Another busy week but it did cool off some and we got a little rain but most importantly it was pretty much over cast and gave a number of my plants a huge break.
As I have mentioned a few times my main reason for gardening the way I do is simple, maximum production with minimum input. I am lucky in I can expand or reduce my garden area at will every season but it may not always be that easy for everyone (even myself) depending on circumstance. This is why I attempt to use repurposed or scavenged items when possible, try and limit inputs such as piped in water and store bought stuff ingredients etc. including fertilizer and etc.
I start each garden using only stored rain water and hand watering. I have mostly found in normal years around here that using a combination of heavy grass type mulch and average seasonal rain fall I can get through an entire season without really needing any other water inputs. This year being one of those exceptions of course I have watered many times during this drought we have had this year.
It is also why I select only certain tried and tested varieties of plants for my garden.
Of course since I have so far not been forced to actually produce under the conditions I have set it allows me a lot of time to experiment until or when/if that happens. Ideally I want to be able to build a survival garden in just about any location I need to and that might mean hauling water each day and spending a few days away as well.
One part of that I have found is companion planting and for my own personal needs that has only really meant protecting my Tomatoes. I mostly have another way of protecting my water melons.
What is the largest single pest for Tomatoes? Those damned Horn Worms.
Yes Horn worms have attacked but this one has been tricked.
This one is not on a Tomato plant but was lured away by what I have found to be the horn worm's favorite victim and first food source of choice a Tobacco plant.
I plant these all around my tomato plants and have found the horn worms whether red or black horned ones will rush to my tobacco plants and begin devouring them first. The worms are much easier to find on the tobacco plants and do not destroy anything edible when they do.
I have found and eliminated three of these destructive worms so far just last evening.
Now I know some sources claim there are Tobacco hornworms and Tomato ones etc. But I have not noticed a preference on either and have found some sources who claim they are the same worm regardless. I really don't know I only know they eat my precious tomatoes and must be destroyed but seem to have a noticeable preference for tobacco over tomatoes at first. So I try and get rid of them there.
I have also had readers that point out Tobacco maybe more desirable than tomatoes but not to me and curing tobacco properly takes a lot of leaves and infrastructure so I have never tried to do it. Drying it isn't a problem but removing the ammonia from the leaves is a bit harder.
Also Tobacco seeds are much easier to get now than they were back when I started using them for this. I went almost 15 years saving and reusing the same seeds year after year until my variety failed last year and I had to order more this Winter to start over.
After witnessing the dismal failure of the Dragon Egg cucumbers with squash bugs this year I am just glad something still works!!!
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Fruit fly are our biggest pest for tomatoes here. We are eating our tomatoes, so don't want to use poison "dusts". The only prevention is to plant the cherry varieties in the warm months as they're too acidic for the fruit flies. Cooler months allow us to grow our preferred varieties like Romas.
ReplyDeleteTobacco worms, hah. I picked wrapper tobacco as a wee but unimpressionable lad. The tobacco worms were at least three times the size of any tomato worm I have ever seen. And they could talk and had opposable thumbs. Well maybe not the last part, but they were quite large.
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