Port Potager

This year's grape harvest: These are our Concords. Not all of of vines are bearing yet, but the Concords looked like they were going to do pretty well this year. But as September arrived, it became clear that we had a problem: See how we're missing a lot of grapes? They are on the ground, shriveled up. A bunch of the ones that are left have shriveled also. The handful of good ones in the first photo were about our whole harvest.  (I should note that they were completely delicious — sweet and so grapey that I finally understand what the flavor "purple" in medicine and candy is based on. Concord grapes have really excellent flavor. These plants have outdone all our others in vigor of growth this year also.) But. All of our grapes that are bearing are having a problem with the shriveled, unevenly-ripening fruit, and their leaves are turning brown and dying back as well: As near as I can tell, the problem here is black rot . This is a ...

The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. ~from "The Masque of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe We've got more than just  squirrel problems with our corn this year (as if that weren't enough). We also have weird, red veined stalks (and these often these have red tassels as well). It starts with the center vein turning red: Lots of our corn looked like this, and it did not grow very tall. They also had very small ears (well, the ones we beat the squirrels to did, anyway). Not all of it turned out this way. Here's a nice, normal one with a good sized ear: (To be honest, we have to assume that ear was good based on the size of the husk the squirrels left behind). These have nice, white center veins in the leaves: So what is going on? According to a very thorough diagnostic chart from the University of Georgia , the Red Death might be a virus called Maize ...