I’ve been giving my tomato plants tender loving care since April.
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@CiaraNi adapted varieties for every climate zone. But with the industrialisation of farming to a handful modern varieties, we often forgot that knowledge.
So I want to give you some hope for the next year: nature has some solutions. And sometimes, tomatoes want to be free.
(I had my best harvests from forgotten, wildly seeded tomatoe plants on my compost).@NatureMC 'I had my best harvests from forgotten, wildly seeded tomatoe plants on my compost'
How lovely
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@CiaraNi hope you have fun buzzing around the flowers!
If not many flowers maybe add the fertiliser a bit more regularly? The soil will probably be depleted after 5 months.
There are some nice seaweed based fertilisers that seem to work well.
Tomatoes are hungry plants.@Hellybootwader Ah! I picked by random chance a seaweed-based one. I have used it sparingly though, wary of over-doing it. I will be a bit more systematic about it now and see if that helps too. I appreciate your expert tips, thank you!
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@CiaraNi 🤩 Nice
@regendans I should probably have positioned them like a smile
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@CiaraNi If you want the link of the breeder, I can give it to you. On his website you can search varieties which are best for balconies e.g. I have to search ... we call him the Tomato Prince, it's a big old castle ... must refind the book.
@NatureMC If you come across a link, then yes please, it would be interesting to see what varities he recommends. Thanks.
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Technically? Fruity, with notes of berry.
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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.
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@ewen Haha - I've decided to think of it as 'exclusive'.
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Tin of tomatoes for scale
@CiaraNi Cool...they're bigger than I thought. Well done!
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@CiaraNi Tomatoes thrive outdoors here, but unfortunately I failed to plant any this year. Next year, for sure though.
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@ewen Haha - I've decided to think of it as 'exclusive'.
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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.
Your point about farmers is 100% on
But if I may say so, politely, you really should be able to get a LOT more tomatoes from a balconyI know this is true, cause I got a lot of nice tomatoes from my porch garden in Somerville MA, back when I was a poor student
maybe you just don't have enough sun, or you picked a variety of tomato unsuited for your porch ?
but if tomatoes don't work, try something else !! -
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 planted five Beefsteak variety plants in early May in a 'mini-greenhouse'. The bees seem to have disappeared, as pollenation and fruit set has been very poor. I do have a few fruits - still green, but I do live in hope. -
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 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.
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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 that's a better harvest than my two strawberries!
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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'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.
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@venetiana Oh that's interesting - and thanks for the clear description, I know exactly what you mean. I must look at mine later, see if there are forks involved. Thank you for the tip.
@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
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@ewen Artisanal. Oh yes, that sounds fancier and more exclusive - I shall use that.
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@ygor I happen to be in one of the few regions of Europe that hasn't been too hard hit by the extreme heat, so have been lucky there. Am sorry your zucchini and tomatoes succumbed. Good for you volunteering at the non-profit urban farm - that's a great initiative.
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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 Reminds me of this page from a page-a-day calendar from the satire news group The Onion, seen at a community garden:
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@CiaraNi
I planted five Beefsteak variety plants in early May in a 'mini-greenhouse'. The bees seem to have disappeared, as pollenation and fruit set has been very poor. I do have a few fruits - still green, but I do live in hope.@wellingtonrock My tomato trio appeared ages ago, but stayed green and the same size for such a comically long time that I assumed they had given up. So it was a surprise that they ripened at all. I hope yours ripen nicely soon. And that your bees reappear!
