This means war
Before I even picked the first tomato of the season, I found a few half eaten cherry tomatoes and saw that a few Better Boys were stolen. I think it’s some nefarious squirrels along with their evil bird sidekicks. I really didn’t want to cover the plants with netting this year, but I may not have a choice. There are some deterrents I could use, such as chile powder spread around the plants, but the squirrels around here are probably ones with nimble feet who can dodge past the powder like land mines.
In happier, less war-ish news, a few Isis Candy cherry tomatoes have blushed (but not ripened yet) and a few serrano peppers were used in a salsa. They aren’t that hot yet, but with time, their flavor should heat up.
I had to get some support cages for the tomatillos since they’ve sprawled like crazy and aren’t respecting others’ personal spaces. The husks (that look like paper lanterns) are filling with the fruit and all of that is weighing the branches down. I don’t know why, but since they looked like lanterns or balloons, I though they’d stay light and airy. Idiot. So some of the branches snapped under all the weight of the lead balloons. I don’t think these injuries are fatal, though, that may be some famous last words.
