When I got home from a week on the road, I found my organic garden had gone wild. The lettuce was higher than the tomatoes–I had to cut down a grove of greens to find the tomato seedlings. I harvested at least five pounds of salad stuff. The tomatoes didn’t look too good under there either. Some of the bottom leaves to the tomato plants had a brown rust. Fungus? I guess I need to buy some copper sulfate? Meanwhile the snap pea vines had overtaken the radishes.
If fact the pea vines were growing all over the place, including on top of the tomato cages. I chopped out a half a pound of snap pea shoots and took them inside for a treat. I fried them up with olive oil, garlic and a touch of soy sauce. I should have taken the tendrils and thick part of the stems out first, but oh well…I got plenty of roughage. I also cut all the chard. A Guatemalan woman I know says she likes to dip chard leaves in egg batter and fry them.
Ever heard of that?
Ohhhh, fried chard on a stick. (well, a stem.) I’ll get back to you on that one, probably later today.
You might be screwed on the tomatoes. If the tops are still green and bright, you should remove all of the leaves from the bottom 3 inches of the plant, clear away all other plants within 4 inches of the wire cage, and add an inch or 2 or mulch to cover the roots. Then hope for the best. With good air flow and lots of light, the fungus will stay away.