I found a big brown caterpillar on my tomato plant today and went trolling on the Internet to find out what it was. Apparently, it's a southern armyworm (Spodoptera edidania).
I've actually seen a lot of small caterpillars skeletonizing the leaves of my tomato. Apparently, they're the younger larval instars of this guy. Most caterpillars go through several larval instar stages, which can make it difficult for folks like me to definitively identify them. This guy's darker coloration suggests that he (or she) is a later instar stage.
Speaking of identifying caterpillars, it looks like I misidentified this caterpillar. It's actually a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) and not a tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). Tomato hornworms have eight white V-shaped markings on their side while tobacco hornworms have seven diagonal white lines.
Showing posts with label edible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edible. Show all posts
RIP cherry tomato plant
Friday, June 20, 2008
My cherry tomato plant finally bit the dust. I had been holding off on posting for awhile because I wanted to be able to brag about how well my tomatoes were doing. Alas. One is still plugging along ('Hillbilly'), but the other is dead ('Black Cherry').
You can see the remains of its crispy brown skeleton in the left half of the container. I'm still not sure what killed it. The leaves started wilting quickly and then turned brown and crunchy. The stems also changed, losing their solid feel and changing to a hollow feel. There are a number of different things that can cause wilt in this neck of the woods. I guess I'll never know the official cause of death.
The amazing thing is that the tomatoes that were on the vine continued to ripen. I think I ended up with three dozen or more 'Black Cherry' tomatoes all told. Yum!
I removed the plant from the container this week to give the remaining 'Hillbilly' tomato plant more room to breathe. It seems to be working. The long-green tomatoes are now starting to blush. Can't wait to taste those.
Tomato harvest
Monday, June 16, 2008
It's finally time to harvest some tomatoes!
These are 'Black Cherry' tomatoes that I planted as transplants in a self-watering container. I think I got about two dozen tomatoes off the plant. And yes, they are delicious! I ate some with my dinner salad last night and am eating the rest now on my lunch salad.
These are actually the first tomatoes that I've ever grown all by myself. We had a big garden when I was a kid, but my parents did all the hard work.
The sad news is that the tomato plant itself is pretty much dead. I think it got wilt, because all of a sudden the leaves started shrivelling up and turning brown. The stems seemed to rot, too. If I squeezed them, they felt hollow. However, the tomatoes kept ripening so I left the plant alone.
The other tomato plant in the container seems to be doing fine, so perhaps it's resistant. Let's hope so. I can't wait to sample those tomatoes, too.
These are 'Black Cherry' tomatoes that I planted as transplants in a self-watering container. I think I got about two dozen tomatoes off the plant. And yes, they are delicious! I ate some with my dinner salad last night and am eating the rest now on my lunch salad.
These are actually the first tomatoes that I've ever grown all by myself. We had a big garden when I was a kid, but my parents did all the hard work.
The sad news is that the tomato plant itself is pretty much dead. I think it got wilt, because all of a sudden the leaves started shrivelling up and turning brown. The stems seemed to rot, too. If I squeezed them, they felt hollow. However, the tomatoes kept ripening so I left the plant alone.
The other tomato plant in the container seems to be doing fine, so perhaps it's resistant. Let's hope so. I can't wait to sample those tomatoes, too.
Beautiful blooms
Friday, May 9, 2008
My tomato plants are flowering -- yay! I can hardly wait for them to produce fruit.
I haven't seen any bees pollinating the flowers yet. My understanding is that tomato flowers are self-pollinating but require the vibration of bee wings in order for the pollen to shake free from the anthers and pollinate the stigma. Just in case any bees don't come along, I jiggled the flowers with my fingertip. We'll see if this is helpful or if I'm being an overprotective tomato parent. I want my tomatoes!
Also, can you see the water droplets on the leaves in the background? Every morning when I come out to check on my tomato plants there are these beautiful water droplets along the edges of the leaves They're like little jewels the way they catch the morning light. I guess they're the result of the moisture the leaves have accumulated from a hard day of evapotranspiring. I imagine that the liquid makes its way to the leaf margins as the night progresses. Then once the sun rises each morning, the droplets are melted away by the sun's warmth, only to have the cycle begin again. Pretty amazing.
I haven't seen any bees pollinating the flowers yet. My understanding is that tomato flowers are self-pollinating but require the vibration of bee wings in order for the pollen to shake free from the anthers and pollinate the stigma. Just in case any bees don't come along, I jiggled the flowers with my fingertip. We'll see if this is helpful or if I'm being an overprotective tomato parent. I want my tomatoes!
Also, can you see the water droplets on the leaves in the background? Every morning when I come out to check on my tomato plants there are these beautiful water droplets along the edges of the leaves They're like little jewels the way they catch the morning light. I guess they're the result of the moisture the leaves have accumulated from a hard day of evapotranspiring. I imagine that the liquid makes its way to the leaf margins as the night progresses. Then once the sun rises each morning, the droplets are melted away by the sun's warmth, only to have the cycle begin again. Pretty amazing.
You can't beat homegrown
Sunday, April 20, 2008
So I finally got around to planting the tomato plants that I bought at the Kanapaha Garden Festival. They're heirloom varieties called 'Hillbilly' (left) and 'Black Cherry' (right).
I wanted to have one indeterminate and one determinate variety for my first tomato-growing experiment. The idea is that the indeterminate plant ('Hillbilly') will give me some big, sandwich-worthy tomatoes in the beginning of the season, though it's likely to poop out once temperatures climb. The determinate plant ('Black Cherry') should bear fruit throughout the summer that I can use on salads or in pasta dishes, quiches, or whatever.
I opted to use a self-watering container that I bought from Gardener's Supply Company, with the logic that I would never remember to water the tomatoes as often as they needed water (I'm kind of bad like that).
The container design is great, but the cage is another story. I cursed like a sailor while attempting to assemble it. The genius of the design is that it's several flat wire panels that can then be easily shipped. The giant flaw in the plan is that the plastic connectors that hold the wire frames together are poorly designed.
You're supposed to be able to snap the frames into the connectors, which is easier said than done. I dug a number of tools out of my kit -- pliers, zip ties, and electrical tape -- but still couldn't get it together the way the instructions indicated. Grrr. I finally used the electrical tape to secure the frames to the connectors. Hopefully it will hold up to the weight of a fully loaded tomato plant.
Also, I debated about putting both tomato plants in one container, since 'Hillbilly' is likely to get pretty big. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes. But boy am I anxious to have a bite of my first homegrown tomato!
I wanted to have one indeterminate and one determinate variety for my first tomato-growing experiment. The idea is that the indeterminate plant ('Hillbilly') will give me some big, sandwich-worthy tomatoes in the beginning of the season, though it's likely to poop out once temperatures climb. The determinate plant ('Black Cherry') should bear fruit throughout the summer that I can use on salads or in pasta dishes, quiches, or whatever.
I opted to use a self-watering container that I bought from Gardener's Supply Company, with the logic that I would never remember to water the tomatoes as often as they needed water (I'm kind of bad like that).
The container design is great, but the cage is another story. I cursed like a sailor while attempting to assemble it. The genius of the design is that it's several flat wire panels that can then be easily shipped. The giant flaw in the plan is that the plastic connectors that hold the wire frames together are poorly designed.
You're supposed to be able to snap the frames into the connectors, which is easier said than done. I dug a number of tools out of my kit -- pliers, zip ties, and electrical tape -- but still couldn't get it together the way the instructions indicated. Grrr. I finally used the electrical tape to secure the frames to the connectors. Hopefully it will hold up to the weight of a fully loaded tomato plant.
Also, I debated about putting both tomato plants in one container, since 'Hillbilly' is likely to get pretty big. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes. But boy am I anxious to have a bite of my first homegrown tomato!
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