Homegrown Tomatoes

Posts Tagged ‘Growing Tomatoes’

It’s a sad day when you go to the garden to admire your newly planted tomatoes and see the tops gnawed off.  The bunnies are back, and they have invaded the garden.

No, I hadn’t put up fences this year; the rabbits had apparently taken a hiatus, and I haven’t seen any around for the past year or so.  I guess they were just taking a vacation, because I seriously doubt it was squirrels getting the urge for greenery (the only other wildlife around).

Defending Against Garden Invaders

Be it bunnies or deer or some other form of greens-eating animal (goats anyone?), how can you keep them out of your garden?  I can only speak to rabbits and goats, as there aren’t any deer in my neck of the woods.

In the past, I have used 4-foot tall fences to completely enclose the garden area.  Although bunnies could burrow under the fence, they didn’t seem to want to take the trouble to do so.  For more persistent wildlife, you may need to bury the bottom of the fence 6 inches down.

Another thought is a spray you can make (or buy) with hot peppers as an ingredient.  One munch of a hot-pepper-sprayed leaf and I doubt the bunnies will come back anytime soon.  Seems like it would probably work for goats and deer as well.  However, it’s  a relatively short-term solution; you’ll have to keep on spraying.

As far as deer and their relatives (elk, moose, etc.) go, I understand that a tall fence is needed to keep them from bounding over into the garden area.  I’ve also seen something called Plantskydd® Deer Repellent that might prove interesting.  It’s rain-resistant so you won’t have to keep spraying so often.

The Poor, Poor Tomatoes

Regarding the two tomato plants that have been gnawed upon, I don’t know if they will survive.  Maybe, but if they do, the plants will be rather interesting-looking.  I’ll give them a week or so before I decide what to do.  If they start growing again, I’ll keep them where they are.

Meanwhile, today I must find my short cages and put them up around the tomato plants.  They aren’t tomato cages per se, but they should work fine to frustrate the bunnies (the holes between the wires are pretty narrow — not enough to let the bunny teeth near).  The rabbits don’t seem to care for the larger tomato plants, so for the time being, just the newly-transplanted seedlings will get the cages.

Hopefully the garden invasion will stop!

Update

The bunnies didn’t do any permanent damage to either the SuperSweet 100 or White Bush tomato plants (the two worst munched). Several weeks later (March 11th), SuperSweet 100 is urn-shaped (2 main shoots) but is starting to put forth some tiny blossom buds. White Bush, who I was most worried about, took it all in stride and looks healthy and happy as can be. And yes, it has tiny blossom buds as well.

In this case, all is well — whew!

I went out a little while ago to check on the tomato plants. The weather has been quite unsettled lately, so I wanted to check and make sure everyone was doing OK.

I brought my camera out with me, and I shot a few pictures of a few of my tomatoes-to-be. Some are (I think) getting ready to ripen, others are “newborn”. Normally I would have had something ready to eat by now, but we’ve had a colder than normal winter so far. And when the weather is cooler, the slower the tomatoes mature.

Celebrity is the first of the tomatoes I got my photo op with. It’s actually Bush Celebrity, but has been acting a little more like an indeterminate of late; guess it’s due to the weather. The tomato in the photo gets a bit larger each day, and I know one day it will be ready to pluck. Nice shape, though, and blemish-free.

Next up is Husky Red Cherry. The two tomatoes in the photo have looked like this for the last month now; no size change. It’s only been in the last day or two that I think the color has barely started to change — it’s not quite so green as it had been. Lots of tiny new cherry tomatoes, but these two are the closest to being grown. If they don’t do anything soon, I may consider a doll-sized green tomato pie…

Patio has finally quit growing (the tomato that is) and so I’m waiting for it to start changing colors. Then again, it may (again) just be the weather. This particular plant has been less than generous with its flowers and fruits, although I am seeing a bunch of new flowers just starting to be formed.

The last for the day is the newborn Tigerella tomato. Just about the size of a blueberry, it’s the first one on this heirloom tomato plant. Lots more blooms, though, so hopefully production will start ramping up.

Like I said, with the weather unsettled, the tomatoes aren’t at their best. I’ve even had to bring in most of the seedlings that I had been hardening off, to wait for better weather. Well, growing tomatoes in South Florida in the winter isn’t a whole lot different from growing in the spring further north. At least, not this year.