June 2010 Archives

After a late visit to the garden Sunday night, I noticed something strange on the bottom leaves of my precious, precious tomato plants. The leaves had yellow dots with brown centers and I worried something wasn't write. Earlier in that week, I had read in the local paper that early tomato blight was spotted in Southern Indiana and that's where I began my research. Turns out I was right...unfortunately.

A quick breakdown for those of you don't know what a tomato blight is. First off, there are two kinds: early and late. Those are pretty self explanatory: early blight happens early in the tomato's growing season (May-June) and late happens later in the summer (July-August). A blight is a fungal infection and is spread through spores that can show up either via wind or soil. Fungus lives in soil so when it rains or you water your plants, if water hits the soil and bounces up touching your leaves, that's when infection occurs.

So what can you do? First, remove all infected leaves and be careful not to touch either the infected leaves or your hands (which now have fungal spores on them) to non-infected leaves. This stuff spreads so be careful! Second, completely remove the infected leaves from your garden. This is not something you leave on the ground of your garden or in your compost bin. As stated above, this stuff lives in your soil and will come back. Third, put mulch down around your plants. Mulch is great for two reasons: 1) provides a layer between the fungus infected soil so when that rain comes down, the fungus doesn't go back up and 2) keeps moisture in the soil so your plants don't dry out. Fourth comes the fungicide spray. You can find organic fungicide - look for a sign on the bottle that says, "Safe for the organic garden." In Menards last night, I found some scary looking bottles of fungicide so read before you buy. If you don't feel comfortable with it - don't buy it. One quick note about fungicide: do not spray your plants if it's over 80 degrees. This can cause a burning effect on the plants and will just do more damage than good.

To combat my own blight, I did all of these things but added a step. I bought kelp meal (yup, seaweed!) a while ago to use as an organic fertilizer. Before putting mulch down, I spread the kelp throughout the garden then put the mulch on top of that. Right as I was doing that,  a huge rainstorm passed through and, not only soaked me through and through, helped integrate the kelp into the soil. I'm anxious to go out tonight after work and see how the garden looks. It was a race to the finish last night for sure.

I must admit: kelp meal is the only fertilizer that doesn't terrify me. The rest just seem to have too many risks with burning and over doing it. I'll stick with seaweed and be happy with it.

Two weekends ago we added another layer of wood to the shortest bed we had as it was just too short and we could not really plant anything of substance in it. Also, it was right at bunny eye level so they would eat their way through the bird netting and feast upon our veggies. But no more! Last weekend we filled it up with lots of soil and composted cow manure then planted some plants and seeds. We already have sprouts! It's so exciting!

As for the other beds, we have planted some baby corn and added more tomatoes to the big bed. Our cherry tomato plants are going crazy as you can see in the picture. I am looking forward to being overwhelmed with those.

Plans for this weekend may be complicated by more rain. If not, we'll be raising the poles that support the bird netting in the recently upgraded bed so we can have beans and peas poles in the bed. Also, now is the time for mulch! We'll be putting lots of mulch around the plants to help deter weeds and keep moisture in the beds. We're also planning on mulching the areas around the beds so we don't have to fight weeds there. Our weed whacker isn't working quite right so looking forward to not having to worry about that.

Also, I'm very excited - I just ordered some powdered kelp! That should be here by midweek and that'll get our plants some yummy nutrients. Yes - I have turned in to a gardening geek. I'm fine with it.