Malvern crown in the balance

I've not posted photos of my tomatoes on here for some time, the reason being that i'm ashamed of them. Something has gone drastically wrong with them in the last month. They have gone from strong plants at planting out to insipid, yellowing, spindly things that look close to Death's door! I've tried spraying with epsom salts and top dressing with ammonium sulphate in case it was a magnesium or nitrogen deficiency but the plants have got worse. I've even cut off whole trusses of tomatoes as I tried to get the plant to re-balance themselves.

If I didn't know better I'd have said they'd been sprayed with weedkiller but the aubergines growing in front of them are fine. A few years ago there was a serious scare in some parts of the country with contaminated manure as cows ate grass that had been treated with a herbicide that didn't break down in the cows stomachs. As I spread new manure in a trench below my tomatoes I wondered whether it might be this but that is doubtful as the muck came from a local horse stable and as far as I know the lady owner doesn't spread any herbicide on her field. And besides, my celery is planted into the same stuff and that looks fine, as do the aubergines in front of the tomatoes. All-in-all it's a real mystery and comes just as I thought growing tomatoes was a piece of piss. My chances of defending my Malvern crown appear to have gone. Or have they?

World famous John Trim contacted me via the excellent NVS forum suggested it might be some form of hormonal imbalance, and an old trick from his days as Head Gardener in a large country estate was to crush a 75mg aspirin tablet in a pint of water and give each plant half a pint of the solution. I should see an improvement in a week....if it's going to work! I must admit i'm a little dubious and to be quite honest if it works i'll stage my own gonads on a plate at Malvern too! So I've had to swallow my pride and beg some sideshoots off Dave T this weekend which I will get rooted and plant up as soon as I can. They should get me fruits in time for Harrogate and Malvern if i'm lucky, but I shall limit them to 5 trusses instead of training up into the eaves.


Elsewwhere my long carrots go from strength to strength. I had a sneaky peak at national chumpion Dave T's carrots on Wednesday night when I picked him up en route to a veg talk at North Derby DA. My long and stump carrots are well ahead of his. I also saw his shallots which, whilst impressive, were quite a bit smaller than last season so it seems even the best growers are having an abnormal year.

I'm also hoping to have better luck with runner beans this season and have gone to extra efforts in the construction of my bean fence. I've used steel rods for bean poles as it's impossible to purchase 10' canes these days. The two wooden cross supports have holes drilled in them so the steel rods are merely passed through without any need for tying. It can all be easily dismantled and stored away for the winter. What's more this baby aint going nowhere in high winds and will also act as a windbreak for my 2011 National Champion winning peas just behind them.