OK, I have baby tomatoes, now what?

Congratulations. You have seen them through the hard part; courtship, marriage, pregnancy, delivery, early childhood. Now you provide sunshine, food and water and a bug-free environment. The tomato is happily programmed to do its tomato thing as long as the support system is in place.

(Check for tomato worms, and make sure the stakes and ties are strong.)

PS. They are heavy feeders; throw in a little Miracle Grow or compost every three weeks.

I just let them grow.
I do pinch off some of the “sucker” branches (that have no flowers) that grow near the bottom of the main stem.
Whatcha gonna make with them?? and what time is dinner? :)

Pretty much sit back and smile! In a few days or a week you will have red vine ripened tomatoes which are heavenly then you get to EAT ‘EM!!! I have 8 plants and my cherry tomatoes are just days from becoming ripe! YUM!

@gailcalled I have them in Miracle Grow potting soil tht is supposed to feed for six months. Is that sufficient?

All: I am about to harvest my basil. Pesto here we come. Yum!

If it’s not too difficult, plant some companion plants nearby. I’ve planted garlic and basil in with some of mine. It prevents many sorts of blights from killing plants, and some people say it improves taste a lot and productivity a little.

Yuck factor aside, a lot of tests have shown diluting urine in the water once in a while greatly increases plant productivity. I wouldn’t give tomato plants more than a 1:3 concentration of urine to water. It’s the nitrogen compounds in urine that feed the plants.

@marinelife: Yes to MG soil. Remember that tough love is the key. Don’t get overprotective or clingy. The first fruits to Athena, of course, and then eat them out of hand, followed by caprese salad.

I have always thought it a pity not to be able to grow a mozzarella fountain next to the basil and tomatoes or have a buffalo grazing on your back forty.

As long as they do not fall prey to pests you should be fine. Some of the Heirlooms are more prone to rot and other diseases. Last year my heirloom Pineapple tomatoes did not do well at all. Late rains, fluctuating temps. They got big but they had rot on the bottoms.

If you see any pests you can use sevin dust or hand pick the bugs, hornworms.

Do not overhead water which will cause mildew.

A good fertilizer will help also, preferably a tomatoe specific type.

I make my own custom blend of a dash of miracle grow for tomatoes and a bucket of goose poo water. haha

I have the greenest grass in the world with my walking fertilizer machines.

Here is a helpful page. All sorts of good information.

@gailcalled I have what I call a bruschetta bucket in my kitchen. It’s three tomato plants, a large basil plant, and two garlic plants.

Pinch down the little shoots that grow in the v’s between stalks so the growing energy goes into the tomatoes, not the greenery.

@incendiary_dan: Sounds good to me, but why in the kitchen and not outside?

What else would you recommend diluted human urine for? I can tell you now that neither male nor female concentrate will kill poison ivy; to the contrary, it seems to encourage them to grow.

@WasCy: I found two very useful tips there.

Plant seedlings on side in order to produce a stronger and broader root system..

Mulch with chopped up vetch (which grows rampant here).

I also use peanut and pistachio shells as mulch.

Yeah, @gailcalled, I had never known that about planting on sides before, but it makes perfect sense.

^^I am waiting eagerly for you, @incendiary_dan , but must go out in a few minutes. Type faster, please.

@gailcalled I’ve been watering my Three Sisters garden with urine as well now and then, and all the plants do well, both in my experience and according to various tests and studies. It’s made up of corn (which can tolerate the most nitrogen), pole beans, and pumpkins/squash. A man in Ethiopia compared three beds of corn: one with synthetic nitrogen, one with 25% urine, and one with 50% urine as fertilizer. The urine hands down beat the synthetic, in terms of stem thickness and number of ears.

Just make sure not to go overboard. I thought for a bit that I might have given my plants a bit of nitrogen burn.

As for why the bruschetta bucket is inside, I only have a small garden outside. 15 tomato plants are in my garden proper, interspaced with walking onions, marigolds, and mint. I guess I could put the bucket outside for now, but I’m mostly intending it as an experiment. I know tomatoes in their native climate can be perennial, so I’m curious to see how these ones do being acclimated to my apartment.

@incendiary_dan: Great info, Dan. Thanks.

Do you actually eat walking onions? I grow them for the laughs. And the mint doesn’t strangle the tomato plants?

@gailcalled Yea, I eat the walking onions sometimes. I just planted them from transplanted escapees. The mint is relatively new, too, so it might pose a bit of risk in terms of pushing out other things. If I keep this garden for more than a year, I’ll probably just have to trim it back.

Edit: I gotta add that I kind rushed putting in the peppermint, because I’d heard rodents are allergic to it. I suspected rodents had been attacking my corn plants, so I wasn’t exactly thinking about mint’s tendency to take over.

^^If I don’t hear from you in several weeks, I might assume that the mint has taken over everything. Trimming is NOT a solution, please remember.

Cook a spaghetti pot of herbed saltwater and pour it over your tomatoes and other vegies to make home brined pickles.

eating baby tomatoes would be so wrong.

watch them grow, read to them, nurture them, water them, keep bugs away from them.

The after your work is done, eat them up. nom nom nom

I ate the first one last night. It was delicious.

so jealous. the wild life have eaten all of mine

@blueiiznh: My condolences. It is heart-breaking. I now grow my tomatoes now only in huge pots on my deck where even the most brazen deer or rabbit won’t venture.

@marinelife: Congratulations to you.