What was I thinking?
By klahanie_
16 comments
Story of my tomato production in 2021.
Sometime in March I put what I thought was few seeds of tomatoes to germinate in our living room. Most of them did germinate and within a month they started to look very spindly. Unfortunately it was still too cold to put them outside .
I love to sit in the middle every evening and watch a bee (or two) pollinate them and of course water them. 40+ pots have to be watered constantly in addition to all my flower pots. As some of you might know, we do not have any rain in summer and this year was extremely dry and hot. Tomatoes like lots of water. Luckily I have quite a bit of help from my OH with watering.
This is my tomato and pepper field at this time.
Started as nice 40+ little tomatoes in neat little rows on the pathway between roses and grass. But as they grew taller they had to be reported several times into bigger and bigger pots and quickly did not fit the pathway so I started to move them out on the grass. Our grass dies in the summer anyway so no concern there and when our rains start I do want to seed more of white clover anyway.
They are producing greatly and I am looking forward to make some salsas and pasta sauces in late September.
Last year my tomato production was a disaster. I started the seeds late and they got a tomato blight in October.
They looked really good in the middle of growing season
I had to strip them all before the fruit got affected by the blight and this is what I ended up with in 2020.
Boxes of green Roma tomatoes.
I only seeded Romas last year. This year I have several different kinds including Krims from Ukraine which we call “Chernobyl” (or Frankenstein) tomatoes because few are developing in awkward shapes.
Few of them had blossom rot but so far most look healthy.
We ate only few (so far) and they made a nice tomato and bacon sandwiches. Very tasty.
Looking forward to a good tomato season this year. Summer has been hot and no rain.
23 Aug, 2021
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Comments
You've been very busy. You'll have no shortage. I love grilled cheese sandwiches with a slice of tomato. Congratulations on your bumper crop.
23 Aug, 2021
Well done from me too! Really enjoyed reading your progress. Lovely pics too! I’m also a fan of strong cheese on toast with tomatoes on top…sprinkled with black pepper!
23 Aug, 2021
That is a lot of tomato's Klahanie, well done with taking care of all of them, I'm very partial to toms straight from the vine, cannot beat the taste of homegrown, mine are heavily laden but are taking a long time to ripen, consequently I know I'm going to have a glut, no worries though, I learnt years back to weigh them into the correct amounts for my recipes, then I pop them straight into the freezer...
23 Aug, 2021
Beautiful fresh tomatoes! They look very appetising..
24 Aug, 2021
So many Tomatoes! I only hope my few will ripen this year and not stay green. Perhaps if we have some decent sunny weather they will . . . :o)
24 Aug, 2021
Congratulations with your bumper crop. I grew some Roma one year, they developed nicely & then right when they should be ripening they got blight. It was so disappointing,it
put me off growing any toms this year. Maybe I'll try a few cherry ones next year, I do like the yellow varieties. I think some of the more exotic types don't do very well outside in the UK.
25 Aug, 2021
That sounds like success to me :)
29 Aug, 2021
I had no more than a handfull of small tomatoes the size of marbles :( The worst tomatoes I've ever had.
29 Aug, 2021
Thank you, I hope to have better ones then.
30 Aug, 2021
Wow! you just answered my question from a previous page. I've been off tomatoes for a couple of years now... used to love growing them... now I grow cucumbers! 40 plants can take up a lot of room! we had two drought periods this summer. we've had a bit of rain recently but not enough as my little stream is almost totally dry. The trees up the hill are drawing all the moisture. You'll have good shoulders after hauling all the watering cans! :-)
18 Sep, 2021
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25 May, 2021
well done for keeping so many of them growing. We have 8 toms and 4 pepper plants.
we often freeze them whole and then just drop the into sauces etc as and when needed.
23 Aug, 2021