Something Fishy

Some of my tomatoes are failing to thrive. Purple stems, a purple cast to the leaves, and necrotic spots on leaves that progressively turn more yellow -- these symptoms seem consistent with phosphorous deficiency.

Back in April, I discovered that garden loam isn't good for gardening -- after having five cubic yards of it dumped next to my waiting raised-beds. It was mostly clay. Not so good for growing things. So I then found a place to deliver four cubic yards of compost. All the extra loam pushed me to add a few beds. I mixed the loam with the compost. But a couple of the beds are filled with about 95% of the sub-standard loam. The tomato pictured above is struggling to grow in one of those beds. I did mix a little fertilizer into the bed. But it probably wasn't enough.

I also found some grubs while I was digging up the sod for my beds. And there were some grubs in the loam. I squished any that I saw. However, last week, I pulled up an eggplant that just hadn't grown at all. There was hardly any root ball -- and a very lively grub was nestled in what was left of the roots -- very unhappy to be disturbed. I put an end to its unhappiness. So maybe more grubs are eating at the roots of some of my plants. If the roots are being eaten, then the plants will also have trouble absorbing water and nutrients.

One of the tomatoes that I planted in a pot with 100% sterile, pre-fertilized, store-bought garden soil is doing great. It's the control subject.

So I have saturated the soil with fish emulsion. I got a nice local brand, Neptune's Harvest. It's basically rotten fish syrup that gets mixed with water. It should start to get the nutrients in the soil up to where they should be. And a UPS truck should be bringing me a delivery of nematodes sometime today. I'll just have to wait for a wet day to get them into the soil. The nematodes are parasitic worms that will infect the grubs and eat them from the inside. Fish, worms: it's all circle of life here.

Septoria

from Wikipedia: Septoria: Ascomycete pycnidia-producing fungi that causes numerous leaf spot diseases on field crops, forages and many vegetables, and is responsible for yield losses.

from the Cornell department of plant pathology: Following spread, spores may germinate within 48 hr under moist conditions and favorable temperatures. Leaf spots can appear within 5 days.

Last evening, as I loaded up a tray with the remaining potted tomato seedlings, I noticed spots on them. I did a check of the planted tomatoes. The one hanging from the porch had more spots, and the ones in the ground had fewer. But all had some. It was classic Septoria.

The plants were stressed from transplant and had been root-bound in their peat pots. Then they were alternately watered and rained on, allowing dirt to splash their leaves and then several days of overcast skies prevented the leaves from drying well.

The only treatment is amputation. The seedlings still unplanted fared worst. They had been the smallest, weakest plants anyway. That's why they were still unplanted.

But even some of the plants in my beds look rather poodled.

A couple of the smaller seedlings were totally compromised and had to be taken out.

I spent the rest of the day in purchasing some straw and weaving it around the tomatoes (and other plants). This stops the rain from splashing dirt (and fungal spores) up onto the leaves. I had always planned on doing this. The rain coming right after transplanting was unfortunate.

Strawberry Massacre

I got back from videoing the women's crew team this morning only to be confronted with a scene of devastation. Ten out of twenty-four strawberry plants were eaten last night. I have been tempting fate by not covering the berries (with the netting that I have that isn't rabbit-grade).  No footprints were evident. So I assume that the light-footed criminal was Leporidae. I spent some time scouring the internet for advice about my plants. I know strawberries are delicate and if stressed might never produce fruit. But every search-string that I came up with offered me advice about how to soothe a house rabbit that had eaten too many berries. I was being mocked by google.

After fuming all day, I noticed that by evening the denuded plants were already pushing out their next leaves -- which is kind of creepy. But that's nature for you.

In other gardening news, I dug up the sod for the last planned bed (foreground). I also covered with black plastic the bed that I plan to sow with corn (midground). The plastic will warm the soil so that I can get the corn started a little early.

I also fixed some of the erosion-bars on a terraced plot and filled them with loam and the last of the compost. 

Now I need to fence the whole thing before the great destroyers come again.