May 9, 2009: Addendum

Dan, from Dan's Urban Veggie Garden Blog just sent me the following comment:

"The ugly tomato is pretty crazy, looks like it had 2,4 D sprayed on it."


BINGO!

I blogged on April 28: My poor plants, that looked so strong and healthy a week ago, are looking absolutely miserable.

Our lawn service sprayed for crabgrass and broad leaf weeds on April 24. My tomato plants were outside on the patio table.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

10 comments:

  1. Oh boy! Can you sue them for killing your babies? LOL...
    I'd bet the farm that's what happened. Sorry. That's a definite bummer.

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  2. I rather doubt I could prove anything. But you can bet I'll make sure everything is better protected next year! Unfortunately, we get weed and crabgrass seed through our irrigation water, and I can't keep up with their eradication, so the lawn service treatments are a spring necessity. I used to do the applications myself, but I'm just getting too darned old...it wears me out!

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  3. Granny the rest of the garden looks fantastic including the art. I should introduce you to my daughter; she is very good at that also. I would sure register a complaint about the spraying and let them know to be careful where they spray and not to spray on a windy day. Check with some of the smaller lawn maintenance people in the area and ask if they use a drop spreader.

    John

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  4. Aha! I bet that was the culprit...

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  5. John, there's a good possibility I'll just do it myself in the future. I have a drop spreader, so no problem there. I stopped doing it myself when we began spending winters in AZ, and didn't get home early enough in the spring for the crabgrass pre-emergent applications. With the gardening this year I was home a month earlier than usual...I would have had time to do it. We've not sold the property down there yet, but I'll work on doing that this winter....keep your fingers crossed!

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  6. EG, it rather points to that, doesn't it? You know those plants were healthy and strong, I posted the photos.

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  7. Oh man! That happened once at our house. I had starts off my grandma's roses (she had passed away the year prior) and Hubs sprayed the weeds... and my rose starts died the next day. :((( It STILL upsets me! lol

    Looking back though, I think my grandma would have found it hilarious.

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  8. Amy, that would be heartbreaking! I think, now that I'm quite certain the wilted ones probably won't survive, that I'll buy a few plants to replace them before it's too late. It won't take a lot, as about half of those already planted still look healthy.

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  9. I figured it must be 2,4 D because that is exactly what it does to dandelions. That sucks that they sprayed your plants, by accident I hope. We had a lawn service when we lived in a condo, they were good at mowing down my plants. I wish I could take a weed whacker to them a few times!

    They just banned all the lawn chemicals here so I stocked up last fall. I use them really sparingly though, especially the crab grass stuff. It contains arsenic.

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  10. Dan, I think I'll just buy a few plants and replace those that are showing damage. I really don't think there is any chance they will improve at this point. Some of those that looked good when I planted them are also beginning to curl up at the tops. I don't want to end up with no tomatoes this year :-(

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