Growing Tomatoes

Dearborn, Michigan--I snapped a picture of this painting hanging in the Henry Ford Museum Michigan Room which  houses snacks and lunch.

Tomatoes? We've got 'em! Don't you know those cherry tomatoes produce abundantly? Pop them in your mouth for a surprising burst of flavor. My DH snaps them off the vines for a snack as he waters the garden.

We have Early Girl, Champion, Crista, and Roma tomato plants. And they are all producing now for an outrageous harvest of red fruit (or is it a vegetable? LOL the perennial question)

My DH loves sliced tomatoes covered in sugar. He can also eat them like an apple fresh picked from the vine. I prefer a tomato on a sandwich or in a salad.

So far no signs of blight or fungus. Keep your fingers crossed.

Gardening tip:  To prevent fungus, do not overwater plants. It's best to water in the mornings so the air dries the leaves during the day.

If you have problems with your tomato crop click on the Tomato Problem Solver, find the picture with your tomato problem and learn how to deal with it.

Information on Tomato and Potato Late Blight

The county extension agent wrote an excellent article in our local paper about tomato and potato blight that is hitting our area. Brought on by cool and rainy weather, she said that the late blight is hitting every corner of Michigan and the Northeast. Late blight produces spores that are carried by the winds to infect the gardens. This infection rapidly kills the foliage of tomato and potato plants and can affect the fruit.

If you have infected plants, remove the plants, place in a plastic bag, seal and discard in the trash or bury the plants deep enough that they will not sprout. DO NOT put them in a compost pile because the spores can spread.

If your potato vines show signs of blight, cut off or mow off the tops before the stems get heavily infected. This helps to prevent the spores from washing down into the potato tubers. Wait to dig the tubers 2-3 weeks after the vines are completely dead to limit the number of spores on the soil surface when the tubers are dug. Be sure to get all potatoes out of the ground so that there will be no spores living in tubers and surviving the winter. Do not wash the potatoes after harvesting them until necessary as that could spread the disease.

One sigh of relief is that the blight or fungus does not live in the soil from year to year, so it should not be a problem for gardeners next spring.

The extension agent explains that the unaffected fruit of blighted plants is safe to eat. But, the National Center for Home Food Preservation suggests using only "disease-free, preferably vine-ripened, firm fruit for canning. Do not can tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines."

If there are signs of infection on the tomato or potato, cut away the bad part. It is safe to eat the healthy part, but it is likely the fruit will deteriorate quickly due to the disease.

Pesky Tomato Problems

Tomato season is fast approaching and I know some parts of the country are in the thick of it. A member of the yahoo group I joined, The Veggie Patch, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheVeggiePatch/ suggested a resource for identifying what the problem is for the plant by having very clear pictures. Click on the photo, then read the symptoms. The page includes suggestions for controlling the disorder.

The link to this helpful information is
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/

Thanks Dev in OK..