Tomatopocalypse
Why is Nature so Cruel?
After a little more than a six weeks of copious tomatoes, things in the garden have taken a turn for the distressing. My tomatoes have come down with the vegetable version of monkeypox.
Two weeks ago, everything looked good out there. I had more tomatoes than I could deal with, but now it’s the Waste Land. (“August is the cruelest month, breeding blight into the tomatoes…”) The plants are keeling over, and the tomatoes are rotting on the vine. Big patches of earth are appearing where there should be greenery.
There are so many tomato diseases—fungi, blights, mildews—that I can’t be certain which of these is ravaging my tomato patch. It’s probably something called "southern blight”, but I don’t know. I’m not an agronomist. I’m not even a very good home gardenist.
My coworker Neal, who lives three or four blocks from me, reports that his tomatoes have likewise been afflicted. So, I’m not alone in this. The whole neighborhood is being punished by God for its presumptuousness. Or, it might be my soil is cursed by the restless Native American ghosts evicted from their graves. I’m open to the possibility of supernatural causes.
Given that southern blight, like most other tomato plagues, stays in the soil over the winter and will reappear in the same spot in subsequent years, I’ll probably have to switch to raised beds next spring. There aren’t enough sunny places in my backyard for me to dig new garden beds, unless I cut down some of my neighbor’s trees. That’s probably impractical, given that she’s a light sleeper and chainsaws are loud.
My neighbor seems like a nice old lady, but she could be a witch who has cursed my harvest. (As a medieval historian, I know that witches are famous for doing just that.) In that case, if she is a witch, it might be possible to solve two problems with one good ducking, but only if I can get the city authorities do their duty regarding witch infestations.
Unfortunately, despite my ignorance of science and latent superstition, crop failure is always a commentary on the farmer and his abilities. Thus, it’s only natural that one would seek to blame others for his misfortunes. Absent supernatural causes, it seems most likely that my garden hygiene was poor. I didn’t stake my plants correctly and didn’t pay attention to how the leaves were drooping onto the damp soil following the big rain we had a couple weeks ago. My reward for laziness is tomato death. That’s harsh.
Yes, of course, if I really wanted some tomatoes I could go to the farmers market and buy tomatoes, but I refuse to do so on principle. I would rather not eat tomatoes than eat someone else’s during the late summer, when my own tomatoes should be bounteous.
The most important thing, however, is that Nature is now depriving me of my daily tomato sandwich. She is a cruel mistress.
Every year I expand my garden and every year I feel like I get the same amount out of it! OK, not quite that bad, but I do feel like gardening and farming are lessons in humility and patience. Every year I get better results in one area while getting my teeth kicked in somewhere else.
This year the big better was the potatoes, planted for the first time last year late and haphazardly, this year did 16' of row on time properly hilled and got over 15# of good spuds out of 2# of seed. Also had decent results with Luther Hill sweet corn (an old heirloom) and will go bigger with corn next year. Also have been pretty happy with an heirloom zucchini, Costata Romanesco. Big plants, not super productive, but the zucchini are really better: denser, nicer flavor, prettier, and don't turn to mush when cooking. Will definitely grow them again.
The hard fails have been peppers and eggplant. Last year they were hobbled by incredible rain (16" in July alone) while this year they got stunted from a cold first half of summer. I have a northern-optimized pepper variety (Highlander, an Anaheim type) that's doing OK but all my others have failed. Eggplant finally took off in late July after a week of searing heat and now waiting to see if we stay warm enough to get a little out of them. Next year I am going to put up a high tunnel since I'm in Zone 5B where two extra weeks of good season on each end would be a 33% increase.
Tomatoes have been a mixed bag. I always plant a few Early Girls and they have been reliable as always. I was underwhelmed with Cherokee Purple last year and so far am underwhelmed with Black Krim this year, I think they're a better tasting tomato than the CPs but the CPs yielded better and I may try them again. I trialed a couple other curious varieties (Aosta Valley from Fedco, Midnight Roma from Row 7) and so far they've also lagged with very low yields. I'll keep experimenting but will probably drop next year to more early girls and maybe one or two other types to try out. The EGs just power through with good results every single time. Maybe I'll really make a point of trying grafting next year... always something more to try in this game.
Regarding blight, I had a lot of it last year, owing to the rain. I will say the Brandywines and Cherokee Purples put up a good fight (they have decent resistance for an heirloom) but I probably got a month more out of them thanks to Daconil. Copper/sulfur sprays can work if you get them on before it's progressed too much but they were not working for me. But I've also become pretty religious about single-stemming and heavily pruning the lower 12-18".
The most frustrating part though is the whole having to wait 6 months before I can start the cycle again. I'm learning to grow deeper into the fall, spinach and brassicas and other things that don't mind a little frost, even tapped a couple of trees last March and made a pint of very good maple syrup, but all of those are just things to keep me busy waiting for the main event to begin. A friend of mine says he's learned to love the rhythms of nature, but I think he's either a nut or a liar. May to November, I can deal with that, but December through April wear on me.
Checking in on you. Hope that pesky writer's block is losing up and will dissolve in the new year. Miss your voice and humor!