This past month I've been blogging about my container garden and I thought I continue the trend with a post about my tomato plants and how i've been growing them in a container.
Two years ago I attempted to grow beefsteak and cherry tomatoes on my balcony. I was not prepared for how big the plants would get, taking over half my balcony. I also had no idea what it would take to grow tomatoes. While the cherry tomatoes were semi-productive the beefsteak only produced 1 tomato all season. Talk about frustrating! I had these giant tomato plants taking over my balcony and only a handful of tomatoes to show for it. Needless to say, last year tomatoes were not invited back to grow on my sunny balcony.
This year, I changed my mind. In part because my boyfriend really wants some homegrown tomatoes and let's be honest, I'm trying to permanently take him off the market, maybe if I give him a bagful of homegrown tomatoes he will get me that watermelon ring pop i've been dreaming about.
I guess I could settle for cherry.
Seriously though, this year i decided to give tomatoes one more try and i did a little reading about how to grow them in a container. So when i headed to Home Depot a month ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they sell a variety of tomato called "patio tomato". Tomato lovers, don't hate! I have read mixed reviews about this variety, "they're not flavorful" "they are too small", but I live on a small balcony, I can't have giant tomato plants everywhere or else I wouldn't be able to grow anything else.
So patio tomatoes it is! I bought one plant and used an old container with draining holes as its new home. I also used the organic potting mix soil and Miracle Gro plant food (I made sure to buy one that was good for flowers and vegetables including tomatoes). I put about 1/2 the soil in the pot and sprinkled some Miracle Gro. I then put some more soil, placed the tomato plant and added more soil to top it off. At the top I sprinkled a little more Miracle Gro (follow the instructions on the back of the Miracle Gro for feeding amounts). I like to split the total amount of food I give the plant into sections in their containers. I have found that this method ensures that the plant gets enough nutrients throughout the growing season and that the nutrients are evenly spread throughout the soil. My plants have also performed better when using this method. Next, place the plant in a sunny spot and water. I water my tomato plants every 2 days, depending on how hot it is. During the summer months when it can get to 100+ degrees, I water them every day or every other day, depending on how the soil feels. I like to dig a little hole in the soil during really hot days to see how moist the soil is underneath the surface, that way I can gage how frequently I need to water my plant. Just make sure that your pot has good drainage! Some people like to place gravel at the bottom of the containers before adding the soil to assist with the drainage and keep the roots from rotting. I didn't do this because I didn't have a problem with overwatering last time I grew tomatoes, I had a problem with pests and not enough plant food.
 |
| Patio and San Marzano tomatoes as of today |
As the plants grow, you will need to get some stakes, sticks or cages to help hold the plant and keep it growing nice and straight. Once the tomatoes come, if you don't have something for your plant to hold on to, the weight of the tomatoes can snap your plant into pieces and there goes your growing season! Your plant might not even grow any tomatoes without some added support. So make sure you have some cages for those tomatoes. Home Depot sells them at a decent price and they come in all kinds of colors. I am going to be buying some this weekend, as my plants have gotten bigger faster than I expected.
 |
| Patio Tomato 2 weeks ago |
As you can see from the pictures, I planted basil in the same pot as my patio tomato plant. I had read that planting basil and tomatoes together was good for the tomato plant. It helps attract bees for pollination and keep away harmful bugs that can eat away your tomato plant. I have noticed that these tomato plants have grown much faster and fuller than the last ones I had, perhaps the basil has something to do with this. But I also found that the basil doesn't do as well in the container with tomatoes as it does in a container with other herbs. So I might go buy some more basil and plant it in its own container as a back up.
By now you are probably thinking "wait a minute, didn't she say she planted ONE tomato plant? why are there Two?" Well, when I went to go buy my lemon tree at the Merryfield Garden Center, I saw the aisle for tomato plants and decided to just take a look.
Yeah, right.
I found a San Marzano Roma tomato plant and I HAD TO buy it. Just think, I can have my very own San Marzano tomatoes this summer and live my dreams of Tuscany on my Balcony in DC. I am a little skeptical as to how this San Marzano will do this summer, but it looks really healthy and happy, so maybe it will do just fine. I had planted a basil plant in this container as well, but that plant died for some reason. I think I didn't plant it deep enough in the container. I will try once more to see what the problem might be. It could be overwatering or not enough sun since the leaves of the tomato are so long. I have learned that basil is sensitive to over watering as well as too much or too little sun. So it could be a combination of those two things that caused the last basil casualty.
 |
| San Marzano tomato |
*Sorry for the sideways picture, blogger isn't cooperating with my file sizes today =(
No comments:
Post a Comment