Garden Wrap up 2014

The garden plot failed in 2014!

There is no other way to say it.  Except for the herbs which flourished until frost all the other plants in the garden were dead by the end of September.

the row of dead plants to the left are my neighbors dead sunflowers on 9-31-14
That collection of green in the middle is lettuce that reseeded in the space where the tomatoes used to be.

The creeping death moved from one plant to another and without fail turned even the healthiest plants into brown shriveled dead non-growing things.

I was unwilling to admit this and never quite finished the posts from late September that documented this death. But I have located all the photos and will update those posts in the next few weeks so others can scroll through and see what happened.

It is my opinion, based on the types of plant death that occurred and the fact that the herbs were mostly unaffected by this problem, that the soil was to blame for the issues.  The soil may have had plenty of nutrients or not, I did not have it tested once the plants started dying from diseases that were not soil quality related.  The soil was littered with several identifiable bacteria.  Check out my post on what was wrong with the tomatoes to see what I mean.

The garden plots have been traded to the City of Elmhurst to use for flood retention so will not be used in the coming year.  It is assumed we will get new areas to plant in for 2015, but I have not been informed of any locations as yet.  I am pleased that these plots are not to be used again as they were too far gone to repair and would have had to have been left fallow for a couple of years to start any possibility of repairing the soil and killing off the bacteria in the soil.

What I wanted to be able to do in 2014 was raise enough vegetables to freeze and can and be able to use them all winter and post about the process of preserving the vegetables.  However, there was never enough harvest to go beyond our personal use for the days following a harvest.  The herbs were very prolific and showed no sign of disease and I am still using the herbs I dried from the community patch.  Herbs are generally resistant to soil borne illnesses so their success only reinforced my belief that the soil was healthy in nutrients but also rampant with bacteria.

What I did learn and want to pass on as an important note is that if you have a community plot and are hoping to grow old-fashioned heirloom varieties of plants, you may want to reconsider.  Many hybrid plants were hybridized to make them more resistant to diseases that occur naturally in the soil and are hard to remove.  As a result they would have been much more resistant to the diseases that eventually killed the plants.  We grew a couple of hybrid peppers and those were the last plants to die in the garden.

jalapenos still producing on 9-31-14

The cucumber was the most damaged by soil issues and the sheer number of bugs the garden had because of the previous winter.  Squash and melon, all grown from heirloom seed, were the first to show signs of problems.

The various beans did okay but did not continue to produce after an initial harvest.  We were able to save enough seed that we can probably grow more next year.  The tomatoes were slow and had damaged fruit, but probably would have lived longer and produced more except for the incredibly wet weather we experienced.  The soil was not dry enough for them and their root systems and they eventfully rotted from the bottom up.

dead sunflowers

The sunflowers just died within days of reaching flowering stage.  They were beautiful one week and dead the next.

The zinnias, grown from seed, did very well, but the bugs did make finding a perfect bloom hard.  The dahlias never flowered.  The calendula, however, flowered until frost and I harvested hundreds of petals to use in tea.

The yellow flowers along the front are calenula

Tomato Disease Issues in the Garden

As I have posted in the weekly updates we have several tomato issues in the garden.  I have been researching these issues and have come up with the following information.

GROWTH CRACKS

Growth cracks result from extremely rapid fruit growth. This may be brought on by periods of abundant rain and high temperatures, or can occur when water is suddenly available to the plant through rain or irrigation after a period of drought. Cracks may radiate from the stem end of the fruit or may encircle the fruit. Cracks are often invaded by secondary fungi and bacteria that further rot the fruit.

Maintaining even moisture by watering regularly and mulching the soil around the tomato plant can help reduce growth cracks. Varieties differ in susceptibility to cracking, and variety descriptions may be helpful in choosing a plant less likely to crack.  Heirloom tomatoes are most susceptible to growth cracks.  I still like them even though,due to our heavy rains, we have many growth cracks this year.

BLOSSOM END ROT

Among the problems we have seen with our tomatoes is blossom end rot.  This is very common among Roma tomatoes.   Affected fruit have a tan to black flattened spot at the blossom end of the fruit. Secondary fungi and bacteria can enter the blossom end rot area, resulting in further decay of the fruit. Blossom end rot can appear on fruit in any stage of development, but it is most common when fruit are one-third to one-half grown. The first fruit produced by the plant are often most severely affected. Fruit that develop later in the season on the same plant can be unaffected. I generally, in the past, ignored this problem unless it became so rampant that I did not get enough fruit.  I was warned that some people believed there were calcium problems in the soil of the Community Garden and the cause of blossom end rot is calcium deficiency in the tomato plant. Although blossom end rot means that the plant does not have enough calcium within the developing fruit, it does not mean that there is a lack of calcium in the soil. Often blossom end rot occurs as a result of several cultural or environmental factors that affect the plants ability to take up calcium. Fluctuations in soil moisture, heavy applications of nitrogen fertilizer, and injured roots can all predispose tomato plants to blossom end rot.

Blossom end rot, M. Grabowski

The amount of calcium salt available to the plant decreases rapidly in the presence of excessive salts such as potassium, magnesium, ammonium, and sodium. Extreme fluctuation in moisture can also reduce the availability of calcium salts needed by the plant. Heavy applications of nitrogen fertilizers and abundant rain cause rapid and luxuriant plant growth and predispose the fruit to blossom-end rot, especially during periods of dry, hot weather.

Blossom-end rot can be minimized by maintaining a uniform supply of moisture through regular watering and soil mulches, applying fertilizer according to the results of a soil test, and avoiding root injury by not cultivating within 1 foot of the base of the plant.

Although we have blossom end rot on a few plants it is not wide spread and can be linked to the heavy rains we had so is not unexpected.  I just pick the damaged fruit and dispose of it.

VERTICILLIUM WILT

Probably verticillium wilt

However among the plants we have other symptoms such as spotted and dying leaves.  So my first thought was we might have Verticillium wilt.  This is a common fungus and I have seen it before in my herbs and my maple trees. The fungi causing this disease overwinter in the soil as mycelium or on plant debris as microsclerotia. The fungi infect a susceptible host through wounds in the roots caused by cultivation, nematodes (microscopic worms), or the formation of secondary roots. This disease is considered a cool-weather disease, developing between 65° and 83°F.  Since we had a very cool start to the season I thought this was a great disease to start with in my research.

verticillium wilt

Diseased plants often have only a portion of the plant wilting, such as one or two stems rather than the whole plant, but it will be a whole section of a plant, not a few leaves or branches.  The look of my tomato plants is a bit different than what is expected in Verticillium wilt.  However, my search here took we to other fungal diseases that lay dormant in the soil and that was when I discovered early blight.

EARLY BLIGHT

Early blight is a common tomato disease caused by the fungus Alternaria solani. It can affect almost all parts of the tomato plants, including the leaves, stems and fruits. The plants may not die, but they will be weakened and will set fewer tomatoes than normal. Early blight generally attacks older plants, but it can also occur on seedlings. Stressed plants or plants in poor health are especially susceptible. Early blight is also a problem with potatoes.

Symptoms: Dark spots with concentric rings develop on older leaves first. The surrounding leaf area may turn yellow. Affected leaves may die prematurely, exposing the fruits to sun scald.

Early Blight fungus overwinters in plant residue and is soil-borne. It can also come in on transplants. Remove affected plants and thoroughly clean fall garden debris. Wet weather and stressed plants increase likelihood of attack. Copper and/or sulfur sprays can prevent further development of the fungus. 

The best treatment for this is to rotate crops.  It can take 4 to 6 years to work out of the soil.  And it comes from infected plant material not being removed as well as coming in on seedlings and compost materials imported from other locations.  In other words all the ways people grow plants in a community garden increases the potential for this disease to be present.  There are no good ways to treat for this fungus in a home garden so the best treatment is disease resistant plants.  

Here is a list of some resistant plants: 

Aunt Ginny's Purple - Heirloom, indeterminate, beefsteak (16 oz.) 
Big Rainbow - Heirloom, indeterminate, bi-color beefsteak (16 oz.) 
Black Plum - Heirloom, indeterminate, plum (2 in.) 
Juliet - Hybrid, indeterminate, cherry (1 ounce) 
Legend - Open-pollinated, determinate, beefsteak (14-16 ounces) 
Manyel - Heirloom, indeterminate, yellow globe (8-10 ounces) 
Matt’s Wild Cherry - Heirloom, indeterminate, cherry (1/2 inch) 
Mountain Supreme - Hybrid, determinate, globe (6-8 oz.) 
Mountain Fresh Plus - Hybrid, determinate, globe (12 ounces) 
Old Brooks - Heirloom, indeterminate, globe (6-8 ounces) 
Tigerella (aka Mr. Stripey) - Heirloom, indeterminate, globe (4-6 oz.) 
Tommy Toe - Heirloom, indeterminate, cherry (1 inch)

Resources:

        Identifying Diseases of Vegetables, by MacNab, Sherf and Springer, Penn State, 1983 

   University of Minnesota Extension service website 

         http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/vegetables/#tomatoes

Texas A&M Agrilife Extension website
      http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/problem-solvers/tomato-problem-solver/

weekly update - July 28

taken 7/26/14

The rain has stopped.  In fact this past week we had to stop by and water the garden several different days as it has not rained at all.  We also finally had several warm nights so that the Tomatoes which were on the vine staying green and orange finally turned that robust red you want them to be.  The zinnias are in bloom, the sunflowers are almost ready to bloom and the herbs are growing so quickly I could harvest them everyday.

Zinnias

Green peppers

This material coupled with zucchini, broccoli rabe, cucumbers, beans, peas and peppers and a wonderful selection of herbs all coming ripe made the garden a place of bounty this week.

Although we have harvested previously, this was the first time we filled that basket while at the garden. Here is a view in the basket.

I spread everything out on a table so you could see all that we retrieved on our water and harvest run on Saturday.

The purple basil to the left has been turned into herbal vinegar (check out this post if you want to make an herb flavored vinegar yourself.) The lemon balm (above photo, top left) was bundled and hung up to dry.  The genovese basil (front left) became a caprese sandwich with ham, mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil on toasted bread.  It was marvelous!

There were enough beans to fill a pint basket (the square wood basket you see at the farmers market) which means we have at least a pound and can make a full recipe of a green bean dish.  Now to decide which one.  I will post the recipe once we decide what to make.

The broccoli rabe (just above the tomatoes in the above photo) is the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted and as a result it rarely makes it to be cooked.  I eat it raw as a snack during the day.

orange thyme with needle-like leaves

The peppers have been coming in 1 or 2 a week for a month so each generally ends up in a salad, but this week I think we will make kabobs.  I have a great recipe for a Greek yogurt dip for kabobs that will be tasty!

I also cut orange thyme (far right by the peas.)  This is being left to dry in  a paper bag like the thyme I have harvested before (see July ___)   I generally cut only one thyme per day so I can remember which one I cut and keep them from getting mixed together in the harvesting basket.

Lemon balm before harvesting

Cucumbers - you have too look for the fruit, it is hidden under the large leaves.
You think you have none, then pull back and leaf and find more than one.

We grew a burpless cucumber which is very thin with few seeds.  We are going to turn this week's cucumber into a cucumber salsa and serve it over chicken and fish.

We harvested the bush beans today and have been debating harvesting the pole beans, but I know that both pole and bush beans will continue to produce until the vines die int he fall, so I think I will harvest the pole beans and save a later collection for drying to use in the winter.

From Bounty to Problems

Most of the issues this week are simple and not too upsetting or difficult to overcome.  The tomatoes still have the dark spot and the blossom end rot I have mentioned before.  This is due to the cooler wet weather.

You can see the black spot on this non-ripe tomato

And the peas have already started to dry so this will be the only harvest we get from them.  I will remove the plants and sow another row of peas for fall harvest.

peas turning brown