The Florida Blogger » hanging tomato plants

Upside Down Totals

Suwanneerefugee — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:53:00 +0000

I started my upside down tomato plants this past February. I probably started the plants just a tad too soon, because I had to bring them in for fear they might freeze. Overall it was a good experience. I planted four types of tomatoes:

Sweet 100s
Patio
Beefsteak
Mystery

We then added some friend’s patio tomatoes, since he and his wife were traveling a lot and the plants were dying. We’re going to call them Polk County to differentiate between my Patio Tomatoes and his.

All of our plants hid the agrarian skids when I adopted Polk County’s tomatoes. His tomatoes were infected with spider mites, which, by the way, spread like hydrilla over all the tomato plants. Thus my tomato season was cut a bit short.

Here’s the totals from the seasons:

(2) Sweet 100s: 65
Patio: 8
Beefsteak: 4
Mystery: 9
(3) Polk County: 8

I planted the Sweet 100s and Patio tomatoes in hanging containers. I used 2-liter bottles instead of the fancy schmancy hangers they have in stores. We’re going for cheap. The only negative about using 2-liter bottles was that they needed to be watered daily. If not, the plants would burn from the hot Florida sun.

I’m thinking about starting some squash, cucumbers, and zuchinni in September. Might even do them upside down. What are you veggie planting this fall?

Hanging Tomato Plant Update

Suwanneerefugee — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Hey ya’ll. Here’s an update of my three hanging tomato plants and two traditional plants. They are coming along nicely.

Patio Tomato

My patio tomato has been hit with a fungus which is why many of the leaves are missing. No tomatoes have been harvested from this plant, although it is loaded with greenies.

This is my mystery tomato plant. It was a Darwinian Gardener plant. Once it started bearing fruit, I started watering it. Just like Floridians, it pretty dang resiliant.

Sweet 100s

My Sweet 100s have produced about 20 tomatoes. Their leaves and soil are doing well. But I’m discovering that hanging plants do need to be watered more.

Beefsteak Tomato

Finally, this is my Beefsteak tomato. As you can tell, it is huge. I had end blossom rot on this plant. I’ve watered it with an epsom salt solution hoping this will add the calcium it needs to stop the disease.

BTW-I just got my new photo editing software, Adobe Lightroom. I’ll be posting a review on it after I’ve had some time to play around with it.

Hanging Tomato Plant Update

Suwanneerefugee — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:40:00 +0000

If you remember a few weeks back, I planted some hanging tomato plants in front of the home as part of my 30 days of Florida normalcy. It was more of an experiment than it was for food supply, although I wouldn’t complain if I had a nice juicy tomato to sink my teeth into.

This is the only one I had to replant. First one died.

I got the idea to do this from Disney. Don’t throw tomatoes at me just yet. In one of their more interesting rides in Epcot, they focus on sustainability and food. They show how they are using hydroponics. I’m not exactly using hydroponics, but it is the next best thing. They are planted in 2-liter bottles hung by six strings. Nothing fancy here at SR’s place.

Tons of buds, but no fruit.

There are three different kind of tomato plants: Beefsteak, Patio, and Sweet 100s.

Did I mention that I love the smell of tomato plants. Not quite as nice as orange blossoms, but pretty close.

My only normal tomato plant. Can you imagine if this thing was upside down??