Took me years of effort to create a garden where everything flourishes. Zero pesticides, home grown and cultivated live soil, using tiller plants, and miner plants and plants that attract natural predators.
My yield is has just begun. I have to ripen most of them off the vine since I can't keep up. (Southern hemisphere, South Africa, so I have at least 4 months left to harvest).
This is amazing. Seeing so many insects I've never seen before as the microcosm takes charge. Also haven't had any fungal diseases, white flies, and marginal mites and thrips. Even cutworms, slugs, hornworms, rust and any other pests are sorted out by the environment as soon as they rear their ears.
Yes, it has taken a few years, but boy-oh-boy was it worth it!!!
Just stay the course, nature will reward you!
by zookuki
1 Comment
Can’t edit my post, so, in case anyone wonders why I am ripening so many tomatoes off the vine:
1. I wanted to ensure that some of the earliest and most disease-free fruits’ seeds are used for my next season.
2. I try to use use tomatoes of equal size and health from the same cultivar – one ripened on the vine and one ripened off the vine – to test their yield, disease resistance and growth over generations.
3. I want to test the difference in size, taste, proliferation and overall growth with strategic pruning and on/off the vine ripening.
(Among other things)