FOOD Tomato shortage?

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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Stock up on the basics while they out there. Enough to cover you through the winter and into warm weather.

It really has been a difficult growing season in many areas this year. Shelf stable potato products (dried, canned), canned/preserved vegetables and fruit (tomato products, peas, corn, beans, kraut, applesauce, canned/dried fruit, jam/preserves/relish/pickles). Have a store of dried onions, dried peppers and garlic. Of course, enough dried pasta and bread flour to hold you over.

You want to be able to sit back and avoid the fray (and the higher prices) when/if the scramble starts.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
I don't know about the USA but in Ireland at least, tomatoes simply failed to rip all over the place. We lost all of ours to something called "early blight" which is not the same thing as regular blight (which can affect both potatoes and tomatoes) and so did all our local neighbors.

So we bought already older plants from the organic farm we get our vegetable box from - but even though they grow in a polytunnel (plastic grow house) and we have ours in a conservatory, they are just not making fruit and starting to ripen.

I think the weird weather all over the places has caused some of this issue, I had heard that in California it was the drought (tomatoes), and here most people plant cold hardy tomatoes plants that do damp well, and we had for Ireland a long-hot Summer with not much rain.
 
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Deena in GA

Administrator
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We’ve been wanting to buy more tomato soup from Aldi, but they’ve been out of it for over a month now. :( They have no idea when they will receive more. Guess this shortage is why.

Our tomato plants did nothing. We had 19 to begin with, and have gotten two tomatoes. The deer ate one tomato and many of the plants. The hot weather did in most of the others.
 
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inskanoot

inskanoot

Veteran Member
Zone 5. Have two cherry-type tomato plants each in two self watering planters (City Pickers 20 x 24). Also added marigolds, ageratums, basil, lavender, and succulents, etc. I pour water in the plastic pipe every other day. They’re monsters. Trimmed off a bunch of dried leaves last weekend. Gave one planter to a tomato lover who lost his due to blight(?).

Also growing some squash varieties in same type of planter, and I can’t complain, but I wish that I had pulled them under the porch roof for some stormy days.

Tomatoes and squash hate getting wet.
 
lojoma

lojoma

Veteran Member
Limner said:
Ours are just now starting to ripen. We've had hot dry weather and the everything but the sweet potatoes have struggled. Indiana.
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Same in central Iowa! Last year I canned over 100 quarts. This year out of 14 plants I have exactly 5 tomatoes starting to turn. Worst garden yield I can recall in 12 years. Some new pest got all the tomatillos and 3 of 20 2nd planting potato plants have emerged.(first harvest was not too bad) I continue to thank God we have plenty of quarts and dried tomatos from the previous year. Of course we lost everything in 2020 with the Derecho that destroyed out while garden. God is good. All the time. PS sorry for thread drift but dry your elderberries or make a tincture while you may for virus fighting power through the winter.
 
Bps1691

Bps1691

Veteran Member
We had gallons upon gallons of cherry tomatoes but my main season big tomatoes are loaded with green fruit but they aren’t ripening. They are a mix of good heirlooms with a few purchased good hybrids.

I get one or two of the bigger tomatoes but by this time in august there should be dozens every day

My successions of green beans started out great but the ones that should have been producing really good beans are more green than bean. They eat well but weren’t as ‘beanie’ as earlier in the year and past years. My main patches of green beans look loaded but so were the last three weeks of beans.

My bell pepper plants are a bust. Great looking plants but they have had very few blooms and even fewer peppers.

This has been a strange season for me and I’ve gardened for over 60 years
 
nomifyle

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I was going to say we but it was DH who planted this year. We didn't get as many tomatoes as we usually do, but I put several bags in the freezer. But then again I don't think he planted as many plants as we have in the past.

We have had tomatoes up until the first frost in early November, but they were all gone by the first of August.
 
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Pinecone

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yesterday I had to harvest my entire potato crop a month early, as the voles have been feasting. No sign of damage from the surface. Fortunately, I was digging some early potatoes and found the damage. I've probably lost a quarter of the crop to them. They ate huge chunks from them, or almost the entire potato. Others have bite marks that will have to be cut off and the potatoes dehydrated this year. Not to mention the pounds of potatoes I've lost because they were pulled with small potatoes that didn't have a chance to grow. I did get some monster potatoes, but it is still disheartening. Most of the potatoes will not keep because it's too warm or there was damage from the digging fork or voles.

I know it was voles as I was digging the potatoes, I caught and stomped one of the little monsters and saw their tunnels underground.

I should harvest the beets next. They were already snacking on them. Now that the potatoes are gone, I imagine that they'll try to finish off the beets. @#&_T&+#Q@
 
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Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams

Has No Life - Lives on TB
^^^^^^^

Anyone beside me ever marvel at the lengths to which Creator availed his creation to the ongoing effort to the destruction of man, after “the fall” ?
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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Pinecone said:
Yesterday I had to harvest my entire potato crop a month early, as the voles have been feasting. No sign of damage from the surface. Fortunately, I was digging some early potatoes and found the damage. I've probably lost a quarter of the crop to them. They ate huge chunks from them, or almost the entire potato. Others have bite marks that will have to be cut off and the potatoes dehydrated this year. Not to mention the pounds of potatoes I've lost because they were pulled with small potatoes that didn't have a chance to grow. I did get some monster potatoes, but it is still disheartening. Most of the potatoes will not be keep because it's too warm or there was damage from the digging fork or voles.

I know it was voles as I was digging the potatoes, I caught and stomped one of the little monsters and saw their tunnels underground.

I should harvest the beets next. They were already snacking on them. Now that the potatoes are gone, I imagine that they'll try to finish off the beets. @#&_T&+#Q@
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If you spread your tubers out to "condition" (dry and harden the skins a bit) you will find that most of those with fairly minor "nibble" damage will store just fine. It is so frustrating to plant and water and weed only to have nasty little rodents steal it!

Summerthyme
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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We developed a process over the years that has worked very well. (We have harvested between 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of potatoes every year for 30+ years)

We dig them and if it's not bone dry, let them sit out on the ground for 2-3 hours, so we can knock some of the dirt off before moving them. We have baskets for perfect tubers, baskets for "damaged but maybe salvageable" ones, and a 5 gallon pail for rotting or blighted potatoes.

Once we get them off the field, we spread them out to dry... usually on a flatbed wagon, but the lawn or porch will work. We cover them with a tarp to keep light off. In 3-5 days, we sort them... by then, any blight or spoilage will visibly manifest, and those are burned (or fed to pigs if they are just too damaged to store). The rest are sorted into crates (perfects are separate from those with any damage) and put in the root cellar. We use up the damaged ones first.

(Of course, "too damaged to eat" is subjective! We once sent up 4 bushels of damaged tubers to our Amish neighbors for their pigs. The mother took 9ne look at them and confiscated them for the kitchen! She gave the peels and trimmings to the pigs!)

Summerthyme
 
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B

Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I hate to be the bearer of good news - good at least for me and my family - but I planted only 9 tomato plants, and I have been able to harvest more tomatoes than I need. I canned 36 pints, ate more BLTs than I should have, made many pots of homemade, tomato based vegetable soups, made lots of lettuce and tomato salads for both me and my wife, shared with my neighbors, and fed the chickens the rest (included ugly or less than perfect tomatoes).

I had Romas, Parks Whoppers, and some new, blight resistant variety that Johnny’s offered this year.

And yes, I still have some.

I will pull the plants soon, as late season tomato gets hit with late blight in these parts.
 
vessie

vessie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Melodi said:
I don't know about the USA but in Ireland at least, tomatoes simply failed to rip all over the place. We lost all of ours to something called "early blight" which is not the same thing as regular blight (which can affect both potatoes and tomatoes) and so did all our local neighbors.

So we bought already older plants from the organic farm we get our vegetable box from - but even though they grow in a polytunnel (plastic grow house) and we have ours in a conservatory, they are just not making fruit and starting to ripen.

I think the weird weather all over the places has caused some of this issue, I had heard that in California it was the drought (tomatoes), and here most people plant cold hardy tomatoes plants that do damp well, and we had for Ireland a long-hot Summer with not much rain.
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I fill a spray bottle with colloidal silver and water to help prevent blight and also to stop the blight in its tracks when I buy new plants.

It works better than copper spray.

Also I use Epsom salts on my plants.

One gallon of water to one tablespoon of Epsom salts.

I’m a Reiki Master, so I use Reiki on my plants and my tomatoes plants reach about 12 feet tall and loaded with fruit. Lol! V
 
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Pinecone

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I'm going to wander over to the Kitchen Forum to start a thread on how to dehydrate, freeze, preserve my potato crop. It's going to be too hot to keep them and we don't have a root celler. (Water table gets to the surface in winter.) I'd love any ideas, success or failure stories. Thanks!
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Down in the back corner of our backyard, our drain pipe for the washing machine and dishwater comes out to the surface. Yeah, we're rural, so....... Anyway, we had 6 tomato plants volunteer to come up there. You should see the plants and the tomatoes that are on each plant! No fertilize or watering needed. The tomato plants we had in our raised beds looked sick compared to these. Hoping for a great late crop.
 
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