bad year :(

Tue May 10, 2011 1:24 am

With all the packing, moving, Dr. appointments, etc. my poor tomato plants have been very neglected. The result is out of 40 starts I have only 8 plants left. :'( I am not just sad, I'm extremely disappointed. I lost the varieties I MOST wanted.

One thing I CAN tell you after this year is that of my mass varieties of heirloom starts, black cherry, black krim, opalka, kbx, black from tula, and juane flamme must be pretty hardy little plants! Not enough water and light, thrown outside with pretty much no hardening off, up potted into crappy sandy potting soil, and huge storm with big winds and hard rain yet they have survived it all.

Now we just have to see if they survive the in ground transplant....

Tue May 10, 2011 2:41 pm

It sounds like you tried to kill them every way you could and failed.
I think they will survive.

I know how you feel when you loose plants.
I get very upset too.
I tell myself it's just a plant and I still don't feel better about it.

For me it's not that bad when I loose them early in the season and still have time to try again but it really hurts when you loose them in the middle of the growing season.

Tue May 10, 2011 3:14 pm

Yeah it's defiantly too late to start new seeds.
There's always next year though....

I'm just trying to get over the fact that I'm going to have to BUY tomato plants....

Tue May 10, 2011 4:12 pm

johnny123 wrote:It sounds like you tried to kill them every way you could and failed.

Let's give dixana some credit here. She has been working her tail off doing everything necessary for a move to a different state, she has (I believe?) a small child, and she was trying to grow some food plants--they were already planted *before* she found out about the move. I don't know whether she has a job outside the house as well, but the previous tasks as well as those she listed would keep anyone busy full-time and then some!

A little more understanding, please, for her frustration at losing so much of her hard work. By the time she moves--and has to learn gardening in a different state, probably a differently timed gardening zone--she may not be able to get any warm-weather veggies this year except the surviving tomatoes, in pots!

And all of this only a year or two after moving into her current home and bringing it into a live-able condition from having been trashed by previous residents.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Tue May 10, 2011 6:29 pm

Holy cats Cyn you have a good memory! But we're not moving out of state yet. We'll find out sometime in January if we'll be going to SC.
And yes we put a lot of work into the house we're leaving behind but we are moving into the country where I can have a huge garden and possibly chickens! I'm just bummed I lost so many tomatoes, especially my strawberry orange!

I lost my watermelon too, but that was the cat. Evidently melon plants taste good.....

Wed May 11, 2011 2:42 am

Sorry to hear that! Congrats on getting into the country though!!

Thu May 12, 2011 12:28 am

Trying to help you look on the bright side - the black krim I grew last year tasted amazing, and I hear black cherry is also terrific. Here's hoping they produce well for you!

Thu May 12, 2011 3:09 am

Good luck Dixana. I know how you feel I have lost a few plants this year already for this or that reason. But they see to being do okay now.

I have also been on the move with plants before. We moved on a Fri, well wee were supposed to. As we were, literally, loading the last 2-3 items in our house we found out the other party's bank screwed up and we were in limbo for a weekend. We stayed at my mother in law's house for the weekend because EVERYTHING was already packed. I had to leave my beautiful garden in early summer. I did bring some tomatoes that I put in pots. They sat in my truck all weekend and than replanted at my new house in a plot of a freshly tilled grassy area. I had tomatoes that year but it was nothing to write home about.

But I made it through hopefully you will too. I hope this makes you feel better, it happens to the best of us. Just do what you can.

Sounds like you are in a better place, or will be. Just think of what your garden will be like in a few years after it has been worked. I'm actually jealous.

Good luck
Dono

Thu May 12, 2011 3:46 am

If you want some of my chocolate cherry heirloom tomato plants I can send you half dozen in a priority box and wrap them in a wet cloth and you will have them! I have all kinds and will be stuck with too many I have Hillbilly orange red heirloom! I will have o write down what I have. I know you can mail them out and they will keep for three days without hurting them!