Tomato Blossom End Rot

It's August of what is turning out to be the driest year on record.  The garden is suffering!
In spite of the deep watering I'm doing in the tomato bed, I'm seeing blossom end rot on some of the Health Kick tomatoes.

Blossom end rot

I've seen this a lot in plum-type tomatoes in my garden when they haven't had adequate water,  but Health Kick tomatoes have been better at withstanding the problem in the past.  Not this year!  I think it's because the crop is so heavy. I've never seen so many tomatoes on plants before!  Most of them are sound, but if I turn over smaller, stunted tomatoes, there's the rot starting.  I pull those ones off right away and discard them.  I know that the bed was well prepared with home made fertilizer, compost and SeaSoil, so I don't think that nutrition to the plants is the problem as it usually is with blossom end rot.  In my case, I think it's just that the crop is so huge that the plants can't keep up moisture-wise.  So I keep watering and pull off the ripening fruit and finish the ripening in baskets in my kitchen so the plants have less fruit to cater to.

Aphids

The kale is also struggling.  In the Russian Red Kale, whenever I see a leaf curling over, it's got aphids inside.  Unfortunately, it's the tender young leaves that are most affected, so today I'm going to pull up the Russian Red Kale.  Blasting the aphids off with strong water streams is not keeping the problem in check.  So far, the Lacinato and Siberian are managing to avoid it, but in this dry heat, I don't think it's going to be long before I see aphids on them as well.

Sprawling butternut squash vines

The three butternut squash planted in the compost bin have been doing their best to escape into the garden.  Every morning the vines look happy and healthy, but by afternoon the leaves are drooping.  I give this bin a good, deep watering every day and spray the leaves as well, but it seems to make no difference to the afternoon droop.

Big squashes!

Fortunately, it hasn't seemed to affect the fruit of the plants.  These have to be the biggest butternut squashes I've ever grown!  I guess the plants are putting all the energy into the fruits!

Italian heritage beans under the bean arbour

The only bed that's been able to maintain a good moisture level is the corn/beans bed.  We've had a wonderful crop of corn and its pretty much finished now, but the beans are just getting going.  They are so rampant, that I'm going to see if my husband will tie ropes from the bean arbour to the fence so the vines can have more areas to sprawl to and make picking easier.  It seems that all in all, my vision of the bean arbour is going to work.  There are beans hanging down underneath the arbour already waiting to be picked.  I'll put them in tonight's butter chicken dish!

El Nino in the Garden 2015

This is turning out to be the driest year we have experienced in the garden and many of the crops are showing stress in spite of all the water that I'm giving them.

Butternut Squash

Many crops are very early.  Strawberries were weeks ahead of time and the crops were pretty good.  The corn is loving the heat, as are the beans.  Other heat-loving plants like peppers and squash are quite happy so far, but they all need water.

Fruit trusses on Health Kick Tomatoes

The tomato plants are huge and early on set a bumper crop of fruit, but now the flower trusses are not setting.  I've had to really keep an eye on this bed because it's one of the beds that cedar roots have managed to creep into.  I hadn't realized what was happening and almost lost one Principe Borghese plant before I discovered how dry the soil was. (Update 5 hours later:  with a temperature of 28C and a strong wind, the tomato plants were losing moisture so quickly that they were starting to wilt and a second deep watering was required.)

Principe Borghese Tomatoes

In checking back, I can see that most years at this time the fruit is just starting to turn on early tomatoes.  We've been snacking on Gold Nugget and Sweet Millions for a couple of weeks now!

Corn is a heavy feeder, too, but this bed is maintaining a good quality of moisture and I think it's the tallest corn we've ever had.  I'd say we're only a couple of weeks off harvest for the corn and the Italian heritage beans haven't even started to flower yet!

Signs of aphids on the kale

Kale is a cool weather lover and it's really struggling in the heat.  I've noticed leaves are starting to curl up and there are signs of aphids starting to make their homes in the leaves.  I'm picking those off, and the kale is getting lots of water, but the heat is telling on their general health.

Harvested garlic sorted into varieties

I just finished harvesting the garlic and am quite disappointed with the size of the bulbs.  This might be because of the heat.  They reached maturity a couple of weeks early and this means that time that might have been spent growing was lost.

Copra Onions starting to fall over

This was also true for the onions.  The yellow onions have already been harvested and I'm seeing signs that the Copra plants are approaching maturity.

And this makes things difficult for the young Brussels Sprouts plants which were just transplanted.  I will probably have to rig up some sort of shade for them to carry them through to fall.

Everything else seems to be coming along well, but each day I'm out there giving the veggies a good drink.  The perennial beds have been ignored.  Water is so precious that only the vegetables and plants in pots are being catered to.  A newsletter from West Coast Seeds addressed this issue and also finished with the sobering thought that the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting that there's a 95% chance that these conditions will continue through fall - and an 85% chance that they'll go through the coming winter.  Now that's scary!

Mid-June Update

I'm delighted with how well everything is growing.  Even the weeds are flourishing - which tells me that the SeaSoil we added has made a big difference.

The beans are over the tops of the poles!

The Three Sisters Garden is charging ahead.  The beans grew so quickly that I had to put in bamboo poles to support them for now.  They've gone over the tops of the poles.  Click on the picture above to get a better look.  The two beans which were planted directly into the ground inside protective collars are the correct height.  From this I've learned that next year I seed the corn in the potting shed, but plant the beans when the corn is 6" high.  The literature I found on Three Sisters Gardening told me this.  Why didn't I believe it?

Abraham Darby - my favorite rose

In February we transplanted a much-loved rose, Abraham Darby.  This is a David Austin rose and as well as being vigorous and beautiful, it's highly scented.  I'm so happy that it's transplanted well and is now coming into flower.

Bonica coming into bloom

Many years ago when my daughter moved back east, she gave me her little Bonica rose.  It's been transplanted at least 3 times and surges back each time.  Its current spot is now permanent and it is also coming into bloom.  A very pretty rose, the literature tells you it's scented, but we haven't noticed much scent.  However, it's very pretty so it stays.

Aphid infestation before and after spraying with water.

A few weeks ago I noticed aphids on one bud.  Aphids multiply rapidly by asexual reproduction and you need to take care of them pronto before they become a real problem. The easiest way to get rid of aphids is to hit them with water spray.  It knocks the aphids off and they can't get back on.  I checked out this bud today and there are still no aphids to be seen.

Snow peas over the top of their fence

We've already had a couple of meals of the snow peas and they are gearing up into high production and will need picking every day.  They are over the top of their zig zag fence, but they can sprawl over the top so I'm not worried.

Little Beth - bottom right - is even flowering

The tomatoes are also doing extremely well.  All are in flower and all the cherry variety have little tomatoes in evidence.  It won't be long!

Cherry Tomatoes - Gold Nugget, Honey Bee and Sweet Baby Girl

The cherry tomatoes in the tires and half barrel are just as advanced as those in the main bed.  The black of the tires absorbs heat.  The tomato between the tires is one given me by a friend.  Unfortunately this pot was all I had available at the time, so I'm not expecting huge production from Honey Bee until I can find something bigger.

And finally, today we poured another 4x4 bed.  This will be the last for this area as there's no more room.  One bed is totally finished, another bed had its floor poured today while we poured the wall of the third.  Each time we pour a new bed we find ways to improve.  This time we added cross bracing so the walls don't bulge in even a little bit.  Makes removing the forms so much easier!  Now we just need soil.  I've noticed that the wood on the Three Sisters Garden is finally giving up.  It has to be over 15 years old now and has certainly served its purpose.  We're thinking we'll make three more 4x4's in place of what is there now.  Each bed will be a little Three Sisters Garden and the squash can meander at will.

I really do prefer to garden in a raised bed.  A little bit of height makes gardening so much easier.  The soil is untouched by human feet and so I can do all the soil turning myself.  Perhaps now that I have so many raised beds I'll be satisfied!  Perhaps.