homegrown tomatoes
Tomato Garden Tour Video June 2020
Tomato garden tour video for mid-June 2020 is what’s on today’s post. I want to do tomato garden tour videos every couple of weeks, so you can see what’s growing. I’m growing tomatoes in Tennessee zone 7A, and it’s way different from growing in S Florida!
Growing Tomatoes in Containers
Growing tomatoes in containers is what I have to do in my garden. I explain why in my first tomato garden tour done at the end of May. I find that it’s working pretty well for me. The shade is my biggest enemy when it comes to my gardening. That’s why I have three gardening spots in my yard — no one place is big enough.
Growing Tomatoes in Tennessee
I have to say, it’s much different from S Florida. Instead of two short seasons, I have one long season (mid/late April to mid/late October).
Here in Tennessee it’s frost which defines my seasons; in S Florida, it was the heat and humidity (not to mention hurricanes). It’s my first summer garden here in East Tennessee, and I keep getting told that it does get really hot and humid. However, late last August when we moved here, we had record heat and humidity.
What they call heat and humidity here was nothing more than late Spring weather in S Florida.
Growing tomatoes (peppers and other assorted veggies) is different here. You’ll see from the difference between my first tomato tour and this one, how much it’s grown. In just two weeks!
The biggest problem I have here is the shade in my yard. The trees I so loved in the fall are the bane of my gardening existence now. Which is kind of ironic since in S Florida I had to use a shade cloth.
Tomato Garden Tour Video
I made this tomato garden tour video on June 14th, 2020. The previous tour was on May 30th. I can’t wait to film my next one, somewhere around the end of June — I’m sure I’ll have many more tomatoes to show you.
Just wait until you see Vorlon — that plant is outgrowing stake after stake. I’m beginning to wonder what else I can do for this plant. And it’s growing in a…7 gallon container I think — or maybe 10 gallon. Either way, I never thought it would get this big in a not-so-big container.
All this being said, here’s my tomato tour video for June 2020. Hope you enjoy it, and keep a lookout for my next tour! (And if you want to see more garden tours in general, check out my YouTube channel.)
Tomato Garden Tour – May 2020 Garden Tour Video
Tomato garden tour time! I have a tomato garden tour video for you, which I filmed at the end of May, 2020. I decided that it was time that I start doing videos of the tomato garden, to you can see what growing tomatoes in Tennessee is like for me.
A few things, though. I started all my tomato plants from seed, and I grow all of them in containers of various sizes — all the way from 1 gallon to 10 gallons. I almost broke down and bought a SunGold tomato start from Home Depot, but didn’t since I already had a few too many seedlings at home, waiting for a container. 😉
Growing Tomatoes in Containers
There are two main reasons I have for growing tomatoes in containers. First, the soil in my yard is rocky and hard clay, and I literally have to use a pick axe to dig a hole. (I have planted a few things in the ground, but they have all been flowers or herbs, and a good portion of them perennials.)
My second reason for growing tomatoes in containers is that I have a shade problem. There isn’t any spot in my yard that gets 6 hours of direct sun a day, except for maybe a small slice in the front. Six hours of direct sun is the minimum needed for fruit-bearing veggies, but growing tomatoes in containers allows me to move plants around to maximize the sun I do get.
(I’ll do a video and post on semi-shade gardening in the future and will link to that when I have it up.)
In any case, I have three different garden areas in my yard — front, side and back — to let me grow as many tomato plants as I can, based on the amount of sun I get in the spaces.
Tomato Garden Tour Video
As I mentioned before, this tomato garden tour video is the first of my tomato-growing season in Tennessee zone 7A. This is my first year for growing tomatoes in Tennessee as opposed to Florida it’s waaaaay different! It’s not only the soil (sandy in Florida), but the heat and humidity (less of both). Plus, since I had to start my garden in February in S. Florida I was pretty much finished by June. Here in Tennessee…June is just barely the start of the growing season!
I filmed the tomato garden tour on May 30th, 2020. Here’s the video, and I hope you like it! I’ll likely have even more tomatoes in the next tour, as I still have seedlings that need to be planted out — so stay tuned!
Tomato Garden Update – April 2016
It’s just past the middle of April, and so it’s time for garden updates — and this time, I have a video showing the plants and the tomatoes! So it’s not just photos, but lights! camera! action! 😉
Better Bush Tomatoes
But first, I said I’d talk about Juliet, Cherokee Purple and Husky Cherry Red (since I didn’t cover them in my last update).
The Good and the Bad
Let’s start off with the bad and work on up to the good. Cherokee Purple…may you rest in peace! I’m afraid the salt damage that most of the other plants kind of shrugged off was Cherokee Purple’s death warrant. Alas, it’s not a variety that can handle excessive sodium well. I had to just pull it out, and put it out of its misery.
Juliet is next on the list; the plant is not doing great (as you will see in the video), but it’s certainly not at death’s door. And unfortunately (kind of), it’s still setting tomatoes. You’ll hear why I say that in the video.
Husky Cherry Red is doing fine, aside from being targeted by birds! Apparently they love the sweet cherry tomatoes that the plant produces, so I had to wrap the plant up in insect netting. But at least now I get to eat the tomatoes instead of the birds beating me to them!
As for all the other plants — I’ve had ripe tomatoes to eat this past week — yum! Not all the plants have had fruits ripen as yet, but it’s mostly the big beefsteak tomatoes that are hold-outs. Then again, they are growing some really good sized fruit, so they can be somewhat excused. 😉
Video Walk-Through
So, here’s a video walk-through of the tomatoes. Keep in mind some of the salt damage that I have had. We’ve also had some days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit already, and then weather that is somewhat cooler than normal. I don’t think the tomato plants quite know what to do!
Anyway, hope you enjoy the walk-through. Meanwhile, my second wave of seedlings (Rapunzel, Indigo Cherry Drops and Loxahatchee) is almost ready to get potted up for the last time before heading out to the garden for their final planting. More on them later!
Garden Update – Tomato Explosion!
It’s the end of March, and the tomato plants are growing and blossoming and producing LOTS of tomatoes! But along with my successes, I’ve had a failure as well. Come on and let’s take the tour!
Big Beef Tomato
Big Beef – Wow!
My Big Beef tomato plant has gone through some tough times, what with multiple multiple transplantings, an ant invasion and losing some foliage. It did set a tomato shortly after Big Boy and Early Girl, and it has far outstripped those plants! It’s got the biggest tomato in the garden, and it is getting bigger every day.
Big Beef is a hybrid tomato, and produces red beefsteak-type fruits. I can’t wait to taste it when it ripens!
Black Cherry – Finally Hit Its Stride
Black Cherry Tomatoes
My Black Cherry tomato plant took quite awhile to do anything. For several weeks it just sat in its pot and didn’t grow – not until I gave it a drink of worm compost tea. That perked it up, and now it’s flowering and producing cherry tomatoes with abandon. Black Cherry is an open-pollinated tomato plant (although sometimes it’s classed as an heirloom).
I’ve tried growing Black Cherry in the past, but one year almost my whole garden was decimated by hornworms – including Black Cherry. Another year I got rained out before I really got the plants started — that was my fault for starting so late. I am very much looking forward to the cherry tomatoes, as they are supposed to taste heavenly!
Better Bush Tomatoes
Better Bush
This is such a pretty plant – I love the rugose foliage and deep green color of the leaves. Better Bush is a determinate – the only one I have in the garden at the moment. It’s not a large plant at all, but it’s loaded with fruits. The tomatoes don’t get to be very large; maybe in the 3 to 4 ounce size range — but they are abundant. Better Bush is a hybrid.
I’ve grown this tomato variety in the past and it never fails to give me a nice harvest. It might not look it in the photo, but the plant actually has lots of tomatoes.
Maybe they aren’t the biggest tomatoes, but nevertheless they taste great when fully ripe. Yum!
Red Beefsteak
Red Beefsteak Tomato Plant
I have two of these open-pollinated tomato plants, and they are gorgeous at the moment — big and lush and full of both tomatoes and blossoms. One is doing slightly better than the other, but not by much. Even though they are container-grown, these should give me some 12 ounce to maybe a pound beefsteak-type red tomatoes. A lot of them. 😉
This plant in the photo, as well as its sibling, have reached the top of the cage already, and I have about 6 to 8 weeks of decent growing weather left (after which it gets super-hot). I expect that it will keep growing during the summer; I just don’t know how well (or if) it will produce fruit then.
BTW, having grown both in-ground and in large containers, I can say it’s a fallacy that you can’t get a good harvest of big tomatoes from a container tomato plant. But more about that in another post.
And the Big Disappointment….
Big Boy and Early Girl ran into a problem a couple of weeks ago — they got waterlogged. Between me getting a little over-zealous with watering, a plastic mulch cover that kept in the moisture and cooler temps, the plants were almost swimming. I corrected the situation, but they looked really sad — even though they both still had tomatoes. Both plants are hybrids.
Since then, Early Girl has perked up some; she’s put out new suckers, started flowering more and also setting more tomatoes. She still looks spindly but seems to be coming back from her near-drowning experience.
But Big Boy…I don’t think he’s long for this world. Almost overnight it’s developed what looks like rust on its leaves. Granted, we have had a lot of rain in the past week, but none of the other plants are reacting this way.
I’ll try some mild organic fungicide, but if it’s not showing signs of improvement in the next few days — out Big Boy comes, tomatoes or not. I have plenty of other tomato plants at the moment, so losing one isn’t the end of the world.
What’s Up Next?
In the next garden update, I’ll talk about the trials and tribulations of Juliet, and how Cherokee Purple and Husky Cherry Red are doing. Plus — I have the Isis Candy Cherry “wannabes” in the garden, and they are growing like there is no tomorrow. I’ll talk more about the experiment I plan to run on two of them, to see if some new organic supplements live up to their claims.
Tomato Red Bush – Who Are You?
I have a tomato I am calling Red Bush, for lack of a better name. I bought a pack of White Bush seeds from a major seed-seller (Johnny’s). I planted some of the seeds, and got a surprise.
Red Bush – Who Are You?
When it comes to tomato colors, red is dominant over white. So my red tomato has to be a cross from White Bush and an unknown red tomato. Yes, it’s a hybrid tomato – the result of two different parents.
Now there’s no telling what variety the red plant was, especially since these seeds are from an old packet. But it’s an excellent chance to experiment! You see, when I save the seeds and plant them, I should get several different kinds of tomato plants, with different kinds of tomatoes. Some should be red, some white, some who knows what — depends on who the red parent was and if it was a hybrid!
(As an aside, I have another tomato plant growing from the same packet, and it is indeed the variety White Bush.)
Saving Tomato Seeds
Now I’m torn — do I eat that first red tomato off that plant, or do I save the seeds? The answer is – both! Since I have one ripe and one almost ripe, I can start the seed-saving process with some from the first tomato. Then some more from the second.
Since I’m saving these seeds for my own use, I’ll save them on a paper towel. But if I was saving tomato seeds to give to another person, I’d use the normal process that gets rid of any unwanted pathogens.
Having an obvious cross like this tomato makes it quite interesting to see what grows out. And while it’s fairly unusual to get an obviously crossed tomato in a commercial seed packet, it’s fun when you do!
Tomato Red Bush – who are you, really? I may never know, but I sure will have fun with its “children”!