the tWe love tomatoes. Well, at least the adults do. The kids are another story. The thing is, they eat tomatoes in so many things, but swear they would never eat tomatoes! They love spaghetti. They eat marinara sauce and salsa. They wouldn't think of eating hash browns or hamburgers without a humongous glob of ketchup on top. Yet, they don't eat tomatoes. Okay. Each year since we've started this garden, we've planted the varieties well-known to our parents. This would always include better boy, beefsteak and Roma on occasion. In recent years, we experimented with Cherokee Purple and Celebrity after attending a tomato growing class offered by a local feed store. This year we decided to take our tomato game to another level. We are growing at least eight different varieties of tomatoes this year. All of our plants were started from seed in February, March and April, then set out either in the raised garden beds or in buckets. We are growing at least 11 plants in 5 gallon buckets. The fellas built a bucket planter that holds 12 five-gallon buckets. (Look for our YouTube video DIY Quick Easy Planter for Small Gardens about how we built it.) Our soil is straight clay, so there are very few things we can actually grow in-ground without heavily amending the soil. Our tomato choices this year are Granny Cantrell, Big Boy, Roma, Paul Robeson, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Celebrity and Cherry. Most of these seeds were purchased from Baker Creek and Park Seed. However, Big Boy was saved from two years ago and Cherry was saved from tomatoes we had last summer. I was so surprised either of them actually sprouted! And no, we did not practice any of the great seed saver techniques such as storing in a cool, dry place or the freezer. But when you know better, you do better. This year, we pledge to do better. As if we didn't have enough tomato plants already, I messed around and learned that you should prune the suckers to get better growth and stronger plants. And seeing as how tomatoes root and grow so easily, I wasn't about to let a perfectly healthy plant go to waste. So I learned you can root tomato suckers in water or soil. The kids and I set out to find out how true this is. About two weeks ago, we cut suckers from the bottoms of Big Boy and Cherokee Purple established plants. We placed these directly in potting mix inside the garage. The next day we took additional cuttings and placed them in a jar of water. Naturally, the plants placed in soil drooped overnight. But by the next day, they had regained strength and perked up with constant bottom watering. After a week, the plants clearly appeared to be healthy. The ones in water had grown a few roots. By the end of week two, new leaves began to appear on the plants grown in soil; a nice root system had been established on the plants grown in water. We moved them to pots today. Conclusions; 1. Snip or pinch suckers when it's cool and when they are large enough to see visible "hairs" on the stem, at least 4-6 inches tall. 2. Plants grown in water seem to root faster and do not lose their luster. Place them in a window. 3. Move plants to pots to further establish roots and gradually expose to sun (harden off). 4. Suckers should only be removed from indeterminate varieties. Determinate tomatoes set fruit all at once, so you don't want to remove any of your fruiting branches. ~PennyCandy
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AuthorI'm a wife, mother, daughter, educator, writer and hobby farmer. Welcome to my world of simply living. Archives
December 2023
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