[daniel1212]

Good work on Hornworm Patrol! That’s dedication! :)

No Hornworms here, but "blasting and mildew" in Biblical terms in this cursed earth.

Whereby the plot of various kinds of tomatoes, mostly Early Girls, Supersweet 100s, and Bib boys, when from, this 3 weeks ago:

To this today:

Which I surmise is due to crowded planting in soil infected with Early Blight disease. 19 of the 80 plants were from Home Depot, the rest started from, seed, but all are infected. Water splashing from infected soil and thereby spores onto the lower leaves of plants, where the disease spreads from, then spores to other plants. A few plants had it last year, but this year its all over. Next year - the 7th year planting - I pl;ant to give the land a sabbath rest, and I may cover the whole area with black plastic and bake the soil.

However, the fruit has so far been very good and quite plentysome, glory and thanks be to God. :

[metmom]

I have found it almost impossible to prevent blight.

Here’s a recipe for blight control.

1 G water
3 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 drops Dawn dish washing detergent

Spray morning or evening, not in the middle of the day to avoid burning plant.
If blight continues, use 3 1/5 Tbsp baking soda.

[greeneyes]

I have my beds marked out so that I have 7 areas. I of those areas is fallow/compost each year. The other beds are planted for summer and winter.

So I put completed compost and soil mix in all the beds both spring and fall for the planting seasons. Then the “fallow” bed gets the incomplete compost in the fall and cover treatment in the spring /summmer.

Well, sometimes I don’t plant all the beds, depending on the water situation. We will not use our well to water the gardens. So we depend on rainwater collection for that. Our above ground pool has sprung a leak thanks to a big tree branch during a storm.

We are going to look into getting a commercial cistern for that when we get the root cellar and storage shed completed.