Gardening In June Is My Favorite Time

Tomato Plants!

I have done a good job this year of getting as much planted as possible. I still have one large bed that has not been plowed up yet. As you can see, I planted my tomatoes in containers. I am hoping this will prevent them from getting the Late Blight. I am moving these around right now, but as they get bigger, I will not be able to do that. They will need to be stable and staked up.

Healthy So Far!

I pruned my tomatoes this morning, by pinching off the suckers. This will make them bear more tomatoes, rather than just leaves. Don't know what I am talking about? Here is a site that explains it, Pruning Your Tomato Plant. This year, I'd really like to have enough tomatoes to can and make my own ketchup. If I don't grow enough, I will purchase some locally.

Chives

Most of the wild plants have been blossoming for some time. Today, I was excited to see the blossom on my squash plant. The first! Many of the squash plants have some ready to blossom, but this was the first. Can't wait to have fresh yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers and green beans. These plants give you food to eat now, when we need it. The tomatoes don't get ready for harvest here till about August or September. I will be canning many jars of these foods, but there will be enough to eat fresh too.

Squash Blossoming Already!

I hope your gardens are doing well. We have noticed more people having gardens this year. Must be the scare of the GMO foods? Or maybe it is just the price of the food in the store. I know for us, it is normal. But I have increased the amount of food I am growing this year. I plan on getting more canned than ever before. I am hoping I can make all my own condiments too. I like to know exactly what is in our food. What about you?

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole

Late Blight Destroys My Tomatoes Again

My Beautiful Tomato Plants!

I have been very busy this last week. It is the time of year when I am busy harvesting crops and canning food. My garden was really looking good as you can see my beautiful tomato plants here in this photo. My green beans produced very well and gave us 48 quarts of canned product. Nice to be refilling all those empty jars!

Seemed to be thriving here..........

My happiness was not to last though, as within a few days, this photo was taken on the August 18th and the plants looked good. Had nice formed tomatoes on all plants, The cherry tomatoes were covered with fruit. I think there were hundreds of them on just a couple plants. They looked so pretty and I was so proud of my tomatoes as last year I didn't get any because of being hit by the blight. This year I even sprayed with Serenade. Not to be though.............

Earlier This Week..........

According to Cornell University:

"Late Blight is a disease that mainly affects potatoes and tomatoes, though it can affect others as well. It was mainly responsible for the Irish potato famine in the 1850's. Entire fields of potatoes rotted as well as potatoes in storage. Thousands of people starved or emigrated.

I Wanted To Cry!!!!

Late Blight is caused by a pathogen, oomycete, that survives from season to another on infected potatoes. It is known for producing millions of spores from infected plants under wet conditions. It can be introduced into a garden through infected potatoes or volunteer plants that were infected, from culled potatoes that were not destroyed, compost piles or from infected plants that were bought and brought into the area. Spores can travel through the air, land on the plants and infect more. They can also be washed through the soil to infect more potatoes and cause rot in the ground or in storage." 

Have to bag them up and take to the landfill.

Because so many spores are produced by this oomycete pathogen, it is important that anyone whose plants get the Late Blight to properly identify it and control it so that the spores do not travel to other local gardens and infect them. This is what it says on Cornell's site. I am not sure of how to control it. I tried. I give up now. This is my last year of growing tomatoes until they come out with a plant that is resistant to it. So much for heirlooms.

One way of preventing it is to only grow certified seed potatoes. And not to buy tomato transplants from other areas. I grew my own that I started in my house. Our summer here in New York was not a real wet summer for a change. So I am in the dark about this Late Blight business. I just know that I am not going to go through all the work of starting tomatoes in the house and babying them and then losing them when it is almost time for them to start turning red. It is a waste of my time. We don't eat a lot of pasta or dishes that use tomato sauce anyway. So I will just not worry about them next year. If I want a fresh tomato in the salad or a tomato sandwich I will buy mine at the local farmer's markets and produce stands. They seem to be able to grow without being hit by the Late Blight.

All I can say is................it's not fair!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole