THE LAST TOMATO PLANT

May 13, 2021

You can observe the damage done but sometimes you hardly see the insect, which is damaging the plant. Sometimes, the damage caused by the insect that has fed on the leaves is not visible at the beginning. Animals can cause lots of damage to the plants in your vegetable garden too.

A raised bed keeps away some unwanted animals but it does not deter animals or insects from digging up your bed or damaging your plants on the bed. Birds can sometimes damage the plant when they are trying to feed on insects. It is difficult to observe what animals and insects are coming in and what they are doing.

I had few tomato plants in small pots to be planted on a raised bed. It was the second time; I used a raised bed for tomato plants. A few days later, one day I noticed that one of them planted on the bed, about 5” tall, was heavily damaged. I had previously observed that tomato plants grew well on raised beds. The next plant was planted on the bed with a 3-foot-tall mesh, which was rolled up and tied with a metal wire (top side opened), that was put aside. After some time there were signs that this plant was no longer growing well. The plant died. Later, I observed that the encloser had some openings at the lower part.

I feared that my last tomato plant would disappear. Enclosing my garden with a wire mesh was a costly measure. So, the last plant in the garden had to be caged to protect it from animals and bad insects. I planted the last tomato plant and enclosed it completely (sides and top) with a one-foot tall mesh. Later, when the plant height reached about one foot, the existing mesh was replaced with a taller mesh. When the plant began to flower the top side was kept opened. This last tomato plant grew well and started to bear fruits!