I have conceded tomato defeat for the year. I probably would have struggled on a bit longer but since I was going out of town I took all the tomato plants out. Even though there were tons of green tomatoes coming along. Boo hoo hoo...Between the rain causing disease to spread faster than a sneeze, leaf footed bugs and brown marmorated stink bugs piercing and sucking the fruits AND those cute but dreadful 4 legged bushy tailed rats aka squirrels stealing my tomatoes, it has been a battle this year. Last year it was just the birds pecking the fruit. True I lost a few to the birds this year as well but the squirrels got lots more than the birds. I'd already started picking my fruit when it was half ripe to keep the squirrels from getting them! No completely sun riped tomatoes for me dang it.
After I stripped my plants of tomatoes, I had 3 huge cookie sheets of tomatoes ripening. I think cherry tomatoes tend to ripen faster than grape and Roma tomatoes. As you can see I have quite a few Sun Gold and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. And yes...I do sort my tomatoes into categories. Grin. It is easier to monitor when they are ready to eaten.
Because I was growing cherry tomatoes my vines were huge. To make it easier to remove I took my loppers up to the garden to cut the vines into manageable sections. I started on the outside and just pruned, pruned and pruned. Then I stuffed every piece into bags to haul home. I save the bags that my sunflower seed comes in because they make great bags to haul home diseased garden debris.
Why do I want to take home all my tomato parts? Because they are full of disease spoors. If I put them in the compost bin I would just be spreading more disease to everyone else. I cut and took the tomato parts home the night before the trash went out so they wouldn't be sitting around long in my trashcan at home.The other thing I did was try to pick up every single piece of leaf, tomato stem, etc. that fell to the ground. I even combed through my rosemary looking for diseased bits that had fallen off that I hadn't seen before. At least the air smelled good while I was moving the rosemary around.
The new green stems and tomatoes were easy to find. It was harder looking for old, dried up tomato leaves in my leaf mulch. But I did take my time doing that because I want to remove as much contamination as possible. The next step is cleaning up my equipment and cages.
Every time you cut into diseased plant material, you put bacteria on your clippers. Technically you should wipe your pruners after every cut. In practice, I tend to wipe my clippers every 10 cuts or so. But I DO try to make sure that I really wipe them clean before I move to the next plant. Once I get my clippers home I get a new clean wipe and really go over the clippers well.
It is easy to clean my hand pruners and loppers with disinfecting wipes. It will be harder to clean the cages. You can use disinfecting wipes or mix a solution of bleach with water (1 part bleach, 10 parts water) and wipe it all over your trellis, cage, stakes, etc. You can use a rag, paper towel, sponge brush, whatever works for you. Just do make a point of thoroughly cleaning everything before you put it up for the year.
If you do this on your grass, be sure and flood the area with water to dilute the damage the bleach could cause. Bleach kills plants, beneficial microbes and worms in the soil.
