Here's a photo of the first flower to open, taken 2-3 days ago. More flowers are opening today, and there are about a dozen blossoms total.



I'm really starting to have trouble with pests now. I've had to prune pretty much the lower half of the plant.

I'm fighting a losing battle with Spider Mites, these things suck !

I'm going to try rinsing the plant with a rubbing alcohol / water mixture when I water it in the mornings. So far these things have eaten the lower half of my plant though.

I bought an insecticide to protect mine. Wee beasties can undo a lot of hard work if you don't...

I imagine our brands are different than what you have in England LG, any chance you could tell me what the active ingredients in what you use are ?

3 mornings of alcohol/water spray downs don't appear to be holding them off.

I'll try to remember to have a look for you when I get home from work.

Well, I forgot when I arrived home from work, but remembered just now.

The one I have that kills all sorts of nasties (including red spider mites) contains bifenthrin.

Hope that helps.

I ended up getting a bottle of Ortho Max Flower Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer, in which the active ingredient is acetamiprid, but not before caterpillars all but destroyed my tomato plant.



It seems that I was mistaking caterpillar poop, for spider mites. I didn't realize it until the plant was pretty much infested with little green caterpillars and I had to prune the lower half of the plant again.

They aren't kidding when they say "Kills on contact". The morning after I applied this stuff to the plant I took a look and instead of a bunch of little green caterpillars, there were a few brown dead caterpillars. Destruction of the plant has stopped since I applied the stuff a week ago. The label says every 7 days so yesterday I went out with my sprayer to give the plant a good rinse down before re-applying.

I had thunder storms and rain all last week so the plant was kept in on the porch. I finally got to put it back out in the sun yesterday, and the plant's starting to bounce back with new growth.

I'm a little worried about using this stuff once the plant has bounced back completely though. This stuff kills just about anything, even bees. The site says not to apply when there is bee activity around the plant. I might have to look into getting something less likely to kill the bees and reserve this stuff I have now for when things get out of control. Or figure out how to pollinate the tomato plant without bees.

I have a hunch that spraying the plant with alcohol, may actually attract certain types of insects. I'm wondering if the evaporating alcohol vapor could somehow mimic vapors released when a plants sugars naturally break down. One thing is for sure, my little green caterpillars don't mind being sprayed with alcohol at all.

Your tomato plant sounds like it has been going through a lot lately! Sounds like you found some potent bug killer.

The plant is starting to bounce back nicely. The top part of the plant that the caterpillars hadn't gotten to yet is looking like it's old self. There is a nice little clump of leaves coming in at the base. Usually I prune the leaves that come in at the base, but considering what the plant has been through and how little sun I've been getting lately I'm letting them grow.

I'm 99% sure this insect killer I bought is affecting the bees. I found about a dozen dead bees on the concrete slab around the plant after I applied the insect killer a few days ago. I wasn't sure whether to attribute it to the killer, as I'd seen a couple of bees before I'd ever bought the killer weeks earlier. After moving the plant under the balcony about 50 feet away from the slab for a couple of days to keep it out of the rain, and finding a dead bee on the patio chair right next to the tomato plant though, I'm finding it tough to attribute the dead bees to anything other than the insect killer.

I have to find something else like I mentioned before. If I kill off all of the bees around here my mango tree is going to suffer too.

Took some new photos now that the plant has bounced back from the caterpillars a little bit. It's a little frustrating knowing I should have at least partially grown tomatoes right now. I think I have the pests under control now though. It's been a tough week, lots of rain and it's been rinsing my bug killer off. I found a little caterpillar on the bottom set of leaves this morning and gave it a good spray down.

Wow, it's been 2 and a half months already. Almost time to feed the plant again.

It kind of sucks knowing I should have tomatoes growing right now. The new growth has already got a pack of flowers getting ready to bloom though.

Well, my plant just started to wither away and I finally pulled it up about a week ago. I think those caterpillars robbed me of my window for tomatoes.

I cut some drainage holes in the bottom of another 5 gallon bucket I had sitting around and remixed the recently fertilized soil up a little better before putting it in. I've had some bell pepper seeds sitting in my utility drawer for a few years and from what I understand peppers like the fall weather here in Florida so I planted some bell pepper seeds.

I'll start a new thread with photos once those sprout. I'll have to try tomatoes again next year.

Ohhh, that's too bad!

I can't wait to see if you can get some bell peppers to grow though!

I'm not sure if tomatoes are seasonal or not. I'm guessing so, because from what I hear the other tomato plants at Target have all died off as well. I think next summer I'm going to start some tomatoes from seed at the beginning of summer.