Tomato Sucker Management

Now that the tomato plants are fruiting it's important to prune them so that they focus more of their energy on fruit production and less on leaf growth. Finegardening.com has an excellent guide.

I'm growing 2 types of tomatoes and each requires different pruning measures. Pruning tomatoes I've discovered is all about managing the suckers.

As a tomato grows, side shoots, or suckers, form in the crotches, or axils, between the leaves and the main stem. If left alone, these suckers will grow just like the main stem, producing flowers and fruit.

The celebrity is a determinate so it will need very little pruning.

Determinate tomatoes need no pruning other than removing all suckers below the first flower cluster, because pruning won't affect their fruit size or plant vigor. If you do any pruning at all above the first flower cluster on determinate tomatoes, you'll only be throwing away potential fruit.

The orange paruche cherry tomato is semi-determinate so only a few of its suckers will be allowed to stay, the rest must be pulled off.

Semi-determinate plants, as the name implies, are somewhere between these two other types. I think semi-determinates are best grown to three or four stems

The author writes celebrity tomatoes are semi-determinate, but the seed company I ordered from states they are determinate so I'm going to defer to their experience with their seed. This also has the added benefit of less work for me!

Pruning Tomatoes at Fine Gardening

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DIY Self Watering Container and Mini Greenhouse from 2 Storage Totes: Basic Edition

Welcome to Bucolic Bushwick. Here you'll find advice on rooftop vegetable gardening, as well as several plans for DIY self watering planters. Please share this page with others and help spread the vegetable gardening movement.

A different version of this planter is available here.

To make this self watering container I used two plastic totes and a sturdy, plastic colander. One tote will be cut down to act as a water reservoir, the other tote will hold the soil and the colander will be used as a wicking chamber to draw water from the water reservoir into the soil above. If you have lids for these totes save them for later use.

Phosphorus Deficiency & Useful Tomato Troubleshooting Site

I noticed discoloration on the lower leaves of my tomato plants so I searched through the books I owned for a cause, problem was none of the books had detailed photos to accompany their disease descriptions. I had a hard time narrowing down the possibilities so I put the books away and went to the web.

The Texas Extension Office has a great guide to identifying tomato plant problems, the Tomato Problem Solver. They separate the site into 5 sections: green fruit, ripe fruit, leaf, stem and root. Clicking on a link takes you to a list of disorders with nice, detailed pics of their symptoms. No more second guessing!

Turns out the tomatoes have phosphorus deficiency.

Phosphorus deficiency is most often manifested as purpling of the leaves, particularly the leaf veins. In severe cases the whole plant may take on a purple hue. Tomato roots growing in cold soil, either in the greenhouse or the field, take up phosphorus poorly.

It has been continually cloudy and rainy since I transplanted them so I'm not surprised this happened. The celebrity tomatoes were mildly affected and are already bouncing back so I'm not worried about them, but the cherry tomato looks pretty sad. I'm going to cover the soil with black plastic mulch, add some more container booster mix and hope for the best.

Texas A&M's Tomato Problem Solver

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Growing interest in NYC gardens

New York City farms and community gardens gear up for spring with increased interest...

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Vegetable gardening goes mainstream

The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden at the White House! I predict the growing interest in home vegetable gardening will now skyrocket due to the fact that the First Family is into it. Makes me glad I bought my seeds early.

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Excellent Seed Starting Guide

The folks at getrichslowly.org, a personal finance blog I read regularly, have posted an excellent article about seed starting. If you're considering starting your own garden this year this post is definitely worth bookmarking.

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Urban Sharecropping

Cityfarmer.info found an interesting article on garden sharing from England. There are a lot of flat, lowrise rooftops in my neighborhood. They're often littered with empty cans of PBR and cigarette butts and they only get used for rooftop parties, film festivals or performance art. I think they would also make great locations for collective gardening.

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