Wilting Toms

Sad to say, but although the tomato plants are yielding fruit, they have been afflicted by wilt. I would suspect it is the infamous 'bacterial wilt' which tropical soils are known for.

Fusarium and Verticilium wilt are deadly because they attack the roots of the plant and stop it from receiving nutrients from the soil. The plant displays early symptoms of wilt through its drooping leaves and branches. In the intermediary stages, the branches and leaves of the affected plant look severely brown and dry, no matter how much water you give the plant. The final stage, brown discolouration may take place on the plant stems and at the base of the plant. The affected plant withers a slow, lingering death. Fruit may remain unaffected, as the plant pours all its remaining energy into it. However, fruit produced may be drier and more tart than normal.

The only way to avoid wilt is to plant in pots, using sterilised potting mix and not letting plants make contact with any soil from the garden. I thought I had isolated two Grosse Lisse tomato plants using this technique. However this was before the wilt began rearing its ugly head in the garden beds affecting the cherry tomatoes. Unbeknownst to me, I had dealt the fatal blow to the Grosse Lisse by layering the bottom of the container with regular garden soil. The wilt slowly crept upwards and although the fruit was still large and healthy, the Grosse Lisse fell victim to this grim reaper of tomatoes....

The worst thing is that the wilt has spread to the eggplants. I thought eggplants were immune to wilt, as some gardeners recommend grafting tomato plants onto eggplants in order to avoid wilt. However, I found out that this applies to only certain types of eggplants, such as the Thai variety (small and green).

Perhaps the wilt has also affected the sweetcorn plants, which took on a cardboard brown colour a few weeks back. All the corn ears being produced were dry and 'unfinished'. Or maybe it is the mealybugs that the ants have farmed, which have sapped the corn dry. I don't know. But between the wilt and the ants, I DO know that corn and tomatoes did not make it through this season. Question is, has this put me off planting tomatoes ever again?

DRIED UP CORN EAR

"Second" Bed

Today, my boyfriend and I planned the second (or northern) bed and got to work putting the plants in. We had a dozen or so leftover Grosse Lisse tomato seedlings and a couple of Lebanese cucumbers ready to go into the ground. As well as hand-raised chilli babies sprung from seeds. The chillies looked so tiny when planted in the bed. Fragile and unprotected. They weren't growing any bigger in their egg cartons, so here's hoping they will, in their new bigger home.

We decided to place the tomatoes in the bed in a slanted " N " formation. This breaks up the rectangular bed into four sectors in which we planted chillies, cucumbers and garlic chives. We will fill in the rest with capsicums once they are large enough. I estimate that not all the chilli plants will survive - so where there is a vaccuum, I will replant with a capsicum. Most gardening books I have read, treat chillies the same as capsicum. Interesting. They also grow from very similar looking seeds into very similar looking seedlings. I suppose it's because they are part of the same family.

Another source of joy for me in the garden is watching the baby butternut pumpkin grow bigger. I think my hand pollination of the female flower the other day actually worked! The butternut seems to be growing incrementally every day. I love looking at it and admiring its shape. At this stage, I don't care so much for harvesting the vegetables as much as just watching them grow, and marvelling at the process nature takes. It's such a simple thing really, and the plants are just doing what they naturally do with minimal fuss... but to me it's a thing of beauty and simplicity.