Anyone ever have a "perfect" season?

[kdoble]

I thought this would be the year...so close , yet so far away. Have any of you fellow home gardener's made it through a FULL season without ANY type of disease affecting your plants (not counting BER) ? I'm not complaining as my plants have bundles of tomatoes that are ripening up nicely, but I just noticed the onset of some type of disease on 4 of my plants. It actually looks like verticillium. We've had a cooler than normal summer.
I'm going to post pix to see what the experts think.
My list of maters: Paul Robseson, CP, B'wine(Sudduth's), Persimmons, Goose Creek, Bisignano #2, Stupice, Sun Gold, and Martino's Roma. My B'wine is the only one that is very obviously affected ~the stems are browning and the leaves showing the typical yellowing, browning and shriveling. It's shares the same garden bed as the other varieties so I'm guessing this variety is one with a lower tolerance to V?

[gssgarden]

I have to say, I think I came pretty close this year. Plants are healthy, alot of fruit, no bugs, except for leaf-footed bugs, but other than that, things are a-ok!

The only thing that bothered me was BER on my KBX and Tom's yellow wonder. Don't know why because all the others around them were ok.

Hybrids were off the charts good. heirlooms produced well. Not great but well.

Things have slowed down now except for a few plants but I'm canning ALOT of sauce and eating alot of BLT'S.

Greg

Oh, plants in containers struggled. Can't keep up with the watering.

[BigdaddyJ]

I have to check my journal but yes I had a near perfect vegetable garden year. It was either 2001 or 2002 and I scored it a 10.0! Everything went great. Last year was maybe my worst. This year it's pretty good despite huge storms and some leaf disease but if the season ended here I'd give an 8.5.

[annecros]

Last winter was as close to ideal as I have seen it in South Florida over about 10 years. More hornworm than usual was the only bad thing I remember - but Bt handled that. The stinkbugs were even scarce.

[jwr6404]

This year has been the BEST EVER for me here in the PNW. A few isolated examples of self inflicted BER in some of my smaller pots. Other than that I may of had higher expectation of some varieties when it comes to taste,Beefsteak being the Best example. I do not,as of this date,like this tomato as all, however.have only tried 3 so far. I still have 30+ to convince me otherwise.

[huntoften]

I think I'd have to quit gardening if I had a perfect year!

Battling problems is half the fun!

[Tomatovator]

So far, this has been the best for me. I only started growing tomatoes 4 years ago. Two years ago was good too but this one should top it. 18 plants, 16 varieties and they are all healthy and starting to ripen. Most plants are over 7 feet tall already and should keep growing into October.

[TheClaw]

Can't say perfect, but I can say best yet. I learned more this season that in than ever before.

[AZRuss]

Is "perfect season" even possible in Tucson? Doubtful. The spring season wasn't bad--warmed up early, but it also became extraordinarily hot early. No disease at all, just heat. Except for cherries, fruit set was done by mid May. And the birds this year were aggressive and fearless, and didn't much care if fruit was red or green. Peck peck peck.

[rxkeith]

if i was going to have a perfect season disease wise, this should be the year. i have a new garden, nothing but soy beans, wheat or corn near me. next closest tomato is about a mile away. only plants growing i didn't start from seed came from a local amish woman, some kind of german pink tomato. sounded interesting. everything is in good shape so far. i have them sprawling this year because most of my cages were left up north, and i just didn't fell like buying more or tying them up. i don't expect perfection. i just want a decent year with lots of tomatoes and frost that holds off till late october or early november. none of this early september business.



keith

[robin303]

Last year was great. This year is the worst in 35 years.

[Frog]

2006. What a year!

I still get a dreamy look in my eyes when I think of the veritable cornucopia of tomatoes I enjoyed that year.

Awesome season.

While the season was perfect in terms of weather and disease—right in the middle as the bounty crop was in full flourish—I fractured the tibial component of my prosthetic knee joint and much of my crop went to waste while I waited for a massive operation to replace my knee replacement.

I was unable to walk, even on crutches, for 4 months, most of my crop rotted on the ground.

I dream of a season with the same weather, but without the darned bad luck.

[OmahaJB]

Never had a perfect season with vegetable gardening. But in my first year of playing baseball (5th grade) I batted .348, and my last year (8th grade) was batting .400 before my last two games in which I went 0-3 and 0-4. Never found out the final batting average. However my 2nd year (6th grade) was the equivalent of a plant disease as I only went .260, and my 3rd year (7th grade) was the equivalent of a grasshopper plague as I was out for the season with nose surgery! Yes, nose surgery. I was mis-diagnosed with a deviated nasal septum when in fact I had very severe allergies that swelled up my nose so bad my family doctor & the specialist thought the cartiledge(sic) had collapsed.

Kind of puts things into perspective.

[habitat_gardener]

Everything all at once? No.

But this year is a very good raspberry, blackberry, and bean year. Raspberries were a couple weeks early this spring, and produced more than usual, and the summer crop looks like it'll be pretty good, too. The blackberries started as the raspberries were winding down, and despite the ants that crawl all over my hands as I pick the ripe berries, I'm enjoying the blackberries. I planted the beans at the right time, in the right spot, with the right blend of varieties.

It's always a good kale year, year round, since I started growing perennial kale.

This year has been a particularly good flower year, too, with a great succession of blooms.

And it's a much, much better tomato year than last year. For 2008, my total tomato yield was 68 pounds, and only 4.5 pounds before August 1, and 14.5 pounds for the month of August. This year, I picked almost 27 pounds before August 1, and 11 more pounds in the past week, with 14 varieties yet to ripen. I'm still amazed I found a way to plant almost 40 varieties in the same amount of space where I've planted 20 in past years.

[Vince]

Perfect for me would be to have healthy looking productive plants all the way up until the frost(if it came). This has hasn't happened so far. For me disease ALWAYS shows.....