The tomato experiment

 After planting way too many tomatoes last year, I swore I wasn't planting any this year.  However, too many months with cardboard or no tomatoes made me weak when the kids started asking to pick out plants.  My compromise is to plant them in bags.  I had success with this method for some extra seedlings last year, so here is to hoping that it will work as my main growing method this year.

I decided to take a quasi scientific method with my little tomato experiment this year and set up a control plant.  I bought two Sapho plants from North Haven that come with promise of being a great choice for Texas.  One I planted in a raised bed that was tomato free last year and the other is in a bag of potting soil.  They both got a mix of fresh compost, organic fertilizer and dry molasses when planted.  The soil is covered with the same cedar mulch and they are both protected in a Texas Tomato cage covered with frost cloth right now, but soon to be replaced with floating row cover (as soon as it arrives).

Here is the control, in front of the large tomato tent that contains the experimental plants.

My control plant

My experiment plant

I mentioned in my previous entry that I consulted the 10 day forecast before planting the tomato plants on Saturday.  I am not sure what happened to the forecast in the short time since Saturday, but it was 32 degrees this morning!!  I am still rather fearful of going out to see how they fared, but hopefully with the frost cloth and the extra flannel sheet that we threw on top, they stayed warm enough for the few hours that dipped into the danger zone!

Comments

[T Hahn]

i am your girl if you have too many tomatoes this year!! i will take them all,
! i tried planting 2 tomato plants in urns, but i hardly got but 6 tomatoes last summer :(

[SaM]

I dream of a day when I have tomatoes to share. Should this be the year, I will keep you on the list!

If you were up for trying again, start right now with a really big plant from Lowe's and then water weekly with a product called Thrive. I plan to write about it this week. I used it for the first time last year and it is pretty amazing stuff!!