Tomato Tendancies: Pruning, Spraying and Staggered Planting

So much for trying to spray early. I got some done. Gardens seem so manageable in the beginning. And then they grow. The weather hasn't really been helping with spraying. A lot of rain and rain will wash off the preventative sprays. It looks like heat and humidity this weekend. I have to get the tomatoes sprayed now.

I have another wave of tomato seedlings maturing. I am tempted to dig a 6x2 raised bed for tomatoes but don't think I can get clearance from the greater power.  This year I am attempting to plant tomatoes at different times through, lets say July. A working experiment. My hope is to extend tomatoes through September to first hard frost. Plus I think, I might be able to manage diseases with staggered plantings. I have always put them in the ground toward the end of May.

Tomato plants should be big enough to remove bottom branches. One of the keys to disease prevention is creating a gap between the soil and upper leaves. If you have been mulching with grass, it should be yellowed and dried out by Saturday. Another layer will be going in my garden. The window is closing for disease prevention.

The curled leaf problem seems to have resolved. I think it was plant stress. The plant that had some curled leaves isn't producing them any more and the earlier curled shoots, though warped a bit, are as large as the other leaves.