Tonight I spent about an hour putting cages on the tomatoes, which was almost to late to do...they are getting big and starting to fill out nicely and of course some of them even have blossoms on and I even saw some small green tomatoes on some of them!
I also am trying a tip I saw online, for fighting the blight issue. The article said that you should pinch off the little branches with leaves on up to a foot of the ground. More of the plant energy goes into the fruit also!
The reason being the ground underneath them has the fungus, that causes blight when it gets on the lower leaves, the dirt gets there from tilling the dirt, and also from the rain splashing on the ground, then the leaves start getting splotchy.
The idea is by removing some of the lower hanging branches closer to the ground, that you will see less blight on the whole plant. Another tip is to wet the plants down with a compost tea almost weekly, or a food mixture, the healthier the plant the more it can endure!
Compost tea, is essentially putting your manure and dirt combination, in a thin gauze or an old pantyhose leg, tie it off and soak it in a 5 gallon pail of water for a day or two. The nutrients leach out into the water and you can use a sprinkling can to wet the plant down with nutrient rich water which will have a brownish tint to it!
Try this it really greens up your plants!
