Garden

[mousiegirl]

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@ScrapHappy wrote:

I had previously posted about "what is wrong with my tomatores?"  Well...I think we found out.  My husband said chipmunks.  He watched one go up and down taking my small green tomatoes.  Between the squirrels eating all the bird food and now chipmunks, it makes me not to want to do it anymore.

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@ScrapHappy  I put netting over the tomato and berry plants.

[JustJazzmom]

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@Just Bling wrote:

I never thought of chipmunks destroying my plants last year, I thought it was that caterpillar thingy that blends in with the plants that was destroying them.  I had all potted plants last year that sat on the patio.

This year I have a 3 foot raised garden bed and my tomatoes are way over the gutter of the house!   Planted early girls and big boys, the early girls are a nice size but the big boys are not so big but still good tasting.

Just started to develop a bottom rot on the big boys so I have no idea why all of a sudden this is happening.   Guess I should be happy what I ate already, there's nothing like a BLT made with home grown tomatoes.

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Blossom end rot occurs due to 2 things - either lack of calcium in the soil or caused by uneven watering practices (not your fault — could be lack if rainfall or too much rainfall.

When the plant is allowed to get too dry, or is given too much water over a period of time, its ability to absorb calcium from the soil is greatly diminished. In other words, your soil might have plenty of calcium, but it just isn’t bioavailable and being taken up and utilized by the plant. So blossom end rot occurs. Larger sized tomatoes are more susceptible to this that small sized tomatoes.

[Twins Mom]

I am disappointed in tomatoes and wonder if part of problem is where I bought plants- LOWES. My Sweet 100’s are usually all over place and this year scarcely 3 ft tall..few tomatoes. Better Boy tomatoes smaller than egg- must have been mismark. Early Girl no sooner than others. Will attack garden differently next year. Feel sorry for farmers! How do they do it? My cucumber plant was so huge I had to buy two trellises. Bees always present but then my leaves turned grayish snd leaves dying gradually. Few cucumbers and the ones I have are lighter in color - not dark green. What did I do wrong?

[RedTop]

@Twins Mom,

A cucumber vine does not need to be huge; the more growth that goes into the vine, means fewer blooms and cucumbers.   My dad always grew Straight 8 variety cucumbers, which had dark green skin like a seedless variety.   The cucumbers my husband grows has a lighter green skin.   

[JustJazzmom]

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@Twins Mom wrote:
I am disappointed in tomatoes and wonder if part of problem is where I bought plants- LOWES. My Sweet 100’s are usually all over place and this year scarcely 3 ft tall..few tomatoes. Better Boy tomatoes smaller than egg- must have been mismark. Early Girl no sooner than others. Will attack garden differently next year. Feel sorry for farmers! How do they do it? My cucumber plant was so huge I had to buy two trellises. Bees always present but then my leaves turned grayish snd leaves dying gradually. Few cucumbers and the ones I have are lighter in color - not dark green. What did I do wrong?

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Leaves turning grayish means a fungal disease. Remove & toss out affected leaves. Also prune away some of those vines to allow better air circulation so fungal diseases do not get a good start. 

Tomatoes might be smaller due to planting in same soil year after year. Rotate your crops if possible & add lots of compost before & during the growing season to them. 

[Twins Mom]

@JustJazzmom
Thanks for reinforcing what my suspicions were on the cucumbers. Any natural way of fighting fungus?
As for tomatoes, just might be issue. It’s a community garden and I was told there was fresh soil this year. Frustrating.

[JustJazzmom]

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@Twins Mom wrote:
@JustJazzmom
Thanks for reinforcing what my suspicions were on the cucumbers. Any natural way of fighting fungus?
As for tomatoes, just might be issue. It’s a community garden and I was told there was fresh soil this year. Frustrating.

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Removing the affected leaves, adequate air circulation & choosing fungal resistant varieties. 

Look at this table (best to print it out) writing is pretty small and look at varieties that are downy mildew resistant (that might be the leaf disease).

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Tables/Resistant%20Varieties_Cucumber-Slicers.xlsx

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Tables/Resistant%20Varieties_Cucumber-Pickles.xlsx

I scrolled down the page before this & found these:

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Tables/Cucumber_Slicer-DM_2017_V069-McGrath.pdf

[PA Mom-mom]

@ScrapHappy @GAQShopr53 @Twins Mom and everyone else who is having weather related and critter related problems with their garden this year. I AM SO WITH YOU! I've been gardening for nearly 60 years, and this is one of the worst years EVER! I was just out picking tomatoes and am so unhappy! For us it was the rain. Our tomatoes are splitting as they ripen. The leaf spot is crazy. I chased a nervy bird who was pickig at my tomatoes. The squash are dead. The eggplants have stopped producing. The broccoli is still hanging in there, and the green beans are making a comeback. Back in the late 70s or early 80's we had a drought that forced us to plow under the corn. That was very bad, but this year comes in a close second.