Kitchen Garden Forum

Good evening,
Can someone please identify what is wrong with my tomatoes and tell me what I can do about it.
I grow in a poly tunnel and it has mesh all around the lower 24 inches.
I am growing Shirley, Ferline and Sungold.
On the Shirley and Ferline a sepal goes dead looking and then the whole Calyx goes the same way and then the fruit begins to rot under the Calyx. I don't think vetilation is the problem as I open double doors at each end on most days and plants are in a single row at 18" spacing.
The Sungold are unaffected.
All help gratefully received.
Regards, Gerry.

I've grown tomatoes (outdoors) for many years and have never really experienced this problem so can only hazard a guess that it may possibly be something to do with the soil/compost in which the plants are grown. Are they in pots or growbags? Are the plants getting sufficient moisture around the roots? It seems strange that two varieties are affected and the other isn't if all the growing conditions are the same. Some people recommend shaking the plants gently when in flower to help fertilisation - I don't know whether this would help prevent the problem on later trusses.
Hopefully somebody else on here with more technical knowledge will be able to help you.

Primrose thanks for the reply.
I have 6" lengths of 6" soil pipe containing grobag compost into which I plant the tomatoes. These stand on the compost/soil in a raised bed. On either side of the pipes a leakey hose runs the length of the bed. I apply fertiliser to the compost in the pipes. A little exploration has shown that the roots are well formed and have a run to about 12" out from the pipes. I have no problem with fertilisation and the the problem occures on well developed fruit and in fact on the odd one that I have missed the ripening process continues.
Last year was my first with the tunnel and I purchased an overhead irrigation system with it. I did experience this problem to a much lesser degree and assumed it was caused by the overhead system. This year I have not used the overhead system at all.
At the end of last season I applied a solution of Jeyes fluid to the soil in the bed and soaked the strings which I use for the tomatoes in a Jeyes fluid solution.
I hope this extra information may lead someone to be able to pinpoint what I may be doing wrong.
Thanks again.
Regards, Gerry.

Gerry - you've got me flummoxed on this one and I'm finding it a rather difficult to picture your growing system with these six inch pipes. Is it possible to post a picture as I'm being thick and can't imagine tomatoes growing in pipes so I may have missed something in the process. I do occasionally find with my outdoor tomatoes that sometimes due to adverse weather conditions, not all of the tomatoes on the first truss form, but I'm at a loss to know what's causing your problems on two varieties but not the third if all the climatic conditions are the same. I think overhead watering is best avoided, with all water directed towards the roots.

I've noticed on other vegetables such as courgettes, cucumbers, squashes, and even occasionally peppers that the first flush of fruits don't always form correctly and either shrivel up or rot, and then the rest of the fruit on the plants seem to settle down and perform OK for no accountable reason. You may find this happens with your plants but I know it's annoying when something seems to be going wrong and you can't pin down the reason why.

Hi Primrose, Sorry for the delay but I can't get the hang of posting pictures.
The pipes are 6 inches diameter. Think of them as plant pots without a bottom. The fruit which are affected are not the first and the plants are well developed.
Thanks for the help. I have been invited to give samples to one of the lecturers at the local Agricultural College (he is the horticulural lecturer) so I'm quite hopefull of getting a result.
Regards, Gerry.

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Sorry Gerry - but I think this problem is beyond me. You seem to have got the right fundamentals - moisture and nutrients and whilst one does sometimes get the odd incidence of a few fruit not forming or rotting, I can't fathom out why this is happening to so many of your plants unless there is too much dampness overall in your polytunnel and it's not having a chance to dry out.
Hopefully your contact at Agricultural college will be able to come up with the answer.

I would think your problem is caused by the jeyes fluid upsetting the soils natural balance, I believe this is now considered toxic, I hope you used gloves and mask when applying it, jeyes is now banned, requires special disposal so that it does not pollute our drinking water.
here is a link for alternatives if you still want to use chemicals,

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/b ... _chain.pdf

but there is another way, using natural soil bacteria and mycelium to help plants resistence to these problems, check out the links on the synergistic gardening thread.

Hi Gerry

I always get the same problem on a few plants. I suspect it is Botrytis cinerea otherwise known as grey mould. See here:

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... ay_Tom.htm

If not, have a look at the rest of the site:

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... html#White

If you used the correct dilution of Jeyes fluid I doubt whether this is the problem.

Hope the links help.

Alan

By the way Jeyes Fluid is not banned:

http://www.jeyes.co.uk/jeyesfluidJF.htm

Hi Alan,
I dislike having to correct you but Jeyes Fluid is no long legal as a soil sterilant. It was be off the list for a number of year. It can still be used in the greenhouse to sterilize equipment but not in the soil.
JB.

Johnboy wrote:Hi Alan,
I dislike having to correct you but Jeyes Fluid is no long legal as a soil sterilant. It was be off the list for a numer of year. It can still be used in the greenhouse to sterilize equipment but not in the soil.
JB.

Hi JB

I know that. I was merely correcting the statement: "jeyes is now banned" in the previous post. I certainly only use it as a disinfectant in the hen houses - and rarely at that.

Alan

Hi Alan,
I suspect that we had a long thread about Jeyes Fluid last year or the year before that and I apologise for getting the situation wrong.
JB.

Thank you all for your interest and help.
I followed the discussion, over the years, on Jeyes fluid with interest. I was of the impression that it was only banned for soil sterilisation on the grounds that the "Licence Fee" had not been paid.
Alan thanks for the links and yes, it is Botrytis. Last year, my first with the tunnel, I packed far too much in and had a minor incidence of it. On reading up what I could find it all seemed rather complex. The mould infects plants with damage ( pinching out side shoots causes damage), it can be seed bourne, it overwinters in the soil (hence the use of Jeyes) and there seems that there is no cure, only preventative measures which one can take. Then again repeated use of Benomyl can result in resistant strains of Botrytis.
This year I planted half the ammount of tomatoes in the same area, bought new seed, opened the doors at each end whenever possible and kept humidity at a minimum and had a much worse problem.
Alans link did explain why Shirley and Ferline were affected and Sungold were not. Research has shown that some varieties are more resistant than others.
I'm at a loss as what I should do next year. Any suggestions? Keep it clean.
Regards, Gerry.

Hi Gerry,
That is certainly true in the UK but I do not know the ruling in the ROI.
Jeyes Fluid was not actually banned at all. Because of the swingeing costs of a licence in UK the company simply didn't renew the licence.
JB.

I thought it might be useful to post this link on health and safety and the use of pesticides in the home garden / allotment, their recent research shows many are not using / storing / disposing of pesticides correctly.
As they correctly point out most would want those we love to be safe
in the garden environment. Johnboy because Jeyes have not gone through the tests it does mean that we are still in the dark regarding safety.
Also it might be ok to use Jeyes on glass greenhouse but if using in a polytunnel it degrades plastic.

http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden_home.asp