Saturday, June 16, 2012

Low-down, dirty rotten. . .

I had put off a chore until today -- it wasn't the garden's fault that it was really hot when I finally got to it.

The blight or virus or wilt or whatever had gotten worse in the tomatoes, and I was going to do a thorough removal of all affected foilage in hopes of slowing down its advance.


The plants are bushy and compact -- it was challenging getting under there to pull off the branches, but there were some compensations. Look! Baby tomatoes. If I get this stuff under control, maybe there will be some for sauce.


It took me two shifts, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, to work both sides of the long bed. What was once a dense tomato hedge is now a slightly less-dense tomato hedge. I ended up with a full trash bag of diseased plant tissue. That got put in the landfill bin, not the municipal compost, because I don't want to spread it around any more.


While I was looking down anyhow, I spotted a pretty vigorous invasion of Bermuda grass along the fence. That bed will need weed barrier if it's going to go perennial asparagus any time soon.




Perhaps tomorrow will feature "Bean Mosaic Virus or Sunburn: You Decide" for entertainment. There's never a dull day in the garden. Discouraging, hot, hard work, yes, but not dull. Thank goodness.

7 comments:

Annie*s Granny said...

&%$*#$@ Bermuda grass! It's in my winter squash patch, and soon will be covered with vines and out of sight, just spreading, and spreading and spreading. And there's not a thing I can do about it.

That's too bad about the tomatoes. It's always something, isn't it?

Daphne Gould said...

I've just got crab grass right now. Lots of it sprouting, but at least it doesn't spread by runners.

Unknown said...

That sucks about your tomatoes. Mine get diseased every year from early blight. It is in my soil and eventually does creep up the plant, but usually at the end of the season. Trimming the diseased foliage helps as does mulching so there is no soil splash when watered. It's always a race though.

Stefaneener said...

AG, I'm with you. Bad weed! At least this year, it's in sparsely-planted peppers. Maybe I can discourage it a little.

Daphne, yep. I have some sort of stolony grass too, maybe crab. Oh well, keeps me busy at least.

GrafixMuse, between blight and powdery mildew, it's a race, you're right. I may have to try Michelle's suggested fungicide.

kitsapFG said...

Always fighting disease and fungus in my tomato patch - our climate is really just too cool and dampish to be good tomato growing country but I insist on persisting anyways. ;)

I hope the effort pays off and you slow it down long enough to get the harvest in.

Erin said...

Noooooo! Blight and Bermudagrass... are you sure you weren't in MY garden? LOL, I'm here to commiserate with anytime, I have the same :(

Kristin said...

What I find interesting is the degree to which a plant can survive and produce even while its coping with aphids, blight, rust...you name it.

--Seems like as gardeners, if we keep on top of it by removing the diseased parts quickly before they overtake the plant; it survives and yields produce.

I wish it were as easy for humans to remove "our garbage" by plucking it off and tossing it into a sack. I guess we can use the plant as a metaphor to imagine that we are doing the same to ourselves...