Tomato laterals

Laterals are the secondary stems on tomato plants that will (if you let them) grow up almost as sturdily as the main stem and go on to produce fruit. However this generally isn't a good idea as the plant has to work too hard to support everything, so the tomatoes end up smaller, not-so-good quality, and the chances of losing everything to disease or damage increases (last year some full-sized fruiting laterals split off altogether so I lost those tomatoes).

"A" on the photo is the leaf stem branching off. Immediately above the leaf stem, growing diagonally upwards, is the lateral, marked "B". There's a second pair of leaf and lateral to the right just above the marked pair. If the lateral is left in there, the leaf stem will be forced downwards to the ground as the lateral grows.

What to do:
* snap the laterals off when they are small like they are in the photo - so the wound is small and heals quickly
* dry windy day - again, so the wound dries out quickly
* have clean hands - so you don't inadvertently transmit a disease from other plants or soil
* I'm sure I've read somewhere that the lateral immediately below the first set of flowers is the strongest and can be left in, so you end up with two stems producing fruit
* check and repeat every two weeks

Last year I never really got a handle on what laterals were as I couldn't find any good photos or illustrations to show me what to remove, and things did get pretty chaotic - the resulting bushes were very difficult to support. I think I've got it mostly sussed now though - so today I did a initial cleanup, removing laterals, removing the leaf stems that were already too low and virtually sitting on the ground, tying the plants to their stakes, removing the odd weed, and watering the root area with Tom-A-Rite organic tomato fertiliser. As the plants are just starting to produce flowers, the fertiliser will need to go on every week from now.

Flowering

The first flowers have today appeared on the tomatoes (in particular the Russian Red and the Roma above, which means they have flowered just over 3 weeks from transplantation) and one of the courgettes (a month from transplanting), and the watermelon vine has tripled in size over the last couple of days and actually looks more like a vine now. The beetroot patch is coming along nicely too, the leaves may not look so pretty any more (this evening I sprayed liquid copper on the surrounding soil of the beetroot, broccoli and mesclun to keep the nibblers away) but the roots are starting to heave themselves up out of the ground.

Rain damage

There's been a lot of rain over the last day. I checked on the beetroot this morning, and some of the leaves have actually snapped over in half and split across the leaf from the weight of it. And to make things worse, something's been a-nibbling!

Capsicum

Capsicum Jingle Belles – capsicum annuum

Last year 90% of the Burpee red peppers ended up in red onion and capsicum relish (mmmm – still one jar left under guard), so I thought it would be fun to plant some more capsicum just for general use. Jingle Belles are mini capsicum in a mix of colours - but I assume this isn't all on the same plant? I can probably fit two plants in the small corner bed I've earmarked for them.

Capsicum need higher soil temperatures to germinate and stay happy. I should see some action shortly as they take 8 to 20 days to germinate (last year they took around 15) and they've already have six (so perhaps I'm too impatient then). They should be planted around 50cm apart in a warm sunny spot, well mulched to keep the soil temperature up, and will grow a metre high. Jingle Belles need staking as they are allegedly very prolific, and should be watered extra well (including with liquid fertilizer) as the fruit forms. Capsicum apparently particularly like seaweed or fish emulsion fertilizers, so the Nitrosol Organic (which I haven't seen on shelves for a while, everyone's got the ordinary Nitrosol but not the organic) should do nicely.

Last year I sowed in September, transplanted into the ground 25 November, had baby peppers by 7 Jan (was away over Christmas so not sure exactly when they appeared) and the first one was fully red by 13 February which is 12 weeks from transplanting. This year I have sown later as I already had one plant from last year, and will transplant any new seedlings much quicker, so it will be interesting to see if they catch up.

Scallopini

Scallopini Green Bennings – cucurbita pepo

To add a little variety to the courgettes, I'm also planting scallopini or summer squash – the organic Green Bennings from Koanga. These are apparently spaceship shaped and can be eaten whole or stuffed. Sounds like fun!

Summer squash generally take 7 to 14 days to germinate and are ready to eat 50 to 60 days from sowing. Like standard courgettes, I imagine these will be prone to powdery mildew. I'm not sure exactly where I'll put these – I'd like two, so one can go next to the two courgette plants opposite the front door (which will at least make it convenient for watering with the hose in the mornings), and the second can sit next to the watermelon (thereby filling up that bed).

More new seedlings

Last Sunday, 16th Nov, I sowed

6 x purple sprouting broccoli into an old eggcarton (4 germinated so far)
6 x borage into an old eggcarton (2 germinated so far)
2 x scallopini into individual pots

and into the seed tray:
8 x basil sweet genovese (5 germinated so far)
4 x eggplant long purple
4 x oregano
4 x parsley Italian flat leaf
4 x white sage (2 germinated so far)
4 x capsicum Jingle Belles (last year's capsicum is vigorously producing leaves now, so I may not need these new ones - however the more fun colours the better!)

Not the right tools

Finally making headway re the whitefly on the citrus - numbers are dramatically down. However I've learned that you shouldn't buy a cheap sprayer. It took at least half an hour to get the new sprayer (with wand) working the first day, and the next time I also had awful problems. I then had to tip the Neem mix into the little 1 litre hand sprayer, which promptly broke when I tried to pump air into it. We now have a shiny new McGregor's one, which does look suspiciously like the old cheap one except the wand is brass - hopefully it will prove to be more effective and robust.

The right tools

Having the right tools makes a huge difference! I bought a 5-litre sprayer, which is enough to spray the whole edible garden at once, with wand thingy so I can reach high and low with ease. This is much more efficient and effective - who knew?

Before I sprayed yesterday I also pruned the citrus trees, to get rid of the new low growth, the somewhat dead bits, and generally thin things out a bit.

Today I did some transplanting - borage and catnip into the ground (the catnip was sampled within about 15 minutes of it going in), and four sage, four catnip and an English Winter Thyme from the seedling trays into pots.

Twice as nice

The strawberry planters have a layer of pea straw pellets on the surface which has done a good job so far of keeping the soil moist, I hadn't had to water them at all. However it hasn't rained all week and a couple of the plants were looking a little droopy - after a quick water last night it's all good though.

I found my earlier notes about what was planted where, so there's two Camarosa in the square planter (which has given me my bountiful harvest of about 4 strawberries so far - you do appreciate them more when dessert consists of half a strawberry instead of a bowl) and four Pajaro in the long planter. And as you can see below, things are now starting to happen in that planter....

A doily a day keeps the birdies away
Safely tucked under the doily is a double berry - so that's one each for dessert this evening!

Dead seedlings

Several of the new seedlings are somewhat less than perky. In fact, I think it's time to call time of death......farewell broccoli, thyme and white sage! Keep hanging in there, borage! They were going along fine, then half way up their length they weakened, keeled over, and that was that. The ordinary sage, and one thyme seedling, are still looking okay and have their standard leaves coming through, so I'll transplant those into larger pots over the next day or two.

ETAs

Courgettes - 12 weeks from sowing. The first plant was sown 21 September, so I will hopefully have something edible the week before Christmas. The second plant was sown 16 October, so that one should be producing by mid January.

Beetroot - 55 days (I suspect that's after germination, rather than after sowing?). I'll take the first sowing as having germinated around 10 October on average, and the second sowing as around 1 November. So the first batch should be ready the first week of December, and the second batch around Christmas.

Tomato - were transplanted a week ago, and should be ready 70 to 80 days from transplanting which would make harvest time from mid January.

Garlic - coming along nicely on schedule for the end of December, but as with the beetroot I'm too scared to have a poke around underground to see exactly what's happening. The second batch by the BBQ seems prone to black aphids - well purple really based on the end result when you squish them! I've been spraying them with Neem from time to time when I remember, which is helping but clearly I need to remember more frequently!


Eeek!

The healthier batch

Whitefly

I seem to have quite the invasion of whitefly - it's not something I remember from last year, certainly not on the courgettes, but this year they are trying to make a home on the broccoli and courgettes. And sadly they are firmly established on all four citrus trees. I've been spraying (more like drenching both sides of all the leaves!) Neem oil every three days (they've just had their third cycle of that regime), which seems to be working on the broccoli and courgetes as there's nothing on them today and no sign of any eggs. I think I might still have a battle on my hands over the citrus though.

Fertiliser

Two weeks ago I gave the soil around the beetroot seedlings a good drenching with a weak solution of Yates Nitrosol Organic - a certified organic "oceanic blood and bone liquid fertiliser". They seemed to enjoy it as they are coming along well, so today I gave them another dose. I'm hopeful that there might actually be something developing down there since what's above the ground is looking more like it presumably should - too scared to jinx it by doing an experimental dig around though.



Apparently the Nitrosol smells really interesting!

I also transplanted a second courgette plant this afternoon. The first is looking a bit stressed out, not sure if that's from the whitefly (which seems to be gone today), or if it's just it look different to the variety I planted last year.

Tomato transplantation

Phew! I've just transplanted 11 tomato plants and the watermelon into the ground. I had to have a rethink on exactly where all the tomatoes could go, as I had forgotten that one of the beds hadn't had any prep work. The tomatoes aren't as close as they appear here, I had the telephoto lens on the camera so it's compressed them together.

New seedlings

Of the sowings into trays I made on Monday, 3 broccoli, 2 thyme , 1 white sage and 1 borage have germinated so far.