Yep the weather is pretty wet up here in the Great N.W, I've been pretty lucky everything I have planted has come up, nothing has damped off yet. I don't do Tomatos yet, some of my friends have put tom's in and are talking about them yellowing and dying off. I could do with some dry days though, my horses need water wings to get around.
My mom got to come home from the hospital today, so hopefully I can get out to do some work tomorrow. This morning I picked 4 tomatos and threw 3 to the chickens.
I am going to start picking them as soon as they have enough color to finish ripening on the windowsill to try to avoid some of this mess.
Last night we had severe storms and my few thriving corn stalks are bent over. Some of my peas look like my 110lb Lab romped through them, but the garden is fenced and he wouldn't have been out in the weather anyway. trying really hard to not get discouraged.
Plus, I have a large satsuma (citrus) tree. It survived a record freeze (over a week below freezing temps - yes, that is a record here ) and blossomed like crazy. It had hundreds of golfball sized fruit, and every single one of them just dropped off.
I want more than ever to have plans and supplies in place now that the stinking cussed oil spill is at our door, but things jsut aren't working out for me.
That is called blossem end rot. It is caused from calcium deficiency and from 2 things to much water like you said or to high fertalizer. The first number should be lower than the next 2 numbers like 8 8 8 you would want more of a 5 in front with higher end numbers. If using mircle grow you should be alright. Water 1x a week unless it rains with a sprinkler or soaker hose. tomatoes are finiky about irregular waterings too. You could have cracks and splits if you go from drought to rain like we are getting now. I think we are in the same area, Also in our area we are likely to get blight so after it rains or you water get a good fungiside spray and spray it on it. It is caused from heat and moisture fluctuations and will cause brown spots first on lower leaves then they turn yellow and fall off all the way to the top of the plant by the heat of summer leaving no shade for those tomatoes. Any questions let me know also mulch tomatos they do bettter and their leaves don't get splashed from the soil another way to avoid blight
Sorry just saw you wrote more Don't feel bad I had about 200 7ft high corn stalks laying on the ground with ears on them I guess got top heavy from all the wind and rain sat. I had to 1 by 1 stand them up and pack some dirt around them. It will be alright though the next round of tomatoes should be fine it is a learning process and the way I look at it is others actually pay to get this kind of learning. And what ever you put up is more than you had. I just canned a pint of the salvages from end rot tomatos :}
I hope your Mom is doing ok. Not sure what happened to your tangerine tree. My peach this year is having issues. Dropping golf ball size peaches all over the place. Just keep trudging on the garden. They never quite work like you anticipate but always reward in some way.
Thanks to both of you.
I don't remember what fertilizer we used, but I know it was a "triple" something - I think 8. I just used the tiniest bit (in fact my folks said it wasn't enough) and also mixed in some compost when transplanting the plants.
My leaves are doing that! I will go get some spray tomorrow when the stores open.
Can I just use oak leaves for mulch? that is pretty much all I have access to - maybe enough newspaper for one layer all the way down both sides of the plants.
So should I stand up the stalks? I was afraid they would break off.
Hopefully I will get it sorted to salvage enough to can... we go through some tomatos at my house! Slices, sandwiches, stewed, sauce, grilled....
Thanks TH - my mom seems to be feeling a lot better. I am so relieved she is home! I wish we could have a normal weather / environmental year for my first gardening experience! Good grief.
Depends how big the stalks are and if roots are showing. If showing gently pull them up and pack dirt around them. If not and they are small they will regrow upward. You may have to eat corn on the cobb laying down LOL but seriously I would genlty try one or two to see how it goes sinse the ground is still wet from rain should be ok mine did not break and they are huge.
As for tomatoes Ask specifically for something that covers blight if you have it it wont get rid of it but may salvage some of the plants and it will spread to peppers and beans and i can;t remeber what else so spray everything 1x a week and get some liquid 7s dust spray 1x a week also Next year as soon as you plant start spraying the fungaside as preventative it wont show up till you get your first cluster of blooms. If you loose to many leaves shade as much as you can and use what you get. I have 120 tomato plants hoping to can sauce and as much as I can and have been waiting for a blt for months I may get one on the next few days yeah/ any questions just give a shout
oh and for the corn it loves nitrogen so try and get some 10 10 10 for it you may have to cross over to alabama to get it I dont think florida sells it last time I checked they did not. You will notice if lacking nitrogen the bottom leaves will be yellow and you could get some small and some big stalk not all same height. when you put it to bed for the winter throw some lime only on the spot you want corn. or plant beans there crop before cause they take nitrogen out of the air and put it back into the soil. Also can try whats called the 3 sisters from native americans and plant pole beans with the corn that add nitrogen and use the stalks to climb the 3rd sister is squash cause the prickley leaves help deter animals.
There is never normal weather in our area lol it snowed for goodness sakes in february then streight to 90 degree weather in time for hurricaines. I always figure 1/3 to me 1/3 to animals and 1/3 to pest and weather/ and sometimes we get lucky
I never use fungicides. I just mulch well and IF you get spots on some of the lower leaves pick them off and put them in the TRASH. That usually will stop the fungus spread. If the plants lose a lot of leaves they will usually regrow them.
Most of my corn was starting to stand straight on its own. The one big stalk I slowly pulled straight and packed dirt on the leaning side. We are still having rain and expecting more
I went by the feedstore and talked to the guy about my tomatoes and he gave me something to spray on them. I would really like to avoid sprays but I think things have gone way too far to recover without them this time around.
My pink eye purple hull peas are starting to blossom, I am hoping the storms don't wipe them out. My dad tossed some corn seed in with them and that is where the best stalks are growing! So I will have to remember the "3 sisters".
I did pick 4 tomatoes today - one really nice big one and 3 smaller ones - all just getting good blush of color. I got to them before the rot did, and the last one I picked that way ended up ripening really well on the windowsill.
They are saying the oil slick is about 9.5 miles off the coast. It is going to get really ugly here, I am afraid. Our county is one of the poorest (if not THE poorest) in Florida. I really need to get this gardening thing down.