Late Season Burnout

[Mark_Thompson]

Anyone else get this? I feel like for the first few months I pick every diseased leaf, hit every flower with the toothbrush, check every plant every day. Now five months in the plants look as haggard as I feel I almost celebrate when I pull a plant because it’s one less to (mostly not) take care of.

[Danny]

Not often, but my season is split into two, early-before-the-heat and after-the -heat. So a break in between sometimes helps a little.

[karstopography]

Yes, my enthusiasm for the garden in general wanes by August. But, I planted the seeds for most of my tomato plants at the end of December 2021 or January of 2022. Sets went into the garden in February and March. That’s a lot of time, Seven months plus of regular maintenance, defense, fertility, pruning, staking, all this and more work on tomatoes out in the beds for seven months, even more time and effort if you count the seedlings and sets period.

A lot of people here are planting seeds in March, April and even May and sets are going out in April, May and June. They might have only been maintaining plants out in their beds for three or four months by now. Some, many of them will be done in a month or so.

I still have about 1/2 my tomato plants, usually I’ve pulled them all by now. But, there’s been very little in the way of any maintenance, pruning, staking, fertilizing, etc.that has been performed on them lately. I’ve picked a worm or two, cut out a few unruly stems, and that’s about it for the last couple or three weeks. I’m still trying to decide what to do with the tomato plants that remain. How many do I let ride into the fall? I have just a few tomatoes on the plants now and that’s a first for me to have had actual tomatoes ripening and ones to pick all summer from early in May into September. Five straight months of full sized tomatoes it will be, I didn’t think it was possible here. Now I know it is. Is that what I even want, to be chained to taking care of tomato plants for that long?

Seriously, next season, I might just focus on the heart of the productive and quality tomato time in May and June and pull the plants in July. Hopefully eat my fill during those months, hand out some freebies to family or friends and freeze the rest, then take the rest of the summer off and do something else, go fishing or read some books. Plant a ton of okra and sunflowers that don’t require much care and look pretty. Solarize the beds. Anything that isn’t tomato related. Forgo any effort to keep higher maintenance plants like tomatoes going all summer long.

Once things start to cool off here in October, my enthusiasm for gardening will likely rise with the falling temperatures.

[brownrexx]

It has been a rough season here. Early in the season I had planned to plant lettuce for a fall crop since it was so nice in the Spring. Now I really do not feel like planting anything.

It has been our driest gardening season in my memory any many of my plants dried up due to lack of water. I could only keep the most important crops like tomatoes and peppers alive. It was quite depressing this year.

I did get some decent harvests but much less than I usually get and I actually had to buy corn for freezing since mine only produced about 2 dozen ears instead of about 12 dozen.

[bower]

I spent a couple of years exploring the potential of extended tomato season before I realized that the effort was not worth the returns.
I do chronically get garden burnout in August, and wanting to be doing something else entirely, especially the tomatoes which require DAILY chores like watering, opening or closing the greenhouse, fruit picking, leaf sanitation or pruning especially this far into the season. .
We may have started a couple months later than you @karstopography in early March, but I ended up with 35 plants this time, and growing a heavy crop for myself and family to put away for winter, not just fresh eating, all in containers but spread outdoors as well as in. With such a hot summer there have been maybe two days in the entire period that I didn't need to water them all. It took me six hours to do a heavy and much needed sanitation pruning the other day, after this summer of extremely humid weather (with plants that TBH have been selected to tolerate cold, not heat). The worst 5 plants for leaf and stem disease are now gone, but there's a lot of cutting and composting to come. If I just cut them down when they finish this round of fruit regardless of their condition, I'll be happy enough to pare it down to maybe half dozen plants if there are some ready to set up and ripen before October.
Also with regards other crops, I was way too ambitious for the amount of rain we got this season! I've literally been spending half a day watering every day for months. Then comes harvest and that has to be managed and processed too.
Anyway I've gotten used to some burnout every year by the end of August. It's time....

[GoDawgs]

Oh yeah, it's burn out big time. Pickles said it's about time to look for more green tomato recipes.

@brownrexx expressed what a bunch of us probably feel after this gardening season. A lot of frustration, disappointment and even depression due to weather related hassles. Tired of fighting the elements. I'm to the point that if it all funks up with this series of showers we're getting, so be it. My attention has already turned to the fall veg sets growing on the light stand.

It's funny how just the prospect of fall planting has somehow rejuvenated an interest in planting again that is already putting the bad memories of this year's spring/summer effort in the rear view mirror. Out with the old, in with the new! Sometimes I wonder if the ability to have something growing year round isn't a curse of some kind. Of course, it's all by choice so I have only myself to blame.

Meanwhile, today's rainy day activity will be packing up more MMMM seeds.

[Tormahto]

It has been way beyond a rough season, here. It started out with a really wet and cold spring, where everything was delayed by a month. I began a near total reconstruction of the garden, from rebuilding beds, and finishing filling in a bed that was started last year. I needed all new bean poles (100 of them) and new tomato stakes (more than 100). That's going out into the nearby woods, doing a lot of cutting with a bowsaw, and hauling them back home. I was already fairly worn out before any planting.

I have a second garden down the road, in a neighbor's yard. He constantly drove his truck over the garden soil, from last fall until this spring. I found out, just before planting time, that the soil was almost as hard as cement. Wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load, of compost from well down the road, was mixed into the "cement", to lighten it up.

At least tomato starts, and later transplants, went smoothly. The drought started right about the time I severely sprained an ankle (jumping out of the way of a vehicle, running a red light, that almost hit me). It was either resting the ankle or letting the garden fry. I succeeded at constantly re-spraining the ankle for another 2 + months, and it being too painful to water at times, watching the garden withering away. With the drought, all kinds of birds, critters, and a bear, have come in and eaten nearly everything, including almost all of the directly planted seeds. With 100+ tomato plants, other than some SunGolds, I've picked 3 tomatoes. Weeding has been a new revelation. Previously, they could be pulled. This year, because the roots have gone much deeper searching for water, the weeds now have to be dug out.

I hit the wall about mid-August, when I usually make it to early/mid-September. At this point, I've given up with putting in a lot of work, where it may produce next to nothing. At least all of the early work in the reconstruction of the garden will pay off in future years. And, fall cleanup will be easier, as either plants are stunted, or there simply aren't any plants.

[GoDawgs]

@Tormato , I think that so far you get the prize for the toughest gardening season. It had to be so frustrating seeing everything wither away and not being physically able to change that. I hope your ankle is recovering.

[worth1]

I never get burned out with my pepper plants.
It's a sad day.
When old man winter comes to take them away.

[Tormahto]

@Tormato , I think that so far you get the prize for the toughest gardening season. It had to be so frustrating seeing everything wither away and not being physically able to change that. I hope your ankle is recovering.

Instead of daily respraining it, it's now maybe once a week. It's just painful enough for a very slight limp, nothing compared to the previous months.

[karstopography]

There’s some hard luck stories here.

What’s the right balance to have with the garden to avoid the burnout?

I’m in a situation currently where I’m not gardening to make ends meet or necessarily put food on the table. The fun part of gardening for me is bringing in or using something I grew for a dinner or lunch. Getting that tomato that doesn’t look like a store bought one and doesn’t taste like one either.

I keep adding new beds every season, but at some point it could be too much to care for. We took out three hollow big oak trees last week that threatened falling on the trucks and waterwell, but now I have a full sun almost the entire day of type spot to grow things like melons or corn that won’t tolerate much of any shade. Do I build the beds or say enough is enough? I won’t do anything until it cools off.

[Tormahto]

There’s some hard luck stories here.

What’s the right balance to have with the garden to avoid the burnout?

I’m in a situation currently where I’m not gardening to make ends meet or necessarily put food on the table. The fun part of gardening for me is bringing in or using something I grew for a dinner or lunch. Getting that tomato that doesn’t look like a store bought one and doesn’t taste like one either.

I keep adding new beds every season, but at some point it could be too much to care for. We took out three hollow big oak trees last week that threatened falling on the trucks and waterwell, but now I have a full sun almost the entire day of type spot to grow things like melons or corn that won’t tolerate much of any shade. Do I build the beds or say enough is enough? I won’t do anything until it cools off.

The right balance?

With many years having 150+ tomato plants, 600 pole bean vines, 100 bush beans, another mix of 100 pole and bush Asian long beans, 30+ summer squash/zucchini plants, 30+ cucumber vines, just for starters...I'm balancing on a thin string of garden twine, high above the blackberry brambles, no balancing pole, juggling all of the minor veggie and fruit plants, and all of it without a safety net.

[Tormahto]

As for increasing the amount of gardening, going from 10 tomato plants to 100 is an increase of 10X the work. But, it's more like an increase of 30X in wearing one's self down.

[Vanman]

Woven landscape fabric this year did wonders for us. Pulled weeds around the peppers and tomatoes twice all season. The squash and zucchini was weeded once or twice. We grow them vertically. The purple hull peas and pole beans were not weeded as they shade out the weeds. Same for okra.
The garden is about 2000 square feet.

They say it will last for four or five years.

The fabric cut our labor requirement drastically. Still had to spray for blight and bugs.

[Mark_Thompson]

Damn, I really hit a nerve with this one huh? Posted, went to sleep and woke up with 13 replies! Get it off your chest everyone, makes me feel good to know I’m not alone.

I did just start fifteen more plants, but I’m going to do my best to keep a good attitude and not stress if they aren’t perfect. It really is fun to give beautiful home grown tomatoes to friends who deeply appreciate them.

[rxkeith]

i do get rather tired by the time all is said and done. august is very busy for me.
stuff needs to get harvested, berries need to get picked, water everything, weed everything, do it all over again.
my wife, and son help out a lot. then once everything is out of the garden and in the house, you have to DO something with it.
my tomatoes are only just now starting to turn ripe. main croppers will have a poor showing this year. cherry tomatoes are huge plants,
loaded up with fruit, but only a few sun gold, and matina so far have turned ripe. the heat wave has skipped the keweenaw this year. night
time temps have continued to stay cool. tomatoes just sit there waiting for a sign to turn ripe.

and now with everything else, the apples are getting ripe. we would love to make apple sauce, and cider, but then school starts up again.
my wife will be teaching at the christian school again, so her time will be limited.
it would help if we were better organized.
what were we talking about?????


keith

[Tormahto]

Damn, I really hit a nerve with this one huh? Posted, went to sleep and woke up with 13 replies! Get it off your chest everyone, makes me feel good to know I’m not alone.

I did just start fifteen more plants, but I’m going to do my best to keep a good attitude and not stress if they aren’t perfect. It really is fun to give beautiful home grown tomatoes to friends who deeply appreciate them.

I was waiting weeks for someone to start a thread, so that I could finally spill my guts. Thanks.

[Setec Astronomy]

Anyone else get this? I feel like for the first few months I pick every diseased leaf, hit every flower with the toothbrush, check every plant every day. Now five months in the plants look as haggard as I feel I almost celebrate when I pull a plant because it’s one less to (mostly not) take care of.

Absolutely, every year.

[pepperhead212]

I never get burned out with my pepper plants.
It's a sad day.
When old man winter comes to take them away.

When most of my tomatoes and on their way out, my peppers are really turning it up, and the varieties I grow love this heat! Tomatoes and eggplants haven't liked this heat we've had, though there was new growth and blossoms on all of them, and we are headed into another heatwave, so no telling what this will do. But the peppers are loving it! The Thai red longbeans also don't mind the heat, compared to the other beans.

[Julianna]

I get this every year. This year, i just got frustration. We took off at the exact wrong time for a month. All my seedlings were killed by the garden sitters.my new seedlings were dumped by critters and mostly killed off. I got one of a few things that i plan on planting out this week. Yes. This week. Everything is severely stunted by the weather. We all got Covid. I am exhausted from sleep deprivation.i caught hand, foot, and mouth disease from a small child who stuck his fingers in my face and rubbed them.all over and said "does that smell, mommy? I was just touching my butt!!" The hfm was worse than covid. I want a do-over.