2020 garden thread

we got zero large tomatoes. Everything small was doing well right up through last week, and boom.
probably clean it out this weekend.
 
stb222 said:
How did everyone's tomatoes do? The beginning of the season for me saw big tomatoes before the mid-sized size and then a decent yield from the early girls and rutgers. But then, it kinda all stopped, even the cherries. Now I have a bunch of green fruit and the plants look ok and some are starting to change. A few neighbors and my dad (in York, PA) saw their tomatoes 100% die off in mid-August.
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Yup, same here. Good early results but then everything started giving up. Plus lots of cracking this year from the uneven weather. We started ripping the plants out a couple of weeks ago and replanting with fall stuff.
 
my wifes tomatoes were doing good, but she thinks they are done already at this point, the volume has definitely dropped off since labor day.
 
Roadie said:
Yup, same here. Good early results but then everything started giving up. Plus lots of cracking this year from the uneven weather. We started ripping the plants out a couple of weeks ago and replanting with fall stuff.
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@Roadie what fall stuff are you planting?
 
Cherry's did good, ended beginning of Sept. Tomatoes weren't as big as I was hoping this year, lasted till the end of August, figured because I didn't fertilize. Do have a second wave of some smaller tomatoes that are turning orange now but minimal.

Peppers came in late. Thought they were toast when the rabbits/deer got them. The plant height was short.
 
Garden was a total bust this year. Literally everything. No fruit, withered. Even our trumpet vines that attract hummingbirds every year barely flowered. No bees, bugs. Weird. Same with all our neighbor's gardens.
 
stb222 said:
How did everyone's tomatoes do? The beginning of the season for me saw big tomatoes before the mid-sized size and then a decent yield from the early girls and rutgers. But then, it kinda all stopped, even the cherries. Now I have a bunch of green fruit and the plants look ok and some are starting to change. A few neighbors and my dad (in York, PA) saw their tomatoes 100% die off in mid-August.
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All done a few weeks ago and it didn't help that the squirrels got to them. The cherries have a few left. Some plants started dying about a month back.
 
What do you do at the end of the season? Do you just chop all the plants like some flowers and they will come back stronger next year or do you cultivate everything and replant new seeds? Total newb
 
THATmanMANNY said:
What do you do at the end of the season? Do you just chop all the plants like some flowers and they will come back stronger next year or do you cultivate everything and replant new seeds? Total newb
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tomato plants go in the garbage, others in the compost - i can't remember why, and i can't find it - but it made sense when i read it.
you can keep some seeds, but they might not produce the same tomato. They may reseed, but will likely be too far behind to produce.
most others, rip-out and compost. turn soil over. plant lettuce, kale, arugula, radishes - they will go until a good frost.

Either start plants indoors early next spring, while doing a spring crop of leafy things again, or buy plants, or some combo.

The LED grow lights are reasonably priced to start indoors. Keep them from getting too long/leggy by keeping the light close.
I haven't started my own in forever.
 
tomatoe seeds are nearly impossible to kill, so they will come back, maybe thats why tomatoe plants go in garbage? idk, either way pull em before you plant new, my dad sometimes leaves them over the winter and pulls in the spring, he also starts all his own plants from seed every spring, its kind of his thing.

my wife just buys the plants started and plants away.
 
THATmanMANNY said:
What do you do at the end of the season? Do you just chop all the plants like some flowers and they will come back stronger next year or do you cultivate everything and replant new seeds? Total newb
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What the others said, I rip out but it seems a few always manage to sprout up and sometimes in adjacent gardens.
 
THATmanMANNY said:
What do you do at the end of the season? Do you just chop all the plants like some flowers and they will come back stronger next year or do you cultivate everything and replant new seeds? Total newb
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All the tomato, squash Cumberland etc plants get ripped out. We don’t compost them. Stuff like chard, kale and collards are left in the ground. We have had them survive the winter and come back to produce in the spring.

My wife is experimenting with trying to save some seeds from a couple of heirloom tomato plants this year. Will see how that goes. We also cut back the asparagus fronds once the have browned out.
 
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this weather is not helping the fig production.
usually have to eat them right off the tree around this time of the year.

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1 passion fruit set - hope it ripens!

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Hundreds of blooms this year tho.

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I only have some herbs and 2 pepper plants on the deck this year. Herbs have been fine, and the peppers were producing well up until about August when they hit the brakes. I moved the habanero bucket to get a little more sun and it exploded with flowers, but I haven't taken a close look lately to see how they're coming along.

Meanwhile, in the real garden, I took off Friday afternoon and this was my project. Beds are now gone too (wound up with an ant issue, so they had to go). Before pic was about a half hour in. Might do something again in 2022, next year will probably be a bust with an infant in the house.

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