As feared, the potato blight spread to the outdoor tomatoes. In one week, they went from super healthy-looking plants to dying. I ripped them all out for another bonfire and harvested what I could before the blight spread to the fruits. The resulting harvest is barely enough for a batch of green tomato chutney.
 |
| The harvest from 21 outdoor tomato plants |
So the tomato strategy for next year: greenhouse and container plants on the patio only.
Apart from this disappointment, things are going well. We got ourselves a small (1.5L) deep-fat fryer this week. With all these potatoes and the nearest chippy six miles away, we wanted our own chips. So delicious, home-made chips. We found that our second early variety, Dunluce, is quite floury and suitable for chipping, not what you'd expect from a new potato. We then branched out into courgette fritters and cauliflower pakora, but the chips are the best.
The weather has not been the best so I had some rainy days to do some preserving. The first batch of sauerkraut (two heads of red cabbage) is fermenting in the crockpot. I baked a courgette loaf, one of Sue Lawrence's 'cakes that will keep'. Well, needless to say, we never found out whether it will keep. Then a quick batch of lemon curd and a beer-brine Romanesco pickle.
 |
| Pickled Broccoli Romanesco |
The rain has turned a few vegetable areas into jungles:
 |
| Carrot jungle |
 |
| How big do parsnips grow? Bigger than chard anyway |
I've managed to do a bit of clear-out this week. On to the compost heap with most of the broad beans (though some are putting out new flowers) and all the broccoli plants. This means there are quite a few gaps appearing in the beds. I'll definitely sow some more purple kohlrabi - had the first one during the week, very tasty and so easy to grow.
 |
| Front half of the veg garden |
 |
| Back half of the veg garden |
And, despite the wind, my first sunflower has made it!
 |
| Hardy sunflower |
We lost our first lot of potatoes to the Colorado beetle, the buggers wiped the entire crop out . I suspect it is a question of you win some or loose sum , it is not so nice being on the loosing side.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this will help you at this stage but, I lost a whole crop of about 16 tomato plants to blight a couple of years back. It really put me off the whole tomato growing thing. Then a friend of mine who does organic container gardening told me that she soaks willow bark and then uses the fluid to spray the leaves of the plants, it is apparently an organic anti-blight solution. Because the main ingredient of willow bark is basically aspirin, I did a bit of online research and found that you can also do it with over the counter pills, you need uncoated aspirin tablets measuring 325mg and dissolve two tablets in about a quart of water. I use a bottle sprayer to apply the aspirin spray to get it onto the tomato plants, and you need to coat it, including under the leaves. Some studies have shown that if you apply it at the first sign of blight it can halt it. I am not sure if this works for potatoes. I have been doing this religiously on my plants this year and so far they have remained blight free. As I said, this is probably no help to you at all now but it might be worth a try next time.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for that tip - I'll definitely do that next year. I suspect I'll try outdoor toms again in a not previously used part of the paddock, far away from any potatoes and maybe only a few plants. I've also read about people popping in an aspirin with each tomato plant when they plant them out. This could be a good preventative measure.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, but some crops are harder to lose than others!
ReplyDeleteWe lost all our toms to blight last year, it's a miserable feeling and hard to know what to do about it. On the bright side, everything else in your garden looks wonderful and at least the cheerful sunflower must raise a smile! The Romanesco looks interesting, I've never come across the idea of pickling in beer-brine.
ReplyDeleteI think I will try the Ferline variety outdoors next year, far away from any potatoes. I just don't have enough space in the greenhouse to grow enough tomatoes. But yes the rest is going well, much better than expected. The beer brine recipe is from a really useful book, Abundance by Alys Fowler. It also has a great recipe for kale crisps, which I'm going to make tonight. We've already polished off one of the Romanesco pickle jars and they're delicious.
ReplyDeleteYou're sunflower is beautiful! The kohlrabi look really interesting, I'm tempted to give them a go.
ReplyDeleteThe Kohlrabi is the purple variety, looks much cooler than the normal one. The nice thing is that it grows above ground so you can easily judge when it's ready to cut. I like eating it raw, with a bit of salt or in a salad, it's like a mild juicy radish. Cooked it has a stronger flavour, which is not to everyone's taste. I wasn't keen on it as a child - maybe if my gran had grown a purple variety it would have been different! Other than chard it's probably the easiest thing I've grown so far.
ReplyDeleteWe have tomato blight as well. I could have cried. All the outside tomotoes destroyed. I did pick a load of green tomotoes and my mother just gave them all away! Such a disaster. I need to make a start on getting rid of the infected crops.
ReplyDeleteBlight seems to be getting more and more common - terrible. I'll try these Ferline tomatoes next year, see if they are any more resistant.
ReplyDelete