From the top left, clockwise: The tomatoes we brought to Colorado, where they ripened; damage to the tomato plant in the yard (what ate the stems?); the first ripening tomatoes; a squirrel claimed the first ripening tomato and then abandoned it; my husband’s tomato plants in pots on the deck.
Some gardeners can stick a tomato plant in the ground, and a month or so later are harvesting dozens of tomatoes. I’ve rarely harvested a decent tomato, no matter what I did, but I keep trying. This year my husband and I had some success!!! There’s nothing so delicious as a tomato you grew yourself.
My first problem is that I always choose to live in shady areas. I love trees more than growing tomatoes. I have a sunny spot in my current yard, though, which gets sun about seven hours a day.
Some of my past tomato problems: No tomatoes form until the season is almost over; blossom end rot when tomatoes did form; split skins; squirrels bit into my tomatoes; deer ate the stems and leaves; and tomato horn worms ate the stems and leaves. I’m still dreading finding a hornworm every time I check my plant.
But I’m glad I didn’t give up. I grew one tomato plant in our flower bed. My husband planted the same type of tomato in two pots on the deck with a little less sunshine but better soil in the pots. We didn’t do a scientific comparison, but I think his plants produced a few more tomatoes per plant than mine did.
After weeks of no baby tomatoes, I bought some plant hormone, which I sprayed on the flowers. Soon some tomatoes appeared. I don’t know whether it was coincidence or due to the hormone spray. Anyway, this year we got tomatoes!
The tomatoes started to ripen at about the time we planned a nine-day vacation to Colorado. We picked the reddening tomatoes, wrapped them in newspaper and took them with us to Colorado, where we ate our garden tomatoes every day! While we were gone, our daughter checked on our house, watered the plants, picked the tomatoes, refilled the hummingbird feeder and brought in our mail. We came home to a lot more tomatoes!
How Much Sun Do Tomato Plants Need?
How to Keep Deer Away From Tomato Plants.
In a previous year, this tomato hornworm (Hawk moth) grew very large eating my tomato plant!
Catherine Sherman 