Best tomato year since the Reagan administration

 

This has been the best year that I've had for tomatoes since the 1980s,
it's more than made up for last year's disaster. The most prolific plants
have been the Sugar Snacks which have produced many hundreds of tomatoes.
The Grape and Sun Gold Cherrys are also producing countless tomatoes, the
Tellow Pears are also doing OK but not as well as the Sugar Snacks, Sun
Golds and Grapes. My large varieties are just now starting to ripen but
they are all heavy with tomatoes. The first to start ripening have been
the Cherokee Purples, but now I'm getting Black Princes and Cosmonaut
Volkov's. I started the Black Princes and Cosmonaut Volkov's from seed,
this is the first time that I've been successful doing that.

The hot dry weather gets most of the credit, but the other thing that's
different this year is that I covered my garden with a horse manure mulch.

My cucumbers and corn are also doing well, they both failed completely
last year. The disappointment has been my blueberry bushes, last year in
they produced so many berries that I still have a freezer full of them,
this year I only got berries for a couple of weeks.

I'm in Massachusetts. Is everyone else having a good year also?
 

 




    No, but glad to read that someone did! I can't complain: '07, '08, and '09,
including fall/winter '09 were outstanding. The freezers are still pretty well
stocked so I guess three out of four ain't bad. From late February onward I've
battled a bumper crop of grasshoppers! Most years, shield bugs are the major
summertime pests. This year, though, the grasshoppers truly have reached
pestilence proportions. They put a major hurting on all of my beans. Finally
pulled up the baby lima beans because the 'hoppers were going up the racemes
eating bean blossoms like kernels of corn on the cob. Now, they are cutting off
eggplant (aubergine) blossoms and leaves. While they're eating some of the
leaves, the major injury is that they just cut off leaves and blossoms, leaving
them hanging by a tiny thread of tissue.  Getting a few eggplant but nothing
like I had hoped. In late winter, I intend to apply "Semaspore Bait" (Nosema
locustae) on at least the cleared area.
    An unusually wet spring brought mildew onto the February garden peas, which
I had to remove from the garden on 1 May; foot.
    Tomatoes only so-so. Pulled and composted the Brandywines early on and
replaced them with "Big Boy", which meant a late start for them. The weather is
cooling somewhat so am hopeful that blossoms will begin once again to "stick".
    For the first time in several years, I have garden beds fallow, a practice
which I abandoned as counterproductive (at least in a small scale dooryard
garden) about 30 years ago. Well, not exactly fallow: I did leave as many of the
marigolds as possible. I guess the butterflies think me a pretty nice guy; just
shows what they know. LOL! Still have a couple of weeks before planting for
fall-winter. Usually wait until sometime during the first couple of weeks in
Oct., when temperatures begin to moderate somewhat, but this year, I think I'll
crowd it a bit because there'll be plenty of time to replant, if necessary.
--
the Balvenieman
USDA zone 9a-b, peninsular Florida, U.S.A.

 

General Schvantzkoph wrote:

We had a flock of tomato plants and averaged under two tomatoes per
plant.  Not a good year here in Chicago metro area.  The herbs all did
great.

 


The worst year for me. It was my fault. I was so busy during the summer
for my retirement and dealing with my replacement, I neglected my garden
horribly. In my haste, I planted everything to close, little maintenance
and just left to nature. Still I have enough for eating and tasted ok.
Perhaps a third as I hoped for canning and not as tasty. The tomato horn
worms did lots of damage.
This is my first week of freedom. Next year will be great year for
gardening!

--
Enjoy Life... Dan L

 

Dan L wrote:
...

  we had fewer worms this year, but i have
no idea why other than the most likeliest
explanations, fewer eggs were laid or
more eggs were eaten by other bugs.

  my better idea is that we have more
birds around this year who are eating
all sorts of things.  i've enjoyed watching
the bluebirds wrestling the huge grasshoppers
in the crushed limestone.  we do not feed
the birds, we only have birdbaths for them.
so they actually have to forage.



  congrats!  and welcome to the funny farm.  :)


  songbird