What's up, Doc?

Mildly worried about these. Any thoughts - both just watering problems?

The first is one of my tomatoes - I think it's a Green Zebra (if not, it's a Tigerella). This particular plant is at the front of the tomato patch, and the leaves mostly have this dried-out, inside-out appearance. They feel pretty dry too. I don't remember this from last year's Green Zebra crop. I would guess this indicates it's not retaining enough water? The fruit itself appears to be growing fine though. The neighbouring plant (which is a different variety) also has a slight tendency towards this, while the third plant at the front is the one with blossom rot. I've been trying hard to keep water levels consistent but perhaps I'm not trying hard enough - I think I'll mulch the tomatoes next year.


The second is the pea in the foreground below. This is the one that died, then decided to send out new shoots again. It now has other plants behind it for comparison - as you can see the first one (which has had a couple of pods on it) has now developed a whitish colour while the others are still lush and green. Is it on its way out? Is this something that should be fixed?

What's growing on

I have two Dali tomato plants. This is a generic name and indicates it's one of the varieties that the Yugoslavian community (who settled predominantly in Northland back in gumdigger days) brought with them or commonly grow here. There was no photo with these seeds so I wasn't sure what they were going to look like - now I know. This particular plant (which is at the back of the tomato patch and is therefore more sheltered) is doing well, the other plant is the one with the blossom rot.


Technically the Dali with blossom rot won the ripening race this year, but I ruled it ineligible due to its inedibility. We now have a new winner - it's Tigerella! Another new one this year.

Over in the winter root crops bed, things are looking good. The carrots still need thinning, and the beetroot is at the pretty stage.

Second sowing

Just did a second sowing of my winter root crops - beetroot, carrot and parsnip. I also thinned out the first sowing of beetroot a bit (and even popped those leaves in the salad leaf bowl in the fridge rather than tossing them), and will need to do the same with the carrots but want to wait until they get a bit bigger first, they still look fairly insubstantial. Three of the first parsnip sowing have now germinated, they were quite a bit slower than the others.

Interestingly enough, I've now become quite a fan of direct sowing. The first year of gardening I needed the reassurance that seeds will actually germinate and grow, now I can't be bothered with all that transplanting - just sprinkle some seeds on the ground and see what happens!

Oooh - and one of the Dali tomatoes now has a yellow tinge instead of green :)

Blossom rot

Spent yesterday morning tying up the tomatoes and removing the lower branches and stray laterals. One of the Dali plants had lots of fruit but most of them had blossom rot so I have removed them. The other Dali is fine.

Apparently this is a sign of inconsistent watering. Seems a bit harsh, I was watering them every other day if it hadn't rained, and stepped this up to daily about a week ago, so I've been trying hard to make sure they are hydrated.