My Dad (age 75) absolutely loves tomatoes. For years, it was the only thing he would attempt to grow in the small plot that I fixed for him. Better Boy was always the variety grown, and his yield was less than impressive - mainly because of the weeds, poor soil, and misunderstanding of proper tomato growing culture. After last year's gardening success with sfg'ing, I told him "Oh...just wait 'til next year, I'll grow the best tomatoes you've ever seen." Well...thanks to the Earthtainers and recent Master Gardener classes I attended, things are working well. Dad comments almost daily, about how healthy the plants look - especially the dark green color of the foliage. Pretty soon he'll get to try his first Cherokee Purple tomato, and I can't wait to see his expression.....Anyway, this section of the garden is for him. In these 4 earthtainers, I have 2 Cherokee Purple, 2 Brandywine, 3 Mortgage Lifter, and 1 Big Boy.
Photo below - One of my 5 little Cherokee Purple tomatoes.
Photo below - Here's a closeup of one of the Brandywine leaves.
Photo below - The paste tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers. (These are for me)
Lastly, here's the Cherokee Purple sucker that was rooted a few weeks ago...It's doing quite well amongst the paste tomatoes.
Some final words.....I really thought that this week would allow more time for gardening and blogging, but no. There's just so much to do right now with work, and also the refrigeration project I've been working on during the evenings. I've read everyone's blogs, but have left few comments.....I'm really sorry for that. Hopefully, i'll be able to soon. BTW, the shed construction will start this weekend, and i'll dedicate several detailed posts about it.
Take care, and happy gardening!
EG
Lastly, here's the Cherokee Purple sucker that was rooted a few weeks ago...It's doing quite well amongst the paste tomatoes.
11 comments:
Looking good and it's really cool that you get to share this experience with your father. I have warm memories of gardening with my family when I was a child. I always think of my grandfather and how hard he worked in his gardens and how much he enjoyed it.
Grafixmuse - yes, I'm lucky to be able to bring my father some tomato happiness!
You must be one proud papa with those tomato plants. They are very impressive.
EG,
Looking good. You're gonna have lots of tomatoes. I added a second mortgage lifter, so one is 4 feet tall and one is one foot tall. I have been pruning the tomato plants to keep them growing up instead of out to the sides. Do you know if that is ok? So far it's working. Looking good.
SG
Thanks, Dan.
SG - Pruning of suckers is actually recommended by most agricultural Universities, so I think you're doing the right thing.
Your tomato plants are beautiful. I really enjoy all the pictures of your garden!
agwh - thanks! I try my best...
I'm going to have to look into doing your earthtainers next year!
Toni - They work really well, but take a considerable amount of time to construct. At around $75 each, pretty expensive too!
Wow look at those tomatoes! Awesome. After growing tomatoes last year in the SWC, I'll probably always grow them like using this method. The size of that Brandywine leaf is something else!
Speaking of suckers, I'm king thinking about the possibility of rooting suckers from my tomatoes that I have growing right now to use as my fall tomatoes. What do you think about that? It should work, eh? It surely would save some time over starting new seedlings.
Great looking tomatoes. They're growing so well in your SWCs, great work! Your dad will be so happy with all you've grown.
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