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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 21.29 Too much rain. Tomatoes done. Focus shifts to peppers. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-19
We’re a diverse, opinionated group of people who love anything garden or flower related. Come join in the comments, lurk, post photos of your own garden, or ask questions and we may know the answers! Welcome to the Saturday Morning Garden Blog, publishing every Saturday at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific. Many of us are here all week. (H/T to Merry Light)
Morning y’all, and welcome to another Downheah edition of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. I wrote this to a gardening friend a few weeks ago:
“So...I'm in the middle of a massive "funk". Things are made all the worse by having about 48" of rain in April, May & June (so far; rain is forecast for the next 3-4 days...) I can't keep the grass cut fast enough. I can't get on top of the weeds, or the hornworms or the fungal leaf disease; fertilizer keeps washing out, and the tomatoes that don't split/crack taste like crap.”
There it is, my tomato season in one short paragraph...
Back in late April. Hopeful expectations...
A depressing conclusion to the season. I admit to have basically given up by mid-June...
Here’s the rainfall breakdown: I didn’t record totals for January. Historically, this area gets about 58.5”/yr...
Feb. 6.5”
Mar. 8.25”
Apr. 9.75”
May 19.25”
June 20.25”
64” in those 5 months, almost 13”/month. Back in 2019, we got 65” Dec-Apr, but things dried out after that. The timing this year was disastrous. The rain in late May was the killer. The plants were still in their initial growth spurt with heavy bloom set. May 24, 25 & 26 saw over 7” of heavy rain that literally knocked most of the blooms off of the upper trusses. June 14, 15 & 16 saw another 9”+. They were pretty much done after that. The initial fruit set produced about 3 quarts for the freezer, but about twice that split/cracked & rotted on the vine. I reckon that I’ve got about 5 plants left, out of 40+, that may rebound in the latter half of the season. It’s been an agonizingly painful, helpless experience.
Ok, deep breath… On the positive side, I have plenty of seeds to start over next season, and the two project tomatoes did produce enough seed to continue.
Dwarf HPRM (L) and Alice’s Egypt. Both about 8oz...
The HPRM is a growout project from over at Doc’s, and the Alice’s Egypt was 10 year old seeds that needed freshening up...
*****************
I’ll try to salvage what I can on the tomato side, but my focus has shifted over to The Pepper Patch. The 1st 10 days of July were rain free, and the pepper plants perked up nicely. I was able to get 2 rounds of fertilizer applied with good effect.
Still a bit ragged & bedraggled, but coming along...
Hinkelhatz. Already picked about a half-gallon...
Rooster Spur.
Carolina Reaper. Hopefully I’ll get enough for 2 batches of wicked hot sauce.
That’s about all I got this fine Saturday Morning. What’s going on in your garden?
~Peace~
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