It’s official. After 2 years of gardening I finally have my first tomato.
And it’s gorgeous.
And red.
And tiny.
Very tiny.
If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will know that last year I had a lot of big beautiful tomatoes, but none of them seemed to turn red. It was a mystery for some time, until I discovered that my dog Comet was eating any tomato that started to turn red. So this year we fenced in our garden to keep him out.
I also harvested my first 2 zucchini’s too.
My tomato plants seem to only be producing small fruit, and they don’t even look that healthy or amazing. Last year they were huge and awesome. Not sure, but I probably need to be fertilizing or something.
What do you do to get bigger fruits on your tomatoes? Also, what have you been able to harvest from your garden so far this year?
Yay for tomatoes! 🙂
My trick to huge tomato plants + fruit:
1/2 cup each:
* bonemeal
* lime
* organic veggie fertilizer
good compost and lots of water!
Good luck! 🙂
Make that about a 1/2 C each (bonemeal, lime, and fertilizer) for each tomato- in the hole before you plant or around the plant itself after planted
How often do you add this mix? Is this before its planted? Or can I add in some of it now…?
oops, nevermind – just read your second comment…
Your dog might not have been the only issue last year. We’ve been growing tomatoes in Tri Cities for a few years (and my grandma has for many years in the Lower Valley) and last year was very strange. Our tomatoes were prolific but they never fully ripened! Ours did turn reddish but their core stayed green. They were so hard you couldn’t eat them. And we weren’t the only ones who suffered from this…talked to a number of others who experienced this. Praying this year is VERY different! We love our tomatoes. 🙂
It may sound kind of silly but one thing that seems to work is if you rip of the point at the end of the leaf, that is growing on the end of each branch! And always water from the bottom so you don’t mess up the pollination process! I don’t spend a lot of time ripping the leafs, but every time I’m out by my tomatoes I try to do a bunch and the kids love to help! So far I have big healthy tomatoes! Sometimes it can be almost therapeutic in the evening after the kids are in bed ;). Good luck!
We don’t have to do much for our tomatoes to grow large and plentiful but I think this may have to do with our horse manure and compost that we spread around every year.
We have harvested Cherries, Raspberries, Logan Berries, Pickling Cucumbers, and lots of Strawberries. It’s been busy around her already!
My husband and I have planted a huge garden this year and have just harvested zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, radishes, broccoli, strawberries, and sugar beets. More to come! The thing that I’m looking the most forward to are our Big Max pumpkins and I found some gourds that look like apples. Should be an interesting Halloween at our house!
I use miracle gro if my plants need a little help. In the fall put a layer of chicken manure on your garden and in the spring work it into your soil. Next years garden should be amazing.
I will totally try that…thanks Mary!
My tomatoes are huge but not turning red yet, only thing we are able to pick so far are jalapenos and yellow banana peppers
I planted my first garden in many years this Spring, and I also have a tomato-eating dog! (well, she picks them, puts teeth marks in them, and then drops them on the ground)
I have had great results with Basil, German Thyme, Lemon Balm and Morning Glory. My squash plants look fantastic, my green bean plants look lovely but no fruit. I did use Miracle Gro as directed, but I think the 117’F days in June pretty much discouraged the plants from doing anything much in the way of fruit production. I am learning to garden in the Las Vegas desert. Phew.
Oh Lisa, Las Vegas is HOT!! It would be very difficult to grow much there when it’s that hot. But the good news is you probably have a way bigger growing season for the rest of the year, right?