Fusarium Wilt

You thought I forgot about my tomato problem, didn't you?!? I took closer pictures of my tomato plant, so you can see what the damage looks like.
This is on one side of the plant, right in the middle. It is western facing, and the afternoon sun was cooking the newly exposed green tomatoes, so I put up some sun cloth to protect the fruit--hopefully, I will be able to harvest good tomatoes before the plant completely dies.
After looking into this problem, I believe this is Fusarium Wilt (FW). It probably came in with the plant from the nursery, as I have never had this problem before. The best prevention of FW is to grow FW resistant varieties. Generally, commercially grown plants are free of viruses and wilts, but maybe not this time. I was really impressed with this tomato plant up until this time--it had a lot of fruit and healthy growth. Now, I need to be careful and not grow tomatoes here for 5-7 years, as the FW will live in the ground that long.

Tomato Problems . . .

My husband's tomato plant has a problem. The top and bottom of the plant looks fine, it's just the middle part that is dying out. I will have to look into the problem, and let you know what it is tomorrow. Any guesses??

Tomatoes

Here's how my tomatoes look! My husband picked out the big one--he wanted big, hamburger-sized tomatoes, and it is one big bush! The tomatoes next to it, and behind it, are Roma tomatoes. I don't recall the name of the big tomato, just that it did have the word "big" in the name--it is at 3' now; the Roma's are at 2'. I have a cherry tomato that is growing right along--I can't wait!

Enough?

I picked a nice batch of tomatoes this morning, about half are Romas and half are Juane Flamme (the golden ones). How do you know how many tomato plants you should plant in the spring? When, at the end of the season, you can say you have just enough! When you have enjoyed enough fresh tomatoes with your daily meals; and when you have enough for salsa, sauces, and stewed, as fresh, frozen and/or canned. Then the trick is to remember how many plants were just enough, the next year. I have a friend that bought a six-pack of tomato plants this spring and saw that there were several seeds that had sprouted in each cell. He separated the seedlings and they all are thriving--all 36 of them! He takes buckets of tomatoes wherever he goes and gives them away! I think he enjoys it, otherwise he would give the extra tomato plants away, instead of the extra tomatoes! His wife says he does this every year. I don't want to take the extra time to care for that many plants (I really don't have enough room for that many, either), or to pick tomatoes from that many plants. Everyone is different, and it is easy to figure out how many tomato plants are just "enough!"