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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Tomato Anxiety....and other random spring things.

A quick update on my mini garden.  My tomato plants have developed something wrong with them.  Their thin baby leaves develop puckered pale spots, that have a little bit of shimmer to them.  The spots spread from the bottom leaves to the top leaves.  Which leads me to think it might be some sort of deficiency.  The weird part is that whatever it is is is only happening to my spoon tomato plants.  Every time I google the ailment it leaves me more confused that anything.  I've made a very diluted mix of epsom salt and aspirin and have sprayed in on a few plants to see if that does anything. I did notice that these plants also grew incredibly tall and wobbly, despite my lowered lights, and they were the only ones to grow that way. 

I feel like such a noob! all nervous and twitchy and confused.

I also have a plastic bin filled with a mix of random types of tomato plants.  I have been snipping the smaller weaker and slow to germinate ones as they have grown.  It feels like a gladiator ring, with me as the emperor, as I watch an incredibly slow fight to the death.  I know I should thin them more but I feel so guilty that I have to do it in the first place.  Next week I'm going to try and separate the healthier ones and give them their own mini pots, and hope some survive the transfer. 

I found out that the gardener voice in my head sounds exactly like my Okie step-grandmother from California, who has two giant green thumbs.  When I was young we would patrol her huge garden and search for snails which she would mercilessly toss onto the road.  She grew a redwood tree in her backyard, and I remember thinking that she had magical powers of some sort to make plants grow like they did.  She referred to any disease of her plants as 'gunk.'  She once gathered salt drowned roses from the sea (I'm sure some people tossed them in for a memorial or something) they were nothing but sad looking parched sticks, but she babied them in rich soil and love and grew several rose bushes from them.  Too bad she never grew tomato plants. 

Mystery illness.  I removed a section and photographed it and put it in my journal. 
My little plants, trying to survive me. 

this is the type of art projects we have in this household.

wolf fur pin.  Art has always relaxed me and comforted me. More pics/info and up for sale at: www.SalmonberryDreams.Etsy.com 


I also collected some cottonwood buds this year and decides to sell some of the balm I made.  It is also known as the balm of gilead.  But I add a bit of chamomile and aloe...we use it on our frostbite and sunburn...which we always get at spring! more info and to purchase visit: www.SalmonberryOrigins.Etsy.com

See why I didn't want to take a picture of my future garden? lol  My husband has been sneaking snowmachine carcasses back there.  Either that or they are breeding.  There is also an argo under that wood.  Once our front yard is cleared of snow this is all being moved to the front. Sometime in the next week. 

While I was taking that last photo I realized that there were several sets of little eyes trained on me.  A flock of these tiny birds were sitting in the bushes watching me.  I was a tiny bit afraid. 


6 comments:

  1. Maybe soil pH? I don't know, it seems like I always have one variety that just doesn't thrive when I start my own plants. I remember once I grew Thai green eggplant. They were so puny and stunted, but the minute they hit the garden they took off. Ended up being really delicious. I think that your plants look pretty darn good!

    I think you two have taken the mustache trend to w whole new level :)

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    1. It's been so long since I have seen plants growing in a garden that i totally have no idea what they should look like! The real test will be at the end of this month when I start hardening them off.....right now it's still 20 degrees at night!

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  2. An interesting point of view. I like to read your blog post because it is well written and intersting

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  3. Sounds like your spoon tomatoes may have mosaic virus. Tobacco mosaic can spread to tomatoes and is less severe than tomato mosaic, so if anyone was handling tobacco or smoking near the plants or any of the soil or compost had tobacco in it the poor babies may have been infected.

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    1. Ack! I hope not. Since we don't smoke, well my husband smokes pipe tobac but he hasn't touched the seedlings, and I used bagged seed soil I'm thinking whatever it is came on the seed themselves. :(

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