August 11, 2011 - WTF is Eating My Tomatoes?

 Good News:

 All the sunflowers are huge!  They've turned out real good.  The Giants weren't as giant as advertised, but they had been eaten pretty good by caterpillars.  

Lots of good fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and other garden bounty landing on my plate lately.    I love Caprese salad best when it is home grown and there are a sample of tomatoes.   Add some homemade bread and some buttered corn and you have a meal!

The peppers for the most part are a non-event this year.  A couple of them have some good ones, namely the Banana Peppers and this particular Italian Frying Pepper plant. 

 While it looks to be an absolute mess of weeds and grass, the watermelon patch seems that the groundhogs have had their fill of melons (or they can't see them in the weeds) and a few are coming back.  I counted 5 Orangellos and 3 Golden Midget.  Just in time for Labor Day!

Annoying News:

 

I also learned during the insanely hot July we've had that Purple Basil does not tolerate sustained high heat.  I did a little research and it seems that it'll bolt and loose it's color at around 95 degrees.  Had I know that I would of brought it in for a few days.  Oh well.  There is plenty of Italian Basil to go around right now.  I'm glad I had started so many early in the summer. 

 

The Powdery Mildew has begun on the Butternut Squash, luckily there are a couple of (almost) ripe fruit.

Bad News:

So here's a little mystery that's come up over the last couple of weeks.  The tomatoes are getting gutted on the vine and there doesn't seem to be any obvious culprits.  My theory is birds. It starts with a small hole on some,  then it gets bigger,  until finally the entire fruit is gutted.   Any thoughts?  I'm losing a fair amount of the plums to whoever it is!

 

 Phase 1: A small hole appears.

 Phase 2: It gets bigger

 Phase 3: All the insides are missing.