Needy Tomatoes
I joke that the secret to my green thumb is neglect.
My house is always full of plants but I only water like once a month. I know little about soil preparation, fertilizing, or feeding.
This ‘lazy gardener’ style has worked out pretty well for me. That is, until my tomatoes got needy.
Just as I began to see some blushing on these beauties I also noticed this disturbing black spot.
A quick visit with ol’ man Google informed me that my ‘maters have blossom-end rot. 🙁
Blossom-end rot has to do with inadequate calcium absorption and distribution throughout the plant and is caused by inconsistent watering. In other words, I caused this!
At first glance I was worried that it might be a fungus or something so I was slightly relieved to learn that it is probably curable by providing consistent water from here on.
Note: blossom-end rot can also stem from overwet soil or excessive nitrogen but I’m pretty sure that mine is from underwatering and inconsistency.
My plan-of-action is to mulch around the plants and water more regularly.
Lucky for me, the rest of my garden seems to be thriving under my, ummmm, hands-off approach. 😉
(a little history behind these Tigerlillies. my sisters boy-friend gave me a pot of them for my birthday 5 or 6 years ago when we all lived together in Portland. when I moved to Peru I gave the pot to my sister, who had it until she moved to Tacoma. last winter she went back to the yard where she left it and grabbed me some of the bulbs. now they are planted all over my Charlottesville yard! the most painstaking aspect of moving, besides leaving friends, has always been deciding which plants get to come with me. i still have a houseplant that i was given for high school graduation in 1999!)
