Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blight.


Blight. It doesn't sound like something bad, does it? The tomato plants in our bed have it. Badly. They were green and huge and crowded, and I didn't catch the tomato on the end that showed early signs (of course, until just now when I did a web search, I didn't know what early signs were). They are loaded with huge, beautiful tomatoes, and hopefully, we'll still get a decent crop from them. Our container plants don't appear to have it at the moment, but they were pretty spindly to begin with (I blame a crappy soil mix--it is the same that is in the bed, but I think with the containers, there is a need for REALLY good soil). They actually looked great just a couple days ago, but the rainy, wet weather seems to have provided the perfect environment for it to take hold.

I'm pretty sure this might be the source of the problem. I noticed the yucky tomato weeks ago, but didn't think anything of it. I didn't consider the fact that it could be a disease-carrying leper in need of quarantine.



And the others...


I am really saddened by this, though I am hopeful that we will still get plenty of tomatoes. I'm trying to focus on other things in the garden that are doing well....

Melons...

Strawberries in August! One of the other plants has been sending off tons of runners, and now we have more than double the number of strawberry plants we started with this year!

And our smiling sunflowers...I am working on a post about flowers.




3 comments:

  1. Picture perfect!! Those are either great shots or a you have a beautiful bountiful harvest in the waiting!! Wow! It all looks great! You can still use some of those wonderful tomatoes, can't you? I sure hope so! Don't beat yourself up! Isn't this only the first year?

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  2. I thought we would still do quite well with the tomatoes, but it's looking really bad--way worse than the pictures--now. Some of the tomatoes have rotty spots forming on them, and I'm afraid many will be mostly rotted by the time they are actually ripe. This is actually not the first year we have grown tomatoes, but I guess the blight is hitting pretty bad right now. I saw an article online that said that even Martha Stewart's tomatoes had been hit, LOL.

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  3. The English teacher in me wants to edit this comment, but apparently, I cannot edit it, only delete. That should be, "the blight is hitting pretty badly right now." ;)

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