I just watched the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency BBC show on the plane. What fun stories with a serious thread, and really go the spirit of the books. So in this post I am a garden detective. I'm not the No. 1 though, and I have few leads in the case of the mysteriously different tomato plants.
I started five varieties of heritage tomatoes from seed. Planted one of each in a pot for the patio that gets a lot of sun. Then, having run out of space of the patio, planted one of each in the back garden bed also. I know that tomatoes need a lot of sun, and that this garden bed gets about 6 hours a day, some filtered through tree leaves, so unlikely to be enough for tomatoes. but I thought it would be a good idea to try the experiment and see what I could learn. At this stage there are more questions than answers. The top picture is the tomatoes in the not-so-sunny garden bed, and below are the tomatoes in pots on the patio. Garden claw for scale. What you can't see in the pictures is that the fruits on the patio plants are more advanced than those in the bed. But the plants in the bed are huge, like really really huge. And they are huger today than when I took this photo 5 days ago. They just keep growing while the plants on the patio basically stopped growing weeks ago. None of the fruits are getting red yet. I can't really compare how things turned out until
the summer is over and there are harvests to compare, but at this point there are so many questions about the factors that are making these plants grow so differently. And perhaps the most important question at the moment is do I start pinching off all the new growth on the huge plants so they can focus on growing the fruit? Seriously, these plans are growing inches a day it seems, and producing more and more flowers. Help? Thoughts? Advice? Leads?
I started five varieties of heritage tomatoes from seed. Planted one of each in a pot for the patio that gets a lot of sun. Then, having run out of space of the patio, planted one of each in the back garden bed also. I know that tomatoes need a lot of sun, and that this garden bed gets about 6 hours a day, some filtered through tree leaves, so unlikely to be enough for tomatoes. but I thought it would be a good idea to try the experiment and see what I could learn. At this stage there are more questions than answers. The top picture is the tomatoes in the not-so-sunny garden bed, and below are the tomatoes in pots on the patio. Garden claw for scale. What you can't see in the pictures is that the fruits on the patio plants are more advanced than those in the bed. But the plants in the bed are huge, like really really huge. And they are huger today than when I took this photo 5 days ago. They just keep growing while the plants on the patio basically stopped growing weeks ago. None of the fruits are getting red yet. I can't really compare how things turned out until 
the summer is over and there are harvests to compare, but at this point there are so many questions about the factors that are making these plants grow so differently. And perhaps the most important question at the moment is do I start pinching off all the new growth on the huge plants so they can focus on growing the fruit? Seriously, these plans are growing inches a day it seems, and producing more and more flowers. Help? Thoughts? Advice? Leads?
3 comments:
Hmm... that is curious!! I'm no expert, but it may be the soil that has made the difference. Did you use fertilizer in the garden or in the pots? My mom mentioned to me when she saw my tomatoes that they needed fertilizer and I gave them fertilizer and they started doing a lot better. (Then the stupid deer ate half of them). Perhaps the ones in the sun aren't getting enough nutrients from the soil since they are only in pots? And perhaps the ones in the garden are getting a lot more nutrients because there is a lot more soil. I could be wrong, but that's my guess. I think the answer to your trimming question is yes, you will want to remove the suckers if you haven't already done so(http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-prune-tomato-plants-234904/). Hope this helps!
Okay I did a big prune. The plants look a little naked but crossing fingers that this will help move along the ripening.
I fertilized both the pots and the garden tomatoes, but I suspect the pots need more frequent fertilizing than I gave them.
Hey C,
I only grow tomatoes in pots, tall, black ones that you get at nurseries (they seem to hold heat). I usually get a great deal of fruit from the six or eight plants I have. I hope you see a great deal of fruit from your labour...
One thing I do with my tomato plants when the time of frost has arrived is (if they still have unripened fruit) pull them up by the roots, shake/clean off most of the dirt and hang them upside down or lay them on an incline in a cool, dark place. They continue to ripen for quite a time (don't understand how). Not sure if she is the original 'discoverer' but I must credit the queen of unnecessary things (Martha S) for this tip.
Hope you're well. I'm in Nanaimo in November... maybe I'll run into you again!
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