Saturday, July 7, 2018

Weather and Tomatoes

It's been a little different this time as far as July goes.  The saying here is that it never rains in July.  That is just a generalization not to be taken literally like a coworker used to do when I mentioned this.  He just liked to argue.  Yes, I have recent memories of major down pours around and on July 4 as much as 10 inches.  So this July 4th and following days it really hasn't been so unusual that we are getting rain.  As of today we have gotten 2.3 inches with a possibility of more through the weekend.  It is a much needed and welcome relief to this very dry and hot area.  

It also comes just in time for my garden and my yard.  It has relieved me of having to water the grass and raising my bill even more after the big leak last Saturday.  As for the garden, I am not harvesting anything at the moment.  There are a few green tomatoes that will be ready in a couple weeks.  I am still getting a couple ripe ones occasionally that I have to throw over the fence since they have that tomato blossom rot that I have been fighting.  I have done everything that I have been able to find regarding this blight.  From what I read, it is a lack of calcium in the soil.  I have added Epsom Salt several times and also bone meal.  The Bone meal should have taken care of it for at least this season.  The Epsom Salt was supposed to also.  I have no other ideas on what I might do to stop this.  I have lost a lot of tomatoes to this.  I have brought in  soil from elsewhere also.  Yet the same issue returns after the first year of using the new soil.  I have also added more of the same the last two years and it still came back.  I am at my wits end.  I wanted to let it lie dormant this year, but the wife really wanted to have the fresh tomatoes so I relented when I saw how disappointed she was.  I will research some more and see if there is something else I am missing.  I thought at first it was some sort of bug but every tomato has the exact same rot characteristic.  A bug wouldn't do that.

If ya'll have some suggestions about my tomato issues I would welcome your input.

Monday I have a blood test for my upcoming visit to the Urologist.  I will have a little discussion with him about the Testosterone he has me on.  I think I am going to for go this treatment.  I am not being consistent with it for the last year.  I sometimes even forget to use it.  I doubt it is doing me much good.  There are downsides too that I have been dealing with and I am ready to get that our of my way.

Happy Trails

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

I have a black thumb as far as growing things... No help here. Re rain, we 'might' have had thirty minutes of rain in the last month and a half. My yard is gone...

Randy said...

Old NFO, i get it about the black thumb, I was counting on you LOL. My yard is in pretty good shape right now, it's been off and on wet for a week and pretty cool for this time of year. But the rest of July is still coming and August.