Posts Tagged ‘Blight’

Onto part deux, welcome to the sequel about all things ‘b’.

I have to confess that the title of this post is nothing more than a show off on my part to use some of the new gardening terms I have learnt recently. Before you say it, no that doesn’t include the word ‘berries’ I had already heard of that one but I needed a third ‘B word’ to make it look good.

You know thinking about it, there would have been a time not so long ago when I thought blight was a spelling error and bolting was some new DIY term! But thanks to advice from much more knowledgeable gardeners than myself I am now learning.

Anyway time to go off on a tangent. I never had myself down as one of those people who are so totally in tune with nature that they believe plants are living organisms that have feelings.

‘Do plants feel?’
‘Can you hurt a plants feelings?’

I once read on the internet.

Well I’m sure I don’t know but I can tell you that if plants do have feelings I feel we may owe our tomato plant a huge apology.

I had grown quite fond of the blotchy, brown, blighted, twiggy mess that was once a glorious tomato plant, but the time had come for it to leave us as we were unable to save the plant or the fruit. I was all for quickly yanking the poor thing out but Rich had other ideas. Grabbing the secateurs he insisted on cutting the poor thing up into itty bitty pieces asking me after every snip if I was sure I wanted to get rid of it. By the time there was a single lonely stalk poking through the soil, second thoughts seemed a bit redundant so it quickly took up residence in the recycling bin.

The broccoli which had ‘bolted’ suffered the same fate, although I have to say minus the ‘chopping into itty bitty pieces’ and simply got chucked away – I do think it may have got the better deal!

Oh yes, and before I forget we have new strawberries! I thought the plant had gone to sleep but Rich helpfully pointed out the planting tag thing which said they were annuals. Guess that would explain it!

So in summary do plants have feelings? I hope not, and try not to think about that next time you stand on some grass!

So we all know about my dreaded tomatoes, and how they are all ‘blighted’.

Well yesterday brought a bit of cheer to the office as Daisy Boots walked in proclaiming ‘oh yay, oh yay, would anyone like any tomatoes?’.

As she stood there dangling not one option, but two in front of me in the same way you would dangle a fish in front of a cat, she described her options of either really juicy blight free plum tomatoes or even more juicy and blight free cherry tomatoes.

Smiling I bit my tongue thinking that the blight hadn’t affected everyone then, and said ‘lovely, thank you – don’t they look nice!’

If the next growing season brings me more dreaded tomatoes that are completely blightified I will not be happy!

Firstly apologies for the blogging absence for the last week and a bit! Had a very busy weekend which involved me arguing with the sat-nav, taking a wrong left hand turn and ending up in a cycle race. No, it didn’t take me all weekend but it was one of the funnier parts of the weekend, and although I was unpopular with the cyclists I think I came first!

Anyway we are a little behind with our gardening antics at the moment, and with the nights drawing in more quickly every evening we have little time unless it’s a bit of watering.

So, updates? Well I think the tomato plant has had it. Even though we still have new fruit coming through on the plant it isn’t long before the brown patches start showing. To be fair I have heard a lot of people complaining about the dreaded blight this year, so I’m trying not to be too disheartened.

Onions are still doing fine which is good and the pink/red patches are starting to grow and look more like onions every day. After the slug ate our large pepper we are pleased to report that the small peppers are still growing and are uneaten so fingers crossed, we may get peppers after all!

The strawberry plant it has to be said is looking a little sad with its leaves flopping over the side of the Cultivation Station and the plant bearing no fruit. I do think it might be the end of the season so I am not too concerned.

Two important things we need to get done this weekend. Firstly we need to plant up the beans as the busy weekend just past meant we didn’t get round to it, so that’s a priority.

Secondly with the mornings becoming colder we need to re-pot one of the strawberry plants currently in a plastic pot into a Clover planter (utilising thermal EPS properties) to ensure it will be protected from frosts during the winter.

We still have bedding plants that need to be sorted out….…and herbs that need to be planted….. sooo much gardening to do!

Any volunteers to help?

After the disappointment from the tomato blight, I have had to remove a further eight ‘blighted’ tomatoes. There seems little I can do to save them really, so I have just removed the bad ones in hope the others will survive.

The broccoli which is flowering turns out to be, well very pretty much past it. I have been informed that the broccoli has died probably because it got too hot and dry (http://www.plant-passion.co.uk). So the insulation properties of the Cultivation Station are pretty good which means that next time we must remember to water the plants every day, because if I am honest there have been times when we have missed a few days here and there.

So that’s the bad news done and dusted, onto two pieces of good news.

Firstly the red onions are on the turn and the bases have pinkish red tinges to them, so I think that is a good sign (will take a photo for next time) and we have a new pepper on the red/green pepper plant.

 Second we have had a donation of beans for the middle of the Cultivation Station that we are hopefully planting up this weekend. I believe they are green beans but having said that they could grow tins of baked beans for all I know! That would make for quite a good picture, don’t you think?

I’m now thinking about replacing the broccoli for a winter vegetable, maybe a cabbage and then I guess I will start planning for next year.

Crop wise so far it looks like we will be living off onion soup. Onion soup all round!

So the weekend was a little disappointing, well garden wise it was. As I was lovingly attending to the plants at the weekend, I noticed something disturbing. Moving closer to the pepper plant it became apparent that the small mark on my prize pepper started to turn into a bigger mark, then a small hole then a bigger hole. In fact a slug sized hole to be quite specific and there was even a ‘trail’ of evidence.

I was gutted, and that would be putting it mildly. Granted I would have to give it marks for cutting it out perfectly, it looked almost like it had been done with a laser.

So in conclusion the Slug Stop does not work, it really doesn’t. I had a discussion with a friend who wasn’t surprised this had happened as they believe the slug eggs are already in the soil when you buy it, which would explain why I have found a few baby snails/slugs lately.

Unfortunately I have had to get some pellets, I didn’t want to, but at this rate we are not going to get anything from the plants this year, which will be a real shame as all the plants have actually grown really well. I did read the instructions for pellet application on the box but the in reality it turned out to be pretty much the same as it would be if you were applying sprinkles to ice cream. In order words, far too many of them!

So anyway I apologise to slugs and snails everywhere in advance.

In other news, the blight which has now been confirmed seems to be spreading. I keep removing affected areas but I have a horrible feeling the whole crop is going to go at this rate. Also the broccoli is flowering and doesn’t look broccoli shaped and I have no idea why. Answers on a postcard please!

So the Cultivation Station is looking extremely tidy now. I hadn’t realised just how untidy an unruly tomato plant can make a raised bed look. Rich very kindly created a pyramid of canes (of which he was very proud of) and tied up the tomato plant (thanks to advice from www.growingyourownveg.com). I meanwhile dutifully removed the excess leaves that were bearing no fruit in order to aid ripening (thanks Daisyboots). It was like Christmas as a curtain of tomatoes were lifted and we noticed lots of little ones growing that we didn’t even know were there. Joy!

Unfortunately however we have also found some more tomatoes along with their stalks which are going brown, and I’m concerned after mentioning it on Twitter that it could be ‘blight’. I had my suspicions and resigned myself to the fact that we would loose a few to bugs, but this ‘blight’ is something I knew very little about until I had advice (thanks to http://twitter.com/Plantpassion).

If anyone else has any ideas, please do let me know.

I would like to say that I am finding Twitter very helpful at the moment following some advice from some Twitter gardeners. I’m currently keeping an eye out for caterpillars on the pepper plant leaves, but I have still not seen anything so I’m still thinking slug. Additionally more advice has come in the form of removing the leaves

shading the peppers in order to aid ripening as our big pepper is still green. It sounds really obvious when I think about it now, but still hopefully it will help.

Anyway please see a birds eye view photo of the tidy Cultivation Station, well ok top floor view.