I has a tomato and... an invader

So, about a week or two ago I noticed holes in some of the lower leaves. I mentioned it before, but now after inspecting the plant again this evening evidence that the little invader has gotten bigger.

Old and new damage

 So the issue with this particular critter is they are exactly the same color as the stems and leaves. Very very hard to find them unless you go over the entire plant like looking for fleas on a black cat. Never did find the little chewer but I did find this!

I has a tomato!

The  leaf on the right is blocking a much smaller baby tomato. This one is about a third of the way up from the bottom of the plant so I carefully pulled a few of the leaf branches off to make sure it gets enough sun.

 

Oddly enough when I went for my interview today at Lowes I picked up a soil test kit.

 This kind of test is the more accurate one that uses water and a powder that reacts with the soil in the tube.  Depending on whether you are testing for the three main nutrients or the pH you use just soil and water for the pH and a suspension of soil and water for the nutrients. I will be doing that tomorrow because for the nutrients it's preferred you use distilled water that is absolutely neutral. It comes with instructions and a chart/list that gives suggestions on what plants need in terms of nutrient levels and pH. 

The tomato is going gangbusters of course with growth and just enough flowers to say it's making an effort. Don't know why I thought it would have more but I've never had a tomato get this big and full so I'm still thinking it's a big high on nitrogen.

 

I need to start thinking about what to plant next when the tomato is done. Technically I should not put another tomato in there immediately, that will sometimes invite nematodes. Microscopic worms that burrow into the roots of a plant and completely drain it of life. Not good. 

 

There was a regular customer that came into the nursery who was trying her darnedest to grow tomatoes. She had only a few hours of sun (2 or less) and wanted to do them in the ground. I asked if she had an area that got more sun, yes so I told her to grow them in containers. She whined and balked and did what she wanted anyway. Nice enough lady but she was a bit too whiny and stubborn. Well lo and behold after about the third year of growing tomatoes in this plot, every year in the same place, her plant start to fail. Not growing as big, not producing as much... all the signs pointed to nematodes. Sure enough she took a soil sample to the agriculture department and bingo, she's got root knot nematodes.

'What should I do?' 

'Don't grow tomatoes in that spot ever again. Not even zucchini or peppers... you have to grow in containers'

The whining commenced, asking if there was anything to do, how did it happen, denial denial.

I gave her all the things you can do to the soil to help either chase them away or kill them outright (which isn't easy) and kept saying, you can't grow tomatoes in that spot in the ground for at least a year. She whined and pouty faced but I had been dealing with her for five or six years at that point and gave her the 'I'm the expert don't even try it' look. I don't know if she ever followed my advice or not.

But the other reason to rotate crops is tomatoes suck up all the nitrogen in the soil and if you don't fertilize and replenish the soil in between crops you start ending up with deficient soil. Another reason to get a soil test kit is end of season testing.

So anyway. It's exciting I've actually got a fruit or two and bet you bottom dollar that little invader is going to find my nice baby tomato and drill a hole in it. Some of the new damage was at the top of the plant so I'm hoping that it doesn't travel far and stays up there. If it is a Tomato Horn Worm it is actually from a moth. I'm sure you've all seen the caterpillar but how about the moth?

 

White Lined Sphinx Moth

So these are obviously a moth but actually do fly during the day, about as long as your little finger, not a small moth. They are nectar feeders and probably about ten or so years ago there was an amazing weather situation where it caused a huge hatching of these moths in San Diego. There were almost clouds of them on anything that had flowers. They were usually seen around dusk but sometimes during the day. So guess what happened after that? Yup dozens and hundreds of the caterpillars all over anything they felt like eating. They aren't restricted to tomatoes by any means and I hope I still have the picture I took of about ten caterpillars that we found in one sweep of the nursery plants. Not a one was smaller than my thumb.

They are important pollenizers so keep that lantana and chive flowers going as well as verbena and alyssum. Even some ornamental bushes like Indian Hawthorn where I saw them fluttering that year are good for not only bees but these moths as well.

Okay so I took some pictures of some interesting plants that I saw in the garden center since I got there early. One of the new varieties of dwarf lantana and one of my favorite cuphea varieties. 

The one on the left is a white and yellow variety called Luscious© Royale Piña Colada and the one on the left is Bandana© Rose. They only get about 2-3 feet tall and wide so they're great for small areas when you want to plant for butterflies, hummingbirds ::tight almost angry voice:: and other pollinators. ::smile::

I didn't get the name of the cuphea but it is a hybrid of Cuphea ignea and possibly Cuphea cyanea. Sometimes growers will put a new plant into planters and sell them the season or year before the plants are actually available by themselves. Very frustrating for when people want to buy just the one plant. There wouldn't have been a tag in the pot anyway since the grower probably brought it in that way. It is pink with a yellow tip on the face (in the same arrangement as the 'Cigar Plant') and an absolute draw for hummingbirds. You can see that it is dropping the flowers entire when they are spent so a bit of mess but not so much if it's in the ground.

It is growing very nicely with a type of cordyline in an arrangement called 'fillers, thrillers and spillers', although the thriller here is the cuphea and the filler is the cordyline. 

 

So a little insect trivia and plant information. Hoping the green monster in the tomato is almost ready to drop in the ground and pupate rather than chowing down on my plant.