![]() ![]() You will spot blight because dark spots will show up on your tomato plants either on the stem or on leaves. You might want to trim a few leaves off to allow for airflow if you have planted your tomatoes close together.īlight is why we try not to wet our tomato plants when we water them. Early blight likes warm and humid conditions and late blight likes wet and cold conditions, so they’ve got it all covered.īlight also likes a lack of ventilation, so some breeze is good for tomatoes. I do not know if people actually do this. The recommendation with blight is to pull your tomatoes out ASAP and destroy them. I think it is because it gets in the soil, and then could contaminate your tomatoes for the rest of time or until you move out. The best guide I’ve found is this video which begins with a love triangle. Basically, you dab pollen from the male flowers onto the bits of the female flowers. You need only a little paintbrush to pollinate flowers by hand, and to be able to determine which flowers are male and which are female. You can pollinate them yourself as a short-term emergency solution but I would also plant some flowers in order to attract more pollinators to your garden. Wrinkly drop-off is caused by the flowers not being pollinated properly. This ailment has been given the lovely name of fruit abortion, but I suggest we change it to wrinkly drop-off. Wrinkly drop-offĪre your vegetables kind of forming and then simply withering away prematurely? It seems this can happen to any fruiting plant – for me it’s been pumpkins and zucchini (perhaps they’re not so well-behaved after all). ![]() You can also buy calcium fertilisers if you’re flash and don’t mind spending money (or are vegan). ![]() Some free ways to do this are to always rinse and empty your milk bottles at their bases, and to collect up your eggshells, grind them into a powder, and sprinkle them around the tomatoes. That being said, tomatoes are extremely hungry for calcium, and it pays to top up the amounts of it in the soil around them. If an inspector were to come and poke their finger into your soil, it should be moist at all times. The garden bed should be mulched to help with water retention. Someone once told me each tomato plant should get 10 seconds of full hose stream, and I reckon the same applies to other plants. If it’s not raining you should be watering at least every second day, and I don’t mean a light sprinkle of drops, it should be a drenching. ![]() The circulation of the plant is compromised and so the extremities suffer, like when you get cold fingers and toes. When watering is inconsistent, it is difficult for the plant to take up calcium from the soil and carry it all the way to the ends of the fruit. It’s caused by a lack of calcium, but, embarrassingly for a gardening columnist, it happens when you mess up the most basic of gardening tasks – watering. Blossom end rot Gross! Blossom end rot on zucchini and tomatoes.īlossom end rot is currently maiming my zucchini, but can also strike tomatoes, capsicum and eggplants. If you haven’t spied disease in your garden, there are tips for prevention, which is better than any cure. Below is a list of ailments that my plants and my friends’ plants have suffered, and so I am assuming are widespread. So forgive me for lingering on this hideous brown spot. They’ve been so well behaved I got sick of them. In the past I have only known zucchini plants to be diligent in producing beautiful big yellow flowers (edible) and also so many zucchini you have to get very creative, very generous and even use your freezer. New experiences are good for us and our brain plasticity, I’m told. Gardening is great because once you’ve figured out how to solve one problem, like slugs and snails, a new problem will present itself. The bloody thing’s come down with blossom end rot. But alas, now the plant is sporting a deformed zucchini with a brown spot on its end. Just days ago we added our first two zucchinis to a Spanish omelette, and they were so tender and so sweet. Sadly these mornings can all too easily be ruined by a quick check of the garden. There are mornings when you feel young and sprightly and accomplished because you’ve just emptied out the compost before you’ve even had a sip of caffeine. Despite all our love and attention, one certain green member of the cucurbitaceae family has a rotten end. This week on Their house, my garden, we get a nasty surprise. ![]()
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