The Great Tomato Experiment
I started The Great Tomato Experiment because I, like you, want my tomato plants to be productive, as well as bear large, delicious fruits. While I do have a yard in which to grow tomatoes, my time is limited, and my back won’t let me tend a full garden like I used to. This being the case, I want the plants I do grow to be healthy and exceedingly productive!
So, The Great Tomato Experiment was born! It’s dedicated to growing healthy plants with delicious fruits in large quantities from just a few plants. (Whew!)
What Exactly is The Great Tomato Experiment?
To get all the particulars and details about this project, go on and take a look at my growing huge tomatoes post. In a nutshell, though, I plan to grow three tomato plants from the same seed packet as follows:
- One tomato plant will be the control plant; I’ll grow it just as I normally do.
- One tomato plant will be grown according to the directions for high tomato productivity.
- The final tomato plant will be grown according to the directions for growing humongous tomatoes.
I’m ordering all my supplies today (December 28th), so I’ll be planting my seeds within 2 weeks. I’m fortunate in that I’m just coming into the best tomato-growing season where I live, so when the seedlings are ready to put out in the garden, the weather will be just right.
You’re welcome to join me! Start your own experiment, as soon as the tomato growing time is right for where you live. Here’s a hint; start your seeds about 5 or 6 weeks before the last frost of Winter. Then when that last frost is past, you can plant your seedlings outdoors and run your own tasty experiment.
Tomato Updates
I’ll be making updates to The Great Tomato Experiment as I go along, and you can find links to those posts just below the photos of the tomatoes & books.
Seeds and Supplies
You can find the seeds, books and supplies I’m using for The Great Tomato Experiment below. So if you want to join in, it’s a quick list of what you’ll need.
- Tomato Seeds, Pineapple or Kellogg’s Breakfast is also good.
- Containers, 10-Gallon
- Tall Tomato Cages
Oh, and by the way, don’t let the idea that you don’t have a yard deter you from running your own experiment, because I’m growing my three plants in containers. So if you even have just a small balcony for growing, you can do it.
Bookmark this page and come back from time to time and see how The Great Tomato Experiment is progressing. I’m sure it will be fun for all of us!
Updates
I’ll be listing the updates here in this section.
January 3, 2009: All my supplies are in, so I planted the seeds for Pineapple today. I planted 4 seeds; at least three should germinate, if not all 4. Then I can pick the three largest for the experiment.
January 10, 2009: Whoo-hoo, my tomato seeds for Pineapple are sprouting! I see three out of the 4 raising their little heads; hopefully the 4th one will germinate as well, and I can give it to my friend Elaine.
January 23, 2009: All 4 seeds sprouted and I cannot believe how fast they are growing! They are already as large as the Brandywine plants that are about 2 weeks older (and the Brandywine plants are doing really nicely). The weather is still a bit unsettled here in South Florida (we had freeze warnings the last two nights), so they will stay inside, in a south-facing window, until the weather stabilizes.
March 11, 2009: Oh my, I haven’t updated for awhile! I planted the 3 experiment tomatoes out in their 10-gallon containers on February 14. They were all roughly the same size when they went into their containers…but almost a month later, there are very definite differences! Full report (in a post, with pictures) due this weekend.
March 16, 2009: And they’re off! Check out the photos and report number 1 to see how they are doing.