Dakota Blooms: Your Guide to Midwest Gardening

     A recent devastating disaster has encompassed my garden after a torrential storm. Luckily, all my plants stayed intact. However, I discovered all my Roma tomatoes have started to rot on the bottom. As a novice gardener who is learning as she goes, tomatoes have been my biggest struggle for years. I thought this year was going to be the best one yet for a good tomato harvest, up until last week. Let's talk about what blossom rot is and how we can avoid it next time so you don't make the same mistake as me. 😢 What is blossom rot? Blossom rot is a common gardening issue that manifests as discolored, sunken spots, on the bottom of the vegetable, rendering inedible. It is also known as blossom end rot. Blossom rot typically affects the fruits of plants of the nightshade family which includes tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. This rot looks like a dark, dry, or water-soaked lesion at the bottom end of the fruit (pictured-above). What causes blossom rot? I have h...

   Have you ever seen a bush that looks like it has poop all over the branches?     Cherry, plum, apricot, and chokecherry are some of the most common shrubs in the Midwest because they grew some of the few types of fruit that survives in this climate.   However, you may have noticed a black yucky-looking substance all over on them at some point. Dibotryon morbosum, also known as "black knot", is a disease that encompasses these certain types of shrubs.     Black knot is caused by the fungal pathogen Apiosporina morbosa and affects primarily trees of the Prunus genus. It appears to have a black, rough texture often resembling 💩 or swollen, elongated knots. Some prevention steps for this disease include pruning, sanitation, and maximizing tree health. In other words, regular inspection of shrubs is crucial to prevent the spread of this disease. To treat black knot, you can cut off the affected branches, and/or spray the shrub with fungicides.  It ...