The BIG TOMATO LIE: Why Tomato Plants REALLY Get Disease & Pests (And How To Stop It)

what's growing on gardeners do you grow tomato plants in your backyard but sometimes struggle with insect pests and diseases obliterating your tomato plants here on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina where we get tons of rainfall and humidity insect pests and tomato diseases are a huge problem but on today's video I'm going to share with all of you the real reason why tomato plants are so vulnerable to insect pests and disease pressure and if you follow the tips on this video you will end those problems forever what I'm about to share with you has forever changed the way that I grow tomatoes in my backyard garden and if you grow tomatoes in your backyard this could be lifechanging for you as well if you're new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the Bell to receive new video notifications and check out our Amazon store and spread shop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome Custom Design to powerl another gear your support is greatly appreciated now there will be a lot of information presented in this video but I will break it down so it makes sense for both beginner and advanced gardeners alike I will provide scientific facts where possible but some of this information I've gained from my many years of experimentation so some evidence will be anecdotal however if you stick with me until the end I think you'll have a light bulb moment where it'll hit you all at once and you'll wonder why haven't I thought of this before it all makes so much sense tomatoes are by far the most popular backyard vegetable grown in the United States and probably throughout much of the world but tomatoes have a problem they're one of the most difficult garden vegetables to grow because they are magnets for bacterial and fungal diseases as well as insect pests so vulnerable are they that entire Industries have sprung up enticing you to soak your tomato plants in all sorts of fungicides and insecticides to keep them alive but I'm here to tell you if you think spraying tomato plants are the way to protect them from insect pests and diseases you have already lost the war the way to keep tomato plants free from pests and diseases doesn't have anything to do with spraying them with something be the spray organic or not it seems like every gardening video or article out there tells you the secret to healthy plants is to spray them with something but that's utter nonsense that only treats the symptoms not the cause the way you keep your tomato plants free from Pest and disease is to keep them in a healthy state where they resist the pest and diseases naturally I had to learn this one the hard way because it seems like no one has figured this one out yet I chased my tail for years trying to keep my tomato plants alive here in the brutally hot humid wet Summers of Southeastern Coastal North Carolina I did everything the gardening gurus told me to do I planted the most disease resistant hybrids I started spraying them with fungicides early in the season on a 7-Day schedule both before they got the diseases as a preventative measure and after they got diseases but none of it mattered by mid June all of my plants had diseases and the pests would start picking apart the fruit and by Late July early August they were all dead since moving to North Carolina from the Northeast 7 years ago I've grown over 200 different varieties of tomatoes trying to find that magical variety that would survive my Summers and while some were clearly better than others they all met the same fate but then everything changed I had a light bulb moment I realized the real cause of all of my tomato problems I was trying to force the tomato plant to grow in my inhospitable climate but that was the logical equivalent of trying to run a marathon on a broken leg by taking painkillers to get me through the race what I did instead was change my climate to the conditions that the tomato plant wants to grow in instead let me explain modern tomato called solanum Lop persicum that right there are the result of countless generations of humans breeding wild tomatoes to what they've become today our Tomatoes ancestor called solanum pimpinella folium which I think is also a spell in Harry Potter originated from Western South America Mexico and Central America its fruit size are the size of peas and we've spent ages breeding the fruits to become the large juicy sweet orbs that they are today there are essentially two things we've done to the Tomato that has made growing them much more difficult number one tomatoes are part of the nightshade family of vegetables which are often poisonous with undesirable fruits the modern tomato is still quite toxic today the leaves and stems of the tomato plant are in fact poisonous in our quest to transform the wild tomato into something human friendly with big juicy fruits low in seeds and full of sugars we've bred out a lot of the traits that make them resistant to diseases and pests modern-day Tomatoes don't have the disease resistance of wild tomatoes and those big juicy fruits that we love so much well so does every other insect and mammal and they want to take our harvests before we get them number two tomatoes are a Vine that originated in the tropics and extreme subtropics they aren't actually annuals they are perennials The Vines will grow as long as they physically can we are forced to grow them as annuals here in the Northern subtropics and temperate zones because the vines will die from frost and freeze this is the heart of the problem we are growing the tomato plant in a different way that they evolve to grow and this is the heart of the problem we are growing genetically weaker tomato plants that are more vulnerable to pests and diseases in areas locations and situations that they did not evolve to grow in this all started making sense when I realized that tomato plants growing in Greenhouse culture don't suffer from all the problems that the same plants grown in our backyard garden suffer tomato Vines grown in Greenhouse culture can produce for an entire year or longer and that isn't because they changed the tomato plant it's because they changed the climate to something that more closely approximates the native climate of a tomato tomatoes are essentially Vines and what do we know about Vines they are not a pioneer species growing out in the open in fields in full sun they slowly crawl and they Meander throughout Forest floors rooting along the ground as they grow sometimes they will even grow up the trunks of trees this means that tomatoes do not grow in full sun in their native habitat they grow in part shade and dappled light situations they're largely a shade species you see in their native habitat where the vines will live for years tomatoes are in no rush to fruit they grow in the dappled light of the tropical sun which is enough for them to grow happily and consistently year round but here in the high latitudes we have to jam a lifetime's worth of growth into a 6month period so we plant our tomatoes out into full sun to blast them with energy and get them to grow as quickly as possible and flower as quickly as possible that works fine in spring when the UV index of the the sun is manageable and the temperatures are mild in our spring conditions Tomatoes don't seem to mind or even enjoy being grown out in full sun but then what happens summer rolls around the UV index climbs suddenly tomatoes are being blasted with sun as intense as the tropics with no protection from a forest canopy and the daytime temperatures climb without cooling off at night this begins stressing out the tomato plants beyond what they evolved to tolerate and this is the true cause of all of our problems Tomatoes can't handle full Summer Sun in most locations and the plants try to tell you this most tomato pollen sterilizes when daytime temps Eclipse 90° fit and nighttime temperatures Eclipse 70° fah these conditions are so rough it makes most tomato flowers sterile except for some cherry and Plum types with smaller flowers that can still partially pollinate in order to understand what's happening consider the human body why do we get sick in Winter much more often than in summer well there are two reasons number one we spend less time outside due to cold temperatures the day length is shorter and most locations become cloudier and more overcast so we are exposed to dramatically less sunshine this depletes our vitamin D levels weakening our immune system number two we close our windows indoors and breathe almost exclusively recirculated air because we're letting less fresh air into our homes and the weak Sun fails to sterilize the air and surfaces like it does in the summer when UV index is high germ concentrations increase in doors so our immune systems are weaker and we're exposed to higher concentrations of germs that's all it is it's simple math folks more germs weaker bodies we get sick more often in Winter as a result well the same thing is happening to our tomato plants fungal diseases rise with the increased humidity of summer so our plants are exposed to higher loads of pathogens there's nothing we can do about that when growing Outdoors we can't control the weather and the humidity however the second part of the equation is the intense Summer Sun beating down on our tomato plants stressing them out weakening their immune system just like what happens to our bodies in the winter Our tomato plants suffer the same Fate In Summer weaker immune system higher exposure and concentration of pathogens so they get sick so what's the way around all of this keep our Tomatoes immune system Strong by getting them out of full sun and mimic the climate where they came from in the intense Summer Sunshine this is what I did last year once the heat and humidity rolled in I immediately erected 40% shade cloth above all my tomatoes what happened next was m magical they didn't get sick walking underneath the shade cloth was like walking inside a forest canopy it felt 15 to 20° cooler and where the sun outside was clearly burning your skin as it beat on you causing harm I could set up a lounge chair underneath my shade tunnel and relax and kick back with a cool drink in my hand for the first time ever my tomato plant stayed healthy throughout June and into July in fact I sprayed my tomato plants less than I ever have before my tomatoes in July looked like my tomatoes I usually grow here in May I just couldn't believe it I did it I cracked the code instead of chasing my tail trying to treat the symptoms by spraying my plants I made it so my plants never got sick in the first place by minimizing their stress levels their immune systems didn't break down and collapse so they were able to naturally fight off the diseases and since the tomatoes didn't weaken from the stress they didn't give off the chemical and hormonal markers that draw in the insect pests insects can detect when plants are weak and suffering and that's when they attack if your plants don't become weak they stay naturally pest resistant so here are my three secrets to healthy tomato plants one keep them cool and under shade during summer two keep them very well fertilized so they have thick stems and dark green leaves and three keep them well mulched and well irrigated ated if you do these three things your tomato plants will be under minimal stress and keep their natural defenses high so they can fight off pests and diseases without a bunch of sprays now when you erect the shade cloth will depend on where you live here in Wilmington North Carolina my target date is around late May around Memorial Day where I used to live in New Jersey it would be roughly around 4th of July ultimately you will need to figure this one out through trial and error but this is a pretty good starting point for you and of course if you're in the southern hemisphere you will need to adjust all of those dates by 6 months and please this method will work anywhere you grow tomatoes where diseases and heat stress are an issue I don't care if you live in Las Vegas Phoenix Miami Houston the effect of shade cloth is absolutely astounding please I beg you try this method if you think your summers are too hot to grow tomatoes this may change your life I will place a link down in the video description for the exact shade cloth I use I'm telling you it is worth its weight in gold but please don't fall for the Trap of planting your tomato plants in shade the problem with that is your Tomatoes will struggle to grow in the spring because they won't get enough light the end result will be tomato plants that are way late and perform very poorly remember we are growing tomatoes in a truncated season what you need to do in most climates is plant your tomatoes out in the spring in full sun so they can grow in flower when the sun is reasonable and temperatures are Pleasant then install the shade cloth overhead when the sun becomes oppressive and temperatures are high I will drop a link down in the video description with playlists of all my favorite DIY builds it will show you how to build my shade tunnel hoop structure how to put Hoops over raised garden beds and throw shade cloth over them basically all kinds of ideas where you can make this work for minimal effort and minimal cost and this doesn't just work for tomatoes it works to extend the life of all your cool season crops and prevent bolting it's great for growing peppers cucumbers zucchini eggplant and other crops because of the reduced stress here in my North Carolina summer everything seems to love being grown underneath the shade cloth even my fig trees which you think bathe in warm Mediterranean Sun Well I grew all of my potted figs last year under the shade cloth and something insane happened they didn't get fig rust my fig trees are always covered in Rust which is a fungal disease in late August early September this did not happen last year because they didn't get stressed out by the intense Sun it was like magic so how long did my tomatoes last last year Well funny story last year I grew my indeterminate tomatoes in straw bals this was a great idea in theory but I learned something my climate is so hot humid and wet that by August the straw bales all decomposed so the tomato plants wound up dying in August because my straw bales just shrunk and they withered away to nothing had I grew them in large pots that never would have happened well it turns out that where I live the straw bales are awesome for growing determinate tomatoes because the Bales Outlast the lifespan of a determinant tomato and they're awesome in shorter season climates where the decomposition rate isn't as bad but here with my long hot humid growing season they just won't last long enough for an indeterminate tomato so this year I will be growing my indeterminate tomatoes in the same shade tunnel but in large 20 gallon fabric grow bags that are well mulched and I will grow my fall tomatoes in the straw Bell so live and learn but honestly had I not made that mistake in my growing medium last all season long I honestly think those indeterminate tomatoes would have grown and lasted and produced all the way until Frost which is absolutely unheard of in my climate and finally I'm not saying you will never need to spray your tomatoes with fungicides or insecticides if you follow the techniques outlined in this video eventually your Tomatoes will probably suffer some level of disease and insect pressure mine did as well it's inevitable in most climates however the goal here is not to keep your tomato plants 100% free of pests and disease and perfectly pristine but rather to drag out the problem free period as long as possible spray them with as little stuff as possible possible and minimize the impact of pests and diseases so your plants survive all season long and maintain maximum capable productivity nothing Sands growing tomatoes in an air conditioned climate controlled Greenhouse will keep them perfect when growing tomato plants Outdoors but this will be the next best thing and revolutionize how you grow tomatoes forever it certainly did for me and I will never do it any other way as long as I am gardening outdoors and that right there is the real reason why tomato plants suffer from insect Pest and disease problems and what you can do about it to make those problems a thing of the past or at least drag out the problem free period for as long as possible to maximize your growing season and have a dramatically better Harvest now like I said when it comes to the things that I use to grow tomatoes I will make sure that I provide direct links to all of them down in the video description those will be the shade cloth the fertilizers and I will put links to the various structures that I build like my hoop houses and my shade tunnels to make everything easy for you as well as last year's gardening video that shows the incredible results underneath my shade tunnel it has forever changed the way I will grow tomatoes and if you employ these techniques I think it can change your life as well so everybody thank you so much for watching this video if you have any questions please ask them down in the comments and I will do my best to answer them if you're curious about any of the other products I use in my garden they're all linked Down Below in my Amazon storefront in the video description so click on the Amazon link to see everything I use in real life and while you're there check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video oh boy something's going on what do we have over here who is that for Dale's homemade ice cream and our ninja creamy and what's in it it is with applesauce and here a little bit of milk and some peanut butter it's a little icy oo I know a certain somebody that is going to love that oh boy here it comes oo put a little treat on top oo a treat on top too is that a Dale biscuit or not the kind that you find in the yard one of the better Dale biscuits what do you think buddy do you like it you certainly look pretty happy it's pretty good I wonder if I can get my finger in there and try some I'm just kidding I would never do that I like having 10 fingers is that good daddy he's got icy cream on his nose

Channel: The Millennial Gardener

Views: 98,601

Keywords: tomato plants, tomato plant, prevent tomato diseases, stop tomato diseases, prevent insects, spraying tomato plants, planting tomatoes, how to grow tomatoes, growing tomatoes, growing tomato plants, tomato, tomatoes, garden, gardening, raised bed, vegetable garden, fruit trees, fruit tree, organic gardening, gardening tips, garden tips, gardening tips and tricks, gardening hacks, garden hacks, edible landscaping, growing, plants, vegetables, how to, diy, millennial gardener

Id: rtt9MiSqbPY

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024