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!)
The good news about blossom end rot is that it tends to occur earlier in the season and doesn’t affect the whole crop… Oftentimes my first few tomatoes have it and then it just kind of fades away and ceases to be a problem.
Beautiful pictures- I know I said this before but I love your new look- it’s so clean!
Thanks Kelly!
I love your garden posts! I have been very, very slowly building a garden for myself, but 1. I know next to nothing about gardening other than plants need water and soil, and 2. it’s kind of expensive to get everything started. However, reading your posts makes me feel so much better, like maybe I can have a successful garden too! 🙂 Of course, we’re moving to Alaska next year, so… that’ll make gardening an interesting challenge! Haha!
Thanks Alicia! Alaska will be interesting for gardening, I know in the north you can grow some crazy big veggies because despite the short season there is SO much daylight (30# cabbages! 🙂 ).
Enjoy your garden!