Planted my tomato seed today, Big Beef and Cherokee Purple, my two mainstays ..read more

OK, Florida winter is pretty short compared to most regions. Decided to give a try at balcony tomatoes. Bought a Big Beef tomato plant and potted in a 5 gal bucket on 9 January. Stripped all blossoms and let it grow. It goes on the balcony now and then when temps are good. Now it survives under 2 grow lamps. Grow lights are great to keep it healthy, but not stimulate excessive green growth. A month later and the fruit is forming. I stimulate the blossoms 3x... Read more ..read more

My wife who is a master gardener has decided to increase this year crop of tomatoes to contain 16 different species. Most of our sunshine in the backyard is right up against our house due to the two massive oak trees back there, so we use lots of big pots, etc. She has so many pots and wine barrels doing their thing, I’m having problems looking out my kitchen window. Since we lost our frontyard oak tree a few years ago, it has allowed us to move... Read more ..read more

Does it really matter when you start plants from seed ? Here in the middle of Oklahoma, I've always started my tomato seed about this time. Then I get the plants in the ground around the first of April. Depending upon 7 day weather forecast I might go as early as last week of March, while our average date of last freeze is April 7 . Almost always, I get my first tomato to eat around Memorial Day. The " Days to Maturity " on tomato seed packets means the number of days from the time a... Read more ..read more

all heirlooms. the smallest are called teaspoon tomatoes. can't wait for next year ..read more

Good afternoon! Last year a neighbor brought me a couple of tomatoes that someone in her church (Greek Orthodox) gave her a few of. They told her it was a European/Mediterranean variety. Shaped like a Roma but bigger and a little darker. Meaty with not a lot of seeds. I liked them and saved a few seeds. I almost forgot about them, but stuck them in a couple of paper cups and whaddaya know they sprouted! I pressed her to find out what they were and she was told they were called Ipalco's... Read more ..read more

The start of a garden. Going to have to figure out how how to put containers down without Gretchen getting into them. After I filled them up went into house and when came back out she had one completely empty and spread all over the place. That dirt is not cheap! As you can see I don't know what I am doing ..read more

How To Grow Great Tomato Plants (Without Soil) I posted this many years ago, but I can no longer find it (Might have gotten lost in the Platform Change), so I got it all together, and found the pics again & put it together again. I hope I didn't miss anything: Here’s the story First of all, the type of soil you have in your area has nothing to do with it, if you use my method, because you don’t use any “soil”. We built our house on top of a small... Read more ..read more

Honey, how many tomato plants do we really need? Wife is a master gardener who has gone crazy in our yard with so many plants, veggies & fruit. Currently she has 16 tomato plants with 9 different varieties. My favorite is cherry tomatoes, especially those that I pick right off the plant and woof down as I'm walking out to the shop. Since we have two very large Oak trees that block the majority of the sun in our backyard, we are faced to put most of the plants in wine barrels and other types... Read more ..read more

After another dismal harvest last year, I swore I was done. But then this weekend Costco had 3-packs of beautiful, leafy, 18" tall plants for $9.99. Why?!? I should know better. High temps here near Seattle have been in the 40's-50's (with rain) for the last 2 months, with no warmth in sight. I must have a masochistic streak ..read more