Now that all danger of frost has passed– 5 weeks ago in fact– it’s time to plant some tomatoes. The bucket containers from last year got a thorough cleaning and disinfecting and are ready to go…
The bucket containers sat out on the patio all winter, and they ended up turning themselves into four foot potted night-blooming jasmines.
For those unfamiliar, night-blooming jasmine is really great in the summer. Throw open the patio door after dark and their fragrance fills the house, and the neighborhood as well. They grow ten feet tall, and propagate themselves at the drop of a hat. Don’t worry about winter freezes with this stuff– you can’t kill it, and it will be back with a vengeance next year.
Anyway, after extracting the jasmine from a couple of the bucket containers, and getting them scrubbed out and disinfected with a spray bottle full of hydrogen peroxide, it was time to plant.
This year, after the dismal results last year with creole tomatoes, I went an entirely different direction. I chose the Celebrity hybrid for its disease, drought, and heat resistance. This variety is also a determinate, which means it will grow to a fixed height– about 3 feet– and stop. It also means it will set its fruit almost all at once. Fortunately, it is quick to maturity, so I should have something to harvest within about 60 days.
I buried about 50 percent of the plants in the soil– this will increase rooting, and help the plants to develop strong stalks.
I also added one more thing over years past, which was to place a large handful of cypress mulch around the base of the plant. This should help preserve moisture even further than just the bucket lid, and will keep soil-borne pathogens off the lower leaves of the plant. Once these starts get about a foot and a half tall, I have some cages to support what I hope will be lots of tomatoes.
