Tomatoes

Sunday I fertilized the tomato plants with a diluted seaweed emulsion, a terrific organic fertilizer. It's hard to tell from this picture, but in the two weeks since I took this picture, the plants have really sprouted up. And this week, with temps expected in the high 90s, we'll see another growth spurt. I just need to make sure the plants stay well watered during this hot and dry period.

You might ask why I planted the marigold flower with the tomato plant. We have found that marigolds repell the tomato hornworm. This pest is one of the worst for tomatoes and can literally devour the leaves on an entire plant in a single day. So, we are motivated to keep the tomato hornworms away. During the last three or four years that we used the marigolds as a hornworm control, we haven't seen any of these pests. It could be a coincidence, but before using marigolds, we would get hit with hornworms almost every year.