Christmas Tomatoes

I just love the way that sounds "Christmas Tomatoes" of course these were just started a while ago and will be nowhere near ready for Christmas I just love the sight of young garden plants in the winter.

I'm not sure what kind of luck I'll have with these as the seeds were saved from my miniature tomato plants from 2 seasons ago but I figured it was worth a try.

I took the first photo with the plant light on so here's one with it off. So you can get a better look at the plants.

The flash washed the color out a bit but you can see that they're doing pretty well so far.

December 8th, 2019

There are two tomato seedlings in soil that were planted at the same time as the hydroponic ones. I was curious about how what you're growing in affects the size and health of the plants and I was shocked at the difference between them.

They share a medium sized blue planter with a gerbia daisy and 2 tiny gnomes.

You've got to admit there is quite a difference.

December 12,2019
The First Flowers

December 14th

I trimmed all of this off this morning.  The plants were beginning to crowd and shade each other. The roots had grown so long that the roots had wandered into the fill chamber so I lifted the plants and pruned about 8 inches off of the bottom of each one. The planter I have is a small one that's more for herbs than big plants so this is going to be a challenge.

Did you notice how many more flowers have opened in the last couple of days? I just love to see that each morning.

December 15, 2019

December 18,2019

Nearly everyday there seem to be more and more flowers on them and the plants are looking nice and healthy some I'm hoping for better results this time.

December 22, 2019

I keep trimming leaves to reduce the weight so the tomatoes won't tip over the way the last ones did. You can really see all of the blossoms now.

The biggest excitement is that the tomatoes are beginning to appear. I noticed 3 this morning.

New Years Day

As You can see there have been quite a few changes. As the plants got bigger I trimmed off a lot of the leaves for several reasons. One was to keep the plants from shading each other and the other was to force the growth into producing more tomatoes. It seems to be working and trimming extra branches off keeps them from getting top heavy and tipping over.

The shorter plant on the end is nearly covered with tomatoes where the other 2 are just getting started.

The one with the most tomatoes is the one that I pruned more severely so it does seem to make a big difference.

January 6 2020

That first plant was beginning to tip over from the weight and I considered a number of solutions. 

The easiest and best solution was simply the lid from a prescription pill bottle set into the back of the plant on the heavy side to push it in the other direction.

I'm not quite sure how many tomatoes are on the plants at this point but they're looking pretty healthy.

This photo was taken on Jan. 27, 2020. The plants were tipping over so I trimmed most of the leaves and extra branches off to lighten the load and force the plants to put all of the effort into ripening the tomatoes already on it. That strategy seems to be working well.

January 29, 2020

Slim Pickings:

Finally a bite to eat, Feb. 1st I was able to harvest a few tomatoes a day.

meanwhile: 

The tomatoes in soil haven't grown at all. Good thing that the red daisy is doing well and about to flower again as it has been doing from time to time since I got it last summer.