Tomatoes

 I have a long history of growing tomatoes.  I started in Rochester, planting them in mid-April, losing them to frost in late April.  The next year, I waited until mid-June to plant them, losing them to frost in September just as beautiful tomatoes were ripening.  Then, I asked for advice and planted them on Memorial Day and had beautiful tomatoes in late summer.

My tomatoes in Mooresville (Lake Norman) were beautiful until my neighbor’s Crepe Myrtle trees blocked the sun.  They were still worth planting.

My first attempts in Cary didn’t work out.  Two years in a row, the deer ate the plants before the first bloom.  In the third year, I planted tomatoes in pots on the patio.  The deer came on the patio and ate them.  I finally learned to keep deer away by using a spray, Liquid Fence.  We had tomatoes, but they were mediocre, worth eating, but not as good as tomatoes from the supermarket.

Last year, I bought a special container that came with fertilizer and instructions.  I planted two tomato plants in the special grow system and two outside of it in the ground as a control.  We got some fair tomatoes, but most came from the ones outside the grow box.

This year, I developed my own soil mix and fertilizer.  I planted some healthy plants in early May that were guaranteed to produce large and juicy tomatoes and waited to be delighted and to be the envy of the neighborhood.  See photograph below. The tomatoes on the right are from Publix.  The other two are mine.

I’m already thinking about how to get it right next year.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmal.com