I think it was more than one thing. Someone on tomatoville suggested spiraling whitefly. I read some where that lacewings lay eggs near a food source for the larvae.
Well could be, but I just can’t forgive myself waaah! 
Hopefully you didn’t kill the good guys, but even @bogman, wasn’t completely sure…
1 Like
It’s been a wild 24 hours. In addition to my leaf loss, I lost at least one of my melons in some crazy hot wind last night. All insignificant compared to fires not far enough away.
I’ve been listening to the news regarding the fires - there’s also a bad one north of Reno too! Keeping fingers crossed for no more infernos, and getting the others under control.
Sorry about your cute little melon too.
Bracing for our “heat wave” today. It could get all the way up to 93-96!
How does it taste @shrinkrap?
Not VERY sweet, but sweet enough, and quite refreshing. Can’t imagine it would be that different in a week or so,
Oh good, at least it wasn’t a total loss. BTW, are you having rolling blackouts where you are?
We had blackouts, but not rolling. We had rolling thunder! The hubs got to roll out the full armentarium of generators. There are even solar batteries, and wouldn’t you know it? The first clouds in about three months.
1 Like
Helpful guide, but essentially mineral deficiencies will look like yellow leaves, with some green veins and/or green splotches. 
Don’t know if I’ll really be able to tease those apart.
Is it just me or are the spiders going crazy this summer? I have a number of harmless spiders who live in and around my yard, but this summer they’ve been building webs everywhere! And they keep building these webs that span a few of my plants. I can’t tell if it’s a particularly determined little spider (I never see him/her), or it’s just a few of them who all have a brilliant idea to catch the flies and other bugs that fly near. It’s been very annoying.
1 Like
Thought I should take a pic of what’s growing in my pandemic tomato farm.
Everything but the one heirloom and the cherries down right are from the seeds of something we ate from the store early on.
3 Likes
Very nice @Saregama! Wish we had some ripe ones…had no idea SD was experiencing a cold summer, but I know it can happen on the coast. We are having non summer here, and I’ve felt colder than in the depths of winter. Except for yesterday when it made it to 96, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Hope the tomatoes benefit from our short little heat wave.
1 Like
I am more concerned about the spider mites than spiders, crazy or other wise. I don’t the spider mites web between plants, but otherwise, can you tell the difference? The spider mites have really ravaged some of my tomatoes plants since it got so hot in the last week or so.
I don’t know that I’ve seen this before, but some of these tomatoes might be going from underripe to overripe in one or two days because of the heat. Could that be true?
Anyway, I picked some of these Sweet Sue and Perfect Harmony a bit early. There are some reds in the second picture for contrast, and maybe a Dwarf Mr. Snow in there, but he has been very difficult.
2 Likes
Shrinkrap, how hot is it where the tomatoes are sitting after harvest? They can ripen very quickly if damaged from heat, fungi or insects, mites.
Mites…shudder! Here, the worst ones are Two-Spotted mites; they don’t make webs. They’re mostly an issue indoors, as we have a lot of predatory mites outside. I fight the Two Spots on the Thai Lime until it goes outside. Then, they disappear.
Mites don’t like humidity and wet leaves, but neither do tomatoes! I’ve used a misting nozzle outdoors to lower the Two-Spotted mite populations on plants which tolerate the moisture. Not only does the water encourage disease and death in the mite population, it helps the predatory mites, which need more moisture to be happy. An inexpensive pocket microscope comes in very handy to see what’s going on, friend and foe.
With all the rain, I went out looking for mushrooms, specifically Black Trumpets. And…
They are the secret to the best mushroom soups.
Butterbean limas are coming in from a 30foot long x 7 foot tall trellis. Glad I planted an heirloom, Bandy, a black-seeded variety. Despite two months in the 90s, it’s producing. Limas tend to go sterile from heat. It’s cooling off now, so production should go up.
The greener ones are younger. I got stock from the Seed Savers Exchange and hope to harvest enough seed to list it in the exchange next year.
2 Likes
Good information and a beautiful harvest; thank you! Within 5 minutes of picking the tomatoes are inside my house, which is about 78 degrees most of the midday, and cooler otherwise. BTW I mean overripe on the vine. They feel like very hot bags of liquid. That’s one reason I’m trying to pick some early.
I wonder if I have two spotted mites as well, because I see what I think is mite damage, but no webs. I’m tempted to spray the bottoms of the plants in spite of the risk of disease, as some are so far gone, I`m probably gone to yank them soon. I assume they won’t be wet for long since it has been so hot, and usually dry.
I wanted to spray neem oil, but its been so hot (106) , so i used Spinosad about ten days ago, and may have thrown off some good guys. Yesterday I noticed a stink bug and damage for the first time this season.
Harvest so far. The blacks ones are blue tomatoes. Green one is Green zebra. Pink one is Berner rose.
2 Likes
Gorgeous!
I’d love help identifying mine…
2 Likes
How do you all save seeds?
I’ve did it a year. Don’t know why, the plants became dwarfs plants, they were small and had very little fruits.
1 Like
