I knew all along that all the rain this season would cause problems for tomato growers in the north east, but now it's official. Check out this New York Times article about a record case of tomato blight! If it doesn't abate, we may all be stuck eating the golf balls they pass off as tomatoes in supermarkets!
Of course, Mitch and I would be sitting pretty with our own crop if we had been able to grow this season, but building construction has completely side-lined us.
That said, my indoor herb garden is going strong, with basil, rosemary, parsley and oregano to spare...
13 comments:
Hello there! Just checking out other gardening blogs.
I'm reading up on sweet basil entries. I just kinda started taking care of one myself.
We'll be growing plenty of sweet basil this summer. We just bought a packet of seeds at Home Depot, along with parsley and cucumbers. And as I posted today, our tomatoes have already sprouted.
But aren't those tomatoes behind you? They're pretty big by the way. How old are those? My tomatoes are about 4 inches high!
Do you just prefer to grow them from seeds rather than cuttings?
We like to grow from seeds because we choose different heirloom varieties and we get fewer bugs than when we buy starter plants from the green market.
And the tomatoes behind me are from two seasons ago - I will eplace the photo soon (and I'll put the date on it now.) Our tomato plants for this season are tiny as of yet, only about 1 inch tall (see my April 3 post with photo, Tomato seedlings arise, on my homepage.)
Oh I see. Did those tomatoes in the picture die during winter? I'm not very familiar with seasonal gardening.
How long does it usually take to have plants as big as those in the picture? I just want my plants to grow up!
Patience Chris! Sounds like you live in a warm weather state, but even so, tomato plants take a couple of months to grow up and begin flowering. Once the fruit begins to show, it can take a month to ripen, depending on the size. Beefsteaks take longer than cherries. And the plants certainly die in the winter. We begin our seedlings around this time of year, the harvest begins in late July and continues through October. If it's a warm fall, we can get tomatoes until late Nov.! But as the days get shorter, the plants produce less and less. With the first frost, it's adios...
Patience...sigh
I've read so much about tomatoes: that it's so easy to grow stem cuttings and that the plant can weigh 50 pounds! But it seems such a long time.
By the way, all my seedlings have these white streaks on the leaves. Ever had those? Not sure what those are.
Sometimes when we put our seedlings outside, the leaves can get burned by the sun, which results in whitish spots. So, if your plants are outside, that could be why they have white streaks. It takes 2 to 3 months for plants to become fully grown and flowering. But if you keep on watering and giving them tomato food and lots of sunshine, they will eventually bear fruit. It's definitely worth it to grow your own!
Is that what those are? I thought they were bugs eating my leaves.
It could be bugs, or fungus or mildew as well. Hard to tell without seeing them.
Just saying hello again. Sadly all my tomatoes died and I never did figure out what those white streaks were. ;-)
Chris, nice to hear from you. Sorry about your tomatoes. I imagine your plants had a fungus that killed them. We usually plant a variety of tomatoes so that if one or two get sick, the others will survive. We're down to our last few tomatoes now. By the end of next week, they probably be gone. Well, the black cherry still has some flowers on it. If we don't get a frost, that plant may keep on producing...
Oh well. I'll lay off tomatoes for a while. Maybe I'll try lettuce instead. ;-)
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