I started the cherry tomatoes inside again this year. Last year they were kind of puny and took a long time to take hold in the garden, so this year I was a little over zealous and started them 6 weeks earlier. Mind you, I don’t have a greenhouse or other appropriate place to start veggies. I have a south facing glass siding door and a metal rack…
So those tomato starts which were a wee tad premature, well, they grew tall and leggy trying to reach better sun. It was not until they were far too tall that I realized I could prune them. So, here were these insanely tall but kind of weak tomato starts that looked anemic after transplanting. I thought, crud, another year of mediocre tomato plants.
Well, I was wrong. They went insane! They have now taken over the broccoli, and are reaching over toward the Brussel sprouts and the sweet potatoes. Maybe even choking other crops out. So today I did some pruning and these guys helped me out by eating the trimmings.
And unlike last year, the fruit of these cherry tomatoes are small and sweet. Organic sweetie cherry tomatoes. Like most of my seeds, they came from High Mowing Seeds. They had stellar germination and don’t mind the unamended souls of the garden I’m rehabbing.
Some of my expansing plant trouble probably stems from having weak tomato cages, hand-me-downs that have always satisfied my puny tomato plants. Not this year! The cages are entirely overwhelmed and not exactly providing the support demanded of them.
I guess the lessons for next year are:
1) start the tomatoes a couple weeks later, and if they get leggy, prune then
2) it’s time to build some new tomato cages
3) pigs like tomato plants
In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the sweet fruits of our labor and the pigs will enjoying the prunings!