Sunday 27 December 2009

hippo! and tomatoes almost ready

My garden got a Christmas present.  The bird bath is a bit deep for smaller birds like the thornbills.  You can just put a rock in the bird path but I had my eye on this handsome chappy at the garden shop, and after a little hint it was under the Christmas tree.  The splashes along the rim are evidence that a bird has already used the bath.
http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden09/hippo.JPG
The tomatoes are almost ready for eating.  The first Tommy Toe is turning red!
http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden09/tomatoorange.JPG
I'm having a bit of trouble with the rogue de marmande.  It set a bunch of healthy fruit early on.  I've lost about 4 to caterpillars, and in the last few weeks almost every blossom has dropped instead of setting fruit.  And now, I've lost one to blossom end rot.
http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden09/tomatobad1.JPG
BER usually happens with inconsistent watering and I think that's the culprit.  The RdM is at the front of the planter, closer to the hot sun, and the plant often looks wilted.  I didn't want to over-water, since the Tommy Toe never looked wilted.  But after dropping blossoms and getting BER, I'm now pretty certain I have to keep the water up more.


2 comments:

biofutur said...

HI,
WHAT IS THE PATCH ON YOUR GREEN TOMATOE, MILDEW ?

WATCHING YOUR FOTOS, IT SEEMS THAT YOU DON´T USE Bordeaux mixture TO PROTECT YOUR PLANTS, BUT MY GLASSES ARE A LITTLE BIT SMOKY ;-}

WHICH PRODUCT DO YOU USE ?

Alexa said...

I think the patch is "blossom end rot". So far it has hit only one tomato, the rest are healthy.

No I don't use Bordeaux mixture on my plants, I don't grow enough to make it worth it. If I grew a lot of potatoes or fruit I would use Bordeaux. But I only have one potato plant and two tomato plants - not enough of anything to spray unless they get attacked by insects. Though I use Dipel against caterpillars every few weeks.