Working out in the garden today revealed all kinds of nasty things coming up along with my veggies.

The Tomatoes are having problems now due to the drought earlier in the season. Wilt, Blossom End Rot, and Cat’s Face are rearing their ugly heads on a few. One bush in particular was hit pretty hard with wilt, but thus far, the tomatoes are hanging in there. LIterally.
The oddest thing tho, I hadn’t dealt with before, are ants making trails through the bottom of some of the Beef Steak tomatoes. This is the first time I’ve tried Beef Steak, so maybe the ants really like those? dunno. I went out early this morning to water and couldn’t believe the little devils were literally eating a trail through one that was just about to ripen.

Up until this point, other than the monthly feedings, I’ve avoided spraying anything except dawn mixed with water, but I dont’ think it’s going to cut it anymore. I dread the thought, but am contemplating using some Sevin dust or try BT first, to combat some creepy crawlies. I’ve been drowning the horny little japanese beetles making their home on my beans and okra, and picking off the worms, but now, it’s getting difficult to find them all. Although, the population is down, some have now moved to other veggies.

The ants, stinkbugs, and now, a peskly little pickle worm is working his way through the cucumbers, squash and I think probably responsible for some tomatoes that were damaged. I released two praying mantis’ about 2 weeks ago. And while the population is down, I can’t find the mantis. Guess they filled up and left home. As did some resident spiders. I just don’t know what the effects will be of using an insecticide, since I’ve not done it before. It’s taken a couple of years to make my earthworms happy – Sevin will probably hurt them. This is all so new, I think it’s time to pester my local county ext. agent – after all – it all rolls downhill. They will probably laugh at me and my gnarly looking beefsteaks. I guess the tomatoes could always be stars in the next veggie – tale movie – Bob and the Big Boys’ Christmas Vacation. I can see them now, pulling up their cages and taking root next to Bob’s mound.

On the bright side, tho, the cherry tomatoes are giving off the most deliciously sun-ripened tomatoes without a single problem. I’ve got about 4 ripened beef steaks so far, about a dozen that are ripening in the kitchen (couldn’t let the bugs have them) and about a dozen Romas thus far, tho these are facing the worst of the drought problems. Even with watering, the early drought and then the week long deluge of water, seems to have taken their toll on the Romas the most. It’s a shame, because those are the ones I wanted the most. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed at least enough will make it into some cans this year.

A bonus for Slobo this morning, tho, the Serrano Pepper plant finally produced a red pepper – albeit short and stubby – but hey – it turned red – I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to. There are probably about 100 peppers on that plant. I don’t know what we will do with them. Anyone have ideas for Serrano’s? An online search doesn’t reveal anything about storage, just use in Salsa, and I’m not sure that salsa has the right PH for canning.

The okra, now as tall as me, 5’4″ is beginning to slow production. It is still flowering, but it seems I’ve got a respit from blanching okra for awhile. I think I’m going to pull out the okra and squash plant soon and get my second round of tomatoes in soon. Maybe I’ll just do more Big Boys’ so there will be some good ones to can up for winter, but we’ll see. If the Roma’s make it off the vine ripened, I’d be awfully tempted to plant several more of those – but that’s probably risky.

Radishes are coming up as well as the pumpkin – just gotta get rid of that worm. Wonder if he would like to go meet my Carpenter Bee’s?