torterena

This year the prospect of being treated by Mother Nature to an excellent tomato harvest started promisingly: all seeds (my own ones saved from the past season) germinated without any problem thanks to my new discovery, a coconut- fiber- sowing- mix which works well for seeds to germinate and to build roots. The baby plants grew in no time and even if I couldn't offer them perfect light conditions, they developed into strong healthy seedlings. The very first setback arrived end of April. I permitted myself to go on a two-week-holiday and the plants never forgave me this “betrayal”. All the precautions I took (abundant watering/ light site) were not sufficient to prevent the worst case scenario. On my return I found them dead  or ceasing to grow and they never recovered from this stress. Only a few survived and apparently followed the philosophy “What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger”. Despite my skepticism, once planted in the ground in the middle of May, they quickly made up for list time. Thanks to the hot and sunny June and enough rainwater from my two brand new tanks they developed well. I was looking forward to a wonderful high-yielding harvest. But then...well, what does folk wisdom say? “Nature gives and Nature takes away”? Exactly!!! After the extreme wet and cool August the plants were infected by late blight and...”the game was over”. At last a half of the crop was destroyed! The leftovers I decided to pick green with the hope that they were not yet infected and if kept at home they would get the chance to ripen (the plan was partly successful). But it would be truly unfair to complain about the season this year. Even if the loss was vast, still the harvest was sufficient to enjoy several fresh tomato salads, a few bowls of mouth watering tomato soup, two glasses of tomato-salsa and some other small delicacies. So, let me finish my story with the quotation by Alex Trebek: “If you can't be in awe of Mother Nature, there's something wrong with you”.

By the way, I would love to make a seed exchange later this year. I am thinking about constructing a forum on my homepage and the very first post will be dedicated to the seed topic. Appeal to all my gardeners friends: please, participate!!!