I am terribly disappointed as I was so looking forward to sun-drying more cherry tomatoes this year and also to building a stock of passata for the winter. It has not been a fantastic year in the potager, with everything taking much longer to mature/ripen than last year and with the onions and garlic failing to reach a decent size. But I shouldn't complain, as I have had loads of French beans, potatoes, carrots, some good beetroot and celery and also shallots out of it so far.Elsewhere, we had a short walk up in the cloud along the Peguère forest track this afternoon to loosen the legs up after yesterday's exertions and Andy spotted this spider with its dinner - isn't the web with the water droplets on it beautiful?
2 comments:
It's difficult to tell the precise problem with your tomatoes from the pic but assuming that the leaf withering could not be explained by weed-killer drifting on to the plants if the symptoms are mottled/curled/withered leaves, possible brown streaks on stems, browning or bronzing of fruit it is probably a virus and there is no remedy except to pull up and destroy (not compost) affected stems. The solution is to buy good virus-free plants, spray regularly when growing to deter aphids (greenfly etc), and take precautions not to handle plants when there might be trace chemicals on your hands. Also, don't replant tomatoes in same spot year after year and avoid planting tomatoes after potatoes (or vice versa) as both are members of the same family. Try and work out a 3 year rotation for planting if space permits.
Hope this helps
Taa v much for your comments, Ricky. Mine is an organic potager and no chemicals are used in the vicinity or on the plants. I tend to use savon noir to deter aphids and suchlike. I did a lot of reading up about crop rotation last year when I started the potager so the end conclusion does sound like it must be a virus. My neighbour has had the same problem but her potager is on the other side of the house to mine. Anyway, I have this evening taken out all of the plants and will make sure they get destroyed tomorrow. It's soul destroying. I had a cracking crop last year and planted a wonderful variety of toms this year and was really looking forward to sampling them :-( Oh well, can't win 'em all.
Taa again for your advice
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