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October Garden Questions and Answers

© Keith Muraoka

Q. I’m an avid reader of your column. I had a problem with my beefsteak tomato this past summer. It grew up to about five feet tall with very nice green foliage, but the tomatoes wouldn’t set. I watered two or three times a week and fertilized every two weeks. What did I do wrong?

A. Take heart in that you did a lot right to get a nice, healthy five-foot-tall tomato plant! We just need those tomatoes to cooperate. A lot has to do with something that is out of our control – namely, the weather. This past summer was strange in that we didn’t get our real hot weather until really late in the summer. Most of the summer was relatively mild. Tomatoes need heat to set lots of fruit. You may also have been taking care of your plants a little too-well. Excess nitrogen in the way of fertilizer can result in luxurious vine growth at the expense of fruiting. You may have been watering a little too often, too. Once tomato plants are established, once a week is usually sufficient. Q. Why did my tomato plant leaves dry and curl up this season. Also, I had brown spots on the fruit.

A. Fungal diseases like bacterial spot and fusarium wilt can hit tomatoes at any time. None of these diseases are easily controlled. You can try picking off infected leaves and fruits, but that’s about it. Next year, make sure to choose disease-resistant tomato varieties. Also, and this is important, make sure you rotate the growing area in which you’re growing tomatoes. Planting the same crop in the same garden spot year after year will lead to fungal diseases in the soil. Good luck.

Q. How do I get rid of the particularly pesky kind of oxalis, the kind with the yellow flower? I pulled, I sprayed, I cursed and not much worked.

A. Well, you didn’t mention if the oxalis is in your lawn or garden. If it’s in your lawn, spray with Ortho’s Weed-B-Gon. You spray this directly on the grass and it won’t kill anything but the weeds. To kill oxalis in the garden, spray with Roundup or Finale when the weather gets warm and dry. Buy the contact killer type that you have to mix yourself in a pump sprayer rather than the pre-mixed, ready-to-use type. This way, you can dilute at a higher solution for better kill power. I think this stronger solution if sprayed when it is warm will do the trick. Of course, you may have to spray twice for really tough cases.

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