We wanted a garden. We got one, a beautiful one. Then the rains came.
I can't express how heartbroken I am. We had called the plants our children and talked to them and played classical music for them and sometimes even left the radio in the garden overnight. They grew wildly, fully, beautifully, but the rains came for an extended two week visit and brought with them blight. We had more than fifty tomatoes and probably as many more blossoms. Chris was giving away tomatoes to people before they even grew. Counting chickens.
This morning I made a desperate attempt to save them with fungicide, but the blight has spread so quickly that I don't think they can be saved. They certainly won't grow any new fruits. We have to hope the plants stay alive long enough for the fruits that are there to ripen. Then there's the blossom end rot. It currently affects the roma plants, and I'm hoping the others are spared this fate. I've picked a dozen small roma that have reddened, only four of them not affect by the BER. I chopped the ends off the others and dug out the pestilence, and the good halves were wonderful.
I thought they had perked up when I went to visit them after work this evening. I cut a good deal of blighted leaves from the plants - there were so many I couldn't get them all before darkness fell. They don't look good at all - only one seems that it can be saved, but it has a little blight, too.
Our pepper plants have produced, and we've eaten fresh herbs all summer. But the tomatoes were the heart and soul of the garden.
They gave us such joy for two months. It's going to be tough to see them go. :(
I can't express how heartbroken I am. We had called the plants our children and talked to them and played classical music for them and sometimes even left the radio in the garden overnight. They grew wildly, fully, beautifully, but the rains came for an extended two week visit and brought with them blight. We had more than fifty tomatoes and probably as many more blossoms. Chris was giving away tomatoes to people before they even grew. Counting chickens.
This morning I made a desperate attempt to save them with fungicide, but the blight has spread so quickly that I don't think they can be saved. They certainly won't grow any new fruits. We have to hope the plants stay alive long enough for the fruits that are there to ripen. Then there's the blossom end rot. It currently affects the roma plants, and I'm hoping the others are spared this fate. I've picked a dozen small roma that have reddened, only four of them not affect by the BER. I chopped the ends off the others and dug out the pestilence, and the good halves were wonderful.
I thought they had perked up when I went to visit them after work this evening. I cut a good deal of blighted leaves from the plants - there were so many I couldn't get them all before darkness fell. They don't look good at all - only one seems that it can be saved, but it has a little blight, too.
Our pepper plants have produced, and we've eaten fresh herbs all summer. But the tomatoes were the heart and soul of the garden.
They gave us such joy for two months. It's going to be tough to see them go. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment