No pictures for this post, I’m afraid. I couldn’t stop weeping long enough to take any pictures.
Seriously. I’m very sad.
We live in New York. It gets pretty darn hot and humid here. I’m nine months pregnant. I don’t like the heat anyway, but add pregnancy to it….it’s not working for me.
So, I maybe, kinda “forgot” to water my tomato plant a few times. Okay, okay. I couldn’t even think about going outside to water my plants. I sat in front of my window unit and let the sweat drip.
It was only two or three times–not consecutively. Still–each time I woke up and saw my wilted tomato plant I was very ashamed I hadn’t taken the time to go outside, heat or not, and water my dear plants.
The tomato plant came back to life and continued to grown. There were at least 15 little green tomatoes getting all nice and plump.
Then my husband and I started to notice that the bottoms of some of the tomatoes were brown. I plucked one off and threw it away. But then we noticed that it wasn’t just a few. All of our tomatoes that were brown on the bottom and rotting.
Devastation.
We’re moving in three weeks and we won’t get to eat any ripe, homegrown tomatoes off our plant. There just isn’t enough time for new ones to grow.
I ran inside and did the only thing I could–I consulted Google.
Apparently, due to my lack of sufficient and consistent watering (just those few missed days!) my tomatoes had a raging case of Blossom End Rot. That’s it. Pure and simple.
As if the Salmonella scare here in the U.S. wasn’t enough. I went and ruined our chances at lovely, red tomatoes for the next couple of weeks.
I’m just glad my husband took care of picking the other rotten tomatoes and that he didn’t throw them at me. I was sad, but he was really mad.
In other garden news–is anyone still reading this???
My caterpillars disappeared the next day after I wrote this post about them. But, my parsley has grown back.
Also, apparently my second basil plant was hosting a parasite–MINT. It’s hard to be mad at the mint taking over the basil plant. The mint had been “dead” for two summers and I forgot that I had reused some of the old soil in the old pots from our previous container garden. (That’s probably not a good idea, eh?) I pulled the basil, made some pesto, and then made some delicious, refreshing Mint Limeade. (It’s quite addictive, you know.)
My serrano chiles are ready to harvest as are my peas and salad mix. The chamomile has blossomed, finally, as have my impatiens. My little garden is in great shape.
Sigh. If only I had the tomatoes….
How is your garden growing?
15 Comments
I feel for you! But in an effort to try to make you feel just a tiny bit better I’ll tell you that you might have lost the lovely tomatoes even if you had watered them properly. Well, that is if you have squirrels in your yard, which I think you probably do. If yes, you can take some degree of comfort in the fact that as soon as the tomatoes begin to turn red (or yellow) those dang squirrels feast on them. They have been getting about 80% of my toms before I pick them, and they cleaned our new peach tree of all its fruit before we realized what was happening. (We caught one lounging on the deck a few days ago, just munching away on our very last perfect peach. It mocked us. And don’t even get me started on the blue- and blackberries they’ve eaten. I’m about to buy a sling shot and go on a murderous rampage…and I’m a vegetarian!
I tried tomatoes in a container last summer and the same thing happened to me. We did get to eat a couple of the tomatoes before the rotting began. NO FUN. Now with moving this last spring and again next spring I will not be able to try again for a couple of years.
aww-so sad–i just asked on one of my favorite gardening blogs: lifeinsugarhollow.blogspot.com/
it’s happening to one of mine and am hoping it doesn’t spread to the others.
Sad about your tomatoes.
We call ours a “secret garden” – no one knows about it, not even us – it has been neglected so. Who knows what is happening out there:).
I wish… we have a big enough yard for a wonderful vegetable garden but very little sun. Lots of massive shady oak trees but alas no full-sun to be found. Impatiens and hostas are about the only things that survive.
So sorry about your lovely tomatoes. How lucky you were to get basil AND mint though! Lovely pesto and mint limeade… I’m jealous!
Oh, that is so sad!! I am so sorry. I have had some cropo failures and it has been devistating to me. It would be hard to leave a garden behind. When you get here…I will share my produce with you. (If my tomatoes ever decide to ripen…)
i am so sorry to hear that lindsey…
Our tomatoes are growing like weeds, but they are all green…and we are moving in August. I just hope they turn red before we go. I will be sad if we don’t even get a taste!
Only one year I have tomatoes at Summer, really I thought was more easy but is not, I hope to our summer ((December) have tomatoes, I love basil is the best I think.xxGloria
I’m trying to grow bell peppers and they are all getting blossom end rot too. :( It’s so discouraging, because they were growing so well and then they get to a certain size and boom… they get this yucky brown spot. It’s so sad. I was so looking forward to growing my own peppers!
i killed too many tomato plants years ago and have let my dad grow ever since. this year i have put to rest far too many flowers and feel as though i need to go to an anonymous meeting for plant killers…..
Linds! Your garden sounds wonderful! We wanted to plant something but we were way to late because the freeze comes here to Logan way too fast to get anything going soon enough. Have you tried strawberries? I want to get berries going when we find a home sometime. Mint! how cool! I am excited that most of your plants are going and I’m so sorry to hear about your tomatoes.
Mint is surprisingly hard to kill. I’ve resisted planting it for this very reason – but maybe in a container next year …. I have no idea how my garden looks since I abandoned it (we do have sprinklers, and hired someone to weed.) Go over and pick anything you like from mine!
Just wanted to stop by real quick to say hi and tell you I gave you an award on my blog. Look for the doughnuts a couple of posts back!
I remember tomato plants … kind of hard to get it right as I recall. I’m VERY proud of you for what you’ve harvested. You are so diligent. You will have a fantastic garden in the new place. My squash plants are big and beautiful. The miniature zucchinis and yellow squash are adorable! My impatiens are suffering from the heat like the rest of us. I tell them to hang in there, it will get better.