I just looked back at my blog for last August - and there is an entry on the 8th that indicates my tomatoes were pretty much finished, dead due to disease. What a sad entry to read.
My day was spent in two long sessions in the driveway going through all of my plants, removing dead foliage, dead plants, and adjusting staking and tying to ensure everything is upright. It is a very different picture when compared to last year; even though we headed out on our trip on August 5th and today is the first day I've paid much attention to the garden, I was delighted with what I found. After completing this blog, I will head back out to give all the surviving plants a good dose of fertilizer. If all goes well, we will have tomatoes well into September.
Here is what I found when working with my plants this morning:
Large pot indeterminate varieties (and bale indeterminates) that are no more: Favorite, Golden Queen, Lillian's Red Heirloom, Big Boy, Polish, Don's Double Delight, Magnus, Lucky Cross, Hugh's. That makes 9 losses so far.
That leaves 24 that are still alive, ranging from nearly flawlessly healthy to just hanging on. A few are just incredible in their continued vigor and health - among them Green Giant, Cherokee Green (not - red fruit instead), Cherokee Chocolate, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, Matchless, Little Lucky, and, oddly, Giant Syrian, which has made an amazing recovery after a rough beginning. I still have nearly 75% of my indeterminate tomatoes. If I include the deck and main garden, only Lemon Drop, Abraham Lincoln and one of my 4 Sun Gold is having a tough time (though still not dead); 11 others are thriving, including all three front row Cherokee Purples, just now yielding lovely, large fruit. And so my current percent of living indeterminate varieties is a bit over 80%.
Moving on to the driveway Dwarfs, the following are finished: Tasmanian Chocolate, Sleeping Lady, Big Green Dwarf, Chocolate Champion, Boronia, Dwarf Wild Fred, Dwarf Confetti, Dwarf Peppermint Stripes, Uluru Ochre, Fred's Tie Dye, Adelaide Festival, and Tennessee Suited - 12 of the dwarfs are dead.
But....another 24 are doing really well - 67% remain. I've not assessed the dwarfs in the big garden, but suspect only a few are done for, most are alive. I am quite surprised, again, and the health of many of the Dwarfs - Beryl Beauty, Kelly Green, Jade Beauty, Mr. Snow, in particular, are perfectly healthy and still loaded with fruit soon to ripen. (all are from the Sneezy line).
Yesterday I fed all of the peppers and eggplant - once I get the tomatoes fed later today, the garden will be ready for the home stretch. We are really enjoying making all of our favorite summer veggie recipes. Here's hoping all of you are enjoying a similarly successful 2014 garden.
My day was spent in two long sessions in the driveway going through all of my plants, removing dead foliage, dead plants, and adjusting staking and tying to ensure everything is upright. It is a very different picture when compared to last year; even though we headed out on our trip on August 5th and today is the first day I've paid much attention to the garden, I was delighted with what I found. After completing this blog, I will head back out to give all the surviving plants a good dose of fertilizer. If all goes well, we will have tomatoes well into September.
Here is what I found when working with my plants this morning:
Large pot indeterminate varieties (and bale indeterminates) that are no more: Favorite, Golden Queen, Lillian's Red Heirloom, Big Boy, Polish, Don's Double Delight, Magnus, Lucky Cross, Hugh's. That makes 9 losses so far.
That leaves 24 that are still alive, ranging from nearly flawlessly healthy to just hanging on. A few are just incredible in their continued vigor and health - among them Green Giant, Cherokee Green (not - red fruit instead), Cherokee Chocolate, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, Matchless, Little Lucky, and, oddly, Giant Syrian, which has made an amazing recovery after a rough beginning. I still have nearly 75% of my indeterminate tomatoes. If I include the deck and main garden, only Lemon Drop, Abraham Lincoln and one of my 4 Sun Gold is having a tough time (though still not dead); 11 others are thriving, including all three front row Cherokee Purples, just now yielding lovely, large fruit. And so my current percent of living indeterminate varieties is a bit over 80%.
Moving on to the driveway Dwarfs, the following are finished: Tasmanian Chocolate, Sleeping Lady, Big Green Dwarf, Chocolate Champion, Boronia, Dwarf Wild Fred, Dwarf Confetti, Dwarf Peppermint Stripes, Uluru Ochre, Fred's Tie Dye, Adelaide Festival, and Tennessee Suited - 12 of the dwarfs are dead.
But....another 24 are doing really well - 67% remain. I've not assessed the dwarfs in the big garden, but suspect only a few are done for, most are alive. I am quite surprised, again, and the health of many of the Dwarfs - Beryl Beauty, Kelly Green, Jade Beauty, Mr. Snow, in particular, are perfectly healthy and still loaded with fruit soon to ripen. (all are from the Sneezy line).
Yesterday I fed all of the peppers and eggplant - once I get the tomatoes fed later today, the garden will be ready for the home stretch. We are really enjoying making all of our favorite summer veggie recipes. Here's hoping all of you are enjoying a similarly successful 2014 garden.
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