Patti's 2022 'Mater Adventure

[TheMad_Poet]

@ddsack Thank you. It's been rather dry this year so the leaves have remained dry and not much funk has grown. I have one plant that had Early Blight but it resolved on it's own. I do have some white flies so I have sprayed my plants 3 times with Neem. That's about all that I have done. I do not ever spray fertilizers or feeds on my leaves. The only sprays that I ever use is to control something before it gets out of hand such as fungus or white flies. I have not really had any fungal issues this year at all other than that one plant.

What I did do different this year was to use Silica Blast while the plants were seedlings. These became very sturdy stocky plants to put out. I planted in a 50/50 mix of Purple Cow Manure and Peatmoss. The plants are having to deal with some herbicide residue in my soil. This does make the new growth curl but they do outgrow it and the leaves get rather thick. I do wonder if this has something to do with it.

I really think that we have had the perfect weather for growing tomatoes this year. I wish that I had planted Brandywine because it would have been awesome.

My brandywine cowlicks were awesome this year. Perfect weather, and Tomato tone reapplied every 2 weeks. Flavor was superb until the weather cooled in mid sept. Those ripening after that were not as tasty, which has always been normal for me. Just tossed the last of my ripe and green ones yesterday. Saved lots of seeds, and they are on the way to the MMMM swap. The 6 in the raised beds were riculously productive. A lesser spot in ground for 2 plants had a lot of BER, which I never had on Brandy's before. Go figure.

[Shule]

Not a good ad for Purple Cow! Could too much blood meal affect the plants? Will be interested to hear what new ones you are growing and your opinions! Hope they all do well!

Blood is pretty salty, I think. So, I'm guessing too much blood meal might raise the sodium too high.