I like your garden @bookworm! Pineapple ?!!!
So, wise gardeners- help. The patio tomatoes seem to be doing well and the husky cherry tomatoes relatively ok (though a recent storm blew over 2 pots and a long shoot with flowers on it broke off). The sweet 100’s, which normally have a gazillion tomatoes on them, are growing huge, but spindly, and aren’t producing too many flowers this year. In general many of the flowers start but then die. We have some tomatoes growing on the patio tomato plants (this is the first time I bought those and think I’ll do that again- I like that they aren’t 9 feet tall already like the others) and some on the sucky cherrys, but this year the sweet 100’s, which in the past have gone gangbusters, are just growing taller and taller and are flimsy and will break at some point as the cages and bamboo sticks aren’t tall enough. I’ve fertilized the plants a few times, but fear if I keep ding that they’ll just grow taller and fall over. Ive tied the tomato cages to the deck rail. Any idea how to encourage flowering? I am pinching off the little sucker things that grow in the armpit of the branches. Not doing much to help the rest of the plant.
^^^^ Sometimes weather affects tomatoes - too much rain, or too much heat, or too cool of a spring - any weird weather this season?
Have you fed them at all? I use an organic food, PlantTone.
Sorry I just saw you fertilized - what are you feeding and how often?
Phosphorus generally encourages blooming and root growth. Look for a fertilizer with a high number in the middle. The numbers are nitrogen-phosphorus-potash.
I have a liquid one that you spray on leaves that is meant for people who grow plumeria indoors in a very non-Caribbean environment. It’s called Flower Magic and has a very high phosphorus number. You probably won’t find it easily, but there are similar things out there.
Agree re: phosphorus. My indoor plumerias like to “eat” this:
https://www.amazon.com/Grow-More-7505-Fertilizer-1-5-Pound/dp/B008JBX15I/
Thanks… Ya know, this is the first year I didn’t put matches in the soil. I did that for the little bit of phosphorus they contain. Maybe that add a difference. I used u one of my plant food containers so dont know how much phosphorus it contained. Will check the miracle gro,
Have you had a heat wave? Tomatoes won’t set fruit unless it goes below 80 degrees at night, so that could be part of it.
Yes, could be too hot. We never get above 80 degrees here at night, but we’ll be over a hundred in the day and that has an effect (maybe because the pollinators lay low?) My plants right now are fruiting on the bottom and top, but the flowers in the middle just disappeared, coinciding with our hottest weeks last month.
If your plants have topped their cages, but are growing from one leader, you could add some more support. If they are near your house, you could attach twine to the eaves, fascia board, etc. Tie the other end under a branched node. As the plant grows, wrap it around the twine.
Yes its very hot here. But it gets very hot here every year and this hasn’t happened before. They are not against the house- they are against the deck rail, in cages and with bamboo stakes too. I have one 9’ pole in one and they are taller than it. Can I cut back those tall ones and force sprouting lower down? Does that work?
You can pinch back the leader and just let some some of the lower suckers grow instead. Some varieties will keep putting on new suckers at old nodes, some not as much. Shame the house isn’t a little closer, you could attach twine on the diagonal and get a tunnel started.
Now harvesting snap peas (but it looks like the heat has done them in finally and this will be the last picking. It’s been hovering around 100 degrees in the afternoon), wax beans, carrots, onions, red cherry peppers, Big Jim chiles, zucchini–and I’ll get my first tomatoes this week. Purple Cherokees with Brandy Boys (a hybrid of Pink Brandywine) not far behind. Cukes are full of blooms and I’m hoping to have cucumbers soon. Tomatillos are also blooming like crazy.
The chard in the patio planter is big enough to pick–I had to net that planter along with the planters with my Sun Gold cherry tomato and eggplant to keep the deer from grazing it. The eggplant I transplanted into a pot has decided to grow and bloom; the 2 other eggplant plants in the raised bed are still not doing well. They’re small & yellow. I think they’re getting too much water from the drip irrigation system.
The deer grazed the tops off the potatoes! Potato foliage is supposed to be poisonous. I hope they got a stomachache from eating it. .
I’ve been dutifully pinching off the suckers when I spot them, int he crook of a leaf branch. So cutting off the really tall part of the leader (that is going to bend and break anyway) won’t facilitate more growth from the lower portion?
@jym626 i think this site has the best info about tomato pruning that I’ve seen:
thanks!
Have any of you experienced gardeners used a Hori Hori knife? A local gardening forum likes them & they look quite useful
The only new flowers I am seeing on some of the plants are on those very tall branches. So don’t want to gut those 
What’s the best way to get rid of a huge patch of poison ivy? We have it growing right next to the driveway. We’d like to get rid of it and put down grass there - but temporarily, would like to get rid of it and at least cover the area with mulch to prevent regrowth.
Hire some pros if you know you or your family members are highly allergic to the poison ivy oil.
If you attempt to do this, watch YouTube videos on how to.
I would dress up as I was going into a BSL4 lab to work with Ebola. Lol! Just kidding, but not too far off. Wear double layer clothing with long sleeves (prepare to toss the outer layer in the trash), tuck your long pants into tall socks, shoes should be washable (rubber boots would be best), wear long, sturdy rubber gloves (toss them afterwards), good face mask, hat, face shield or goggles. Just make sure no skin touches the plant and you are not breathing in any dust or oil from cut plants. Do not use weedwackers or anything that could create a cloud of poison around you. Cut the plants and dispose in sturdy trash bags (not compost!!), then either dig up the roots (tedious!) or paint the stubs with brush and weed killer. The plant easily re-grows from roots, so those need to be killed - mulch over the area will not help. Watch for any new growth and remove as soon as you see it. The soil will likely be contaminated with the oils, so I would let the area sit under mulch for a while before letting anyone play in that area. Make sure to clean your boots and all tools with rubbing alcohol and throw the cleaning rags in the trash. Operate with the presumption that anything that touched the plants is highly contaminated! Good luck!
For digging up roots, the best tool is a shovel appropriately called the Root Slayer.
How huge a patch? I think you’d need to hand pull it, if possible. You could use roundup, but you’d still need to pull the dead plants to remove the oil from the yard. I wouldn’t weed whack, or use a torch, or till under because of this. I’m so allergic, I might hire someone, but perhaps you know someone not sensitive to it? Don’t compost or burn it, toss it in the trash.
For larger plants, you could cut flush to the ground, mulch, and roundup any stragglers that emerge. But in ground cover form, I think it’s pretty pull able.
I have a Hori Hori knife and it’s very useful for some things. I’ve used to divide tubers, divide suckering or clustering plants, to dig up and cut the root on deeply rooted weeds.