We are growing 3 varieties of tomatoes. Two are doing fine. The Romas, and the small cherry type. But the traditional tomato variety is doing a funny, (but not so funny) thing. The tomatoes mature into a nice size, turn from green to white and then go bad turning into mush and never ripening to a red. A few will ripen on one side but the other side will be the white mush. Does anyone know what is wrong and what could be done to correct it? It seems the production is winding down for this year but I would like to know what's wrong for the future. This is our first real formal garden. I always did the squash between the flowers type of garden in the past. We also have a small white, flatish type pest on a lot of our veges. They seem to kill off the leaves and of course next the whole plant. Thanks for any help.

-- cindy palmer (jandcpalmer@sierratel.com), August 17, 2001

Answers

Cindy, if those tomatoes are exposed to a lot of sunlight, they are probably sunscalded and will never ripen completely. You will just see the little ripening on the side to the shade or the underside and the mush on top. This is a problem when you get overzealous in staking and pruning the leaf cover, when bugs eat the leaves or when the sprawling plants lose their leaf cover. I don't have enough information to guess about the pest you have.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 17, 2001.

Try to find some First Lady plants next year. They are very hardy in our area. Just a nice sized fruit nothing fancy but a good.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), August 19, 2001.

Here in Okc, and further south we put up sun shade tents over the tomato plants, a window screen or old sheet will do.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), August 19, 2001.

Go to www.totallytomato.com and order their catalog. You will learn a lot from it and be able to pick the variety of tomato that is best for you and the area. A very nice company. I have been ordering seeds from them for years.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), August 21, 2001.