Garden of E

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My Info

Austin, Texas
I've lived and gardened in urban Austin for the past 8 years, after retiring from the last of my several careers. BR (before retirement), most of my life was spent in colder places like Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, and Boston MA. Best thing I've done AR-- becoming a Master Gardener. Other passions-- Austin Farmers' Market, grandchildren, and travel.

photo by Elsa, age 7

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The tomato situation

It's just like all those years we had such high hopes every spring for the Red Sox only to have them dashed in August. I'm underwhelmed by the tomatoes' progress. This German Johnson has not one fruit on it, and the leaves have malformations, not to mention that the lower ones are turning light yellow.




Then 2 of the lower green fruits on the Jaune Flamme turned up like this. I believe it's the tomato fruitworm, aka corn earworm. Disgusting! No worms on any other plants.
These are the holes where the worm entered.





And this is clearly bird damage-- there were 3 of these on the lower part of the BHN-444, still hanging from the stem.













Current Tally (all green):

  • German Johnson--no fruit, but topheavy with new blooms
  • Azoychka--2 large, undamaged fruits, some new blooms
  • BHN-444--4 fruit, lots of bloom
  • Black Cherry--lots of fruit and blooms
  • Jaune Flamme--lots of fruit and blooms
  • Juliet--lots of fruit and blooms
  • ripe and eaten so far--1 Juliet and 1 Jaune Flamme

So I'm thinking I could have spent some of the $$$ I threw down on compost, fertilizer and plants at the Farmers' Market instead and had a BLT by now. No tomato picture (although they have lots), but here's some of the other great stuff at the Austin Farmers' Market last Saturday. If you've not been lately, you should hike on down there to the corner of San Antonio and 4th St. soon. Great people and dog watching, friendly farmers, terrific pickup breakfast food, the best coffee, and live music! Peaches, blueberries and blackberries in abundance.


















When not yelling at the vegetables, I'm now enjoying the new fountain that was installed last week. Those darn birds seem to like it, too.









4 comments:

  1. I love the new fountain! And that bed is really coming along as well. Maybe I should take some more pictures?

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  2. This is my first visit to your blog E. I like your sense of humor! Sorry we didn't make it on Sunday...can we try again?

    Cheryl

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  3. Sure, Cheryl. If you see my car in the driveway and it's not raining, stop in.

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  4. What happened to those tomatoes?

    ReplyDelete