If you’ve never grown your own tomatoes, now is the time to start. They taste so much better than any tomato you can buy at the grocery store, and you’ll gain a tremendous amount of satisfaction from your efforts. They’re very easy to take care of, so it’s hard to make an excuse not to give it a try: All you need is a pot, some soil, and some sun, preferably from a southward direction. Even when I lived in an apartment with no south facing windows, I’d climb up on the roof (for better sun), and tie my precious tomato plants to a cinder block so that they wouldn’t blow away. That’s just how good they are.
I’ve had this tomato plant since last spring. Apparently, if you live in an area with cold winters, all you have to do is take your tomato plant indoors before the first frost, stick it in a south facing window, and you’ll have fresh tomatoes into the depths of winter. This plant’s productivity fell dramatically due to the short days, but now that the daylight hours are in the upswing, it’s really starting to produce. I counted 17 cherry tomatoes yesterday, and its only April 1st!
In order for this to work, you’ll have to use an indeterminate variety of tomato, since a determinate variety will produce fruit only once, stop growing, and then die.
6 responses so far ↓
1 julie // Apr 9, 2007 at 7:45 pm
how’d you learn so much about tomatoes?
i had some sprouting from last year’s seeds, but they’re in grave danger right now… i hope they make it.
this is cool by the way– i like your site/blog/thing
2 Suzana // Apr 9, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I really want to have tomatoes during the winter. But my problem is our condo to small. I usually bring all my plants inside during the winter/cold weather But our condo ends up looking like a jungle.
I’ve never thought about having one container of tomatoe plant during the winter. Thanks for the idea. I will try next winter.
3 Eric // Apr 10, 2007 at 12:52 am
Julie - I really just know about what I’ve tried. I didn’t think my tomatoes would survive the winter, but they did, and so there you go.
Suzana - The yield of your tomato plants during the winter will go way down (unless you have some kind of huge south window, and possibly some grow lights [hopefully energy efficient ones which I’m still searching for]), but if anything, keeping them all winter will give you a very nice head start for your summer harvest.
4 Joyful Gardener // Apr 17, 2007 at 12:33 pm
[…] presents It’s Never Too Early (or Late) To Start Your Garden posted at saving […]
5 CreditEgghead // Jul 2, 2007 at 10:12 am
My Dad has been growing tomatoes for the past 4 years. Amamzingly, some of them even turn red. Most of them end up in special ‘green tomatoes salad’!
6 kiloutimuk // Sep 12, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Hi
I am really excited. Keep up the great work. Good resources here.
G’night
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