The bad news first…I found some thrips on a Limmony plant last week. The plant was in the middle of my “rainbow bed” that was covered with the old SRM film that isn’t very shiny compared to the new and it’s in the middle of two beds so the film might not have been as effective as the ones out in the open. There were maybe a dozen of the little brown bugs on the plant and I killed them with some Pyola.
A few days later I started noticing some unusual leaf problems and did some pruning. Today I noticed more leaves with the problems and noticed some blotchy marks on the stem and more leaf damage. I did some more pruning, then remembered about Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus and made the tough call to pull the plant. I’m hoping I caught it in time to save the plants around it…fingers crossed, but I’ll pull its neighbors if they start showing signs of the virus.
It hurts to pull a plant, especially a variety that you only have one of, but that’s better than losing a whole bed of plants. If you see thrips on your plants, kill them fast, then watch the plant closely and pull it if you see signs of TSWV.
On to the good news! I’ve had a LOT of fruit set on both tomatoes and peppers the past week or two. I’ve got baby tomatoes on probably 75% of my plants now with some of the determinates and late varieties just starting to produce flower clusters. I’ve got fruit on probably 25% of my pepper plants. I’m hoping we’ll get a dry week or two with some lower humidity levels to help with more fruit set, but who knows what the weather will do.
I’m keeping up with a daconil spraying regimen and pruning all foliage that comes close to the ground. I’ve had some Septoria issues on those leaves, but pruning them stops it handily.
We’ve got close to 70 people RSVP’d for the Tomato Tasting so far. I’m still thinking we’ll end up with close to 100 people by the time August 7th rolls around!
KC Tomato Times Blog 
