Finally tomatoes
Did it take this long last year to get tomatoes? For a few months I have been experiencing tomato envy as others have told me that they have been getting tomatoes and eating them. In that time I have gotten hard green globes. But now. And now. I have ripe tomatoes.The tomatoes ripening are my yellow boy hybrids, cherry, the zebra varieties, plum and some plain ole red heirloom tomatoes. I have two zebra varieties, green and reddish. They are 'zebra' because of the striped skin. As you can imagine with the green zebra it is hard to tell when it is ready to eat. So I have been touching them to see when the fruit has softened up. I'm waiting till I have several ripe green, yellow and red tomatoes so I can create a colorful tomato salad.
Now occasionally, people ask is it OK to grow veggies in the city. Don't know why that would be a question beyond the concerns of space and light. While waiting for a bus in Dupont, I looked up to see a south facing apartment balcony overflowing with tomato vines. I didn't think I could grow anything in the back till B. and IT grew all sorts of plants, including tomatoes, in their yard. It seems that just enough light would get back into the alley and past the trees. I don't concern myself with soil too much, as I have amended the formerly claybound yard with bags of Home Depot's best. All the stuff in the back are in pots and I always add the compost from the bin. As far as thefts go, the urban wildlife has been more of a problem than people. Besides I give away a lot of what I grow.
posted by Mari @ 21.7.06
5 Comments:
I'm just getting my first tomatoes also. My unscientific guess is that mine are about two weeks late this year.
My garden is on the West side of my house but does not get full sun in the afternoon.
We have what seems like thousands of green tomatoes...which have been green for weeks. What's going on? I suggested that we trim off some of the non-tomato supporting limbs as they may be stealing some of the energy that the tomatoes should be getting.
Advice? Opinions?
Thanks
LB
I've been cutting off yellow bits and looking at non-nitrogen rich fertilizers because I don't want to promote leaf growth, but rather more flowers, and thus more fruit. LB, what you are doing sounds right, but I can't be sure as my garden books are on loan to another neighbor.
I too have just started getting tomatoes in the past couple of days. Mine stayed green forever & one of the plants has leaves that are not looking too good, but I'm getting good results from the fruit. Also noteworthy is the fact that three of my tomato plants actually originated inside my compost bins & had to be transplanted! I'm going to remove the yellow leaves appearing on one plant, but I'd leave the healthy limbs on & just give your tomatoes a little more time to ripen
All this veggie talk is making me hungry.
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