The Things You Learn While Gardening!

[so lucky]

I have been pulling some very healthy volunteer tomato plants out of my sweet potato patch. Three I transplanted over on the west side of the garden, and several more I just pulled up and stuck in a bucket. I decided to put some water in the bucket while I decided what to do with the plants.
Well, 10 days later, the water-only plants are doing fantastic, blooming and growing! So I decided to make room in the garden for them, planting them this morning on the east side of the garden, just before it started raining. I knew tomato plants were pretty tough; I have mentioned that in the dark ages, tomato and cabbage plants were shipped and sold bare root at the garden store I worked in. I just hadn't thought about them being able to live indefinitely in a bucket of water. (Duh!......hydroponics!)
I have no idea what kind of tomatoes they are, but I figured any tomato is better than no tomato. Unless they are the black (prince?) that grew last year. If that's what they are, I can pull them out or cut them off. They are more likely to be Roma or Rutgers, that I grew there two years ago. Stay tuned.....

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

well, not fully hydroponically for the tomatoes. they still need fertilizer on occasion. i wish i had a body that has been cooperating with me this year. i've been sort of out of commission trying to get plants in the ground and my tomatoes/peppers and some flowers never made it out of their pots and are sitting in the driveway in the flats still. with all the rain this year they are 'growing hydroponically' but not doing all that well since they need to be transplanted to larger containers.

 

[Smart Red]

well, not fully hydroponically for the tomatoes. they still need fertilizer on occasion. i wish i had a body that has been cooperating with me this year. i've been sort of out of commission trying to get plants in the ground and my tomatoes/peppers and some flowers never made it out of their pots and are sitting in the driveway in the flats still. . . . . . . .

@Chickie'sMomaInNH, you are not alone and now I don't feel alone either. I still have several plants in pots since spring waiting for their forever home. I still have a few raised beds unplanted and empty (unless you count weeds as filling).

I am still waiting for (any) one of my three tillers to be operational. Some things didn't get planted because I couldn't get their space prepared for them and now it is too late in the season to even try them.

I have had many great years in the garden. This will not be one of them.

 

[digitS']

The volunteer tomatoes were destroyed during the tractor guy's second pass through the garden.

More did show up but they were all of 3" tall when I was setting out plants that were up to 3 months old. I didn't bother transplanting any of the volunteers but left a couple growing at the edge of a path.

One is now flowering like crazy. I think it might be a Coyote altho' it might also be a Casey. Either way, it's just possible it will ripen something by an October frost. It would be kinda interesting for Coyote, which is reported to have been found growing "wild."

Steve

 

[journey11]

@so lucky , do the tomatoes make lots of roots while they are in the bucket of water, like a willow cutting would? I'd bet they'd take off quickly if they do.

Although I've never done it, I've heard of rooting your sucker prunings for a second planting of late tomatoes. I've thought about that, but was never sure what real advantage there would be for me to plant a late or second crop of tomatoes. Maybe with determinates, for another round of canning it would make sense. The indeterminates I mostly grow keep me in tomatoes up until frost, by which time I am about sick of them anyway.

 

[so lucky]

You know, @journey11, I didn't really pay too much attention to how many roots they had when I pulled them up, and they still had soil on them. But they did have some nice looking roots when I stuck them in the ground, so I would guess they did grow some.
Lots of years, my tomatoes have been in decline by this time, so a few late, newer plants would be a welcome addition. Would an indeterminate tomato be a perennial in a warm climate? If it could sprawl, and maybe set roots at stem intervals?
And although the plants look healthier this year, there are not a lot of fruit on the plants. Except for the San Marzano. They are doing super this year so far. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself)

 

[Smart Red]

Yes, where they would never freeze, indeterminate tomatoes can be grown as perennials. They can live for many years. Even in my garden, sprawling tomatoes will set new roots everywhere they touch the ground.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

<snip> Even in my garden, sprawling tomatoes will set new roots everywhere they touch the ground.

That sounds like my compost piles. I was back there yesterday and I must have 50 or 60 tomato volunteers growing like crazy on the mounds of compost. Wherever they touch the mounds they start to root. I always pull them out and toss them into a special compost pile away from the others. If the tomato plants are allowed to fruit in the compost, then next year's compost will have a bazillion seeds to become volunteers where they are not wanted.

 

[so lucky]

You know, with all the stuff I throw into my compost pile, nothing ever grows in there. I guess because the chickens go through it pretty thoroughly.