Raising kids, crops
and a little Cain
deep in the heart
of the Texas Subtropics

Tomato Wars

(Garden • Critters)

Around here the garden plants rev into overdrive, some seemingly growing a foot a day, either in a race to reproduce before the mid-summer heat scorches them dry or in an attempt to make fruit faster than the tropical bugs can destroy it.

It’s been a bad bug year for the tomatoes; some invisible moths laid eggs in both gardens that hatched into thriving broods of tomato fruitworms. This particular strain is dark greenish brown. They start out nibbling on the leaves but, once they grow to an inch and a half in length, they bore right into the biggest and most perfect green tomatoes they can find. I don’t like using chemicals on food plants, and these mobile caterpillars are hard to stop with organic powders or sprays. You almost have to find them on the leaves to kill them with a spray, and why bother when you’ve found them already?

So I look for caterpillar poop each morning and evening, and try to follow the trail to its logical conclusion. Oddly, I didn’t see a single fruitworm last year, just the occasional hornworm, which is just as bad.

Some of the tomato plants already are enormous. Cherry tomato plants that lived through the winter have reached the room of my garage, more than 10 feet high, and started growing back down to the ground. One of the Brandy Boys is over 8 feet, growing up some twine I tied to some of the garage beams.

I built enclosures around the Brandwine and First Prize tomatoes,
using plastic-coated aluminum poles about 7 feet tall. Each group of three plants is surrounded by six poles, with twine strung between them for the plants to climb. The idea is that these poles won’t rust and will last for years.

Meanwhile, I’ve had good luck with some heirloom Italian eggplants, and the summer squash are ripening so fast we can’t eat enough of them to keep up. Also, I’ve begun harvesting my late planting of green beans, and picked a peck of hot serrano peppers.

Very soon, perhaps beginning this evening, it’ll be time to string the bird netting. First, I’ll cover part of the giant fig tree/bush in the back yard. It’s so big around that I couldn’t get netting over the whole thing without a crane, so I just cover the most thickly fruited branches and leave the rest for the critters.

You have to put netting over ripening tomatoes around here, too, or the mocking birds will destory them.

Next year I’m going to try a trick I heard about from a friend: You buy a few boxes of round red Christmas ornaments the week after the big holiday when they’re cheap. Then, when your tomato plants start to get big, hang a few ornaments on each plant. Supposedly, the birds will try to peck them at first, and of course meet only stiff resistance. Once the real red tomatoes appear on your plants – so the story goes – the birds will be fooled into thinking it’s just the ornaments, and they’ll leave ‘em alone.

→ B.Dunn, Jun 06, 2005, 04 19 pm