More tales of tomato bondage...and breaking free!
2-3 weeks ago I posted this pic:
of the tall Black Krim tomato arching out over open space beyond my balcony railing. I hadn't been paying proper attention to the shorter of the 2 main vines and I woke up one morning to see it bent over under the weight of growing green tomatoes. It wasn't broken so I carefully straightened it and secured it as best I could. A couple of mornings ago I woke up to find my bondage efforts had failed and it was slumped back over. It still hasn't broken so I'm not going to tempt fate any more. I just secured it where it's laying along the wide railing as best I could.
Now, the longer vine? This is what it looks like now:
That top tomato (which isn't really because there's one nearly as big but about 6 inches further out that you can't see from this angle) is nearly a yard beyond the railing. I have no idea how I'm going to get them! When my 6'2" brother comes over later this week I might have to rearrange everything so he can get as close as possible on a stool and hold onto him while he plucks them green and I let them ripen on the shelf. I'm afraid otherwise I'm going to wake up one morning and find them 3 floors down on the ground, because a couple of those suckers are the size of sofballs!
My other 2 tomato plants gave me a surprising bumper crop this last week:
That biggest one is softball sized. Along with some of the fresh peppers and herbs, plus a few fresh veggies from the store, I had a wonderful, fresh vegetable soup over the weekend. Delicious!
I'd sure like to know if my unusual success this year is more due to my growing knowledge of gardening, the unseasonable weather, just dumb luck or (more likely) a combination of all of the above.
of the tall Black Krim tomato arching out over open space beyond my balcony railing. I hadn't been paying proper attention to the shorter of the 2 main vines and I woke up one morning to see it bent over under the weight of growing green tomatoes. It wasn't broken so I carefully straightened it and secured it as best I could. A couple of mornings ago I woke up to find my bondage efforts had failed and it was slumped back over. It still hasn't broken so I'm not going to tempt fate any more. I just secured it where it's laying along the wide railing as best I could.
Now, the longer vine? This is what it looks like now:
That top tomato (which isn't really because there's one nearly as big but about 6 inches further out that you can't see from this angle) is nearly a yard beyond the railing. I have no idea how I'm going to get them! When my 6'2" brother comes over later this week I might have to rearrange everything so he can get as close as possible on a stool and hold onto him while he plucks them green and I let them ripen on the shelf. I'm afraid otherwise I'm going to wake up one morning and find them 3 floors down on the ground, because a couple of those suckers are the size of sofballs!
My other 2 tomato plants gave me a surprising bumper crop this last week:
That biggest one is softball sized. Along with some of the fresh peppers and herbs, plus a few fresh veggies from the store, I had a wonderful, fresh vegetable soup over the weekend. Delicious!
I'd sure like to know if my unusual success this year is more due to my growing knowledge of gardening, the unseasonable weather, just dumb luck or (more likely) a combination of all of the above.