Tomatoes

[Peter Easterling]

I've had pretty good luck growing tomatoes on Oahu and Maui. We have a robust bunch of youngsters growing from the bed of a former chicken coop. I have two questions:
1. The plants are close to each other. Is mold/mildew going to be a problem here is moist Puna?
2. What other vegetable and fruit crops grow well here? We are in Leilani.

[mailes]

I'm not in Leilani, but in Mt. View. I think it's far rainier here.

I've had to make the topsy-turvy kind of planter out of my used 2 liter soda bottles. I start them from seed and transplant them.

We don't have a greenhouse so to get the seedlings going I put them under a canopy; the type I use for my car to keep things out of the rain. Once I've transplanted them to the 2 liter bottles I hang some under the canopy, and most all over the yard; mostly tied to trees to avoid too much rain.

I've only grown the mini types; cherry etc. They do much better in the summer.

[Kelena]

That is a great idea, mailes: tie the topsy turvy thing to a tree! I was wondering where I was going to hang them.

[Peter Easterling]

I should have been proactive with the mold/mildew/fungus problem. My crop is being ravaged with leaves blackening and dying rapidly. Even the tomato vines are blotchy black. Next time I'll try keeping them drier.

[mailes]

Tomatoes really don't want wet leaves at all.

They should really be watered from below.
Or in the case of the topsy turvey, from above...which is below.
Pfff...from the roots.
In ours, the plants do a U shaped turn towards the sun and so
the leaves don't really get wet.

That's terrible you lost your 'ma'terz...

We bought our original seeds from tomatobob.com
He has heirlooms and we only grow the smaller, cherry types.

We save seeds for the next crop from the ones we grow.

I think you'll have much better luck with 'ma'ter bob's
even if there's a few rain showers

[Peter Easterling]

I had a terrific heirloom harvest from Tomato Bob's seeds a few years ago. Next time I'll keep my little babies dry. Thanks for the bottle idea.

[Radiopeg]

Yeah, I lost all my cherry tomato plants to wilt of some sort. No green house yet, but maybe I will try the topsy turvey way.


Peace and long life

[Peter Easterling]

So today I whip up a couple batches of green tomato salsa. Lemonade out of lemons.