so I think I'm going to pick it tonight and let it finish inside. There is also a new marble sized tomato now, but not much else happening.

Still need to find some tomato friendly fertilizer, as they were out of the 5-10-10 stuff at Home Depot. Slow going, but I'm still hopeful that more will come.