Compost is a great addition to the soil. It isn’t a true fertilizer, but it adds essential nutriants to the soil, makes it drain better, and adds microorganisims to the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy plants. Remember, use a fertilizer that is rich with calcium and do not water the leaves. Calcium prevents blossom end rot. I don’t know if you can get Texas Tomato Food where you live, but it really stops blossom end rot . Also, pick the tomatoes before they are perfectly ripe. Doing so will prevent cracked skins and will stop birds from poking holes in the skins.
I’m pretty surprised I can add anything to this thread - but as it turns out I actually CAN. Thing is my little daughter heard me talking about how you put an apple seed in the ground and a whole big tree grows out of it. To this she replied: lets take those seed and do it! I said awright, we took a pot with some earth from a nearby field, put apple and paprica seeds in it and we were watching. Some time ago my mother offered a small tomato plant in exchange for our small papricas - we said OK and since then out tomato was our fastest growing plant. Today I’ve seen it’s starting to freeze outside, so I said it’s slowly time to wrap it up.
Here’s how our pot looked like this morning:
And this is what we harvested:
I wat to see if the yellow one will turn red laying on the kitchen counter, then I’ll take down the green ones.
A tomato plant is an amazing plant. It can grow from a six inch plant to a three foot plant in a month and produce fruit. Put the green tomatos in a paper bag with an apple. They should ripen.
Dodgy,
Have you tried Amazon Australia? I buy Texas Tomato Food from Amazon USA. Will Amazon USA ship to Australia? I have no idea. I think that you can order from Amazon USA and ship it to you via US Mail.
First, thanks very much for such a helpful and informative post, really fun to follow this one. My wife is a dedicated produce gardener, she does most of what you stated and will use your suggestions that are new to her.
We had 5 Early Girl plants and two Sun Golds that were greenhouse starts, all did very well. We had no end rot issues this year, plus our three big life like red tail hawks and one barn owl plastic replicas kept the bird thieves at bay.
We canned the majority of the Early Girls for winter dining, thirty quarts total, several will be for friends that don’t garden. Wife Karon does not like raw tomatoes, (great feature for me,) so I had a super summer with all of the Sun Golds I wanted.
We’re in Western Oregon, quite ideal for gardening, and fortunate to have the space for a large garden.
Again, thank you for a very useful and enjoyable post.
Johnny K, you are so right about tomatoes. Every Summer I look forward to locally home grown tomatoes for salads and BLTs. We’ve tried a garden in the past but it failed miserably. This year I’d love to try growing just tomatoes and see how we do.
First, dig a big hole, two feet wide and two feet deep. Make a pile of the removed soil and micx compost into the native soil. Put a handful of “rock phosphate” into the hole. Plant the tomato plant so that bottom third is in the ground. Remove all leaves that touch the soil. Fertilize with “Texas Tomato Food”. This will prevent blossom end rot. Keep the soil moist and NEVER GET THE LEAVES WET. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!!! Water the soil, not the plant. Last year I planted six plants and harvested over 300 tomatoes!!!
Long ago, my mom and stepdad had a small garden in back of the house. They grew so many regular tomatoes, small cherry tomatoes, and also zucchini, that they gave a lot of it to neighbors and coworkers.
My dad always had some get rich quick scheme that he would start and then soon abandon. In 1974 or so he decided tomatoes were the way to go. He planted about half an acre of land in beefsteak tomato plant. He weeded them and watered them and they flourished.
When it came time to harvest them he decided it was more work than it was worth so he just abandoned the whole field. We had several thousand large beefsteak tomatoes rotting beside the house for months!
I will never forget that smell.
My wife also tells me not to get the tomato plants wet and I ask her what about the rain? She never answered me. So I ask you, what about the rain? That wets the leaves as well.
Used to love growing them but I’ve been lazy the last couple years. We’ve had big harvests in the past and I used to can them for sauce…usually 15-20 jars. Nothing like opening a jar of sauce you made when you’re in the middle of a cold winter…
I thinnk that with the prices of groceries continuing to rise with no end in sight and an emphasis to eat more healthier foods, I think that a lot of people will be starting “Victory Gardens” this Spring.
