Tortured tomatoes, perturbed peppers

Life happened this past year. In January, in order to keep my sanity, I planted 36 tomato seeds and 12 pepper seeds on a sunny windowsill in a house kept at 60 degrees F. No bottom heat, sandy garden soil. 27 tomatoes came up. I don't remember the germination rate on the peppers, but after a month in a dark box, sporadic water, heat, cold, and me forgetting about them for lengths of time, I ended up with 2 peppers and 6 tomatoes when I got here. All of them recovered relatively quickly once they started getting actual sun and water.

The tomatoes appear to be a pillbug magnet. Literally, the pillbugs will pile up around them in a mound until there's nothing left, completely ignoring everything else they could eat. So I now have 3 tomatoes left, one in the hydroponics and two that I haven't planted yet because I know the pillbugs will get them.

On the other hand, I have one pepper in the hydroponics (one of the 2 that survived, the other is thriving in acidic clay soil) that really doesn't want to put roots down in the water. It has plenty of roots in the sphegnum moss I use as a base, but only one stringy root in the water. I suspect it's drought tolerant enough that it's resisting the transition.

My brain says, Hm. Possibly drought tolerant pepper that doesn't like the hydroponics, and tomatoes that the pillbugs will feast on if I set them out...

I'm thinking I'll take the pepper and put it in the ground, then put one of the tomatoes in the hydroponics in its place. Not sure, though. The pillbugs really like these tomatoes, and I'm not sure if that's something I want to encourage. I could get seeds off these tomatoes, then lose them all next spring because the pillbugs still like them. A lot.

I guess I'll find out.

Looks like your plants have been through a lot and still survived. Is it possible to plant them in big containers and so you can baby them to get some harvest?

I've thought about it. I think I'll put one of the tomatoes in the hydroponics in place of the pepper. The others, I'm not sure. The other stuff I've put in pots with the native soil has turned out to have pillbugs in it. I'm out of the smaller pots, I think the smallest I have left is 20 gallons or so. If I had a couple months I could make sure the soil was clean of insects, but I'm not sure how do to that short term. These plants really need to go in within the next few days. Maybe DE, although that means a trip to the store.

I really, really want to save the strong genetics of these plants if I can.

Wow. The only plant I have that the pill bugs has never touched are my tomatoes. Just posted this. Hope it helps you too. https://permies.com/t/181618/JOHN-DALEY-HERO

Debbie Ann wrote:Wow. The only plant I have that the pill bugs has never touched are my tomatoes. Just posted this. Hope it helps you too. https://permies.com/t/181618/JOHN-DALEY-HERO

I'll try it. I've never had them touch tomatoes either, but I wasn't working in a moist area before so there weren't a lot of them. They got one of the small purchased tomatoes, but just cut through the stem and it came back from underneath. For some reason these drought tolerant tomatoes are acting like a trap-crop. They seem to like the sage and basil as well, but they don't eat it. Just hide under it during the day.

The other day I scooped out several hundred from under the sage plant, into a bucket of water, and there don't seem to be as many now.

Lauren Ritz wrote:Life happened this past year. In January, in order to keep my sanity, I planted 36 tomato seeds and 12 pepper seeds on a sunny windowsill in a house kept at 60 degrees F. No bottom heat, sandy garden soil. 27 tomatoes came up. I don't remember the germination rate on the peppers, but after a month in a dark box, sporadic water, heat, cold, and me forgetting about them for lengths of time, I ended up with 2 peppers and 6 tomatoes when I got here. All of them recovered relatively quickly once they started getting actual sun and water.

The tomatoes appear to be a pillbug magnet. Literally, the pillbugs will pile up around them in a mound until there's nothing left, completely ignoring everything else they could eat. So I now have 3 tomatoes left, one in the hydroponics and two that I haven't planted yet because I know the pillbugs will get them.

On the other hand, I have one pepper in the hydroponics (one of the 2 that survived, the other is thriving in acidic clay soil) that really doesn't want to put roots down in the water. It has plenty of roots in the sphegnum moss I use as a base, but only one stringy root in the water. I suspect it's drought tolerant enough that it's resisting the transition.

My brain says, Hm. Possibly drought tolerant pepper that doesn't like the hydroponics, and tomatoes that the pillbugs will feast on if I set them out...

I'm thinking I'll take the pepper and put it in the ground, then put one of the tomatoes in the hydroponics in its place. Not sure, though. The pillbugs really like these tomatoes, and I'm not sure if that's something I want to encourage. I could get seeds off these tomatoes, then lose them all next spring because the pillbugs still like them. A lot.

I guess I'll find out.

I am PLAGUED with pillbugs. At night they look like a moving carpet on the ground, literally.
Soap water kills on contact pretty quickly. But doesn't touch the hidden ones.
I bought some special nematodes that kill them with little to no results.

For my grow bags, I literally had to wait till cold weather, then COOK pots of the dirt to 204F to kill them, their eggs, pathogens, etc.
Takes hours to cook 80L bags of dirt.
At least I got to mix in some fall leaves for next spring, soil sulfur, Azomite, Alaska Fish fertilizer, and table sugar to get it all started.
Will use urine every couple of weeks for the nitrogen boost.

About a month before planting I will mix in some bone meal.

At least I will start out bug free anyway.
Oh and even after the 11F cold weather there were still some of them alive.

What a pain having to go through all this.

Pill bugs were so bad they were eating the flowers off the plants. They ate 5 tries at growing bush beans too.

I did read you can pour boiling water on the ground to kill them. But that kills any plants you have too.

Tomatoes:
I grow mine in laundry baskets that sit in clean oil change pans of water.
Very few bugs that way.