Sunday, October 25th 2009

All thirteen varieties of tomotoes are doing well. They have all been thinned to one plant per pot this morning.















My earthbox Roma tomato is about a foot tall by a foot wide. As you can see from the picture the plant has already began to flower. I am surprised that it is flowering and the plant is still small.

A side picture of the Earthbox Roma tomato. Nice and strong.

The SFG Roma tomato is growing stocky and short. There is no sign of flowers on this plant yet.

Tomato still growing. There is one more coming in on another vine. I am trying to figure out what to make with this single tomato. Anyone have any ideas?

OMG!!!!! This thing almost game me a heart attack this morning. It is a Tomato Horn Worm the size of my thumb. I was picking off suckers and spotted him. They sure blend into the plant really well. Where did this guy come from?? The plant showed no sign of any chewing. I am glad I caught him before he did any major damage.

SFG October 18th 2009

Planted a few more Roma Tomato seedling in the SFG today. The temperature has finally dropped into the high 60s today. Just a few days ago it was 93. I sure hope that the cool weather stays.















I went ahead and cut the suckers off the plant today. It seems to be growing taller than the plant in the SFG. The seedling in the SFG is growing more bulky.















All 13 varieties are growing at about the same rate. No variety stands out yet from the rest.














Tomato looking good.















I also decided to start a fruit garden as well. I am starting off with three trees. An orange, lime, and lemon tree. I have place them in a perfect spot on the side of my house that gets full sun all day long. The irrigation system is also in the perfect spot.

New seedlings

The garden took on a new form last weekend. I also planted 13 different varieties of tomatoes. I used peat pots filled with peat moss and vermicullite. It took less than 72 hours for all of the seeds to germinate. I placed them outside in partial sun yesterday. Because of rain I brought them inside and placed them under grow lights this morning. As soon as the sun comes out I will again place them outside in the sun again. I have tried both under lights and in full sun and have gotten better results with the sun. I have placed a 16 day old Roma seedling into the Squarefoot garden as well as one in a homemade soiless self watering planter. I will give them both 15 days to decide what the best method of growing will be. Just in one day I have already seen growth in the SFG.















Self made planter. Cost $12.00. Check out this website on how to make a simple self water planter. I am going to try the global bucket method next. The bucket method would be cheaper than the container method that I used.

http://www.globalbuckets.org/ The guys at global buckets have a self watering system that blew my mind.

Can I pinch the suckers when the plant is this young?















I transplanted both of the seedlings at the sametime and you can see the plant in the SFG is growing a little stronger than the one in the planter. Its only been a few days since the transplant. Its still to early to tell but I will keep everyone posted on the difference in growing patterns with the two methods.
















Seedlings all under grow lights until sun comes out again. This is the first time that I have used peat pots to start seedlings. I am keeping water at the bottom of the tray so the pots can sponge up what ever water evaporates from the heat of the lights. So far its working rather well. I had an old book shelf in the garage that I turned into a grow chamber.

Tomato Garden in LaBelle, FL

A few months ago I somehow got interested in growing a vegetable garden. I searched around the internet for a few days and found a book called Square Foot Gardening. It seemed very easy and I thought it would be a great project to do with the kids. I ran out the next day and bought everthing that I thought I needed to start a SFG. I also came back with a few young plants and 10 packets of various seeds. I planted everything and within a week my wife went out and started a 4x4 SFG for herself. Now we have a bunch of vegetables growing in our back yard that are starting to grow fruit.

We have corn, green peppers, yellow peppers, beans, brocolli, lettuce, radish, jalapeno pepper, okra, yellow squash, zuccini, cucumbers, and a bunch of other herbs. I am amazed at how everything is growing. We have even ate fresh cucumbers, squash, zuccini, green peppers, and jalapeno peppers in the past week. But my tomato plants keep dying on me.

I keep getting strange spots on my tomato plants which starts at the bottom and works its way to the top of the plant. I am not sure what is causing it. I do know that my plants are not producing tomatoes. Tomatoes are the single biggest reason that I started a garden in the first place. I want to make home grown tomato sauce.

So I have decided to start a tomato project. I am going to attempt to grow 13 different varieties of tomatoes in my back yard to see what grows good down here in LaBelle, FL. I am going to start everything from seed and grow each variety in its own 2x1x10 raised beds. I have about two months of vegetable gardening experience. So I am sure that I will run into many problems.

Any advice would be great.