Garden check in

[lolaburns]

I don't really have a garden, just a few herbs and tomatoes. It was so nice to be able to pick tomatoes and fresh basil yesterday for chicken caprese pasta!

[nannerl]

@therealmc those are definitely not pepper plants ;-)

Everything else looks fantastic though-- great job!

[nannerl]

Jul 31, 2015 19:27:37 GMT -5 @therealmc said:

Jul 31, 2015 19:07:49 GMT -5 nannerl said:

@therealmc those are definitely not pepper plants ;-)

Everything else looks fantastic though-- great job!

I'm so sad my peppers didn't grow.  Guess I'll pull those weeds this weekend.  Do I have enough time to plant anything else?

I don't think I'll be planting lettuce again next year.  Not a huge fan of the different ones growing.  Not crispy enough.  

I have a hilariously sad history with peppers, especially hot ones. From undersized pots to lack of fertilizer to not enough sun to wrong planting time to the dog uprooting and eating them, if there is a way to screw up peppers, I've done it. This is the first time EVER that I've managed to get them to a fruiting stage with more than one or two stunted little peppers. You can always try again next year!

If you want to try some cool weather veggies like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, green onions, parsnips, carrots, or beets you can take a look at some growing times on seed packets. First frost here is in October-- I've heard October 1 and October 15... What say you claralou?

Are you eating the lettuce straight out of the garden? Try picking, giving it a rinse, drying it by salad spinner so it's not soaking, and popping it in the fridge a couple of days before you plan to use it. Might help crisp it up :-)

[nannerl]

I'm having a few problems with my heirlooms. Is this normal tomato aging or a touch of blight?


Also, one of my plants has these weird brown patches on the upper leaves



And some of the fruits are infected



I cannot find anything on Google that looks like that fruit damage.

Any thoughts fusion rjamz @thefoozzler?

[rjamz]

Aug 2, 2015 9:06:33 GMT -5 nannerl said:

I'm having a few problems with my heirlooms. Is this normal tomato aging or a touch of blight?


Also, one of my plants has these weird brown patches on the upper leaves



And some of the fruits are infected



I cannot find anything on Google that looks like that fruit damage.

Any thoughts fusion rjamz @thefoozzler?

Yikes! I'm not exactly sure what it is but it doesn't look like normal aging to me

[nannerl]

Aug 2, 2015 9:09:18 GMT -5 rjamz said:

Aug 2, 2015 9:06:33 GMT -5 nannerl said:

I'm having a few problems with my heirlooms. Is this normal tomato aging or a touch of blight?


Also, one of my plants has these weird brown patches on the upper leaves



And some of the fruits are infected



I cannot find anything on Google that looks like that fruit damage.

Any thoughts fusion rjamz @thefoozzler?

Yikes! I'm not exactly sure what it is but it doesn't look like normal aging to me

I'm really thinking blight for the top set of photos. It can't be eradicated but it can be controlled. The bottom set has me flummoxed. I'm hoping it's not a virus, but since it's affecting all parts of the plant I'm afraid it might be something systemic

That's the problem with heirlooms-- a lot of them don't have resistance to diseases bred in...

[fusion]

nannerl that looks diseased to me, I'd be afraid of tomato mosaic virus with fruit like that

[nannerl]

Aug 2, 2015 13:48:20 GMT -5 fusion said:

nannerl that looks diseased to me, I'd be afraid of tomato mosaic virus with fruit like that

I took it to a local nursery today and they couldn't decide if it was late blight or a bacterial infection. I'm taking samples to the extension office tomorrow-- I've probably lost the plant, but I'm hoping I can prevent spread to the rest of the plants. The nursery was actually really unhelpful. First they thought the spots in the top photos were fungal, so she suggested treating the plants for two weeks with a systemic fungicide after removing ALL of the blossoms and fruit, but then decided it was probably just sunscald which doesn't require any treatment. So either I'm losing my entire tomato crop, or everything is fine.

[fusion]

Aug 2, 2015 14:33:15 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Aug 2, 2015 13:48:20 GMT -5 fusion said:

nannerl that looks diseased to me, I'd be afraid of tomato mosaic virus with fruit like that

I took it to a local nursery today and they couldn't decide if it was late blight or a bacterial infection. I'm taking samples to the extension office tomorrow-- I've probably lost the plant, but I'm hoping I can prevent spread to the rest of the plants. The nursery was actually really unhelpful. First they thought the spots in the top photos were fungal, so she suggested treating the plants for two weeks with a systemic fungicide after removing ALL of the blossoms and fruit, but then decided it was probably just sunscald which doesn't require any treatment. So either I'm losing my entire tomato crop, or everything is fine.

are your temperatures high enough for sunscald? We're rocking close to 110 some days and very rarely do my plants have that unless they've gotten water on them in the heat of the day. And the tomatoes just look off. 

[nannerl]

Aug 2, 2015 14:36:45 GMT -5 fusion said:

Aug 2, 2015 14:33:15 GMT -5 nannerl said:

I took it to a local nursery today and they couldn't decide if it was late blight or a bacterial infection. I'm taking samples to the extension office tomorrow-- I've probably lost the plant, but I'm hoping I can prevent spread to the rest of the plants. The nursery was actually really unhelpful. First they thought the spots in the top photos were fungal, so she suggested treating the plants for two weeks with a systemic fungicide after removing ALL of the blossoms and fruit, but then decided it was probably just sunscald which doesn't require any treatment. So either I'm losing my entire tomato crop, or everything is fine.

are your temperatures high enough for sunscald? We're rocking close to 110 some days and very rarely do my plants have that unless they've gotten water on them in the heat of the day. And the tomatoes just look off. 

Low to mid 90's most of last week. No overhead water at all. I'm stumped. I hope the extension office can help. The tomatoes all look perfect (except for that one plant)-- it's just stuff on the leaves.

[fusion]

Aug 2, 2015 14:40:51 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Aug 2, 2015 14:36:45 GMT -5 fusion said:

are your temperatures high enough for sunscald? We're rocking close to 110 some days and very rarely do my plants have that unless they've gotten water on them in the heat of the day. And the tomatoes just look off. 

Low to mid 90's most of last week. No overhead water at all. I'm stumped. I hope the extension office can help. The tomatoes all look perfect (except for that one plant)-- it's just stuff on the leaves.

good idea to go there, hope you get answers! 

[nannerl]

Aug 2, 2015 14:41:46 GMT -5 fusion said:

Aug 2, 2015 14:40:51 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Low to mid 90's most of last week. No overhead water at all. I'm stumped. I hope the extension office can help. The tomatoes all look perfect (except for that one plant)-- it's just stuff on the leaves.

good idea to go there, hope you get answers! 

Just got back from the extension office. We weren't far off-- it's tomato spotted wilt virus. It will eventually kill the plant and make the fruit look funky, but the doc (I had the resident phd take a look at the samples) said they will still be edible. Since I'm planning on saucing all the tomatoes anyway, it won't be a total loss. I'm pulling the one that is clearly sick and I'll keep an eye on the others. The virus might have come in on the seed or in the dirt or with insects, we aren't sure. Since none of the other plants are showing symptoms, it might have been insects. The virus is spread through aphids and thripes, and since there is some thripe damage on the other plants they could be infected too, or they might be fine. The other damage was a combination of thripe, sun scald, and hail, but no early or late blight-- hooray! Dude said he finally stopped growing paste tomatoes... He told me he had some crazy tomato crisis every year and that he was just done.

[fusion]

Aug 3, 2015 15:36:26 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Aug 2, 2015 14:41:46 GMT -5 fusion said:

good idea to go there, hope you get answers! 

Just got back from the extension office. We weren't far off-- it's tomato spotted wilt virus. It will eventually kill the plant and make the fruit look funky, but the doc (I had the resident phd take a look at the samples) said they will still be edible. Since I'm planning on saucing all the tomatoes anyway, it won't be a total loss. I'm pulling the one that is clearly sick and I'll keep an eye on the others. The virus might have come in on the seed or in the dirt or with insects, we aren't sure. Since none of the other plants are showing symptoms, it might have been insects. The virus is spread through aphids and thripes, and since there is some thripe damage on the other plants they could be infected too, or they might be fine. The other damage was a combination of thripe, sun scald, and hail, but no early or late blight-- hooray! Dude said he finally stopped growing paste tomatoes... He told me he had some crazy tomato crisis every year and that he was just done.

interesting! did you have to pay to get a diagnosis? that's good info on the paste tomatoes 

[nannerl]

Aug 3, 2015 16:15:53 GMT -5 fusion said:

Aug 3, 2015 15:36:26 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Just got back from the extension office. We weren't far off-- it's tomato spotted wilt virus. It will eventually kill the plant and make the fruit look funky, but the doc (I had the resident phd take a look at the samples) said they will still be edible. Since I'm planning on saucing all the tomatoes anyway, it won't be a total loss. I'm pulling the one that is clearly sick and I'll keep an eye on the others. The virus might have come in on the seed or in the dirt or with insects, we aren't sure. Since none of the other plants are showing symptoms, it might have been insects. The virus is spread through aphids and thripes, and since there is some thripe damage on the other plants they could be infected too, or they might be fine. The other damage was a combination of thripe, sun scald, and hail, but no early or late blight-- hooray! Dude said he finally stopped growing paste tomatoes... He told me he had some crazy tomato crisis every year and that he was just done.

interesting! did you have to pay to get a diagnosis? that's good info on the paste tomatoes 

Yup. $20, but I had two separate problems and about 7 samples. Worth it for a definitive diagnosis and knowing I don't have to pull all my fruit.

[fusion]

adding this place to my short list of favorite seed companies www.superseeds.com
cheap prices and quick shipping! I ordered a TON of stuff for $50 on Sunday and got it all today.