Tomatoes are a challenge but just keep coming

the weather this year has not been a good friend to the tomatoes but they just keep coming. The challenge are that the Early Girls, Brandywines, Jaunne Faumes, and Super sweet 100 are suffering from early blight. In researching this, I should have been giving them preventative treatment to counteract the really wet spring we have had. I have trimmed off the diseased leaves each week and thrown them in the trash. Good news is they are putting on new growth and still producing and I have a round dozen of them. We are eating fresh tomatoes every day--someday I will put some by.

The San Marzanos in the front are having intermittant blossom end rot issues. Have found that if I pick them a little green and use them with the rot cut off they are just fine. We like green tomatoes too. The extra dose of tomato fertilizer was not much help--heavy rains a few days later. On the advise of a friend I have given them a good dose of calcium carbonate--she said smash rocks but I figure it comes in pills so dissolve a handful and use that. There are only 5 plants. They are full of tomatoes both with and without the BER. The black cherries looked bad but are coming back--every day 2-5 of these beauties and the Thai pink egg is a stunner. we just pick and pick on this one. As it is in a container I have rigged a watering bottle to help through the high 90s days we are now having.

June Garden Guild meeting

Judy Barrett, author of: What Can I Do With My Herbs?  What Makes Heirloom Plants So Great? Recipes From And For The Garden, Tomatillos: A Gardener's Dream A Cook's Delight,

will be the presenter on Herbs.  Judy makes frequent appearances on Central Texas Gardener and is a recognized expert in her field.  You can check her out on the sites listed:
    www.HomegrownTexas.com
    HomegrownTexas@yahoo.com

We'll meet as usual at 10:30 AM at the Rec. Center to share plants, seeds and conversation and the meeting will start at 11:00.  Come join us for a delightful time of sharing and learning.

Garden thriving on cooler weather but humidity is bringing problems

Boy oh boy is stuff growing well! Instead of being blistering hot at this point, the weather has continued to be a bit cooler and a lot wetter. We have had RAIN weekly and kept the rain barrels full in addition to watering the garden. I have pulled the last of the winter beets and am harvesting the onions and hanging them to cure. 

Tomatoes are going crazy. I do have some blossom end rot on the San Marzanos but they are producing well and we are eating those green or half ripe and they are good. the Thai pink egg and early girl are really coming in--we are eating as many fresh as we can right now.

Green beans are doing well and giving us a dinner every few days. Eggplants are just starting to produce and the okra is growing so we'll have plenty later. I did a photo tour  of the garden to share. 

Tomato experiment this year

I am working on a new watering scheme for the tomatoes this year. First I got seeds from the Sustainable food center that are recommended for our area (I did check the A&M list too) and started Early Girl, Brandywine, San Marzano, and Supersweet 100s for this year. I also started a Thai pink egg that did well last year and a black cherry that did well for others. I also got 2 Jaune Flammee from the SJC.

Transplanting was tricky with the weather but they got up potted several times and went into the ground in mid-March. I set gallon milk jugs near each one inverted so I can give them a gallon of water without directing it to the surrounding soil. Calculations are that the plants need 2-4 gallons/week depending on the heat. This also is allowing for direct application of fertilizer without hitting the leaves.

On the advise of many tomato growers, I am nipping all the suckers this year. God they sprout fast and often. I have rooted several and thrown a lot of them away. Pinching them off below bloom level sounds like a great idea in theory--in practice it takes a lot of vigilance but the plants are full of blooms and fruit at this point about 7 weeks after transplant. I did cage all of them so they may not get as much air as they might if I only staked them. We will see. Although we have had a very cool spring it looks like things will heat up soon so now every plant will need some mulch around the jugs.