It's all your fault....

[jungseed]

and I don't mind at all. You guys have turned me into a Tomatovillian!! I told you guys on the member website page that I may be able to get a tomato plant this year. Well, I went to the place and they did have some tomato plants. I was really exicted when I saw a Brandywine. Picked it up right away as there was only a couple there. Then picked out something labled bush beef. Assuming it's a beefsteak type. Took DH with me so we came home with a Jalepeno plant also.That of course doesn't make me a Tomatovillian. Just buying a couple plants. When I got home I realized that we have nothing but clay for soil (it is acutualy a light grey color and harder than a rock when it's dry). My babies would not be happy. The only place to plant them was the one spot I had amended the soil a couple years ago. I added potting soil and sand to the clay back then. So....I dug up my flowers and planted the tomato plants!!!

[celestina]

Good for you!

[dice]

I had a row where I needed the space for a few plants
of a compact cultivar, small enough that a 3' tomato
cage is plenty of support, but they are west of the
raspberries and don't get quite enough sun growing
in the ground there. So I cut the bottoms out of 3 plastic
buckets (a 4 gallon and two 5 gallon), set them in the row,
dropped a handful of gypsum in the bottom, filled them
with a mix of compost and horse manure with some lime
and organic fertilizer (for extra phosphorus and potassium),
and I put a tomato plant in each.

That raised them up enough to clear the raspberries for most
of the morning (I cut those off kind of short last winter in
anticipation of this need), so that those tomato plants get
enough sun, and the roots will grow down into the row below
the bucket eventually.

That is one way to deal with rather dodgy soil: the 5 gallon
paint bucket raised bed (5 gallons of "the good stuff" is plenty,
and you don't have to restrict it to just tomatoes). Compost
and horse manure hold water fairly well in a container, and
the soil under the bucket pretty much stays moist all of the
time, which helps protect against drought and BER problems
once the bucket is full of plant roots.

[carolyn137]

I have a suggestion.

You work for a seed Co, you answer questions directed to same.

You're supposed to be an expert in all matters pertaining to ALL seeds and plants that your Co sells.

Now lets set that aside for a few years and concentrate on the tomatoes.

You've got 2 tomato plants and one pepper plant for this year.

Next year please consider ordering thoe white Grow bags with handles and drainage holes, filling them with mix and getting a bit more serious about what WE think you should grow re tomatoes. We'll have a variety contest for you.

Here's what I bought this year b'c I had the large raised bed converted to perennials and roses, etc.

20 Grow bags, 12 gal size
14 Bags Professional Pro-Mix, 3 cubic feet each
14 40# bags composted cow manure with humus

Mix one bag cow stuff with one bag Pro-Mix and fill bags and also other containers I'd used for tomatoes.

Freda does the above b'c I can't.

Plants arrived from gardenmama on Friday, 21 lovely plants she raised for me. lots of new to all varieties. Craig had sent me 5 dwarves.

26 plants for 20 grow bags and I know I have other containers. Well, let me be more specific.

There are HUGE containers out there planted with summer squash, charentais melons, cukes, carrots, mini-broccoli, lettuce, radishes, early sweet summer turnips, bok choy, kohlrabi and ????

But there are other containers as well, yet to be filled.

All looked fine until Freda said she was spending so much time here she wanted to grow her tomatoes and peppers here and I said WHY? What the heck am I going to do with the fruits from 26 tomato plants. other than the few I'll be saving seed from ( gardenmama and bcday help with that too) plus all the other stuff.

She said b'c they're special. Well OK, they're special.

So her next job is to scour the tool shed, attached to the house, and look for forgotten containers.

And then plant most of the tomato plants in bags, 4 to the row, 5 rows, with lots of room in between. I keep telling her this is good b'c she'll have less lawn to mow, but she's an aggressive string weedeater person so we'll have to talk.

So you can do what I did b'c I had no room in the raised bed and you can do it b'c of the clay. And yes, I know you work and I don't but what about that DH of yours, can't he help in some way? And all it takes is to get on the internet to get the bags and then call your local faux Agway and order the other stuff.

Now Freda, who really does everything around here, sugggests we might think about putting up a farmstand at the end of my road with a jar for money.

Knowing her she just might but I have promised fruits to others who are local.

Now if everything grows.........at which point I'm sending loving thoughts to your two tomato plants and one pepper plant. may they flourish and give you peace of mind.

[dice]

Credit to Cosmic for the bucket raised bed idea. I saw a picture
of a row of them in her blog, where she had cleared some trees
and made a new tomato bed there, but she was apparently not
sure about the pH, drainage, and so on yet. The buckets kept
most of the roots in a controlled environment, while still
allowing them to reach down deeper for more moisture.

[Tomstrees]

all I can say is: WELCOME ABOARD !!!

~ Tom