Master Gardeners of Contra Costa Help Desk

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Note: The Contra Costa Master Gardener Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions.  Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA  94523. We can also be reached via telephone:  (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/

Saturday was Day One of the Great Tomato Plant Sale in Walnut Creek. Tomato lovers, young and not-as-young, formed a line that snaked around the corner and down the street as they waited for the sale to begin. The garden was abuzz with activity as CCMG volunteers set up the tents and tables, did plant inspections, and found their stations. The help desk tent was ready to answer questions about tomatoes, gardening, or the Master Gardeners' programs; the garden guides were ready to help with location and selection of tomatoes and other veggies; the expeditors were posted at the end of the garden to guide the customers through the checkout process; and the cashiers and CI's were at the registers to ring up the purchases.

The gates opened promptly at 10:00 am. Customers, with lists in hand, focused on finding the tomatoes they had carefully selected from the myriad of varieties offered, for their gardens this year. For the next two hours, there was a frenzy of tomato buying. There were flats, there were bags, there were bins, there were carts, and there were wagons. It was amazing. I manned one of the cash registers and by the third hour, I think I had rung up over 900 plants. The seven other cashiers were also ringing up about the same amount. The pace continued, with only a few lulls when many of the attendees stopped to listen to Our Garden's Janet Miller, give presentations on growing tomatoes and other veggies. It was a great turnout!

Even after selling so many plants, believe it or not, we still have lots of inventory at both locations and they are definitely not “left-overs.” While we sold out of a few varieties, we still have over 3,500 tomato plants at Our Garden. And, we've set aside 3,000 plants for the upcoming West County sale.

So, if you missed the first day of the GTPS, don't despair – Our Garden will have plants -- tomatoes (of course!), peppers, various other veggies and herbs, beans, and even some flowers --  available this Wednesday and upcoming Saturday, and West County will have its very own sale on Saturday as well. CCMG volunteers will be on hand to help you out.

Come check it out!

 

 

 

 

 

How Do You Decide in Only Five Minutes?

Tips from Liz Rottger 

With nearly sixty heirloom tomato varieties in this year's Contra Costa Master Gardeners Great Tomato Plant Sale, where do you start? With so many one-of-a-kind heirloom tomatoes to choose from, how do you decide which variety to buy?

First, you need to decide which variety will grow well in your location. Do you live in cooler location in West Contra Costa? Or, in hot, dry East County? Do you have limited space and want to grow tomatoes that grow well in containers? Are you intrigued by some of the new varieties we are offering this year? Or, are you a dyed in-the-wool traditionalist and just want those large, juicy beefsteaks? Or, maybe you're a pasta fan and want a freezer-full of homemade pasta sauce next winter.

For a successful tomato plant that will produce lots of wonderful fruits throughout the season you need to think first about where you are planting it. Choose a variety that fits with your micro-climate and space requirements. Here are some varieties that fit the two major climate types in Contra Costa.;

For our Cooler Climes Buyers:

• Legend—blight-resistant, well- adapted to cooler climes, it will be the earliest-maturing slicer in your garden.
• Gold Nugget—developed at OSU–where else for cooler climes?—these ¾” golden cherries will mature in only 60 days, continue from early season ‘til frost and have a rich, sweet flavor.
• Sophie's Choice—in 65 days this slicer tomato is one of the earliest bearing varieties and produces large, flavorful fruits. It actually doesn't like heat.
• Stupice—a very cold-tolerant, disease-resistant and early tomato with delicious, 3-4 oz. fruits in clusters.

For Hot, Dry Climate Buyers, here are some varieties that need lots of heat: 

• Boxcar Willie—10-to-16 oz. tomatoes with a rich, sweet flavor and just a touch of acid for tanginess.
• Hawaiian Pineapple—the name says it all, these large, yellow, 1-pound tomatoes are sweet and fruity.
• Kellogg's Breakfast—a classic, large orange beefsteak tomato weighing up to one pound.
• San Marzano Gigante—a prolific, classic pasta tomato with enormous, meaty fruits.

Now, there are other considerations when buying tomatoes. You'll want to think about what you want out of your tomato plant. Do you want a rich pasta sauce or a slicer for delicious BLTs or a ton of small cherries for the grandkids? To make your job a bit easier, we've made up a few shopping lists for different kinds of buyers: traditionalist, canning and sauce cooks, the avant-garde buyer and the gardener with little or no space. Here they are:

Traditionalist Buyers, here are some of our trusted and much-loved stand-bys:

• Bloody Butcher—with a name like that, you better be sensational and it is! High-yielding, dark red and delicious!
• Brandywine Pink—one of American Classics, some consider the best tasting tomato ever.
• Cherokee Purple—Pre-1890's heirloom with a delicious, old-timey flavor.
• Isis Candy—gorgeous bi-color cherry in heavy clusters, one of our personal favorites.
• Mortgage Lifter— the legendary large (1-2 pounds!), tasty beefsteak on very productive, disease-resistant plants.
• Sungold—positively luscious, apricot-orange cherries borne on beautiful, 15” long trusses. A visual eye-candy that you can actually eat in your garden!

For canning and sauce Aficionados, here are some very tasty plum tomatoes:

• Amish Paste—one of the largest sauce tomatoes, excellent flavor and tolerates cooler climes.
• Opalka—a single tomato can make an entire rich tomato sauce, so meaty is its flesh.
• Pompeii—very productive Italian plum tomato with rich, meaty flesh.
• San Marzano—the most famous Italian sauce tomato with a thick, dry, almost seedless flesh.

For avant-garde Buyers looking for a new variety, here are some of the “New in 2015” varieties:

• Baylor Paste—so abundant that you'll have a tough time just keeping up with picking this delicious paste tomato.
• Czech's Bush—masses of 4-8 oz. fruit clusters, coming on early and bearing long.
• Sun Sugar—fruity-tasting orange cherry tomatoes which produce in beautiful clusters on vigorous vines.
• Pomodoro Canestrino di Lucca—direct from Italy a classic pasta tomato that is also great in salads.

For our Buyers with a postage-stamp size yards, here are some varieties that you can squeeze in any sunny spot:

• Lizzano—ideal for hanging baskets and containers, a cherry with a non-stop harvest of 1” fruits, perfect for snacks and salads.
• Nebraska Wedding—the best thing to come out of Nebraska since Dick Cavett, these 3-4” slicers are juicy with a well-balanced flavor.
• Red Robin—a lovely dwarf cherry that can even be grown indoors on a sunny windowsill.
• Superbush—bred specifically for small spaces, this tomato still has a big, old-fashioned tomato flavor.

Still having a hard time deciding? So many possibilities! Well, we'll have lots of knowledgeable Master Gardeners all-day at all of our Great Tomato Plant Sales to help you with your selections. We want to make sure that you take home tomato plants that will thrive in your garden and will also meet your personal preferences. There's literally something for everyone. For your convenience, we also have online shopping lists for you to mark up and bring to the Sale.

Visit our website at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/EdibleGardening/GreatTomatoPlantSale/.

See you at the Sale!

 

Help for the Home Gardener from the Contra Costa Master Gardener Help Desk

Client's Problem and Questions:
Client called (early September) and left a phone message that the her community garden colleague's tomatoes, although now 4 feet tall, set some fruit, but that the plant had suddenly started to turn yellow and appears that the plants won't surive. CCMG Help Desk responded with both a phone call and an email.

CCMG Help Desk Response:
As I mentioned in the phone message that I left for you this morning, the information in your phone message about the tomato problem your community garden colleague has experienced wasn't sufficiently detailed to allow us to diagnose the problem. You mentioned that the tomato had grown about four feet tall and had set some fruit, but that the leaves on the plant suddenly started turning yellow and it now appears that the plant won't survive.

Yellow leaves on tomatoes is associated with many different problems, including lack of nutrients, excess salts in the soil or in irrigation water, toxicity in the soil from nearby walnut trees, and many different plant diseases. You report that the plant had been growing well and producing fruit and declined very rapidly leads me to suspect that the cause may have been a vascular wilt disease.

Two such vascular diseases are common in California gardens—Verticillium and Fusarium wilts. The initial symptoms of Verticillium and Fusarium wilts are wilting of the plant leaves during the heat of the day. Affected plants often recover in the evening or overnight. Gradually, however, the wilting becomes progressively worse and many plants eventually die. Verticillium and Fusarium wilts are caused by soil-borne fungi that invade tomato plants through injured roots. The fungi spread into the water-conducting tissue (xylem) in the stem and block the flow of water to the foliage. Foliage of affected plants turns yellow, then wilts and dies. A cut through the lower stem of a dead plant often reveals a brownish discoloration of the vascular tissue. If your colleague will allow you to investigate, you might try cutting open a lower stem to see whether the tissues inside the stem are a healthy white color or have turned brown. If they have brownish discoloration, it would be a sign that a vascular disease is present. If the vascular tissues have not discolored, there is probably a different cause for the plant's decline.

There is nothing that can be done for plants that have Verticillium or Fusarium wilts. Plants that die should be removed and destroyed. Put the diseased plant refuse in the garbage. Don't compost it since doing so could contaminate the compost with the fungal spores. Crop rotation is of limited value as the vascular wilt fungi may survive in the soil for several years.

Verticillium Wilt Infected Tomato

The use of resistant varieties is the most practical way for home gardeners to prevent losses due to wilts. Resistant varieties may become infected but many resistant plants survive and produce an acceptable crop. Resistant varieties are available in seed catalogs and at garden centers. The letters V and F following the variety name in seed catalogs or on seed packets denote varieties that are resistant to Verticillium and Fusarium wilts.

You can learn more about Verticillium and Fusarium wilts at these websites:  http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783100911.html  and http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101011.html.

One other word of caution about something you mentioned in your phone message. You indicated that you are using free wood chip mulch from a tree service company in your community garden plot. You said that your plants are growing well and look beautiful, but you didn't mention whether you are growing vegetables or ornamental plants. We don't recommend the use of wood chip mulch in vegetable gardens. Using such mulches for vegetables leads to two different problems. One is that wood chips, if dug in, and as they haven't been fully decomposed, will rob much of the nitrogen from the soils. This depletion of a critical nutrient can affect some ornamentals. It is particularly a challenge for heavy feeders such as tomatoes. If your colleague was using wood chips as compost for her tomatoes, it's possible that one of the problems for her tomatoes was a lack of nitrogen which would also lead to yellowing of the leaves.

The other problem with using wood chip mulch in vegetable gardens is that such gardens need to be replanted after each growing season. The wood chips really get in the way when you're trying to prepare the planting beds, add compost, etc. It is not a good idea to simply work them into the soil since they will continue to decompose, using up the available nitrogen in the process.

A better mulch to use for vegetable gardens would be weed free straw or dried leaves.

Hope that this information is helpful to you and your colleague.

Contra Costa Master Gardeners Help Desk 

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Editor's Note: The Contra Costa Master Gardener Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions.  Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA  94523.

We can also be reached via telephone:  (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, and we are on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/