Tomato Update - Forever Green?
Hey all you beautiful humans!
I figured it was time I updated you about my tomaters!
First of all I would like to say that NONE are ready yet, and I'm getting hungrier by the day waiting for them to get some colour! 😆
As I've mentioned previously I was not born with a green thumb, it never came naturally to me and I've killed more plants over the years than I'd care to admit, tomato plants included.
This year I figured if I grew enough I could play with them all and see what works and what doesn't, to learn as much as I can. I started with 17 plants and gave a couple away to family, keeping 15 for myself.
They're all still alive so right there it's an improvement over other years! LoL
I wouldn't say they're bushy and thriving or anything, but they all have tomatoes and flowers going, so I'm calling that a win!
I keep seeing other friends posting about their tomato plants and they're just weighed down so heavily with ripe tomatoes, I'm super jealous! LoL
But that's ok, I'm still relatively new to this whole growing food thing so I'll remain proud of what I've accomplished so far! ❤️
I'll definitely get enough tomatoes to feed us through the summer (once the little bastards ripen!) and hopefully I'll get enough to bottle some bruschetta!
Take care Steemians!
~The NeoHippy
#GrowingFood #GrowYourOwn #GrowYourOwnFood #GrowFoodNotLawns #Growing #Garden #Gardening #UrbanFarmer #UrbanGarden #Gardens #HippyGardener
#Garden #Gardening
#GrowYourOwn
#GrowingFood
#GrowFoodNotLawns
#Growing2018
#Grow
#GrowFood
#GrowItYourself
#HomeSteading
#DIY
#SelfSufficient
#TakeControl
#RebelGardening
#RebelGardener
#YouCanToo
#GrowingTomatoes
#GrowTomatoes #Tomatoes #Tomato #TomatoGrowing #Maters #TomatoSeason
Hey, going from killing things to getting any fruit is a triumph. My tomato plants this year are huge...but keep dropping blossoms. I think it might be a phosphorous (possibly calcium) issue, but I'm not sure. Ack. They are almost 6 feet tall but I'm not so happy with the low number of fruits setting. Just gotta keep feeding that soil...
Thank you! I'm pretty proud for sure! :)
Your plants are massive!! What varieties do you have?
Do you flick your flowers?
I have a variety this year - I have two grape tomatoes that Dad gave me and I have no idea what they are. I have two heirloom canning tomatoes I got from the nursery and can't remember those either. I have two Hungarian Pink heirlooms and those are the ones primarily dropping their blossoms. They're squiffy tomatoes usually, but my sister gave them to me for nostalgia's sake because we always raised them growing up.
I never heard of flicking the flowers. What and why?
Oh wow, those pink tomatoes sound really special!!
For tomatoes, both the male and female parts are found inside the flower, so when bees come to pollinate their vibration shakes it up to pollinate them.
In case there's not enough bees or just to ensure each flower gets pollinated, you can gently flick the flowers around with your fingers :)
Do you have plenty of bees around? Or are the plants in a greenhouse? Could be why the flowers are dropping off.
They are really special to eat - meaty and fruity with hardly any seeds. If you can get the fruit, that is! They're really susceptible to pretty much everything, from blight to pests.
Okay, gotcha. I've had to do something like that with cucumbers one year.
The tomatoes are outside, adjacent to our little orchard and the raspberry patch.
We have a ton of honeybees right now. I think someone in the close vicinity must be keeping hives - I know of one keeper about a half mile away, but we have so many on our flowers there must be one closer. We also have hummingbirds, yellowjackets, bumblebees and these little tiny wasp-like bees which seem to like the flowers. So I think we have plenty of polinators. The tomatoes actually start to set and then the whole blossom with the stalk turns yellow and falls off..
That's too bad that they're so delicate! Certainly not a good plant for me!! Haha
You're braver to try growing them at all! 😆
So they're definitely getting pollinated! That's fantastic you have to many pollinators! :)
But alas, there goes the extent of my knowledge! Could it have something to do with all the crazy heat? I know it's been a really weird year for my stuff, a crazy late spring that just jumped right into summer, my hardy mint almost died, and that's a hard kill! LoL
Lol, I've avoided growing them for years but my sister got some for us and I was sort of bound to give it a shot.
I know, right - I'm so happy to see all the honeybees!
I think the blossom drop may have to do with water. I've had other tomatoes do that, but usually the amount of water I'm giving is sufficient. I gave them a bunch of calcium, so I'm fairly certain it's not a blossom end rot issue. I put some granular fertilizer containing extra phosphorous on them a few days ago and I'm waiting to see if that helps.
If your mint almost died, that is truly a catastrophic growing season! I'm still trying to get it out of our orchard and it will. not. die.
Hopefully your tomatoes start keeping their flowers soon! We're getting later in the season now. Not sure where you are, I can almost 100% assume you have a longer one than me LoL
Mint it crazy! It gets out of control so easily! LoL