I decided to grow tomatoes in pots. Now I have seen so many different ways to grow tomatoes I thought this would be a piece of cake. First, here is Colorado our growing seasons are pretty short, so I looked for a variety that would grow fruit as quickly as possible. Second, was to find pots to grow them in. Where I rent I cannot put raised beds in my yard. So that was the decision to grow in pots. The pots that I chose where tin pots to go with the farmhouse look that I like so well. I had holes drilled in the bottom of the pots since there were none to begin with. The variety of tomatoes that I chose to grow is “Better Bush tomato”. They are supposed to fruit in 68 days.
“Better Bush” tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum)
I bought two plants, planted them the same day, used the same organic soil and fertilized with coffee grounds and ground up egg shells. I gave them a dash of Epsom salts as well. I found a sunny location on my patio and put them side by side to grow. I even would hit the stems when there were blossoms to encourage the plants to fruit. I have also started to put stakes with the name of the plants and when I planted them in case I want to start record keeping on my plants. This is something I am going to set up over winter and begin next spring as I start to plant things.
I will put a copy of the journal format up here once I get that done.
It says that these stems are very strong, which the one plant they surely are. I have stakes in with the plants but did not cage them. I don’t like caging. But, we have such high winds here that I need to rethink this for next year. Between high winds and hail I have my gardening cut out for me.
Now here is the funny part. One tomato plant is waist high and has some good size tomatoes on it and some even turning red. The other tomato plant is half the size looks really sick and has two tomatoes on it. I cannot explain why there is a huge difference in the plants when they were treated and planted the same. I deeply water the plants once a day. I also started using a water meter to help me give them the best results.
The first tomato is turning red. I can’t wait.
First tomato.