What can you do about the tomato hornworm caterpillar?

Well, after staring at the tomato plant for minutes, trying to spot them (They are not easy to see and camoflauge themselves quite well as you can tell from this picture), I pry or pull them off with whatever garden tool is handy and bash their fat, green slime filled guts out. Not pretty, I know, but wait until it happens.

If I had not bashed his green guts out, this disgusting thing would have grown into a large moth. A sphinx or hawkmouth type. Not sure which and I don't care.

There are a number of pesticide type products to deal with this creature, but once I hunted down and destroyed them all like the big game hunter I am, I didn't have anymore problems. One important note to add about this experience is that the only tomato plants that were affected were those closest to the tree, and to my porch -

End of Season Summary: Aug. 15 - Oct. 01.

Our tomato season ended rather abruptly after the last post as my wife and I found our dream home, the one we have been saving up our money for 6 long years. It's exactly what we want too and for gardening, it's perfect. Without going into a lot of extraneous detail, it comes with 2.5 acres and it's own well. A lot of work needs to be done on the property as it was neglected for the last 10 years. The previous owner was just unable to keep up with the demands of a property of that size and features. I am not sure I will be able to get the greenhouse, and raised bed garden features in place by 2010 Spring/Summer, but I will definetely be gardening from containers. Some of them will be 10 gallon containers in 2010.

All in all, the roma tomatoes went will this year. The roma fruit production was about as good as can be expected, but smaller in size than I would have liked. The Spitze Romanian "roma" tomato was a disappointment. The size of each fruit was large, but there just wasn't enough of them to do much with. With rugose, corkscrewed leaves, and it's extra demand for water, I don't think the Spitze is well suited for the hot, more Southern Climate of Northeastern Oklahoma (Tulsa area). I think if someone in the North tried it, they might get better results.

I will say one thing: When we combined the Spitze and Roma OG tomatoes together to make tomato sauce, it was - OUTSTANDING. It makes most store brand tomato sauces taste like garbage. We produced our own video and added several more that you can view you are interested in making your own tomato sauce.

2010 Growing Journal.

It's just after Christmas, 2009, and the roads are full of ice and snow. Most people are content to hunker down, eat holiday food and watch movies. Me, I'm pouring over garden catalogs, online and offline, trying to determine what Roma Tomatoes & paste tomatoes would be the most entertaining and informative to grow in 2010 for my Growing Journals. I've settled on two major paste tomato varities for 2010.

The first is the Rio Grande Roma Tomato, which is suppose to larger, heartier and better tasting than regular Romas and it reportedly does well in hotter climates.