Tomatoes from Buckets
Geo
5 gallon buckets on my balcony.
This is the first time I've grown consistently good tomatoes. They have a
deep "tomatoey" flavor, unlike previous tries. In the past, my tomatoes
would either be sour or almost flavorless. In other words, they were no
better than store bought tomatoes. So why bother? Well not this time!
My tomatoes could be a little sweeter, but they really do taste quite good
this time. I have an idea for the lack of sweetness that I'll try next.
I had a "bottom rot" problem with the first few tomatoes on one of the two
plants. But I think I can avoid that next time by adding some calcium to the
soil. We'll see.
I picked about a half dozen smaller tomatoes prior to these. I hope to get
another dozen before the two tomato plants are done. Not much I know, but
it's better than past attempts.
Do you see that crack along the side of the lower right tomato? That crack
formed just after I washed the tomatoes. This just goes to show how
sensitive this fruit is to over or under watering. That has indeed been
quite a problem in the past. But I think I've pretty much solved that one
too.
Growing these tomatoes on the balcony solved past problems with deer and
raccoon in the back yard, but last year we still had a problem with birds.
As you can see, I think that problem has finally been resolved as well.
Baby steps!
