The watermelon that was tucked in there never had a chance, there was no sunlight left for the little guy. The pepper plants I THOUGHT I had spaced far enough away from these monsters were swallowed up! I managed to get a decent amount off of a couple of pepper plants, but alas, most of them suffered.
What didn't suffer was my tomato crop. I had 8 tomato plants (Tigerella and Stupice) and they yielded approximately 180 lbs of tomatoes. I'm sad to say I actually lost the last 50 lbs worth of them, I was so terribly unprepared to handle such a harvest! They ended up going to the chickens.
I canned over 60 pints of salsa (supplementing from the grocery store for the veggies that didn't produce or didn't produce enough!) and 18 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Then I pureed and froze a bunch and froze some whole. The whole tomatoes are definitely an experiment, we'll see how they go!
THIS YEAR'S SUCCESSFUL CHANGES
Big changes I made to my tomato bed this year were heat retention and wind reduction. After learning that tomatoes prefer a temperature of 55-85 degrees night and day and that they didn't like wind, I nearly gave up! But some great suggestions from a Master Gardener in my area got me going again. My husband built me a four foot wall around 2 sides of the bed out of excess metal siding we had (which actually helped on both temp and wind counts) and every tomato plant was left in their "Wall-o-Water" until harvest was complete.
Even watering by way of soaker hose helped reduce and nearly eliminate the blossom rot I had been experiencing. But the large harvest of vine ripened tomatoes I credit to mitigating the wind/heat factors.
CHANGES FOR NEXT SEASON
Next year, the 2 sided wall will be completed to fully encase the 8' x 25' bed. The further away from the wall the plants were, the less successful they appeared. We'll also be switching to a drip system instead of soaker hoses, to reduce water loss during delivery. I have also been tilling compost and crushed eggshells into the bed to provide more nutrients for the plants.
The last big change will be in fruit types. While I loved the success of the Stupice and Tigerella tomatoes, I want to expand to include a Roma-type tomato and a cherry-type. Hopefully, this will help me to better utilize my crop and reduce losses at the end of the season when everything comes off at once in an attempt to save the fruit from frost!
Tomatoes have been my biggest challenge yet up here. Short growing season, windy and cool conditions, and poor native soil were all working against me. I was so very thankful for the guiding advice I received! Growing a plant that was meant for a temperate climate in a mountainous one can be challenging...but it doesn't have to be impossible!
Next challenge...better potato yields! ;-)
