2008 Sydney to Gong - 2 November 2008

The day before the ride I was at Tafe getting my chemical application licence. I got home late and fixed a flat tire on my road bike at 10pm (which I only discovered when I got home) I knew I was too tired to do this ride and deal with the normal problems, flats, bad riding and hills. After fixing a flat after only 5km I gave up and went home. My pump destroyed the valve so I couldn't pump the tire up. So no spares, no working pump I wouldn't ride do a ride of half the distance without being able to look after myself.

Try next year but I have to admit that I'm looking for other challenges, three Sydney to Gongs might be enough.

Stop press

Both tubes were Bontrager which are produced for Trek. I couldn't find a hole in the orginal tube, probably bad valve. Crappy quality for a premium price tag $12 (Clarence St Cycles, Sydney). When I got home I replaced the bent valve, pumped up the tire. It went flat again over night! I pulled out the tube and found that that it had folded over itself by 10cm, which explains why it was difficult to pump up. I expect the bent valve was due to the soft nature of the brass used.

I always use a basic Chinese brand which sell for about $9.00 and with one exception never had a problem.

2008/2009 Tomatoes Leaf Spot

I have Early blight which is a fungus disease on my Red Russian and Beefsteak tomatoes. It's left pin holes in the leaves and caused flowers to drop

I hope that a remedy from Gardening Australia will work, http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1484689.htm.

In 2 litres of water add a drop of vegetable oil, a drop of detergent, 4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda. It's perfect for tomatoes.

There is another recipe among Gardening Australia's factsheets which is a bit different, it includes Pestoil, however this recipe should work well. Sydney Botanic Gardens use a similar solution.

2008/2009 Tomatoes

For the last two years we have grown our own tomatoes in pots and I couldn't wait to get them started this year. Last year's crop was a bit disappointing, the cherry tomatoes were good but the Beefsteak and Green Zebra just didn't produce anything. The fruit was very slow to mature and was attacked by pests before they had time to mature. Fruit set was small, they dropped lots of flowers. I think the main problem was lack of potassium, phosphorous and water which led to a fungus or nematode attack.

This year I am growing cherry tomatoes again, two plants appeared in near my roses bushes and when we got home from Japan I put them in separate pots. I am also growing Red Russians and Beefsteak, seedlings from a local nursery. The cherries should almost look after themselves but my basic plan this year is to water in some seaweed extract to provide potassium and worm wee alternatively each weekend. Water everyday in hot weather, my Yates gardening book suggested watering to field capacity which seems a bit too much.

Pruning is important for all tomatoes especially as bushes can get very leafy at the expense of fruit. I'm going to prune the Red Russian to two dominant leaders and Beefsteak back to one. Last weekend I added dolomite for calcium to the pots however it will raise pH (Gypsum is a good source also without changing pH).

There is fruit forming on the cherry tomato, so looks like for the first time I'll have tomatoes for Christmas.