horrible garden results

[outdoor junkie]

Came to the conclusion today that my garden was a waste of time this year! The fact that our lab puppy ate alot of it for us, tomatoes taking forever to ripen. Still 80% of them are green and by the time they ripen they are rotten. Does anyone know why I have 12 plants of rotten tomatoes. Is it something to do with lack of rain? Was really looking forward to making salsa, looks like thats out this year.:(

[Radar420]

I feel your pain, I had a pretty trying time this season as well. I lost a fair amount of tomatoes and peppers this year to chipmunks and squirrels. After I took care of that problem, we got some rain and I had quite a few tomatoes split from the excess water. Some healed over and some just rotted. Now I'm experiencing something similar to you - tomatoes not totally ripe and getting soft/rotten spots. I've been picking those as I've found them, let them sit out on the windowsill a few days, cut out the bad parts and slice them up. Still delicious but definitely disappointing.

My folks went to the State Fair this year and they were talking to a woman there (some sort of gardening specialist I think) and she said this year was terrible for tomatoes as the weather promoted a lot of blight.

[Doubtndude]

We must have lucked out over here we been getting tomatos for last 3-4 weeks so far 4 plants and we canned up 8 quarts so far .
We plant ours on the South side of the garage and they get sun all day and we really didn't water them as much as we should have but the vines had to be tied up to support the tomatos we had and are still growing we picked a dozen off last night and have all of that to pick in next day or two

[Banditto]

Rotten tomatoes could be from a lot of things.

[ozzgood2001]

we got 6 plants all still green not a red one on em.... thought it was strange myself!

[Michihunter]

We must have lucked out over here we been getting tomatos for last 3-4 weeks so far 4 plants and we canned up 8 quarts so far .
We plant ours on the South side of the garage and they get sun all day and we really didn't water them as much as we should have but the vines had to be tied up to support the tomatos we had and are still growing we picked a dozen off last night and have all of that to pick in next day or two
We did even better than that! I've got 10 galllons of tomatoes still to cook down and already have about 4 gallons canned.
My wife and I were trying to figure out why we did so well this year and we think it may be a result of the overabundance of bees we seem to have this year.

[Jacob Huffman]

I had great tomatoe plants going earliy this year...Had them in by Mothers day and they grew great...Got about 3 feet tall...then died within 3 days...Couldnt figure it out... I never knew that walnut trees will kill them if you plant them within 50 feet or so of the tree...So I tried again in a pot and got decient results but they were in late and now I have a few tomatoes but they are no bigger than a tennis ball...Also heard alot of tomatoe's this year are doing bad...

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Mine has been fine. Thru the years I have found tho if you mulch (I do with last years shedded leaves) and water with a soaker hose, your garden is much better. Plants are greener and bigger with loads of fruit. I very seldom have any kind of insect problem also. One year I didn't mulch and the garden was a couple of notches lower. I mulch all long term veggies. Stuff like lettuce, spinach, I do not mulch. But do for tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, all melons, and summer squash.

[METTLEFISH]

Hi Outdoor Junkie !... The lack of rain would have nothing to do with it !...... as long as you watered regularly, remember... moist not wet, too wet is conducive for fungi and blight, next year just in case we have another cool growing season, get yourself some black landscape fabric and plant them in it, you can plant two weeks earlier and most veggies will go two weeks later, the added heat will help if it's another cool one. Also you can "mote" around Tomatoes and and other 90+ day plants and get the water deep and plentiful, if you have coarse soils - too much water is usually not a problem.

[Rootsy]

Late blight took care of all of my tomato plants this year. Got a few ripe ones and then the blight whacked em in a matter of a few days... So fast I had no time to really react. Amish down the road with 10 acres of organic maters and a Whole Foods contract lost most of theirs to the same thing. They got some sulfur on in time to save half or so which are putting on new foliage... Not sure how the tomatoes handled it...

[chinamigarden]

I was not happy with the garden and the results this year. The cold May and June had more to do with it then anything else. I sow my squash seeds directly in the garden and every other year they germinate within 5-7 days. This year it was 21 days. My tomato plants grew in slow motion. Plants that I expect to be 6 feet tall in a normal year, were 3 feet tall. I had a total of 54 plants survive. NOt only were the plants small, so were the tomatoes. I got about 2 bushels of tomatoes. We canned 30 quarts of sauce. 2 years ago I had 38 plants and I got around 100 quarts of sauce and 40+ pints of diced tomatoes. This year I bought tomatoes to make up the diced.

Plus very few squash. I have 8 zuchinni plants and 8 scallop squash plants. I should have had a truck load. I don't think we got 12 total summer squash. The plants are a third the size they should be

[MSUICEMAN]

i was gone for a week on business and came back to my tomatoes pretty much dead. they were growing insanely well too. at first i thought it was the cold, but more and more i'm thinking blight hit them HARD.

ugh.... i had hundreds of tomatoes just getting ready to kick over and ripen.

[outdoor junkie]

Maybe a stupid question, but what is this blight you all keep mentioning?

[Doubtndude]

Blight, general term for any sudden and severe plant disease or for the agent that causes it. The term is now applied chiefly to diseases caused by bacteria (e.g., bean blights and fire blight of fruit trees), viruses (e.g., soybean bud blight), fungi (e.g., chestnut blight), and protists (e.g., potato blight). Other plant afflictions (caused by insects or unfavorable climatic conditions) that display similar symptoms are also called blights. See diseases of plants (http://www.referencecenter.com/ref/reference/blight/redir?src=encyclopedia&requestId=d69747ead5e07079&userQuery=blight&clickedItemURN=reference%2Fdiseases/diseases_of_plants%3FinvocationType%3Dencyclopedia .main&moduleId=encyclopedia.M&clickedItemDescription=Encyclopedia Main).
The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

[MSUICEMAN]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html

[MRocks]

I was salivating at the 15 or so muskmelon in various stages of growth. Then the mold came. All the squash, pumpkins and melons are dying. May get 1 or 2 melons that could still ripen. Thankfully the pumpkins are far enough along that they will still ripen for Halloween.

We've had an OK tomato harvest, about 1 1/2 bushels so far from 5 plants. We made some fantastic salsa and will need to make more. The rest (probably have 3-4 more bushels on the plants) will just get canned for chili, etc.

The only other thing we planted was beans. We had a bumper crop. Can't get the kids to eat another raw bean if there was nothing else in the house. I think we have 4 gallons in the freezer for the winter.

All in all, a moderate year.

[Firecracker]

I had MONSTER Plants but tomatos are still green ( they are also nice big ) Cherry tomoatoes are still producing.
Butternut squash still green :(

Never had a wierd Garden like this.... MY Beans are blooming....again !!!

[Greenbush future]

I boasted on this site at the beginning of the year how well my garden was doing but I was struck with the tomatoes blight discussed before. All plants dried up and left me with fruit that was still hanging, but the plants look like skeletons with ripe fruit. Cukes didn’t do much better IMO. Better look out next year as I will read up and try to avoid this thing. First time I ever had this die off happen.

[pipe dream]

My tomatoes did alright but my parents tomatoes were loaded this year. Plants are hanging low with all the tomatoes. My uncle is a buyer for a produce company and He said they are buying outside of Michigan already b/c the blight claimed so many tomato fields.

[Firecracker]

Well my Lady I normally go through if I need more Tomatoes is done with with them... so unless I get some out of my Garden ( I doubt it ) I am about done. Unless I can find some nice ones, fairly cheap...

I never had any Blight either, nor did I ever have these Size of Plants either.

[MSUICEMAN]

me too... first time i've ever had blight on anything.... last year i had more tomatoes than i knew what to do with (had to even give many away). that was with little/no prep as we had just moved into the house.

this year i prepped the soil real well and all that. they grew huge plants, but that blight just took em out within a few days, unbelievable

[Radar420]

I posted this link in another forum but since so many seem to be having blight issues it may be worth checking out.

http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html

I was having some issues with my some of my plants early on and I used the hydrogen peroxide treatment listed and bought my plants a few more weeks of time.

[sullyxlh]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009908280305


Cool, wet summer leaves gardens ripe for disease

Our growing season, dominated by cold, wet weather, has taken its toll on ornamental and edible gardens across Michigan. So if your garden is struggling, take heart. You are not alone.
In my garden, the leaves of many shrubs and perennials are covered with dots and spots, and my tomatoes are taking forever to ripen.
Downy mildew, a lethal fungal disease that kills within days, wiped out my cucumbers. Tiny, yellow spots appeared on the leaves and spread with astonishing speed. Once the disease attacks, it's difficult to stop, and the cukes become bitter, so I pulled the plants and sealed the leaves in a plastic bag and dumped them in the trash so the fungal spores would not spread throughout the garden.
Next year, I will begin treating my cucumbers early in the season before the disease attacks.


Fortunately, my tomatoes, though slow to ripen, have remained free of disease. But cool nights and moderately warm, muggy days, the very conditions that have kept the fruit from ripening, are perfect for developing early blight and other diseases, so I've begun to use a preventive spray on them.
Previously, I've opted not to use fungicides in my garden because of their possible effects on the toads, frogs, birds, bees and butterflies. But a few weeks ago, I discovered the organic fungicide Actinovate Lawn and Garden ( www.naturalindustries.com (http://www.naturalindustries.com/)). It contains the patented and beneficial microorganism Streptomyces lydicus, which attacks a variety of problems in the lawn and garden, including root rot, foliar fungal diseases, black spot and rusts.
This beneficial organism not only attacks soil-borne diseases, when used as a soil drench, it breaks down minerals and micronutrients, making them more available to the plant, resulting in increased size and vitality. So plants treated with Actinovate as a soil drench will become hardier, more vigorous and have a robust and protected root system.
I also used it as a foliar spray on my squash, tomatoes and roses, which are particularly vulnerable to fungal diseases. I'm also drenching the soil where my cukes were so it can begin to work in any fungal spores left behind.
But the best news is Actinovate is safe for use around aquatic life, as well as kids and cats. It's OMRI-listed for organic gardens and certified safe for use on edibles up to and including the day of harvest.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t160/sullyxlh/bilde.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t160/sullyxlh/bilde1.jpg

[Firecracker]

uhg looks like my Garden , I am checking out the website thanks :)

[Ralph Smith]

Thanks for the site Radar, had problems with my garden also.:sad: