Central Coast Tomato Trials - part 5

I've got good news and bad news....
Let's start with the bad. It's really not that bad, anyway. I noticed some sort of disease on the lower leaves of many tomato plants a couple weeks ago.
























Some plants were more affected than others. The west bed seemed to be suffering more than the east bed. But that could be because the west bed was planted first, which gives it more time to show problems. I believe it's some form of early blight (a fungal problem) or it might be a different fungus, such as Septoria leaf spot. Anyway, it has appeared as black spots which become larger and eventually kill the lowest leaves on the plant. It is progressing relatively slowly. To defend myself (& my tomatoes), I've chosen 2 approaches: (1) milk spray and (2) corn meal spray. The milk spray is a 1:1 dilution of 2% milk and water.
























Milk spray residue showing on the leaves...it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

The corn meal spray is created by letting a cup of cornmeal sit in a quart of water for a few days. I'm spraying each of these weekly. The milk is going on the west bed and the cornmeal spray on the east bed. So far the milk spray appears to be slowing the disease, but it's hard to sure.

The other bit of bad news is that a gopher has killed one of my tomatillos - the purple one. He chewed up so many roots underneath the plant, that it actually died. This surprised me because the plant is protected within wire mesh. And the gopher didn't actually get inside the mesh, he just chewed from underneath and on one side. Next year, I'll plant farther from the edge of the underground wire mesh. And while I'm at it, I'll plant more than 2 tomatillos!

And now for some good news! I've been picking tomatoes most everyday for the last week or so. Mostly cherry tomatoes - Sungold and a few Sweetie. I've also picked a few small Stupice and one Camp Joy, for a (not-so grand) total of 1.4 lbs and savings of $5.60.























But wait, there's more! I can see lots of greenies on the vines, so I'm still looking forward to an increasing harvest in the coming weeks and months.
























As a side note to anyone local, I'm planning to go to the NorCal Cacti and Succulent show in San Francisco this week. If you're into drought resistant plants, I've heard it's something to see!

UPDATE on bogus milk spray:

Sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease.

In a knee-jerk reaction to seeing some yellowing of the lower leaves on my tomato plants, I decided to spray a milk and water solution (1:1). I sprayed half my plants once a week for 3 weeks with this organic and "safe" alternative. At least I thought it was safe. After the 3rd application, I noticed a fuzzy black mold on the leave surface that got the milk treatment. I'm 99% sure that the mold is due to the milk. Maybe a weaker solution would have been better? We don't get rain in the summer, so there was no chance of the milk solution washing off. In fact, I began to hate the look of the leaves with the crusty dried milk solution..which then morphed into mold. I'm pretty sure there would have been less damage, if I'd just left the plants alone. The other half of the plants that didn't get my "treatment" look much better. No black fuzzy mold. I actually sprayed them once with a cornmeal solution. But then I ran out of cornmeal and forgot to spray again - probably for the best!

Don't believe everything you hear...or read...please...for your garden's sake.

Great Use for Zucchini!

I don't know about you, but the zucchini are overwhelming me! I've been picking ~1 per day for 3 weeks. My harvest calculator says that's equal to over $41 worth of organic zucchini. I've given some away to cul-de-sac neighbors and anyone who visits our house cannot leave without taking one. It's a house rule :) I've come up with an easy way to preserve the zucchini that only takes a few minutes and won't take up freezer or fridge space - pickled. Actually, I must admit, the idea was my husband's...but I made it happen. Nice teamwork against the zucchini.

Here's the recipe

Pickled Zucchini
a few small zucchini
pint jars with lids and rings
2 c. distilled white vinegar
2 c. water
1/4 c. Kosher salt
garlic
red pepper flakes (optional)

Dice garlic and put 1 clove in each jar. Slice the zucchini into 'coins' and fill each jar (leave 1/2" headspace). Add dash of red pepper flakes. Heat water, vinegar, and salt to boiling. Pour in jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Seal jars. Wait at least 10 days for flavors to develop. Enjoy!

(NOTE: You can make this recipe with any container, if you don't have canning jars. If you use something else, then the pickles will need to stay in the refrigerator and won't keep as long. But, the pickles will still be good for several weeks.)

These pickled zucchini taste a lot like pickled cucumbers, in fact this is the same recipe for pickled cucumbers. So you can substitute, if cucumbers are trying to take over your house! I like this recipe because the zucchini remain crisp. Soggy zucchini kind of bothers me. Hope you like it!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2009

What's it all worth?

Inspired by Daphne, I've decided to figure out how much money my vegetable garden "makes". I think I've spent about $250-300 on supplies for the garden this year. Much of that was spent on wire mesh to keep the gophers out. It's absolutely necessary here. For instance, I planted 10 potato plants in January. Last month I harvested potatoes from 9 of the plants:

What happened to potato plant #10, you ask? Well, it was the only plant not protected by wire mesh... = gopher dinner.

Anyway, back to my statistics on the garden's production. I weighed the potato harvest and the total was 8.4 lbs. Organic potatoes are only worth $0.80 per lb, so my total 'savings' on potatoes was $6.72. As it turns out, I paid $15 for the organic seed potatoes (including shipping). The order was much more than I could plant, so I gave away about half of the seed potatoes. Because I paid $15 for seed and only "grew" $6.72, I can safely say that it's not really profitable to grow potatoes at these prices. Potato growing was kind of fun, but kind of high maintenance at the same time. What with all the diseases, hilling, digging, and annual re-ordering. So maybe next year I'll just buy my potatoes at Trader Joe's and give the garden space to something else. Unless of course, I see some unusual potato variety that really catches my eye on some cold winter night while pouring over a seed catalog...

So, in order to keep track of my potential 'savings', I've created a Google spreadsheet that is located on the front page of my blog - see the link? It can be found just below the poll "What vegetable grows the best for you?" (BTW, feel free to join in on the poll...I'm interested to see the results!)

Anyway, Google spreadsheets are great because they can be updated in real time. You can view my veg stats here: Veg Harvest 2009.

Central Coast Tomato Trials - part 4 - Gaining tomato independence!

How appropriate that on July 4, I should gain my tomato independence. From store-bought tomatoes, that is!
Behold, the first tomato of the season, "Stupice":

Though it only weighed in at 1.125 oz., I'm still proud. It is common for tomatoes to be smaller than normal in our cool summers. That's part of the reason I'm growing 17 tomato plants! And yes, it was delicious!

During the winter months, when I see tomatoes at the grocery store, I often feel a little bit sad. Pitiful little specimens, forced to grow out of season...how can we expect them to taste like anything but wet mush? It's not fair to blame the tomatoes, since they are genetically programmed to sprout when given certain growing conditions. We can't really blame the farmer/grower; they're just trying to make a living. The only one at fault is the buyer of the wintertime tomatoes. The buyers are the ones who ultimately bring these poor, wretched tomatoes into existence through their buying power ;) Ok, snap out of it...it's summer!

Some plants are bad for the bees...

I just read an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Apparently, there are several California native plants (e.g. corn lilies, death camas, locoweed) that are toxic to non-native honeybees. Native (American) bees are immune to the toxin. Buckeye trees are among the worst for honeybees. It seems that some plants produce either pollen or nectar that can injure or even kill them.

Poor bees...they seem to be takin' it on the chin lately. But not in my garden...I've actually seen loads there lately. All over the lavender, squash, cucumbers, and tomatillos.

Artichokes Bloom! And new baby artichoke plants...

As discussed earlier, artichokes are not only great to eat, but they also produce large, lovely flowers. However, in order to actually see the flowers, one must resist eating the artichoke. The dilemma here is that we tend to eat the immature flower bud. I had a series of out-of-town work trips recently that kept me away from my garden for a couple weeks and so several artichokes got too big/mature for eating. Thus, paving the way for artichoke flowers:

I'm thinking it's about time to cut the leaves and flowers off the artichokes.

I believe this is what the local farmers do around this time of year when the plants start to look quite raggedy. It seems harsh, but it's supposed to encourage new growth and possibly a fall crop. Any ideas, or advice?

Due to the success of my first plant, I decided to go out and get it some friends. So, I've now added 2 more "Green Globe" artichokes to the front yard:

Once they really settle in, they should take off!

Also, in case you were wondering ;) - this is what chard gone to seed looks like:

It's about 5 feet tall...more funky-ness for the front yard!