$500 a plate spaghetti sauce

[General Schvantzkopf]

I've had my worst harvest ever, the only thing that did well this year was my blueberry bushes and my cucumbers. Most of my tomato plants died, those that didn't have only produced enough tomatoes for a couple of quarts of sauce (thus the $500/plate estimate). I don't think the remaining tomatoes are going to ripen because the plants think it's fall (the leaves on my blueberry bushes have already turned color). My corn isn't maturing either, I've got small ears with missing kernels. The peas and beans all died in July. July was solid torrential rain, and August has been cold which is why the plants think it's fall.

I'm in Massachusetts near Lowell and Nashua. Has anyone around here had better results than these?

[zxcvbob]

Did you at least have a couple of tomato sandwiches or BLT's? I can't imagine *cooking* a small tomato crop when store-bought canned tomatoes are as good (and cheap) as they are.

Bob

[General Schvantzkopf]

Actually the cherry tomatoes are doing OK, I've been eating a handful of them every day, it's the large tomatoes that I grow for sauce. The large tomatoes are getting no where.

[Isabella Woodhouse]

Oh my gosh that reminds me that we haven't done that yet. What have I been thinking? My kingdom for some really good bacon...

Isabella

[phorbin]

London Ontario.

We're not as bad off here, but I'm building several knockdown greehouses and one permanent one that will depend on heat pumped from the basement.

I don't want us to get caught again (ever) the way we did this year.

We've had a wet season up until the past couple of weeks and what with the cold, grey mostly sunless spring, everything that we started was slow to grow, everything that survived was set back at least 3 weeks and probably longer.

We've started a fall garden of cabbages, kales, broccoli, daikon etc. to rescue the season.

It looks like we'll get a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, but unless the fall is warm or I can extend the season for the larger tomatoes, we're unlikely to get much from them. And there's a lot of potential there if they'd just get on with ripening.

[Billy]

Try some clear plastic sheeting on the ground under neath the tomato plants to increase the ground temp. Let us know if you get any tomatoes.

[Billy]

See post to phorbin.

[Marie Dodge]

Don't feel too bad. I have a friend in Maine whose plants rotted out with all the rain. I don't think they harvested more than a basket full of veggies. We had an infestation of whitefly and 2-spotted spider mite the likes of which the ag agent has never seen before. One of the 3 gardens were wiped out. Every pepper and tomato plant was destroyed. The cukes and the cantaloupes and the winter squash were also attacked. No insecticide, either organic or chemical worked. We are getting tomatoes, beans, chard and other veggies from the other 2 gardens though. The collards are so infested with whitefly as to be inedible.

[Marie Dodge]

Next year you may want to select tomatoes more tolerant to cool weather. See if that helps.

[Marie Dodge]

You eat fatty salty poison loaded bacon? Do you know about all the poisoned preservatives they use in Bacon, all the salt and how dangerous the fat is? You're eating pure poison. ;-)

[phorbin]

're in Maine.

[Jean B.]

I was gonna say... This year I have pretty much decided that it might not be worthwhile to grow tomatoes--esp. since I do have access to a nice selection of heirloom ones grown nearby (in Concord, Mass.). This has been an exceptionally nasty summer though.

[Isabella Woodhouse]

Like I said in my other post, we buy uncured bacon--- from pastured pigs when we can get it. No poison, no preservatives. I also use properly rendered lard (when I can get it). Imagine that. We don't eat poison in our home. We eat real food.

[Marie Dodge]

They're not only coloring up early here in TN but dropping their leaves as well. It looks more like late October than late August. This has been a very dry summer. We got less than 2" of rain this last time - the first rain in over a month.

[gonzo]

Green tomatoes make an awesome relish! It may sound weird, but it is mighty tasty..!