The first thing that I noticed upon arrival at the plots this morning was the field pumpkin plant looking very bad. After close inspection, I harvested the nice orange pumpkin on the vine and got to work. The SVB's got to the plant as well as squash bugs and powdery mildew.
Bad pic...but this is what the vine looks like after I trimmed it.
One baby pumpkin on a healthy part of the vine.
I buried as much of the vine as I could that was past the SVB invasion point.
Here's the other end of the vine buried with another baby pumpkin on it. Maybe the vine will take root and these babies will be saved. If not, we did manage to get one nice orange pumpkin from the vine.
On the other side of this Three Sisters planting are the Sweet Dumpling vines.
As you can see there is some powdery mildew & squash bug damage to parts of these vines.
The vine is still producing and has a lot of healthy growth on it and at least 6 squash. Maybe we will get some more squash from these vines.
Now for some really bad news.....the tomato plants are all diseased! There was some disease on them late last week and I did some trimming....but, this is not good!
Look at this....not good!
Tomato Alley....all diseased!
The tomato plants in the other bed....diseased too!
I think that they may have about a week....maybe, maybe not.
There is a lot of good news at the plots though. Last Thursday I found where the groundhog was entering the plots. The bugger was coming and going between three plots and having dinner at all three! I spent some time, lots of digging and put a lot of chicken wire down deep both vertically and horizontally.
So far, so good! No re-entry to the plots and no more nibbling! Steve, the guy with the great water set-up, has the plot behind ours. He also did some work on the hole on his side. I told the woman to the right of us about it. She hasn't done anything....but there are no signs of re-entry.
Although the groundhog did completely eat the nice round watermelon that was growing last week....we still have these.
This Moon & Stars watermelon had a little nibble out of it from the groundhog....but, it is growing nicely! Hopefully we will get to eat it!
There's another little watermelon on this vine too!
The "State of the Plots Part II" will be about a lot of good things going on over there!
I feel sorry about your tomatoes, mine didn't do well either and a few have complained that the hot weather is the blame for poor harvest..The melons look promising.
ReplyDeleteWe're having very similar issues with our squash plants. I had no idea you could bury the vine and let it take root. Thanks for the information. I sure hope you're wrong about all those tomatoes. Ours haven't looked good all season, but they're staying alive and giving us fruit. Maybe yours will too. The watermelons look delicious. I can't wait to hear how they turn out.
ReplyDeleteCucurbit plants always seem to end up with mildew don't they but they still produce.
ReplyDeleteIs it blight that has attacked your tomatoes - we stopped growing tomatoes as each year they seemed to be devastated. I think it's a bit too dry around our parts this year though so we could have maybe got away with it but hindsight is wonderful isn't it?
Ginny, With the weather we have had this year, I really expected this with the tomato plants. I have managed to get a lot canned and the plants at the house are doing pretty good.
ReplyDeleteJody, It took over so fast, that I think they aren't going to make it much longer. I have heard of people having a lot of success by burying the vines....give it a try!
Sue, Yes, they always seem to get mildew. I usually get it earlier in the season. I think that it is blight on the tomato plants as it spread very quickly.
Sadly, my tomato plants are diseased as well with some sort of fungus disease. It happens every year, but usually at the end of the season when the plants are almost ready to finish up anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think the hot July was stressful for them and this recent humidity and rain didn't help. The tomatoes are still ripening and looking good. I pick them partially ripe. It looks like you still have a lot of fruit on your vines. I hope you can save most of them.
It has been one nasty year. At least you fared well in the beginning and were able to get a lot of those tomatoes preserved. I have 0 tomatoes canned and it is killing me as I watch the blight take another stem a day. My winter squash looks a lot like yours. Well here is to next year.
ReplyDeleteMy tomato plants look just like yours. All 30 of them. And so far, I have only canned 7 qts. That is horrible odds! Sorry your garden is poopin' out on ya. But you had a good run up till now, so that is encouraging!
ReplyDeleteoh no sorry to hear about all the bad news at the plots! I hope you can save a lot!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your pumpkins! That's what the SVB's went after here, too. I was lucky to get a whole 4 little pie pumpkins from it :( At this point in the season, just let those tomatoes go and don't worry, I think what's on there will ripen fine. Mine started out the same 3 months ago and are just now dying badly. I trimmed and sprayed like crazy back in June & July but only because I had so many blossoms. Now they are almost all yellow but the fruit is ripening.
ReplyDeleteNot tomato alley! Commiserations.
ReplyDeleteOh, that happened so FAST. My gosh, I'm sorry. Poor tomato alley!
ReplyDeleteLet's get rid of this year!!!!!
Sorry about your pumpkins and tomato alley. Seems like this is a bad year for tomatoes all over the states, my maters are not doing well either except the cherry toms.
ReplyDeleteRachel, Between the problems I had with the soil germinating those tomatoes, then the wet spring, then the hot & dry spells and then all this rain....I'm not surprised one bit.
ReplyDeleteJane, I'm just going to keep on making tomato puree. I made a batch yesterday with the white, pineapple, orange and some red varieties that turned out just wonderful!
APGal, I think that I'm going to get enough preserved to get us through the winter. All in all our gardens have done well for us this year.
Mrs.P, I'm going to save as much as I can and can them!
Erin, I have a lot of other squash that I can use for pies and still some in the freezer from last year! I'm not going to fuss with the plants. When they are done I will pull the plants and probably cover those areas with black plastic to kill what is there. If we have a cold winter it will also help.
Mal, Yes, sorry to say that Tomato Alley will have a shorter life this year then we wanted :(
Sue, Yes, it was very quick....but, we still got enough to preserve a lot and the plants at home are doing pretty good.
Thanks Mac, My cherry tomatoes are doing well also. There will be plenty of those to eat and dry.
I'm so sorry about the garden plot problems. It saddens me to see the problems you've had because you've worked so very hard. At least you have harvested quite a few veggies already. The diseased tomatoes look like blight (from the distance) but there are so many things that can go wrong with tomatoes it's a miracle when they do well, isn't it? lol
ReplyDeleteI wanna hear the good things asap!
I'm with Sue. Let's just hurry up and get through this gardening year. At least you got some tomatoes to can, so not all was lost.
ReplyDeleteLynn, I'm looking at the gardening at the plots this year as a learning experience. I have figured out what does well there and what doesn't. Truthfully, I'm surprised that things have grown as well as they have over there. The disease is most likely blight. I'm not good at diseases...when I think I have one thing it's usually another. I won't be posting the good over there until this evening. I kind of messed up some of my pictures!
ReplyDeleteGranny, I have gotten a lot canned this year and I'm quite sure we won't go hungry this winter. I'm sure that next year will be much much better!
Based on the appearance and the speed by which the plants went down - you have a late blight infection. It spreads like wildfire if the conditions are right. Happened to us in the 2009 garden. Sorry you had that happen but you did get a tremendous amount of production from the plants before it happened which is good.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the "good news" post. :D
What is the disease that is plaguing your tomatoes? We had 3 plants get disease too. Do you think it's blight?
ReplyDelete