Tomato vine sprawling on ground with no cage to support it. Cultivar shown: Costoluto Genovese.

Should you cage your tomato plants?  There are advantages and disadvantages to tomato cages so it’s a personal decision you must make.

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Advantages to Cages

Fruit stays off ground so it is less likely to rot.

Less bending required to get at the good stuff (the fruit).

Garden bed is more organized.  Foot path stays clear.  Easier to navigate around plants.

Disadvantages to Cages

Birds can sit on the cage and poop on the tomato leaves and fruit.

Birds can sit on the cage and peck holes into your fruit.

Vine is not allowed to set new roots in another location.

Depending on cage construction, metal can scratch your hands as you reach in to get fruit.

Conclusion

Personally, I do both.  This year I have (45) tomato plants and have cages around half the plants and the rest are uncaged and sprawling.  I don’t really think it matters which you do.  It’s a personal choice and depends on the layout of your specific garden.

Fertilizing zucchini

I would like to show you how I intercepted a plastic container that was headed to the landfill and converted it into a simple, but effective, drip irrigation system.

My wife buys cat litter in these huge plastic containers.  I hate to throw these containers in the trash.  They have to be useful for something, I thought.

I took one of the containers, drilled three holes in the bottom, and then filled the container will saved rainwater.  As you can see in the video below, it does a good job of slowing the water to a trickle, giving the water time to penetrate the soil and go down deep to the plant’s roots.  The water is conserved.

Also shown in the video:

• Update on the tomato plants growing from old seed (8 years old!)

• Companion planting carrots with tomatoes.

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I especially like this system to conserve fertilizer.  I can now apply fertilizer slowly at the base of the targeted plant that needs it, and not waste any fertilizer on weeds or grass.  If I want to fertilize a zucchini plant, I now have a way to apply the fertilizer to that specific plant.  I put the container down at the base of the plant and walk away to do other tasks in the garden.  It takes about five minutes for the container to empty its contents into the soil.  I can then fill the container back up and put the container next to another plant in need of a drink and nutrients.

If you must use water from a hose, this would work well for that, too.  You could put the container next to your plant, fill it up with water from your garden hose, then walk away.

Future Ideas

I will continue to collect large containers that were headed to the landfill.  It would be convenient to have have one container per plant.  So that I don’t have to carry the rainwater to the plants, I would like to use pumps to push my collected rainwater, through pipes or hoses, down to these drip containers.  Maybe I could let gravity do the work, but I will need a valve system.  I would this whole system automated with moisture sensors in the soil.  If I do this, I’ll share the results with you.  You could subscribe to the free RSS feed if you want to stay up-to-date on my garden watering projects.

Any open container left outside can be useful for collecting rainwater.

Why water the garden with rainwater?

• No Chlorine

• No Fluoride

• Less demand on your city’s water system

• Free!

In the video below, I show my currently simple method of saving rainwater for watering my garden plants.  I have plans to expand my rainwater collection.  However, it doesn’t have to be complicated and I want to show you how simple it could be to get started collecting free, clean rainwater.

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Mosquitoes

If you leave the container of water outside for a long time, you might want to cover the container to prevent mosquitoes from getting in and laying eggs in the water.  I was told that if mosquitoes start breeding in your containers, a few of drops of vegetable oil in the containers will keep them from breathing and they will die off.  Vegetable oil will not harm the plants. The more surface area of your water, the more oil is needed, but it only takes enough to put a light sheen on the surface, usually just a few drops.

Air Conditioner Water

You could also use the water that comes from your air conditioner.  It’s basically distilled, pure water.

Also shown in the video:

Garlic scapes coming in early this year.

Update on tomatoes growing in free compost.

Update on tomato plants growing from old seed.

Well, I have good news for you.  Old tomato seed does indeed germinate!

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I planted the seed in flats.  25 days later, I have more tomato plants than my garden can support.  It’s time to increase my garden size!

The tomato varieties I planted, which were 7 and 8-year-old seed:

Omar’s Lebanese
Costoluto Genovese
Stupice
Brandywine (Pink)
Watermelon Beefsteak
Sugar Snack Hybrid

All of the varieties germinated and we should have a big tomato harvest this year.

I was worried when I left the flats outside and we had a frost.  I was afraid that any germinating seedlings might have been killed.  These tomato plants are tougher than I gave them credit.  I respect them now for having viable seed that can handle cold temperatures.  None of the plants had broken through the surface of the soil yet, so they must be more protected as long as they are still in the dirt when the frost hits.  I think it’s important to keep the plants away from freezing temperatures once the seeds have germinated and plants are above ground.

Conclusion

Keep that old seed!  Try planting them when you have time and you will probably still have good results.

How do you propagate a tomato plant?  It’s really simple.  Just cut a branch off an established tomato plant and put that branch in some water.  Come back in about 10 days and it should have roots.

Video after the break…

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I wanted to clone a tomato plant that grew my biggest tomatoes ever.  The variety of tomato was Hungarian Heart.

( See my previous post:  HUGE Tomato! Hungarian Heart Heirloom Tomatoes )

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Huge Hungarian Heart tomato... 33 ounces!

Any garden tomato, big or small, is gratifying compared to the ones at the store. This one was fun to cut up though, because I never had one this big. I think normally I see 8-ounce tomatoes, but this one was 33 ounces.  That’s over 2 pounds!

Over 2 pounds

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I bought a couple of these plants when they were just babies, from Seed Savers Exchange.  The seedlings came in a box and I transplanted them to the garden.  These plants have grown faster, taller, and produced bigger tomatoes than any other variety I have grown.