2024 June 18th -- (Tomato) Garden Update

An update on how our tomatoes are growing. Weather-wise, I hadn't planned on a consecutive year of extended cloudy weather. Where I irrigated, those plants picked up blight (a fungus that browns the stems and leaves.)
These weather conditions have me already thinking about next year: "What are the chances it'll be like this 3 years in a row?" "Is gloomy weather where I live the new norm?" "If so, I need to remember to sow later than usual." etc.
In other garden news, I am chipping away at setting up automated irrigation for most of the growing spaces.

[@sirilorece]

I love how many tomato varieties you have growing! I am definitely missing growing multiple options. I have one big, beautiful two year old yellow brandywine still going strong, and I am so grateful. Through all of the cleaning and clearing of my growspace, it's a shining light☀️

[@neverenoughdirt]

Thank you Siri. I was able to get in a couple of more varieties than my limit 😉. Thanks for sharing how your tomato is growing. They are very resilient plants. Yellow Brandywines are pretty and delicious. I am also glad to know that you're back in the garden again. It also looks and sounds like you will have a good amount of biomass; it'll eventually turn into nice compost 😄

[@sirilorece]

Oh yes, the garden is about 90% biomass at this point after nearly a years worth of neglect♻️😂

[@neverenoughdirt]

@@sirilorece 😁😅

[@ChristasGarden]

I am surprised to see blight on your tomatoes, because of your dry climate. When the weather is uncooperative, I guess it can hit anyone. Covering your tomatoes with dry plant debris to prevent sunscald was a smart idea! Several years ago, I decided to single stem two of my tomato plants since it was all the rage, lol. I had less tomatoes, major sunscald, and both plants died before the season was over from early blight. With very little foliage, it doesn't take long for blight to infect every healthy leaf on a plant. My plants get early blight pretty much every year because of my climate, but with minimal pruning they almost always survive until the end of the season.

[@neverenoughdirt]

Me too. I was not expecting blight at all. It definitely humbled me; I'll need to be more mindful next time. Where I grow, I am in this small climate pocket where we can experience an extended period of gloom. On the flip side, we are pretty wind sheltered. But when it is not cloudy, the sun is intense. The general info for our parts is to prune but that creates a sun scald problem. I agree, foliage is important and foliage is an issue when plants are not healthy. Experience will garner healthy plants. On the note of foliage, I also found that multi stem is the way to grow for home gardeners. I keep at least a couple of main leads. Then I prune according to the conditions throughout the season.

[@babetteisinthegarden6920]

Thanks for the update.

[@neverenoughdirt]

Any time!

[@lynnt3747]

May grey, June gloom, and an unusual amount of rain months prior brought blight to my tomatoes too. Blight seems to be a constant enemy of mine. At least your tomatoes have remained productive. 🙂 Next year I might do an experiment and not start some tomatoes until June - beyond the danger of constant dampness and gloomy skies.

[@neverenoughdirt]

Sorry about your tomatoes. Hopefully next year will be sunnier. Pushing back the sow date by at least a few years may be a safer bet. Yeah, I am happy to get something from this planting. Speaking of June, I recently sowed for a couple of plants for a fall harvest.

[@lynnt3747]

@@neverenoughdirt Look forward to seeing how your June plantings work out. 🌱

[@moochythecat3435]

Not one single blade of grass to be found... nice....