AL (For red_trillium)
My partner's been calling this "the story of the little tomato that could".
Last year, I tried starting some old heirloom tomato seeds indoors in a large pot in mid-spring. They weren't having any of it. But the pot was right next to some other plants, so I let habit take over and kept watering it. Mid-summer, one lonely little tomato seedling sprouted. (This was before I got my new cell phone/camera, so I have no pictures at that point, though it looked like any other tomato seedling.)
The plant grew very slowly at first. Come late September (which is early fall in Milwaukee) it was about the right size to put outside, if it had been spring. But it wasn't spring, or even summer. So it stayed in the pot in my windowsill. And it grew. It survived the coldest winter nights, when we were wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants inside because there's only so much a furnace can do when the temperature plummets suddenly. And it started to grow faster. By January, it badly needed to be staked up, but all the tomato stakes were frozen under snow outside. So we raided the basement, found an old pool cue that would need substantial work to be usable again, and used that. The pool cue was clearly labeled "AL" Suddenly, the tomato plant had a name!
It kept growing. Even though the kitchen is large, I started to hear muttered comments about the plant trying to take over.
It set flowers, and I started to think I might get tomatoes indoors--and we almost did! Some tiny tomatoes formed, then, despite regular watering, they wilted, along with most of the leaves at the ends of the plant. It was rootbound, and barely February! We had to repot it, so we did.
Now, it was too heavy to keep on top of the TV, so the TV got moved above microwave. And it kept growing. It was so tall that when it finally got warm enough to move it outside, we had to hold it at knee level to not knock off the top of the plant, despite our tall doorways!
I always plant tomatoes deep, it helps keep the stems steady and encourages growth, since the buried stems quickly develop more roots.
Outside, it first lost a bunch of leaves. (This is common--plants make leaves sturdy enough for the weather conditions; leaves that grow with never a heavy raindrop, indirect light, and no wind are too fragile to last long outdoors. Another set of flowers mostly fell off.)
But new leaves sprouted and new flowers blossomed. And it grew!
Here is the plant today. Despite the tendency of tomatoes to spread outward instead of upward, it's nearly as tall as my shoulders, and as wide as my "wingspan" in both directions.
Now it has at least a dozen large green tomatoes, and it already gave me one very tasty ripe tomato. All tomatoes can split at the top like this if they suddenly get hot wet weather; this is a Cherokee Purple, which are especially susceptible to splitting like this. But I have a special delight for growing purple veggies, and really like the flavor of this variety.
Last year, I tried starting some old heirloom tomato seeds indoors in a large pot in mid-spring. They weren't having any of it. But the pot was right next to some other plants, so I let habit take over and kept watering it. Mid-summer, one lonely little tomato seedling sprouted. (This was before I got my new cell phone/camera, so I have no pictures at that point, though it looked like any other tomato seedling.)
The plant grew very slowly at first. Come late September (which is early fall in Milwaukee) it was about the right size to put outside, if it had been spring. But it wasn't spring, or even summer. So it stayed in the pot in my windowsill. And it grew. It survived the coldest winter nights, when we were wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants inside because there's only so much a furnace can do when the temperature plummets suddenly. And it started to grow faster. By January, it badly needed to be staked up, but all the tomato stakes were frozen under snow outside. So we raided the basement, found an old pool cue that would need substantial work to be usable again, and used that. The pool cue was clearly labeled "AL" Suddenly, the tomato plant had a name!
It kept growing. Even though the kitchen is large, I started to hear muttered comments about the plant trying to take over.
It set flowers, and I started to think I might get tomatoes indoors--and we almost did! Some tiny tomatoes formed, then, despite regular watering, they wilted, along with most of the leaves at the ends of the plant. It was rootbound, and barely February! We had to repot it, so we did.
Now, it was too heavy to keep on top of the TV, so the TV got moved above microwave. And it kept growing. It was so tall that when it finally got warm enough to move it outside, we had to hold it at knee level to not knock off the top of the plant, despite our tall doorways!
I always plant tomatoes deep, it helps keep the stems steady and encourages growth, since the buried stems quickly develop more roots.
Outside, it first lost a bunch of leaves. (This is common--plants make leaves sturdy enough for the weather conditions; leaves that grow with never a heavy raindrop, indirect light, and no wind are too fragile to last long outdoors. Another set of flowers mostly fell off.)
But new leaves sprouted and new flowers blossomed. And it grew!
Here is the plant today. Despite the tendency of tomatoes to spread outward instead of upward, it's nearly as tall as my shoulders, and as wide as my "wingspan" in both directions.
Now it has at least a dozen large green tomatoes, and it already gave me one very tasty ripe tomato. All tomatoes can split at the top like this if they suddenly get hot wet weather; this is a Cherokee Purple, which are especially susceptible to splitting like this. But I have a special delight for growing purple veggies, and really like the flavor of this variety.