I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April.
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@CiaraNi This year my results are as follows:
Carrots: Looks like a good crop.
Parsnips: 90% failed. With the remaining 10% it's too early to say.
Aubergines: About 50% success rate.
Onions: Total fail. They all died.
Basil: An abundant crop! Pesto coming up soon!
Coriander: all went to seed. 100% fail.
I've certainly spent far more on manure, tools, etc than I'll ever get back in vegetables, but it's fun to try. And I'm learning what works and what doesn't.
Mixed vegetables! Funny how some thrive, some succumb.
"It's fun to try. And I'm learning what works and what doesn't."
This is it. Even on my much smaller scale, I am enjoying the attempts and every tiny non-failure is a big joy.
An attempt to grow garlic from 'kitchen scraps' failed miserably. I am trying again and this time, some shooting seems to be happening - I'm enjoying the suspense, even.
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@joepie91 That's been my strategy with plants too. Both indoors and outdoors. I used to think I couldn't grow or maintain any plants. Then switched to just not thinking too much, not micromanaging, mostly just ignoring them. Then they began to thrive. Perhaps I should just ignore the tomatoes harder.
@CiaraNi "Perhaps I should just ignore the tomatoes harder." is a fantastic sentence out of context
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@CiaraNi I tried to do a squash plant in a container six weeks ago. It has six leaves. It sort of had a flower that bore nothing. I think I'll send a pic to our local gardening show so others can learn.
@geonz Good idea. A friend in England has such an ongoing, thriving crop of tomatoes from her growbag this year that it's starting to seem like one of those magic pots in fairytales that relentlessly produce food forever. I showed a photo of her latest bowl of tomatoes to my tomato plants, but they refused to be inspired.
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@CiaraNi I managed to get around 30 tomatoes (cherry tomato size instead of giants) but they just taste like water.
@rurudotorg Oh, that's a pity! So many, but then not so tasty.
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Mixed vegetables! Funny how some thrive, some succumb.
"It's fun to try. And I'm learning what works and what doesn't."
This is it. Even on my much smaller scale, I am enjoying the attempts and every tiny non-failure is a big joy.
An attempt to grow garlic from 'kitchen scraps' failed miserably. I am trying again and this time, some shooting seems to be happening - I'm enjoying the suspense, even.
My garlic failed the one time I tried growing it.
Oddly, one of my biggest successes (besides tomatoes, which really thrive in the heat here) was okra. I planted a few seeds on a whim and got a great crop. I might try that again.
I probably also should get my soil tested, or at least talk to the couple down the road who have a huge and apparently abundant garden, and find what the secret of their success is.
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I feel your pain and have experienced similar harvest disappointments myself. They will taste amazing though.
@GracelessHippo Thank you! They did actually taste quite good. I'm happy anything grew at all, really. An exclusive crop of three
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@CiaraNi "Perhaps I should just ignore the tomatoes harder." is a fantastic sentence out of context
@joepie91 Haha - it would require some reverse-engineering, if seen alone out of context first, I suppose
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My garlic failed the one time I tried growing it.
Oddly, one of my biggest successes (besides tomatoes, which really thrive in the heat here) was okra. I planted a few seeds on a whim and got a great crop. I might try that again.
I probably also should get my soil tested, or at least talk to the couple down the road who have a huge and apparently abundant garden, and find what the secret of their success is.
"talk to the couple down the road who have a huge and apparently abundant garden" - that's a great idea.
Lovely that the okra grew, especially when you just planted it on a whim. Nice result.
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I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April. Making sure they get enough sun, enough shade, enough water. Protecting them from the wind. Talking to them. Here are the fruits of my labour. Of their labour. The full five-month harvest. Well, that'll get me through the first 11 minutes of the climapocalypse, I suppose. Once again, my balcony harvest reminds me how important farmers and communal food sources are.
Hi Ciara, please do not give up on tomatoes.
Maybe look for Tigrella and some Russian black for next year, they are very resilient.
The best tomatoes look like polished black glass balls this year, they are growing in a pot, I picked up horse muck from the road and put that in the bottom of the pot along with a piece of fish.
Works well.
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I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April. Making sure they get enough sun, enough shade, enough water. Protecting them from the wind. Talking to them. Here are the fruits of my labour. Of their labour. The full five-month harvest. Well, that'll get me through the first 11 minutes of the climapocalypse, I suppose. Once again, my balcony harvest reminds me how important farmers and communal food sources are.
@CiaraNi I had a similar experience trying to grow tomatoes in my small rooftop greenhouse. I made the soil much deeper this year, but most of my large tomatoes got brown on the underside. The cherry tomatoes produced a small bowl, and the cucumbers flowered but nothing came of it (usually I get loads of them). The only thing I had in surplus was basil, which is a companion plant for my tomatoes.
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I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April. Making sure they get enough sun, enough shade, enough water. Protecting them from the wind. Talking to them. Here are the fruits of my labour. Of their labour. The full five-month harvest. Well, that'll get me through the first 11 minutes of the climapocalypse, I suppose. Once again, my balcony harvest reminds me how important farmers and communal food sources are.
@CiaraNi They are lovely. Similar to my harvest last year. This year I have nearly infinite tomatoes. No idea why. Same tomatoes. Same conditions. I guess my advice is to not give up.
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Hi Ciara, please do not give up on tomatoes.
Maybe look for Tigrella and some Russian black for next year, they are very resilient.
The best tomatoes look like polished black glass balls this year, they are growing in a pot, I picked up horse muck from the road and put that in the bottom of the pot along with a piece of fish.
Works well.
@Kerplunk I have no intention of giving up on tomatoes - it's fun trying. I'll skip the fish tip, though. Too many nosey noisy seagulls around here, we're trying to keep them off the balconies
Edited to add: I thought, but forgot to actually type: Thanks for the tips and the names of those varieties!
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I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April. Making sure they get enough sun, enough shade, enough water. Protecting them from the wind. Talking to them. Here are the fruits of my labour. Of their labour. The full five-month harvest. Well, that'll get me through the first 11 minutes of the climapocalypse, I suppose. Once again, my balcony harvest reminds me how important farmers and communal food sources are.
@CiaraNi In my experience (which is only 6 years of gardening), if it got too hot the tomatoes stopped flowering, then resumed once the heat was more normal. We also fertilize our plants with some organic fertilizer a few times over the season. Your tomatoes look good though!
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@CiaraNi I had a similar experience trying to grow tomatoes in my small rooftop greenhouse. I made the soil much deeper this year, but most of my large tomatoes got brown on the underside. The cherry tomatoes produced a small bowl, and the cucumbers flowered but nothing came of it (usually I get loads of them). The only thing I had in surplus was basil, which is a companion plant for my tomatoes.
@Frantasaur A rooftop greenhouse sounds great. A pity there wasn't a better crop this year for you. Interesting that the basil is thriving. On my balcony, the rosemary is ridiculously thriving. Even after being fully exposed all winter, including weeks under a metre of snow, because relentless gale winds defeated my attempts to protect them with winter fleece covering.
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@CiaraNi They are lovely. Similar to my harvest last year. This year I have nearly infinite tomatoes. No idea why. Same tomatoes. Same conditions. I guess my advice is to not give up.
@dangerousbeans I will absolutely not give up. It's fun trying. Interesting that your crop swung so widely from one year to the next. Unpredicable yokes, tomato plants!
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@CiaraNi In my experience (which is only 6 years of gardening), if it got too hot the tomatoes stopped flowering, then resumed once the heat was more normal. We also fertilize our plants with some organic fertilizer a few times over the season. Your tomatoes look good though!
@steph_szostek Interesting - that fits with the pattern I noticed. My three tomatoes emerged and then just remained the same size and remained green for what seemed like a disproportionate length of time. Weeks and weeks and weeks. Then suddenly ripened red, all three. And a few flowers appeared. That fits with the period of worst heat ending. Good to know. And thanks for the tip - I should probably fertilise them more often. I've been nervously cautious.
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I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April. Making sure they get enough sun, enough shade, enough water. Protecting them from the wind. Talking to them. Here are the fruits of my labour. Of their labour. The full five-month harvest. Well, that'll get me through the first 11 minutes of the climapocalypse, I suppose. Once again, my balcony harvest reminds me how important farmers and communal food sources are.
You'll need those 3 little tomatoes for next years' seeds. Sorry about that.
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You'll need those 3 little tomatoes for next years' seeds. Sorry about that.
@glutto Oh dear, then there'll be no crop next year because all three tomatoes have already come to a culinary end.
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@Frantasaur A rooftop greenhouse sounds great. A pity there wasn't a better crop this year for you. Interesting that the basil is thriving. On my balcony, the rosemary is ridiculously thriving. Even after being fully exposed all winter, including weeks under a metre of snow, because relentless gale winds defeated my attempts to protect them with winter fleece covering.
@CiaraNi rosemary is quite difficult to grow on a balcony, so kudos! I have a sunny spot downstairs (in soil, not a pot) where I have one that’s doing really well, even in winter, but only because it’s ridiculously sheltered from the wind. Beside it I have lemon verbane and sage, which are also doing crazy well. I think the tomatoes just need more consistent watering to stop the blossom rot. I have a solar irrigation system that I got for Christmas but didn’t get time to set up this year.
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Tin of tomatoes for scale
@CiaraNi
Hey, that is the more tomatoes than I've gotten from the plants so far...
Fertilizer and hope!
