Re: [gardeners] Ruined crops
pennyx1@juno.com (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 19 Apr 2003 22:54:45 -0400
We had a problem one summer when we had planted lettuce,
green onions, cukes, yellow squash, watermelons, snow peas,
and yes, marigolds to keep away the varmints ..<g>..
It broke all records in the negative department... The cukes
came in and grew into boomerang shape -- we were told that it was
a virus. The squash had plenty of blossoms, but every single
fruit rotted. The snow peas barely delivered a crop. The 2 water-
melons grew beautifully until one day when I found them turned
to mush. And the lettuce looked straight and strong, until one morning
I found that every single head had been eaten down to the nub on
the ground! The marigolds...? They were magnificent!
I didn't remove the lettuce because I was too dismayed. And I
turned my back on that garden for a week. When I returned, holy
toledo if all those lettuces hadn't rejuvenated themselves, and
grown a new head! In my enthusiasm, I broke off a leaf to chew
on, and discovered that the lettuce I had chosen was about as
bitter a specimen as nature could ever have invented!
That's the day I quit veggie gardening.
I decided that overwatering had been the culprit all along ...
my hubbie, Jimmie, had dug 6" deep trenches alongside of
every row of plants, and would flood them once a day -- or
even twice a day, when temps got over 90*f. Even a
benificent Mother Nature wouldn't have given them that
much!
Now I only put in 4 tomato plants each summer. It's obvious that
too many cooks spoil the broth -- and Jim has absolutely NO interest
in tomatoes, so obviously, he won't drown them ...
Penny. NY
.
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