After two weeks Joe goes back into the garden to check on his tomato plants. He also provides some valuable information on diseases and pests that commonly affect tomato plants, and then he shows how and when to harvest your crop.
- One way to make tomato stems stronger is to brush over them daily with your hands. The movement causes the plant to release cytokinin, a hormone that encourages strong stems.
- Tomatoes are prone to a variety of diseases, including tobacco mosaic virus and early blight. The best way to prevent the spread of diseases is to make sure you have enough space between your plants for air to circulate (figure A). Plants that touch will easily transfer problems to one another. You can cut any overlapping plant stems to prevent touching.
- Fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt are caused by a soilborne bacterium; leaf spot is caused by a fungal spore, which is carried by the wind or water (figure B). One treatment for leaf spot is copper spray. Be sure you follow the directions carefully when using any chemical treatment.
In addition to diseases, pests are a big problem for tomatoes, especially the tomato hornworm, a green worm with a spiky horn on one end (figure C). One hornworm can strip a tomato plant of all its leaves in a few days. When you see hornworms, pick them the plant immediately and dispose of them, with one exception: if you see a worm that looks like it has lots of white sacks on its back, leave it on the plant. It has been infested with a beneficial wasp that eats hornworm larvae. Another pest that attacks tomatoes is the stinkbug (figure D), which sucks the juices out of the stems and robs it of its nutrients.
To harvest a tomato, grab the fruit firmly and gently twist and pull up and away from the vine (figure E). The stem should snap easily; if it doesn't the tomato may not be ripe yet. Be careful not to break the main stems when you're harvesting. At the end of the season, pick off any green tomatoes before the first frost (figure F) and store them on a sunny window ledge until they ripen.
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