What a Tomato

I love Tomatoes. They were the first thing I ever grew as an adult in my garden and they come in so many different flavours and colours. They are the star of my garden. This year I had only a small garden while trying to sell our family homestead. I grew 4 varieties of cherry tomatoes, beef steaks,Roma's and some weird black heirloom tomato that stays crunchy when ripe. Not a huge fan.

I did an experiment (something I find myself saying often!). I started, indoors,7 year old  Roma tomato seeds straight out of the package. In the second batch I planted saved Roma seeds which were two years old and were the offspring from the store bought plum tomatoes, saved, but not according to the experts. I know, I am living on the edge but having just gone through a hideous winter and coming out of February, perhaps a little shack happy, I was itching to do something garden-y.

The experts have this method whereby you put the saved seeds from a fresh tomato in a bit of water in a shallow dish and let it scum over and get a little mouldy. Then you let it dry out and it takes the protective membrane of the seed with it. I didn't do any of that but really wanted to know if it would still grow and produce a good crop of  tomatoes. These were just saved and dried and kept in a paper envelope.

About half of each batch germinated and those that germinated all grew into healthy, stalky plants. In late spring I readied my mini hoop house by adding compost to the soil. I planted the tomatoes in a row and then placed rabbit manure and bedding around each plant to give it an extra boost. A day later I thought better of that and wondered "would the urine in the bedding damage the roots by overdosing the plants with  nitrogen?" I had read over and over how you could use unrotted rabbit manure directly on the soil in your garden but I hadn't thought about the urine soaked bedding as being damaging. It seems obvious to me now but well, sometimes I get caught up in the excitement that is gardening and over achieve, to a glorious fail.

I did some research  and indeed found out what not to put directly in your garden and what to do. As directed, I cleared away the bedding, added dried leaves to convert the nitrogen and deep watered the roots to dilute the Nitrogen. Two days later they turned yellow, drooped and looked dead. One lost all but one leaf. I left them there and shrugged. Oh well, I consoled myself with the fact it was an experiment and in a few weeks I could buy some new seedlings from the Farmer's Market.

A month later, the plants were still alive and had a couple of new leaves at the top but still looked sickly.  I planted my new seedlings which were bushy and healthy in an outside bed. Fast forward to August and the hoop house tomatoes which I attempted to feed but almost killed. They are the bushiest things in the garden and are at least twice the size of the purchased seedlings which have had to withstand a hurricane and the ups and downs in outside temperatures.

On the Right are Tomato plants I thought I had killed

The 7 year old package of plum tomatoes and the saved seeds are equally bushy and are producing lots of tomatoes. I cannot believe they are still alive, never mind out producing the healthier seedlings. The hoop house really does make a huge difference and as we move into unpredictable weather, I can see we will be building bigger and bigger hoops to grow food.

FYI, don't put rabbit bedding directly on your garden even tho you can put the poop directly on. I haven't figured out an efficient way to separate them so far,  but can be found out in the yard with a shovel scooping up little tiny rabbit turds as I follow behind the rabbit tractor.










Now as I busy myself picking and canning tomatoes I marvel at the wonder of growing food and am grateful for the glorious tomato!