gnome tending tomatoes

I was asked the other day where my gnome has been. Well, no where special. Just hanging out under the oregano. But for a change, I moved him over to the tomatoes. So that's his job now, hanging out under the tomato plants.

my garden gnome

green tomatoes

After complaining about Late Blight on my tomatoes plants at my community plot, it seemed a good day to photograph the beautiful green tomatoes on my 8 healthy plants at home.



They are growing fast. The plants have reached the top of my 5.5 ft supports already. Lots of green tomatoes almost showing signs of color. A few hot days and they'll ripen fast.

tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)

fighting late blight - organic copper spray

Well, today I bought a bottle of copper sulfate spray (Concern copper soap fungicide). My dad says this is the only organic remedy for Late Blight. I'm planning to use this on my tomato and potato plants at my plot tomorrow.

My dad's friend Tom, a serious gardener, uses mancozeb in regular applications on his tomatoes starting in early spring. He says the only problem with using copper sulfate against Late Blight is that it doesn't work. Hmmm. But mancozeb is a pretty serious chemical.

My potatoes don't seem to be too badly off. A bit of leaf damage here and there. I'm gradually removing the plants and so far the tubers are great.

But Late Blight has already killed half of my 16 tomato plants (11 different heirloom varieties grown from seeds at home started on March 21st). Unlike last year's fungus in my garden, Septoria Leaf Spot, which gradually defoliated my plants, Late Blight this year has gotten into the stems of my tomato plants.

This is what Late Blight looks like on my tomatoes. This is what it looks like on my potatoes.

I suspect that gardeners with nice looking tomatoes right now in our community plots are using mancozeb or a similar chemical fungicide.

Its just hard to fight fungi when the weather is so wet. (And I hear that Late Blight infected seedlings were distributed by chain retailers in the NE, like Home Depot and Walmart.)

In a community plot, these fungi are spread all over by the wind. My tomatoes at home are looking beautiful, isolated from other gardens by many houses and yards. Maybe serious chemicals are the only way to go in a community plot? After a second bad year, it seems like a consideration for next year. Alternatively I could forgo tomatoes in my plot.

If you have Late Blight symptoms, it's recommended that you remove affected plants, bag them in plastic and dispose in the trash (or bury at least 2 feet deep). Pretty serious methods if you need to cart several big bags out of your plot. And this only works if EVERYONE in the community garden also does this. If not, everyone should either forget the tomatoes next year or all get some chemical fungicide.

I'd sure love to hear your comments!

In any case, I'll be spraying away with my copper sulfate tomorrow....

potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
late blight (Phytophthora infestans)

early baked potatoes

No photo. We ate them all. But they were yummy.

I baked two of my big early Russets that I dug yesterday. I think early potatoes are usually boiled for potato salad. But I can say that early Russets are fantastic! We topped them with Boursin cheese (gilding the lily!) and served with chiogga beets, fresh salad greens and bay scallops. Ahhh....

potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

my first potato harvest

I cut down lots of my potato plants today because many have late blight. It looks like the potatoes are OK though. This is a pile of Russets I dug. They were volunteers in one of my paths. I was impressed with how many came from one plant. And how big they are already. They sure tasted yummy.



potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

late blight information

This is what late blight looks like on the tomato plants in my community garden plot. I pulled up half of my tomatoes today. :(

Cornell information sheet: Late Blight: a serious disease killing potatoes and tomatoes this year
Another Cornell info sheet: Late blight on tomatoes
UMASS special alert: Late Blight on Tomato and Potato

late blight (Phytophthora infestans)

plot work

Its been nearly a week since I have been out to my plot. Last time I was there, I found several spots of late blight on my potatoes. I was expecting the worst today. I haven't been out to the garden because of the constant rain this past week.

I suppose the garden looked better than I expected. Here's a list:

- Fava beans look great, lots of tiny pods forming.
- Corn is nearly waist high and looks great.
- The pumpkins are starting to vine, maybe 3 feet long now. Not bad.
- Melon plants are still tiny :(
- Lots of lettuce, but its quickly bolting. I don't see much new slug/snail damage.
- Basil is just sitting there, tiny plants, same with peppers :(
- Not much going on with the summer squash. I had lots by now last year. Only a few blossoms so far and small plants.
- The garlic is starting to die back.
- Celeriac and parsnips are growing slowly.
- One tiny sweet potato plants is getting a couple of leaves.
- I'm impressed with the onions I grew from seed this year. They look great. No bulbs yet, but looks like they'll bulb soon.
- Beets look great: red, pink and white ones.
- Radish look good but are terrible inside. The three I pulled were mealy and fibrous inside with some worm damage.
- Potatoes are fading, especially the early varieties, Norland and red gold. The Russets and Green Mountain look good. I cut down all of the Norland's as its probably blight. I also cut down all volunteer potato plants from my paths.
- Saddest is the tomatoes. Terrible blight on the stems and lower leaves. I removed plants with stem blight (7 of 16 plants) and removed all affected lower leaves.
- And I did A LOT of weeding. Weeds are growing great!

Harvest: One volunteer Russet potato plant gave me a big bag full of potatoes. Also, 4 nice heads of lettuce.

more photos of my plot today

wet aerial view

Wow. An empty garden. And yet another wet day. I finally got out there to weed on the 4th, which was finally a dry day. But weeding pretty much emptied the garden. Next time it dries up a bit, I have lots of seeds to plant: beans, soybeans, nasturtiums, kale, lettuce. Maybe tomorrow?

some wet photos from Mom and Dad's garden

tomato and potato fruits

I thought I'd compare my tomato (left) and potato (right) fruits. Pretty similar in appearance.

Both are about the same size now. I'm looking forward to red tomatoes in a couple of weeks. Yummy! My first varieties this year will be New Girl (above photo) and Orange Blossom, sowed Feb 21.

Unfortunately potato fruit contains large amounts of the toxic alkaloid solanine, and is therefore poisonous.

Potatoes can be grown from seed, though they don't breed true; Wikipedia says to finely chop the fruit and soak it in water, the seeds will separate from the flesh by sinking to the bottom after about a day (the remnants of the fruit will float).

the 4th of July !!! Cheers to the summer!

Our 4th martini. Our 4th ribs. And Skippy's 4th nap. Not too bad. Thank goodness for a whole day of full sun. (perfect, if the Sox would have had won...)

wet July potato plants

My rain gauge says almost 4 inches of rain in the past week! Wow!

After reading about Late Blight in the news letter from Piccadilly Farm (my post from yesterday), I took a close look this evening at my potato plants. They look great overall, but there are a few nasty leaf spots here and there. I suppose it could be late blight starting in my patch.

I'm planning to start my potato harvest this weekend. Most of my varieties have finished blooming and are fruiting already. (Love those cute little potato fruits! photo below) A good time to start digging early potatoes. Especially the Fingerlings (volunteers from last year in my path), Red Norlands, and Red Golds. I'll leave the Russets and Green Mountains a while yet.


This is a POTATO fruit!

I also checked on my tomato plants today, which are also susceptible to late blight and other wet weather problems. They seem fine. No moldy spots. A few yellowing lower leaves that I removed. Lots of weeds I pulled and lots of sucker growth I removed. (Several of my Opalka plants seemed to be especially yellow on the lower leaves.) Overall OK. The plants are about 2-4 feet tall now. Flowers, but no signs of any fruit yet.

potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
late blight (Phytophthora infestans)

NE wet weather brings Late Blight concerns

I support a distribution site for a local CSA: Piccadilly Farm in Winchester, NH. Along with weekly fantastic fresh vegetables, they send out a very informative news letter about current conditions for gardeners and farmers. I have copied their letter below, along with a list of crops they included this week. (Thanks Jenny!)

Dear Shareholders,

The news from the farm is no real news to you: it's been raining. And raining, and raining. We saw only 8 rain-free days in June, with double the normal rainfall. On our farm, we have very light, sandy loam soils, more prone to drought that flooding. So, we haven't seen the rot or serious crop loss that other farmers in the region have. In fact, the rain has been good for some of the crops in today's box: plentiful peas, the earliest carrots we've harvested in a dozen years, and our first ever crop of spring daikon. We do see general failure-to-thrive on our hot season crops (eggplant, melons, cucumbers, squashes, peppers), but they should rebound as soon as that mythical globe in the sky begins to shine through. I'm still optimistic that it will!

Our concern, much more than wet soils, is wet plants. Extended periods of leaf wetness, combined with cool to moderate temperatures and lack of sunshine, spell perfect conditions for many crop disease pathogens. This year, there is very startling news in the Northeast about a disease called Late Blight, which infects potatoes and tomatoes. This pathogen - which killed the potato crop during the Irish potato famine - is spread worldwide. Late Blight generally travels up from the south on storm winds, and spreads quickly during periods of wet, cool weather. Our region sees it every few years and the earliest known reporting in New York state (with northern states reporting soon after) in any year is August 25 - until this year. Late Blight is already being reported in fields and gardens in NJ and NY, two months "early". Why? Possibly because a wholesale plant company has been selling infected tomato plants through chain retailers (WalMart, Home Depot, garden centers) throughout the Northeast. This distribution is unprecedented, and could be disastrous for commercial potato and tomato growers. Especially organic growers (like us), who do not use systemic fungicides on their crops.

We do everything that we know how to do to protect our crops from disease. The starting point is encouraging soil fertility and plant health. In potatoes, we begin with certified disease-free seed, keep them hilled up and weed-free, and choose varieties that are less tasty to our most common insect pests. We generally spray an organic insecticide for Colorado potato beetle control. And this year for the first time on potatoes, we are using a protectant (not a systemic) organic copper fungicide, as our only hedge against the Late Blight.

In tomatoes, we mulch and trellis them, to keep soil splash off. We spray a biological stimulant to encourage plant health, and organic copper to protect against various fungal diseases. When we need to irrigate, we do so through drip lines at the soil surface, to keep the leaf surfaces dry. In the big picture, many New England growers are moving to hoophouse tomato production, and we plan to do this as soon as our farm has the resources.

We are hopeful (what else can we be?!), and our potatoes and tomatoes look gorgeous right now. But we are preparing ourselves for the possibility of dealing with a major crop loss. We will, of course, keep you posted. I've included a press release about Late Blight at the end of this email. If you are growing potatoes or tomatoes, please scout them regularly for the disease, and act quickly if you see it. Spread this information to other gardeners you know.

Whew, I'm hungry after all that! On to the share...

Carrots, a bunch. Our earliest carrot harvest ever! Most weeks from now on, we hope to include carrots in the box. The rain is good for carrots, and our beds look great. As soon as we have a dry enough field, we'll plant the 8th and final succession of carrots for the season.

Parsley, a bunch. We grow the flat-leaf variety, for its superior flavor. Store the bunch in a glass of water or a plastic bag in the fridge, and wash it just before use.

Swiss chard, a bunch. One of my favorite cooking greens. Cook the colorful stems for slightly longer than the leafy parts. I particularly like chard with carrots and eggs.

Green curly kale, a bunch. We grow several kinds of kale, and they are thriving in this cool wet weather.

Daikon, a few. We harvest on the small side, as daikon can grow to be several feet long and weigh dozens of pounds. Though you may have never used them, daikon are actually quite versatile. Try grated into salads, or chop and use in cooked dishes as you would any root vegetable. They'll loose their zing in cooking, but retain some crunch.

Sugar snap peas, a quart. The crop is just perfect this week, and the plants are loaded. A good result of all this wet, cool weather!

Snow peas, a pint. We grow "Oregon Giant" snow peas, and these are indeed oversized. They'll be best for cooking - try an Asian-inspired sautee that includes the daikon and snow peas.

Garlic scapes, about 8 pieces. The last of these yummy treats. Try them on the grill, coated with a bit of oil, during a weekend cookout.

Green leaf lettuce, a head.

Salad mix, half a pound. A young, tender mix today.

Jenny Wooster
Picadilly Farm LLC
Winchester, NH
www.picadillyfarm.com

If you are growing tomatoes and/or potatoes, here are the articles Jenny points out: Serious Disease Threatens Tomato and Potato Plants by Dr Vern Grubinger, Vegetable & Berry Specialist at UVT Ext and a Fact Sheet by Ohio State Univ.

I haven't been out to my plot in almost a week now as I've been vacationing. I hope to spend some time there tomorrow. Lots of weeding to be done, no doubt. With luck I won't find blight spots on my Solanaceae.

late blight (Phytophthora infestans)

me at the garden center in the rain

I'm learning to just go about the usual things and ignore the rain. With a big umbrella and a warm coffee, what's a little rain.....

One thing for sure though - the colors of flowers and the greens of plants are just beautiful in the dark and dreary weather.

Credit goes to my sister, the photographer here.

BTY, this is Bonny's in Cambridge MA. Go and buy some plants! I think all NE garden centers are badly in need of business now with the bad economy AND weather :-(