Monday, July 26, 2010

Maintenance

I pulled out 5 of the 8 tomato plants (the Lemon Boy, Green Zebras, and one of the cherry tomatoes had to go). They were looking mighty sorry and the leaf footed bugs and stink bugs were going after all the fruit--the tomato plants that are staying look pretty healthy and only had 1 tomato between the three of them, a tomato which I went and picked today even though it's not completely ripe yet--I just couldn't bear to let the stink bugs get the ONLY Ananas Noire tomato I had.

I was going to plant the other green zebra and Ananas Noire cutting I had in their place, but now I'm re-thinking it. I'll probably still plant the Ananas Noire because I have it, but I will just give the rest of the green zebras away.

Instead I think I'll plant the ancient zucchini and yellow squash seeds I have--if they don't come up, not that big of a deal since I wasn't planning on planting summer squash, and if they do then maybe we'll have some summer squash.

3 comments:

Paul said...

What is the deal with that? I can't seem to squeeze more than 2 tomatoes/plant for "normal" sized tomatoes. I'm done with them. DONE! Peppers and potatoes perform much better for me. Those lovely nightshades have no bad attitude.

I also discourage planting more tomatoes where others have perished. The bugs know exactly where to go (plus, it'll be in a new and exciting flavor- yum!) and there could easily be a fungus in the soil w/all the humidity and rain we've had this season. Rotation is sensible, not faddy.

katina said...

Yes, I know, and when I take out the summer crops to replace with winter crops, I make sure the same family isn't where it was in the summer. The problem is that I'm short on space if I do try to rotate when I'm doing a second planting of the tomatoes. Mostly because the tomatoes are the only plants I'm pulling out at the time when I'm doing a second planting.

In the end, since I only planted one new tomato plant, it's in the same spot that one of the other tomatoes was in, but when I pull it out in December I'll either plant beets, onions, or spinach in its place.

Tina Poe said...

I've been slacking! I still haven't pulled out my sad looking old tomatoes. I'd like to try Green Zebra again for the fall, but I need to hurry it up.