Mission:Tomato -- Early Harvesting

Check out my "One Hot Tomato" page for the tally of my tomato harvest. "Better Boy" is contributing, along with Siberia and Early Girl.

It's Tomato Heaven upstairs

Not long now and there will be some ripe tomatoes on some of the five tomato plants I have growing on my balcony! Counting back, probably Early Girl will be red and ready around April 15.

So far the plants remain pest free, the only difficulty is watering. Every morning, I've got to run upstairs and downstairs tying a string around a hose by a downstairs spigot, hauling it 20 feet up over the balcony wall and then turning it on to water. Soon I will have to do that twice a day to keep the tomatoes from drying out.

It's going to be worth it.

What a Difference

I planted two container tomatoes in late January. They should by now be gigantic, but instead have been far outstripped by three other plants that were put in a month later. The only variable was where they were purchased.

Picture taken March 3. Note the two yellowish, sad-looking tomatoes (top middle and top right).


Picture taken today. The two big-box-store tomatoes continue to look peaked (top middle and top right), while my local nursery-bought tomatoes prosper. You be the judge.