Jennifer
Chillin' In The Garden
I'm thinking of digging up this tomato plant and the basil plant next to it, both of which have damage to them.
Last week and before that, when I would go out to the garden (when it was a little warmer, but this past month) there would be an ever increasing number of what looked like yellow ladybugs. I could never tell if they were the colorado potato beetle or the mexican one, they were on the leaves of both plants, causing holes and stuff. Didn't see any today out there though.
My tomatoes got a resurgence in late August and all of a sudden a bunch of new flowers sprouted and it seemed to come back to life. I got these HUGE fruits of grape tomatoes that are still green, and have yet to ripen. But ever increasingly, the leaves and stems started to get these black spots on them. I cut off a few stems that were dead-ish (already harvested the fruit) and had these black spots, and a few leaves because they looked diseased, or possibly sun scalded. It wasn't much to cause a concern because none of the fruit has been affected, even after it ripens. But as I have "let it go" a little, it doesn't look that great.
I can't tell exactly if this is some type of canker, or late blight, or septoria leaf spot, but I am concerned after reading about these diseases that the soil could be contaminated. What should I do before I kill these off (probably sooner than later now) and plant my red clover as a cover crop? I have several inches of a wood mulch on top of the soil, so should I not be worried that the disease spread into the soil? I won't till either plant into the soil, probably dispose of them elsewhere in the yard and dig up their roots and remove the mulch for the red clover to plant. I bought the tomato (my only one) as a small plant, so though some sites say it's possibly a seed problem, this late into the season I'm not sure about that.
Although my thyme, which is next to the basil, has been completely unaffected and rather bushy. We get temperatures here in the winter of single digits, hardly below zero, should I cover my thyme (it's the winter/german variety) or let it be? I've read up on both, and well, since I got everyone's attention here, might as well ask.
you can see the damage on multiple leaves and how one is withered up.
The stems look like this most of the way up the plant, especially the "main" ones that are coming out of the ground.
Last week and before that, when I would go out to the garden (when it was a little warmer, but this past month) there would be an ever increasing number of what looked like yellow ladybugs. I could never tell if they were the colorado potato beetle or the mexican one, they were on the leaves of both plants, causing holes and stuff. Didn't see any today out there though.
My tomatoes got a resurgence in late August and all of a sudden a bunch of new flowers sprouted and it seemed to come back to life. I got these HUGE fruits of grape tomatoes that are still green, and have yet to ripen. But ever increasingly, the leaves and stems started to get these black spots on them. I cut off a few stems that were dead-ish (already harvested the fruit) and had these black spots, and a few leaves because they looked diseased, or possibly sun scalded. It wasn't much to cause a concern because none of the fruit has been affected, even after it ripens. But as I have "let it go" a little, it doesn't look that great.
I can't tell exactly if this is some type of canker, or late blight, or septoria leaf spot, but I am concerned after reading about these diseases that the soil could be contaminated. What should I do before I kill these off (probably sooner than later now) and plant my red clover as a cover crop? I have several inches of a wood mulch on top of the soil, so should I not be worried that the disease spread into the soil? I won't till either plant into the soil, probably dispose of them elsewhere in the yard and dig up their roots and remove the mulch for the red clover to plant. I bought the tomato (my only one) as a small plant, so though some sites say it's possibly a seed problem, this late into the season I'm not sure about that.
Although my thyme, which is next to the basil, has been completely unaffected and rather bushy. We get temperatures here in the winter of single digits, hardly below zero, should I cover my thyme (it's the winter/german variety) or let it be? I've read up on both, and well, since I got everyone's attention here, might as well ask.
you can see the damage on multiple leaves and how one is withered up.
The stems look like this most of the way up the plant, especially the "main" ones that are coming out of the ground.
