Portable Tomato Crop

[drobinson]

Around the middle of October this fall, I was in a garden center and noticed they were selling patio tomatoes in small pots. The sign said, "For fall planting." I thought, why not give them a try. I bought 4 sturdy 6 in. ones and repotted them at home in 12 in. pots, with potting soil and amendments. They grew like mad and by the first frost around the first of Nov. they were 12" high and looking great. Having no green house to keep them in, I carried them into the garage when frost was a threat, and back out in the daytime when it warmed up. After a few days, carting them in and out got old - besides they were now heavy and putting on little tomatoes, and had tops up about 18" high. Thats when I fell upon a plan to make them more easily portable. Having a small wagon and a wheeled furniture moving platform, I put two on the wagon and two on the platform and Eureka! easy to move mater patch. Here it is Dec. 16 and it frosts almost every night but moving them in and out is not much work. The plants are close to 24" tall, staked up in the pots, with tomatoes all over them - some of which are the size of tennis balls. None have ripened yet but I live in hope. On days when the outside temp. is too cold, I leave them in the garage, turn on all the florescent lights, and wait for a warmer day, which usually comes after a couple of days. Meanwhile, I am working on building a small attached green house on my back deck which faces south, using old wood sashed storm windows. A bath room window opens into the green house space and I plan on leaving the window open on cold nights to moderate the temp. in the greenhouse and to ventilate out the excess heat in the day time. Will I ever get ripe tomatoes? I don't know but I sure am having fun trying.

[BlackbearryGardens]

Well...I don't have anything to add...hope your successful. Just got a big kick out of picturing you haul tomatoe plants in and out of your garage. You are one determined tomato grower. :)

[scakya]

You know, looking at the tomatoe plants now growing in my bedroom, providing hubby and sons with fresh juicy tomatoes off of the plants that are most defintely not Patio types, almost fell out of my chair. Mine I dug up in late October before the frost did them in, planted them in compost and dirt with some humate and in 12 inch pots placed in 5 gallon buckets.

These are not pretty plants, but loaded with fruit.

What you probably don't understand that all that moving is what is helping pollinate the plants. Thus the profusion of blooms and soon to be fruit. If your garage doesn't get too cold that fruit will actually grow, albeit slowly.

Mine I move many times during the day to take advantage of available sunlight. Lot of work, but keeps smiles in the family. Too cold out to move them outside even for a little while.

Can you do it? Yep!!! Just make sure you are aware of night time temps to get the most out of your tomatoes. They may get a bit fussy under 55 F.

scakya

[drobinson]

An update on my winter portable tomato patch (4 patio plants). Last week, I picked two mostly ripe tomatoes. Couldn't wait for them to get really ripe. Anyway, they tasted OK but not like summer toms. Believe it or not, two of the plants have been attached by a green tomato worm that was eating the leaves and holes in the tomatoes - that is until I finally found the culprit and did the two finger insecticide trick. Still lots of green tomatoes left, some about the size of a tennis ball. Now, I wonder if the plants will make it to April, when they could conceiveably be planted out in the garden and produce this summer, unless they have a set lifespan that would prevent it. Anyone know about this and if it would work? I know Kale will winter over and produce the next spring.

[Nemophila]

LOL, I don't have anything helpful to add, but after reading this thread I sure feel better about the two pepper plants growing in my bedroom!

[Justameargardener]

I have seen Tomato plants being planted in 5gal buckets and hung up so the Tomato plants came out of the bottom of the bucket. I tryed it last Year but didn't have good luck with it. Can some One Please tell Me what I'm doing wrong :confused: Thank You Very Much
Justameargardener

[Pharmerphil]

What did you use for soil? :confused:

[redbrick]

Guess what? Tomatoes and peppers are both tender perennials! I never tried overwintering tomatoes, but I did it with peppers two years in a row. Yes, I did have p$&#-off bragging rights with July peppers, but the yield really wasn't worth the effort. I had to keep mine under flourescents in the basement, and they were never really healthy over the winter. If I had a greenhouse, it would probably be different (sigh).

[Justameargardener]

What did you use for soil? :confused:
I used the soil from My garden. I really don't know what type of soil it is but it sure does pack hard. Don't get Me wrong I've had some good gardens in the past. Should I have been using some other type of soil? What I done was put a 4 to 5 inch layer of dirt and a 2 to 3 inch of old rabbit droppings and fill the bucket up with dirt.

Thank You Very Much
justameargardener

[Pharmerphil]

Any garden soil, even very good garden soil, will become compact after succesive waterings. mix up a buckets worth of well rotted compost, sand and peat, and a bit of your best soil, this will stay loose and promote root growth, plus, it will be alot more 'portable' in regards to weight.

[scakya]

Hi Pharmerphil,
You are most certainly correct about that mix. I planted mine in a mix of composted goat manure with last years leaves, a bit of soil, a bit of sand and a like amount of finely shredded bark. Handfull of humate and alfalfa chaff. Mixed well and watered. Smells wonderfully earthy and the tomatoes are happy. Got five last week off the two plants and have another 30-40 green ones growing on the two pants. No additional light but that from the ceiling light at night-which isn't much.
Plan on rooting some of the new growth for setting out this spring. Also am saving seed and will start some more next week. Hubby and boys are just thrilled at the amount we are getting and look foward to trying some more when ripe. They just keep coming and hope that will go on for a bit.

scakya
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earthwalkerfarm

[Pharmerphil]

Scakya...signed up at your link!!

[scakya]

Hi PharmerPhil,
Hope you like what we're doing. Been quiet as of late as prepping for some meetings to get my funding done. It will be great to have greenhouses again-left my behind when we moved to the new place! Can guarantee, if I'm successful will be making a drive to visit Baker Creek as still haven't gotten my catelogue. Can just imagine the look on a certain somebody's face when I hand him "the List"! Will get a picture and post it, because that will be a look worth sharing!
Might get planting done a bit later than I'd like, but in this country with our really strange weather, only the cold hardy tomatoes will be outside the new greenhouses and season extenders.
By the way, the tomatoes in my bedroom are really doing their thing. The seed saved from one particularily large tomato was saved and now planted-should be interesting to see how my "bedroom" tomato pans out.
scakya
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earthwalkerfarm

[TennOC]

If you like the tomatoes, you can always root suckers to plant out in the spring too. You'll have even more of the same tomatoes that way.

[bluelacedredhead]

Bumping this back up because I have a question.
I've read before about rooting and planting suckers for fall tomatoes.
But TennOC, are you saying to just keep rooted suckers in water overwinter (much the same as Sweetpotato slips) until planting time in spring?