Garden 2020

[tgapp]

Anyone have experience growing a single tomatillo plant and getting fruit? So far a ton of flowers but they all fade away. Internets are conflicting, one side says you need two for pollination other side says if you have bees one should do just fine.

Can’t say I have a ton of bees around but definitely some.

Omg we're having this exact same problem. Had no idea we might need two plants. Follow up question - is it too late to get a second plant in the ground?

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[dtown]

No clue about tomatillos but we got 3 bee hives last year and 3 more this year. We’ve seen a noticeable difference in the performance of both the vegetable and flower gardens, luckily our kids eat the shit out of all the fruits and veggies otherwise we would be giving stuff away.


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[gravitylover]

I'm starting to get a little depressed as plants are getting ruined. The season started out wet and bugs and slugs were the name of the game, I got them under control as it dried out and the garden went to town! Now we're in another period where it's wet all the time and we're getting a few tenths to an inch a day so it never dries out. I think I have the slugs under control again (thank you Sluggo) but the beetles and cabbage worms are fucking things up. I had to remove a half dozen beautiful collard greens and brussel sprouts this morning and my cauliflower and cabbage are taking a hit and are covered in worm poop. I spent an hour on my knees cleaning the worms and poop this morning but I'm afraid for the health of those plants now after having to prune so many big chlorophyll producing leaves. I'm getting powdery mildew all over the place too but copper fungicide seems to keep that mostly in check, at least to the point I'm not too worried about the plants. On the upside I started finding ladybugs in quantity this morning so maybe aphids won't be a problem this year, now I need to figure out what eats the other bad crawly things and get some of them. What eats squash worms and cabbage worms? I can spray with Bt but I'd rather figure out what beneficials will help instead.

[climberevan]

Omg we're having this exact same problem. Had no idea we might need two plants. Follow up question - is it too late to get a second plant in the ground?

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We tried one plant and learned the hard way that it doesn't work. Then we planted 2 last year and had approx 20x as many tomatillos as we could eat or give away. We didn't bother this year. The plants get really big and unruly.

Our raised beds (about 400sq ft worth) are all built from 2X6 redwood that I salvaged from clients' decks. They are 3 boards high, which is pretty nice to work on but takes a lot of soil to fill. I've seen no sign of rot in the oldest ones, which are about 6y in. We live in the desert, though: rot is not a big concern in general.

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[riser4]

The thing about having too many tomatillos is that you can't possibly pick them all. So you end up with volunteers the next year and typically they get started late so they are dwarf and easily manageable. I separated my two plants by about 16' this year, I am hoping they get lazily pollinated and I have a small crop. It's an experiment.

[riser4]

I live in VT which is almost a temperate rain forest in most years. Rot is a huge issue.

[BCMtnHound]

Gravitylover, my mother always used cheesecloth or similar muslin cloth to cover her cabbage and late season greens to keep those dastardly little white moths from laying eggs. We get them too, but it usually dries out enough to limit them; like you our seasonal monsoons are not letting up so we will see. At least our summer squash seed seems resistant to the mild this year.

[Boissal]

I've had good luck with the single tomatillo but we have a shit ton of bees. My first year gardening in UT I planted 2 per recommendations of e-experts and ended up with gallons of tomatillo salsa and chile verde. Almost too much to handle. Riser's take is correct, let the 2nd generation plant grow and spread them out. These things are about as unruly as arugula and do not need help taking over the yard.

[Norseman]

.

[Buster Highmen]

I live in VT which is almost a temperate rain forest in most years. Rot is a huge issue.

HA! I'll see your VT squ00sh and raise you a PNW Cascades foothills.

Been slugging it out bigtime, second round of peas planted, tomatoes limping, strawbs and radishes slimed, raspberries just starting.

[riser4]

HA! I'll see your VT squ00sh and raise you a PNW Cascades foothills.

Been slugging it out bigtime, second round of peas planted, tomatoes limping, strawbs and radishes slimed, raspberries just starting.

Ya. We're a close second though.

[skaredshtles]

Just from today.

[riser4]

I like em young



And tossed with herbs and seasonings and balsamic vinegar and grilled



I m getting blossom end rot so I need to watch them and pick them early. Should I knock the blossom off? Does that help? Never had rot before.

[gravitylover]

Yay for BT. I got the concentrate yesterday, mixed a strong batch and doused that whole bed. This morning there were almost no worms left and I didn't see any leaf hoppers either. Today is grub battle day to see if I can save the potatoes. Maintaining a garden in dry/drought periods is so much easier...

[tgapp]

I like em young



And tossed with herbs and seasonings and balsamic vinegar and grilled



I m getting blossom end rot so I need to watch them and pick them early. Should I knock the blossom off? Does that help? Never had rot before.

get a liquid calcium based feed, mix it with water, and apply to the leaves as directed. when you see a fruit with end-rot pick it off, don't let it keep going.

[gravitylover]

^^ That goes for tomatoes too? The first one that popped is rot discolored but still firm at the base but seems to be growing nicely otherwise.

[SB]

I luv me sum squash hot off the grill.

In other news the death trap is baited for Mr. Ground Hawg.

The wait begins.

[tgapp]

^^ That goes for tomatoes too? The first one that popped is rot discolored but still firm at the base but seems to be growing nicely otherwise.

yep, in both cases what is happening is the plant has extreme calcium deficiency, and the bottom of the fruit rots because of it. long-term you can fix this by a drytop calcium fertilizer (or liquid/compost tea + Ca) but often those fertilizers are too slow to address this issue. best short term fix is a foliage fertilizer, since tomatoes and squashes can uptake calcium thru their leaves.

for a drytop - every 14 days or so
for a foliant - 2/3 times a week

[riser4]

I luv me sum squash hot off the grill.

In other news the death trap is baited for Mr. Ground Hawg.

The wait begins.

Get a bow and go medieval on his ass.

[riser4]

yep, in both cases what is happening is the plant has extreme calcium deficiency, and the bottom of the fruit rots because of it. long-term you can fix this by a drytop calcium fertilizer (or liquid/compost tea + Ca) but often those fertilizers are too slow to address this issue. best short term fix is a foliage fertilizer, since tomatoes and squashes can uptake calcium thru their leaves.

for a drytop - every 14 days or so
for a foliant - 2/3 times a week

The more you know. Next question. Calcium fertilizer?

[tgapp]

The more you know. Next question. Calcium fertilizer?

this is what we've used, seems to work well: liquid calcium fertilizer.

for a dry fertilizer, i got something similar from the local garden store. 4-0-0 or so.

[tgapp]

long term - you can use crushed eggshells, oyster flour, etc, but those will take months/years to become bioavailable. best to use the foliant to save this year's crop. then, in fall, put oyster flour and eggshells in your beds.

[riser4]

Well, the compost I am working in has eggshell bits. So that will help for next year. This is a new section of garden. We compost our egg shells and of course they don't degrade much. So when I screen the compost it has fragments.

[BCMtnHound]

For calcium deficiency, you need to look at both the available calcium in the soil as functions of soil pH, and the cation exchange capacity coupled with percent base saturation. pH affects how available most of the soil nutrient are. We use calcitic lime to try and keep our natrually acidic soils above 6.5 Cation exchange capacity is the measure of how much nutrient a soil can hold, and this combined with percent base saturation will indicate how much calcium is available for the plants (along with magnesium, potasium, sodium and hydrogen adding to 100%). Calcium should be somewhere around 80%, but not higher as this indicates a deficiency of potasium and magnesium. In practical terms, lime the soil to get that pH up above 6.5, and apply a good all-round fertilizer with micronutrients.
As for a relatively simple and cheap foliar calcium frtilizer, try a milk/water (50/50) solution. Just expired milk, or even evaporated or powdered milk will work fine. Just don't apply it too heavily, or allow it to sit on the leaves too long - wash it off with water after a couple hours to prevent milk spoilage (odour) or fungal diseases, especially on tomatoes. This shouldn't be a problem where the monsoons are continuing to pound.

That felt good to spend lunch going through my old soil science texts. This contract stuff under COVID-19 is really the suck these days.

[BobMc]

Last year my one Marzano tomato had blossom end rot on about 90% of the tomatoes. Calcium uptake can be bamboozled by your watering style. I put eggshells all around the base of the plant and continued my twice a day watering with the hose style, to the same BER results.

This year I saved eggshells all year and threw a handful in the bottom of each tomato hole. I’m using drip at the base of every plant and running that for 23 minutes/station every morning at sunrise.

So far my one Marzano is lagging growthwise this season but has numerous tomatoes full sized but not ripe yet and no BER. Most gardeners around here are seeing the same thing with Marzanos and Roma type tomatoes, slow growing. If you live in Utah and aren’t adverse to Facebook there are several Utah gardening groups, the USU extension people participate and have a lot of good info.

BER info: https://utahpests.usu.edu/ipm/notes_...lossom-end-rot