Anne's 2015 Nor-Cal plant-out

[aclum]

Hi,

A quick update with a few photos....

First is a photo of my "rear" tomato beds that just have a few transplants with a later plant-out date than the others plus some larger plants that I put in as back-ups to the 3 plants in the main beds that had some bug damage earlier on. The damaged (grafted) plants in the main bed have since recovered so these back-ups can serve as un-grafted controls to the main bed plants. The soil in the rear beds seems to be not as good as in the main beds, so it's taking a while for these plants to get established and really start growing well. In the background, you can see the beds that I normally plant with other types of veggies left unplanted due to the drought.

I started pruning and trellising the oldest plants in rows 1-3 today. I've attached a photo of the mostly un-pruned plants taken 10 days ago followed by another from about the same viewpoint of the now-pruned plants taken today.

I just checked the photos in a preview and I apologize for the poor quality - but it's the best I can do at the moment . It's not readily apparent, but the tomatoes have grown quite a but in the past 10 days - really


I don't want to jinx things, but I've never had plants this uniformly healthy (at least in the main beds ) at this stage of the game. Since, with the help of TV, taking care of my bug/slug problems early on, there are no signs of any bug damage at all OR actual insects that I can see on any of the plants. Also no leaf discoloration, etc. This is quite unusual for me!

I'm not quite sure why I've been so lucky (so far ), but a few things are different this year:

1) We've had perfect tomato weather

2) The neighbors to our rear cut down a huge tree that had been shading parts of the garden in the morning

3) I started or potted up my seeds/seedlings in Wonder Soil

4) I began using dilute Texas Tomato Food a couple of times at the seedling stage and have used it a few times at full strength (1TB/gal) after transplant

5) I've been more conscious about watering - waiting for some signs of beginning wilt before watering, and then not watering as long as I'd been in the past.

6) I've got the black landscape fabric on the paths which is maybe discouraging bugs (particularly spider mites) or moderates temps beneficially in some way???

Unfortunately it looks like the hot weather is on the way and it remains to be seen how long things will hold up, but for now I'm happy with how things are going .


Anne