Topic: Update on my experiment: covered vrs uncovered tomatoes

[GrannieAnnie]

FIRST TWO ARE OF BETTER BOY TOMS. The one with very few leaves was not covered. The very bushy one was covered with plastic. The BetterBoy production under plastic has been amazing, free of cracks. Only now are some of the leaves turning brown.
Not easily seen in the pictures are the flowers under plastic so these should go on producing. Unfortunately I picked most of the toms prior to shooting. One set back under covered was an attack by tomato horn worms which you in the UK fortunately aren't blessed with.
THIRD AND 4TH ARE OF STUPICE.  SAME RESULTS



Stupice uncovered and covered by plastic. The bright green leaves are bean plants in the third photo, NOT stupice leaves.

[Digeroo]

Why have they lost their leaves?  Are you suffering from blight at the moment?

Please keep your tomato horn worms at home we don't want them!!! ;D

[GrannieAnnie]

Why have they lost their leaves?  Are you suffering from blight at the moment?

Please keep your tomato horn worms at home we don't want them!!! ;D

I assume it is early blight though it began last month. Those under plastic are doing much better as you can see despite my rickety covering which only covers 3 plants and is open at both ends. The leaves totally covered by plastic in the center show no browning whereas those on the exposed ends have some now.  I was afraid the heat build-up under the "roof" would be too great especially since it reached over 100 F. here- we're having one of the hottest summers recorded for our area I heard- but that has turned out to be a non-issue. I was also afraid the fruits would be too shaded for proper development, however that also was a non-issue: The open end faces south and the "tunnel" isn't deep. The plastic was left by a builder and is the type they put on a house before adding the exterior siding as a vapor barrier. I arched it over some old supports for a zippered greenhouse to which I added some other supports to keep the structure from blowing away. Then I just tied some string around the sides to keep the side flaps down. So far so good though if we had hurricane force winds it will end up in Canada!