Olericultural musings
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July 16 -- OMG! Epidemic!
People think the rain is great for plants, but really, too much of it can be worse than a dry spell. I never had mosquitoes in the garden before, and this year there are swarms. Weeds are out of control, AND, WORST OF ALL, my tomatoes have some kind of fungal disease-- either early blight or verticillium wilt.
The "Taxi" tomato was the first one to set fruit. It produced two perfect medium-size yellow tomatoes on July 8-- the earliest tomato I've ever grown. The first tomato of the year is a BIG DEAL on my calendar. It nearly turns me Catholic, this miracle. I yearn for a ritual to thank the sun and the soil and the gods, but in the end, I have nothing to do but to eat the tomato.
Little did I know that the few yellowish leaves on the plant last week were a harbinger of sudden death this week.
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The other plants look pretty healthy, especially Isis (right), who is now about 5 feet tall (to think she was 6 inches tall 6 weeks ago!!) But when you look close, all of them have a few yellow leaves. Will the wilt destroy them when they set fruit?
Here's the same plant we saw last week "Cosmonaut Volkov", looking yellowish. I hope the fruit ripens before it crashes!
Here's Dad's sunset, the plant that got eaten by hornworms. It has recovered remarkably, and has very few yellow leaves. I seem to have killed all of the hornworms (two), and suddenly those guys seem like an easy foe. You can't brain a fungus.
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Moving on. Here are my dear triplets (left) and the other winter squashes. They grow up so fast.
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Sunflowers are now about 4 feet tall, and some have little buds on them (soooo exciting!)
First lemon cucumber, but just one (!?)
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Beets and carrot. I'll plant some more of these, along with some broccoli seedlings this week for fall harvest.