Hacked The Gardens Up, Prevention, and What's to Come

I pruned back every tomato and will blog the process this week. Even though I know what suckers are and talk about pruning tomatoes to one main growth stem... I just can't do it.  So my tomatoes are a variation of growth stems and size. I just don't like cutting off healthy growth. But the key to pruning them, as you will notice is to:

• Remove the bottom leaves to make soil splash more difficult
• Add mulch beneath them
• Prune out heavy interior growth to make spaces for air circulation
• Remove most of the suckers
• Decide how many main growth stems you want
• Stake the plants

Staking the plants is key. I had several branches snap due to winds. I have a blog repair of this process coming up.

I removed all my lettuces. I had to Sevin Dust specific plants. I dusted the stems of all my squash and zucchini. The squash bugs will come... they always come and bore into the stems.

Prevention is the key for June. I also resprayed my tomatoes with sulfur. I think it makes my leaves thick and leathery. I gave them an aspirin bath. Or maybe the aspirin makes them leathery.  And finally the tomatoes got some mild liquid fertilizer. The bucket tomatoes will need regular liquid fertilizer. They will drain the nutrients from the soil.