What is GOING ON with my garden?!?! **LOTS OF PICS!**

[Broke Down Ranch]

OK, first batch of pics are my tomatoes. First I thought I had killed them using too strong of a solution of sevin spray. So I didn't use anything else the whole time regretting the use of a pesticide (I had envisioned organic but between the bugs and the birds we were getting NOTHING). I originally had my plants in cages but they got HUMONGOUS and quickly outgrew the cages so they all were, at one point, laying on the ground. I trimmed off everything that was dead or dying once I saw there was LOTS of new growth at the base of the plants and on some of the younger branches. Then I put up trellis's to get them off the ground. Yet they are still curling up and dying. I have found aphids and worms of some sort as well as possibly white flies. But I fear some sort of wilt....

Could all of this damage be from the bugs or is something more sinister going on? The brands of tomatoes are Early Girl, Homestead, Rutgers (the hardest hit), Brandywine, and Beefsteak. Here are the pics:





















































Next are a couple of pics from my cukes. I dunno if they had issues or if I just didn't water them enough:







And this is a leaf from a pepper plant:






And lastly, a few pics of my okra. In my reading today I found out okra can get FW and I think that may be the problem here:

 

[Greensage45]

I almost want to say that if it starts with the Letter A and then going through the alphabet, that you have it.

My gosh your garden is devastated. My first thought is that this ground is too parched and they are not getting enough deep root watering, or the go between waterings is just far too extreme.

I do not even see an adult leaf on your okra??

I would go ahead and call it a year. Get those areas manured with some green manure over the winter and turn them in with some additive manures (leaves and or cow/chicken/rabbit/horse/llama stuff). Try to build on the organics and move away from that grayed baked Texas mud.

If you hand water then I would create a separate furrow for filling up every few days to a week (depending on seasonal rain). Fill up at least 2 inches of water per plant so that it set deeply. This is one deep furrow surrounding each plant, like a basin around each plant to support the watering.

Instead of expensive pesticides try collecting ciggy butts and make a tea; then simply spray your plants with the tobacco tea. If you grow tobacco you can pulverize the old dried leaf and make a dust to cover your crops without harm to the plants. Tobacco is a natural pesticide and can easily be washed off of your harvested crops.

Most of your problem is likely in the soil itself. Either too parched, too void of nutrient, or you have a pest at the roots as well as topside. You might check out the roots on your tomatoes. Nematodes might have clogged it all up and have gotten out of hand.

Here, take a look at this article: http://hubpages.com/hub/Do-You-Have-Bumpy-Tomato-Roots You would look for bumpy roots/ulcers.

Wishing you luck, perhaps you can keep us posted so we know how you are progressing. It is so sad to see a lost garden but I am afraid yours is on a downward spin.

Ron

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

I almost want to say that if it starts with the Letter A and then going through the alphabet, that you have it.

My gosh your garden is devastated. My first thought is that this ground is too parched and they are not getting enough deep root watering, or the go between waterings is just far too extreme.

I do not even see an adult leaf on your okra??

I would go ahead and call it a year. Get those areas manured with some green manure over the winter and turn them in with some additive manures (leaves and or cow/chicken/rabbit/horse/llama stuff). Try to build on the organics and move away from that grayed baked Texas mud.

If you hand water then I would create a separate furrow for filling up every few days to a week (depending on seasonal rain). Fill up at least 2 inches of water per plant so that it set deeply. This is one deep furrow surrounding each plant, like a basin around each plant to support the watering.

Instead of expensive pesticides try collecting ciggy butts and make a tea; then simply spray your plants with the tobacco tea. If you grow tobacco you can pulverize the old dried leaf and make a dust to cover your crops without harm to the plants. Tobacco is a natural pesticide and can easily be washed off of your harvested crops.

Most of your problem is likely in the soil itself. Either too parched, too void of nutrient, or you have a pest at the roots as well as topside. You might check out the roots on your tomatoes. Nematodes might have clogged it all up and have gotten out of hand.

Here, take a look at this article: http://hubpages.com/hub/Do-You-Have-Bumpy-Tomato-Roots You would look for bumpy roots/ulcers.

Wishing you luck, perhaps you can keep us posted so we know how you are progressing. It is so sad to see a lost garden but I am afraid yours is on a downward spin.

Ron

Thanks so much for your input! I will start at the top of your post and address some of the things you listed. Not all of the okra looks llike this, it's just some does and it seems to be increasing in numbers.

For the watering I normally do a deep soak about once a week. Our soil is heavy clay with not-so-great drainage so I don't want to rot the roots. The deep watering solution was the reason I did the cans around the tomato plants - I fill them up then once absorbed I fill again. I have been adding lots of goat poo. I hope to get a soil test kit in the next couple of weeks to see what exactly I need to add to the soil (afraid the chicken poo may be too acidic which would help promote V or F wilt). And I had read somewhere not to use the tobacco treatment on the tomatoes or cuke for fear of TMV.

I feared nematodes as well but on the tomato plants that were too far gone (and got pulled up) I inspected the root VERY closely and perhaps nematodes are the ONE thing I don'd have...lol.

I have seedlings going for a fall garden so I might just have to start some tomatoes as well. I was just hoping to salvage what was already growing and blooming.....

 

[digitS']

Did you spray your plants during mid-day so that they burned from the sun?

I'm also afraid of tobacco but for all sorts of reasons . . . :/

You are in such a different neck of the woods from me that I'm reluctant to comment. But, not knowing what I'm talking about has not stopped me before . . . .

First off, I thought Texas gardens were all finished at this time of the year. Don't folks dealing with so much heat do things like grow Early Girls, then nothing, then Early Girls again in the Fall? Are you expecting too much from your garden in August?

The organic growers will tell you that nearly all your problems start from the soil. A part of the process of developing good soil is to grow things. If the soil isn't fertile to start off with, it is real tough to get things going good in the first year or 2.

I'd look for whatever plants that grow well in your area and grow them. I'm talking about sweet corn or pumpkins, sweet clover or barley. Just about anything that won't aggressively reseed and become a nuisance in later seasons. If you have no other use for the plants than to turn them under - getting your garden soil producing something is important. Can you put all or part of your garden into a cover crop?

It is a shame that sometimes it takes several years to develop productive garden soil. But, sometimes it takes that long to learn how to deal with other issues like irrigation and the pests common to an area.

It may be best not to become too focused on pests. Once a plant begins to weaken, there's usually plenty of pests that will move in and take advantage of it. Keeping it growing strongly is a first step towards avoiding the pests.

Steve

 

[vfem]

Yeah, I see a lot of leaf burn... I am so sorry. Ron is right, start treating your soil with lots of compost. You need to get a thicker more fertile soil mound for each plant. If water is such the issue digging good areas around each plant to funnel the water directly to each plants root system would be perfect. I would even add a layer of some kind of mulch around each plant. Maybe hay, wood chippings, grass clipping... anything. It will help stop the ground from drying up so quickly and give more time to the plant to drink it in!

I really hope next year will provide you with amazing bounty!!!!

 

[obsessed]

How about raised beds. Then you could do deep watering without drowning your roots.

I also agree about the August weather. If the Texas heat is anything like the Louisiana heat then you can't expect much in the Heat of summer. And it has been a dry year here. I haven't had anything growing all of June, July and most of August. By early June my beans were done and the cukes and zukes just stopped. Now things are starting to flower again, barely.

 

[Catalina]

Um, don't spray your tomatoes with tobacco.
That would be the easiest way to spread tobacco/tomato mosaic virus to your tomatoes.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

I have decided that between the aphids and the Texas heat my poor tomatoes were just struggling to survive. I don't think I am expecting too much from them because I have had tomatoes before that produced from May all the way up until the first frost in November. I think my fear of overwatering them and fear of spraying "something" for the aphids just overwhelmed the tomatoes.

So yesterday I finished trellising the last row of tomatoes and trimmed back the rest of the curled up dead stuff. The I went thru with my tiller and grubbing hoe and loosen up the dirt (which wasn't very hard around the plants, just down the middle of the row). I then put the sprayer on my hose and blasted the bugs off the leaves. I was very meticulous to get every leaf of every plant. After all of that I put the hose on at a slow run and SOAKED the entire bed. We'll see how everything works out and I'll keep ya'll updated if my plants actually make it or not....

 

[dragonlaurel]

You need to get more compost mixed in that soil but maybe you can rescue some of this crop still. Good luck! :bouquet

 

[Beatrice]

Some of the damage looks like tobacco mosaic virus or one of the mosaic viruses. If someone was around the plants who smoked, that could be the problem. Aphids? also? Maybe do some research online about tomatoe viruses. I had similar problems and found out it it probably was due to someone who handled the plants that smoked. Good luck next year.