Anyone here grow tomato plants? Know about them?

[Octa 0]

there are early and late tomatoes so it depends on which you have anya. but it does seem like it takes forever for them to turn red..always

[Lou Lou 1]

They take a long time. Depends on how much sun and warmth they have had. Keep them fed and watered! We have orange cherry tomatoes that are still on the vine but not fully developed. It usually takes about 6 weeks or more. Our big toms are still waiting for fruits to develop.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If anyone here knows about tomato plants, please help!

We are growing 3 varieties of tomatoes in our veggie garden, half of which are cherry tomatoes.

The plants have been growing absolutely wonderfully, matter of fact I just snipped off their "growing tips" a few days back cuz they were high enough and I wanted them to flourish...

This morning I went to check to see if any stems might need tying up and first thing I notice, is that one of our tomato plants was almost BALD! I thought that the raccoons and/or deer had been at them but as I'm checking the plants, I notice, in the plant right next to the bald one, this HUGE bright green caterpillar! I mean REALLY thick and creepy looking, spots all down it's back, eyes, and what looked to be maybe a stinger sticking out the end of it's butt! So I get a stick (I wasn't touching that thing oh no) and scraped it off the tomato plant stem and stepped on it. The result was gross needless to say. Urp.

So anyway, I start checking all the other tomato plants a little more closely and when I was done, I had removed EIGHT of these things from where they were feasting on the leaves of our damn plants. I'm sure there's probably more but I had to take a break cause everything just started blending into one what with everything being green, ya know? I'll go back and investigate after lunch.

Anyone know what these little bastards are and what I can do alternatively to using a pesticide? I damn well wanna eat tomatoes this summer after all the hard work we did growing these suckers...lol.

Here's a pic I took of one - sorry it's a bit blurry, I was holding a stem it was on and the things started moving and I got all creeped out...lol...

Sharon, if it's ok, I'm going to forward this to my Dad. He's had vegetable gardens all his life and has a degree in agriculture. I'll paste his response here.

[Sharon 1]

Sharon, if it's ok, I'm going to forward this to my Dad. He's had vegetable gardens all his life and has a degree in agriculture. I'll paste his response here.

Hey SURE, Steve, that would be great! Thanks to the collective brains in here, we've already determined that they're horn worms but I'd definitely like to know the best way to get rif of them!

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

I have no idea.

But can I live with you guys?

I just absolutely adore the place you live at, Sharon!

And I wanna be a farmer. Heh heh

[anya-D 8]

there are early and late tomatoes so it depends on which you have anya. but it does seem like it takes forever for them to turn red..always

They take a long time. Depends on how much sun and warmth they have had. Keep them fed and watered! We have orange cherry tomatoes that are still on the vine but not fully developed. It usually takes about 6 weeks or more. Our big toms are still waiting for fruits to develop.

Wow.. really... Thanks for the info.. it's warm here ofcorse (like 90s to 100 sometimes) and it got sun all day

Patient is the way for a fresh juicy tomatos!!

[desert_fox 32]

fry them puppies up....eat em...little garlic helps.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sharon, if it's ok, I'm going to forward this to my Dad. He's had vegetable gardens all his life and has a degree in agriculture. I'll paste his response here.

Hey SURE, Steve, that would be great! Thanks to the collective brains in here, we've already determined that they're horn worms but I'd definitely like to know the best way to get rif of them!

Sharon, here's my dad's response!

What your friend(s) have is an infestation of those big, old, fat, hungry, tomato worms. The best way of dealing with them is to do what they are already doing - examine the tomato vines a couple of times every day and pick the larva off by hand. They are wicked looking but they can't bite. If one or more of the tomato vines has already lost all or most of its leaves to the hungry critters, that vine probably will not produce fruit. Good hunting!

[aussiewench 9]

Hey Sharon

Plant marigolds amongst your tomato plants. Always kept the pests away from my tomatoes including the grubs.

[anya-D 8]

Have you guys ever heard of Lasanga (sp??) garden? Bram's grandfather have thouse kind of garden and his vegetable especially tomatoes looks so big, red, juicy and grow very fast.. just wondering if anybody know about it.

[Lou Lou 1]

Hey Sharon

Plant marigolds amongst your tomato plants. Always kept the pests away from my tomatoes including the grubs.

Yeh, but they look fugly

[beccaogingi 0]

I read about lasagne gardening but I don´t know a whole lot about it. But there is a book out, try searching at your local library (they can usually borrow ones from nearby libraries if they don´t have it.)

The beer trick mentioned earlier in the thread is the BEST for slugs.