In article ,
zxcvbob wrote:

Kris wrote:
Hi all,

I've been accessing my tomato patch this year with dismay. I've had
few tomatoes compared to last year.

What is also puzzling is that some plants are doing much better than
ones right next to it! They all received the same amount of water.

Someone told me there was "tomato blight" (not sure what that is) this
year. We also had a record cold July, which didn't help I'm sure.

Did anyone else experience this?

Kris


I've been having trouble with Late Blight for several years, but usually
manage to get a crop anyway. This year I planted a blight resistant
variety called "Legend". Also I planted "Porter", which doesn't have
any particular disease resistance, but it's supposed to do well in poor
weather. I planted 6 Legends and 5 Porters.

Everything was very late this year. I've picked 6 fruit off Legend so
far, probably will get about 5 or 6 more before they are done. The
plants are eat-up with blight. The Porter plants look gorgeous. No
disease and no insects, but they are a later variety and I haven't
gotten anything off of them yet. They have green tomatoes on 'em, but
not a lot.

Haven't picked a single pepper or eggplant yet. The one jalapeño that
survived the rabbit attack has a few little peppers on it. The ají
peppers are tall and healthy, but no little peppers yet. I'm really
****ed about that because I was growing them for seeds, and there's very
little chance of getting even 1 red fruit before frost. Eggplants just
started blooming. I planted pepinos (Solanum muricatum) this year for
the first time, and they are blooming but no fruit yet. The tomatillos
are covered with empty balloons but no fruit yet. (notice a trend?)

Basically, the whole garden has been a bust this year.

Bob

No bust here, but things could have been better. The whole region (San
Francisco north bay area - Sonoma County) had late gardens. Our tomatoes
have just started to out pace our ability to eat them. We are in synch
with the cucumbers. Our climbing squash (our favorite), Zucchetta, is
flowering, and the bitter melon is filling in it's trellis. The nights
are staying cool (50F - 55F). Hopefully, we will have about 6 more weeks
of good gardening before we go into gleaning mode.

Most of the large tomatoes (Mortage, Brandywines, and German Striped)
have under performed this year with small fruit and low yields. The
Stupice have earned a permanent place in the garden though. Next year
I'll definitly have at least one "Blondkopftchen" and one "Koralic" for
cherry tomatoes. The Green Zebras haven't done much, and the Marmands
are still green. The San Marzanos are producing well, but I find that I
am not using them as much as I thought I would. Our carrots and beets,
while on the puny side, are tasty and encourage me to plant more.

I think I've worked out a crop rotation for my northerly facing hillside
and have more understanding of where I can grow, and where I can't.

In the meantime, the eats are good. I just wish Sept. could last a few
more months.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

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