Walnut Wilt is a Thing

Last month, I wrote about my tomato plant succumbing to a wilt disease. Specifically, fusarium wilt. Now, I'm wondering if it's not fusarium wilt, but actually walnut wilt that weakened my Jubilee tomato plants and affected two other tomato plants.

I have a big black walnut tree on the side of the yard. It provides great shade, but as I've come to learn, it produces and secretes a substance called juglone (through its leaves, roots, nuts) that affects a lot of plants, such as tomatoes. Affected plants exhibit signs similar to fusarium and verticillium wilt (yellowing leaves, wilting plant, the eventual death of plant).  The wilting often happens early and midway in the growing season.

Now, it's highly possible that the area I'm growing my tomato plants may have fusarium wilt (or even verticillium wilt). But I think the most likely culprit is walnut wilt. My tomatoes are planted about 200 to 300 feet away from the walnut tree. I assume the tree'ss roots must be affecting my tomato plants in addition to the walnut husks that are littered everywhere by the dang squirrels.

The Jubilee tomato plants are heirlooms and planted closest to the walnut tree, and may not have any resistance to wilt. My Celebrity tomatoes, which are supposed to be resistant to fusarium wilt, actually started wilting at the end of July. I thought it was odd, but then assumed that it was labeled wrong and semi-resistant. Of course, knowing that walnut wilt is an actual disease, it makes sense that the Celebrity tomato plants would eventually succumb to walnut wilt. Of course, I haven't seen the Roma tomatoes wilt, but it is battling some other leaf disease right now (blight or septoria leaf spot).

Since walnut wilt isn't a bacterial or fungus disease, but more of a defense mechanism (in my opinion) for survival, the only real option is to plant my tomatoes elsewhere or cut down the walnut tree. Right now, I don't want to cut down my tree, yet. So, I'll look to plant my tomato plants elsewhere in my yard.

Do you have a walnut tree in your yard? Has it affected your garden or gardening practices?

Dearest Honeycrisp

My Mr. Man has waited seven long years. Seven! And finally this year, our little grafted Honeycrisp tree gave us apples. He tested one yesterday, but it's not fully ready. There are still several more weeks left before the apples are fully ripe, so my Mr. Man will have to continue to wait patiently.

If you've been reading my blog for some time, you'll know that I had planted a dwarf Honeycrisp about seven to eight years ago and a terrible storm broke the graft. I purchased a regular-sized tree, in which I gave away. Eventually, I settled on this current tree. 

I've seen blossoms on it in the last two springs, but no apples. I almost gave up on the tree, but this year it surprised us with lots of apple blossoms. I'm really excited, but not as excited as my Mr. Man, who's been waiting for the last seven-plus years.

I'll blog about the ripened appled at a later time. I hope all is well in your world and your gardens. 

Going to the Market

I love harvesting food from my garden, especially tomatoes. It's like going to my own market. Earlier in the week, I harvested my first tomato of the season, a yellow Jubilee (see the picture below). I quickly gobbled it up with some salt, but after saving some of its seeds.

This morning, I picked several more Jubilees and harvested a couple of Celebrity tomatoes. Since I only have a handful, but there are several more that can be picked tomorrow,  I'll save what I picked today to add to tomorrow's harvest to make a tomato sauce.

Of course, there was a semi-ripened cherry tomato from one of the volunteer tomato plants. I plucked and made a quick snack of it. I'm excited for more.

Are you shopping at your own market? How's your garden coming along?

Garden Regrets: Not Caging Tomato Plants

I think I might have to start a whole new focus topic on my blog about garden regrets. What am I regretting? Not caging my tomato plants. When my first tomato plant was put into the garden, I told myself that I'd cage them. I knew it needed to be done as soon as my plants were mere inches high. But I waited. Regardless of the reasons as to why my plants weren't caged, I didn't act as soon as I should've. Now, it's a bit harder to try and tame them and I don't know if it's worth it.

I had a few cages and were able to put them in on several plants, but I've also since realized that they aren't as strong as I'd like them to be. This year, my tomato plants are bushy and generally healthy. I wish they'd produce more fruit but considering that they only get about four to five hours of sunlight each day, I'll take what I can get. So my tomato plants have taken over and there's not much I can really do about it. With only one month left of really good hot weather, I can only hope that my plants don't get more diseased and ruin whatever fruit I've already gotten or will get.

Vacation Sunset

(Picture was taken by my brother-in-law in June 2020.)

Wilting Tomato Plants

This year, I picked up a four-pack of heirloom Jubilee tomato plants, among other plants. I planted it along with a variety of other tomato plants in the ground, such as San Marzano and Celebrity. I also have Black Prince, a Beefsteak, and some unknown self-seeded random tomato plants, all planted in pots. By early July, the in-ground plants were all doing great: growing tall, setting flowers, and some even had little green fruit. But I then noticed that my Jubilee tomato plants were wilting and getting yellow leaves on certain part of the plants, but the other in-ground tomato plants were doing fine.

After several days of noticing the sudden changes in my Jubilee tomato plants, I thought back to what had happened the previous year. I had planted some tomato plants in that same area last year, which was also the first time I'd gardened in that area. I remember some of my tomato plants not doing well, but I assumed it was because the soil wasn't amended and the plants hadn't been given enough water. They also exhibited some yellowing leaves and wilting.

So, I went online and did some research.  I've since come to the conclusion that my soil has a fungus that causes yellowing and wilting of the tomatoes. (Read more about wilting funguses here.) I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think my tomatoes are suffering from fusarium wilt, not verticillium wilt (although, the two have similar symptoms.) The main difference, I think, is that fusarium wilt causes the plants to wilt in one particular area of the plant and them moves up the plant. Verticillium wilt attacks the plant all at once, causing it to wilt altogether. There are other differences too, but the yellowing of leaves is most easily observed and to detect which wilt is affecting the tomato plants.

There's a possibility that the fungus will always be there in that area of the soil, even if I do rotate the crops growing in that area. The easiest solution will be to plant plants that are resistant to the fungus. That would explain why the San Marzano and Celebrity tomato plants are doing well (as both are resistant varieties), but the Jubilee didn't. Now that I know, I'm looking into tomato plants resistant to the fungus, among others. If I want to plant any tomato variety that isn't resistant to wilt (like Jubilee), I'm going to have to plant it in containers.

I've since ripped out two of the four tomato plants and left two in. I think I'm going to harvest several tomatoes from the plants, then will get rid of the plants. I'm so sad that I've lost two really beautiful tomato plants, but it's a learning lesson and I'm definitely getting to know more about my soil.

Have you experienced the heartache that is fusarium wilt or verticillium wilt?

Egyptian Walking Onions

It took me about a decade to appreciate the Egyptian Walking Onions I got from a former co-worker. This year I've finally really took notice of them and finally figured out how to grow them in my garden, per their growth cycle.

The onions are hardy to my zone and are one of the first edible greens in the spring. If they are picked in early spring, the whole plant is edible. If they are left to mature, the bulb (white parts) are edible but the green part becomes waxy and harder to eat. So, if they aren't picked, I just let the onions grow older and develop new bulbs, which will "walk" (literally fall over over) from the mother plant and grow another set if onions.

In the past, I've let the mother onions mature and develop new bulbs to walk and create new plants where they fall. This year, I'm trying to use up the original plants and purposely  replanting the new bulbs in rows for next year. Not only am I trying to maximize the onions I'll get in the next growing season for eating but also for new plants.

I'm so glad that I pulled up and threw away all the onion plants I had and allows it to just grow in my garden. I'm looking forward to see how this method will turn out.

Do you grow Egyptian walking onions in your garden?

Better Tomato Plants

Okay, so last year was the first year, since I had my two oldest children, that I finally started gardening again. I had big plans that fell to the wayside. (How I wish I had taken pictures.) I grew tomatoes and other vegetable plants, but because I didn't amend the dirt, my plants were puny and didn't do well. It didn't help that some of my plants were attacked by local critters (e.g. cutworms and squirrels). 

Fast forward to this year. I was determined, despite the state of my physique (I was seven to eight months pregnant and quite bossy with my Mr. Man). In April and May, I purchased tomato plants and double dug the dirt (yes, while I was seven to eight months pregnant). I made my Mr. Man not only build me two raised beds, but also go get compost from the county's free compost pile. I amended that patch of dirt with compost and other organic matter (e.g. bone meal, blood meal) before planting twelve tomato plants. I also used this method of planting tomato plants.

Now, that patch of dirt doesn't get the most sun, but it does get at least four to five hours of sun and that's the best I can do for the time being (short of cutting down a tree and ripping up my front yard). The only thing I hoped for was that it would do better than last year. As the weeks passed, I discovered some tomato plants that I grew from seed, two surprise volunteer plants from last year's tomato plants, and several self-sprouted tomato plants I found in my compost pile, so I planted them in containers and made room on the other side of my amended patch of dirt.

Well, a month later, I'm so surprised by the results. The tomato plants are huge and already sprouting flowers. I know we've had an early spring and the weather's a great contributor to the plants being so big. At the same time, the soil amendments and fertilizer have worked wonders for the plants. I've been trying to deeply water my plants every few days and continue feeding them organic fertilizers. I know my plants aren't going to grow and be six feet tall (due to the lack of light), but I'm hoping for something better than last year (my expectations are low and I'm hoping for more than a dozen tomatoes from twelve plants). I'm really hoping that my gardening won't fall to the wayside this year. Of course, life gets in the way sometimes. But I'll try really hard to not give up on my tomato plants this year.

How is your garden doing so far?

Dried Chili Pepper Flakes

I love love love hot peppers and pepper condiments. Other than eating pepper as a pepper dip, I try and make some form of pepper condiment for my own personal use (e.g. pickled jalapeno, preserved salsa). This time, I finally gave in and made some dried chili pepper flakes.

I made a batch several years ago, but ran out of it last year. I was going to make some at the end of this last summer, but I was on a trip and didn't get back in time to pick any ripened chili peppers. I hate paying for chili peppers, especially since I or my mother-in-law grow so much of it during the summer. Unfortunately, much of our homegrown peppers are frozen to last through the year. This means I'm usually not able to turn those peppers into some yummy condiment. 

So, while I was at the Asian store, I saw packaged red ripened Thai chili peppers and knew that I just had to do it. I purchased a pack (and even went back and got another pack) with the intent to make my own dried chili pepper flakes. I've also spent too much money on prepackaged dried chili flakes/powder to only discover that they were not spicy. So, the DIY route was the only way for me to go, especially if I wanted something spicy.

I ended drying the peppers in my oven and using my food processor to grind them into coarse flakes. I'd like the flakes to be a bit smaller, but that would require a finer grind that my food processor might not be able to do (and something my nose might not be able to take in). Overall, the end result was great. The peppers I got were spicy hot and I can't wait to use them in my next dish.

General Recipe for Dried Chili Pepper Flakes

Raw peppers (I used thai chili peppers)

1. Wash and cut chili peppers into small pieces (e.g. cut in half or split open the peppers). Use gloves while cutting peppers.
2. Put foil on a baking sheet. Spread chili peppers on the foil.
3. Turn oven to the lowest setting (my oven only went to 170 degrees Fahrenheit). Put chili peppers into middle rack of oven. Close oven door, but not fully. Use a pair of tongs or an oven safe spoon to prop oven door several inches open (this will help remove moisture from the oven). This will release a peppery smell in the house, so open doors/windows, turn of fans and air purifier.
4. Stir peppers every 30 to 45 minutes. Keep chili peppers in the oven for about 2 to 3 hours (depending on how many peppers you have and how low you've set your oven temperature).
5. Once the peppers are dry and papery, turn off oven. You can leave the peppers in the oven to continue to dry with the residual heat or take it out.
6. Cool the peppers. Once cooled, put peppers into a food processor or spice grinder and grind to desired size. (I'd recommend grinding outside because the pepper flakes may escape and fly around the house and cause sneezing and a peppery smell.)
7. Store in a dry container and use as desired.

Hello, Baby!