I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April.
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@bit I have been known to sing while I water the plants - maybe I need to find better songs. Or be a better singer. I shall vary my repertoire and see what helps.
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@CiaraNi That reminds me of my potato "harvest" last year, from a potato bag.
First attempt at it, and I was absolutely *thrilled* seeing these little golden orbs emerging up and out from the dark soil, one after the other. Hardly any blemishes, almost all perfect!
After digging them all out, and gathering them together, they filled one (1) single large bowl.
Well, feck, said I.
@clickhere It's a humbling experience. Still though - a few nice tomatoes, a few nice spuds, very few, but still nice.
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@CiaraNi that's a better harvest than my two strawberries!
@quixoticgeek Two is better than none! Exclusive fruit. I'm borrowing 'artisanal' from @ewen - I've grown artisanal tomatoes, you've grown artisanal strawberries.
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@CiaraNi I've noticed that on average I get much better results from just letting the vegetable plants (and bugs and birds) do their thing and occasionally watering them, only removing the highly invasive weeds, than from trying to micro-manage them.
@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.
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@CiaraNi @venetiana Hello! My understanding is that yo take those suckers out on undetermined tomatoes (the ones that grow like crazy) but you may not want to do that on determine ones (the ones that grow a limited amount). It is worth talking a look. Also, I was thinking... Have you seen many flowers but no tomatoes? Enjoy your plants
@arpia49 @venetiana Ah! My plants have produced so few tomatoes that it sounds like this is not the solution in my case. There have been very few flowers. Thanks for the tips. And yes thank you, I will enjoy my plants - I enjoy taking care of them and seeing how they progress, so even three tomatoes is just a nice added reward.
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@CiaraNi Reminds me of this page from a page-a-day calendar from the satire news group The Onion, seen at a community garden:
@gfitzp Hahaha that is it exactly. Thanks for sharing this. I laughed literally out loud.
Edited to add: I laughed all over again when I got to: 'At press time, sources reported that the cherry tomato tasted fucking awful.“
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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.
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@gfitzp Hahaha that is it exactly. Thanks for sharing this. I laughed literally out loud.
Edited to add: I laughed all over again when I got to: 'At press time, sources reported that the cherry tomato tasted fucking awful.“
@CiaraNi I told my wife about it and she had to send me this to share as well.
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@CiaraNi I told my wife about it and she had to send me this to share as well.
@CiaraNi (Aside, she was very excited when I showed her your post and profile, she said “I WANT TO BE HER FRIEND, SHE WEARS LEOPARD PRINT AND GROWS TOMATOES” and said if you ever come to visit she’ll share her tomatoes with you
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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 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.
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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 managed to get around 30 tomatoes (cherry tomato size instead of giants) but they just taste like water.
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@CiaraNi I told my wife about it and she had to send me this to share as well.
@gfitzp Yes! This is perfect. I'm not really disappointed by my three tiny tomatoes, because I have grown THREE tomatoes. The joy!
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@CiaraNi (Aside, she was very excited when I showed her your post and profile, she said “I WANT TO BE HER FRIEND, SHE WEARS LEOPARD PRINT AND GROWS TOMATOES” and said if you ever come to visit she’ll share her tomatoes with you
)@gfitzp Haha - please thank her for me
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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.
I feel your pain and have experienced similar harvest disappointments myself. They will taste amazing though.
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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
