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Joined: Mar 2006
As far as controlling fungus goes, if you can try to water only the soil, and not the plant leaves, that will help. Use either a soaker hose or else just make sure the sprayer on your hose is down under the plant leaves with a gentle spray aimed at the soil. Avoid overhead watering! Mulching and good plant spacing would also help. Package instructions often say to plant tomatoes 1-1/2 to 2 feet apart, but if you frequently experience fungal problems, then planting them a bit further apart might improve air circulation between the plants, reducing the rate of infection. Look for tomato varieties that are resistant to verticillum wilt (usually denoted with a 'V' after the cultivar name). Lastly, make sure to clean up your garden debris in the fall,and remove all infected plant material by disposing it in the trash, rather than composting it.
As far as finding a tasty tomato, well, that's going to be trial and error. I'll admit that I haven't had great luck growing the larger, beefsteak type tomatoes, and have mostly just been growing a grape-type called Juliet. Its first flush sets very large (for grapes) fruits, usually at least 1 oz. each. After that, they get a little smaller, but I can still slice one or two of them easily to put on a sandwich, or quarter them for salads. Very, very tasty to my mouth too. Good luck in your search!
The great thing about gardening is that you always get a chance to start over!
