Last week I was on vacation, so nothing much happened in BlogVille. But there are lot of things that had happened in my garden both good and bad.
During my absence,To water my plants and to take care of them, I appointed a maid and I gave her one day training on how to water ..esp those tiny beefsteak tomato seedlings …With all this prep work done, I was all set to visit my inlaws in North India.(Uttar pradesh)
I spent almost a week, visiting many places which i will describe in a different post. Today I returned home, Anxious about what happened to my plants. I ran to my terrace straight from the taxi.
First, I was so happy and excited to see my garden after a weeks time. It feels like I was away for years and they have grown so big. So many tomatoes…..so many vine riped ones. Stupice early tomato was fully of red ripe tomatoes.
Then I rushed to see if my 22 fruit cluster cherry has fully ripened. I was shocked. So many cherries have been plucked and many fell down. Many had cracked and poked by pigeons. I was able to collect the fallen ones and discarded the cracked/poked ones(might use then for seed 😉 ).
This weekend too, I will be out of station, So I didn’t want another tomato to go waste. I rolled up my sleeves and harvest all the red looking toms. Guess what, I ended up with so much.
This contains tomatoes of the following varities. Maskotka, Washington Cherry, Stupice early.
Fish bone truss with few cherries taken away 🙁
Another shot of the same basket. I weighed the tomatoes after I plucked them. It came about 3.6 Kg. 3610 gms to be exact. Not bad huh!?
More later
gg
18 Responses
This is awesome, we never get any cherry tomatos in Indian markets. Nice of you to grow yourself. enjoy those beauties…
Man am I crazy about tomatoes after starting visiting yours and Prue’s blog (http://totallyineptbalconygardener.blogspot.com/). Now I really wanna grow some of those exotic hybrids. If you can send the seeds to me, it’d be cool. If you’re okay with it, please do mail me at Chandramouli.S@gmail.com
Awesome! Going out of town is indeed a problem for any gardener haa ? BTW, do you have the problem of plenty ? Please let me know, I live close by:)
Hi Jayadeep.
Right now, I think I do have the problem of plenty ;). If you want to taste some home grown toms.. Please drop by on weekends!!
gg
Hello, I am a begginer in gardening. Can you please give me info for pot soil. how to prepare soil?? what are the ingrediants required for that and in what proportion…
Regards,
Binita
Hello Binita,
Welcome to my blog and the wonderful world of gardening. To start with you can make your own mix by using Redsoil, sand and compost in the ration 1:1:2. Make sure the pot you are using has a drainage hole in the bottom. Feel free to ask any question that pops up.
Happy gardening
gg
That’s an awsome harvest !! I can relate to the anxiety when you left you garden to the mercy of maid and the eagerness to see it in proper shape, when you came back. Myself looking forward to a 2-week vacation. Hope I find someone to water my plants before I set out. In the meanwhile I have been thinking of few ways which can help me water my plants in my absence without human intervention like those water retaining gellies or drip irrigation with pipe network which is fed water at proper interval by someone from outside. You have any ideas/suggestions on this ??
Thanks Raja.
There are few steps I took before I left for my vacation. Here are they.
1. Stuff the pots on the top with straw/hay so that evaporation through surface is reduced. Initially I didn’t think it would help and I did it anyways. But trust me it keeps the top soil moist.
2. Setup Drip irrigation to a portion of my garden. Its easy to setup unless you have too many pots (of different sizes) and all of them not in a single place like mine. I am working on a post on setting up drip irrigation.
3. Appoint a maid who waters the plants daily. Promise him/her that if they plants are in good condition when you come back you will give some bonus money ;). In my case it was the maid who comes daily for house work.
I will try to post some pics of drip setup soon.
gg
Fantastic tommies. wish i could say that about mine. visit me. vinaymagadi.wordpress.com
Thanks for the tips. I would be looking forward to that post on drip irrigation. I am travelling on 18th, if your post comes before that and I still have some time in hand for implementing some of those tips, it would be gr8.
Very impressive. Depending on gardeners while on vacation is generally so dicy. Your maid seemed to have done a great job.
Does the Biotechnology Centre down Bannerghatta Road have cherry tomato seeds?
Hi Asha,
Yes she did a very good job and her hard work paid off too ;). Yes BioCentre has cherry tomato seeds infact 4 varieties of them. Red Pear, Yellow Pear, red cherry tom and yellow cherry tomato.
gg
Hi gg,
Regarding the point “Stuff the pots on the top with straw/hay so that evaporation through surface is reduced.”
Do you think I can use sugar cane bagasse instead of straw/hay ? Will they attract ants, should I wash them to get rid of their sweetness ?
By the way, in the meanwhile I have also harvested my tommies 🙂 (blog updated)
Regards
Raja
Raja,
Sorry for the late reply. I think sugar cane bagasse can be used but I havent used it before ( I simply saw hay lying around near the road and I just took it home 😉 . You are right. They might attract ants i guess. Also, are they soft like hay? thats got nothing to do with its usage but it should be easy with work with.
gg
Hi gg,
Thanks for that info. I keep going there once in a while – mainly for herbs and once for some earthworms. Will ask for the seeds the next time.
Asha
Hi GG, I am simply fascinated by your cherry tomatoes!! is it possible for you to send me some seeds if you have them in surplus? My mail Id is pgoel_76@rediffmail.com
Hey Hi,
I am interested in creating kitchen garden from a long while. Can you please send me some details for where I can get seeds and required materials for the same in Mumbai?
Your posts are very useful. I just depend on your posts in case of cabbage ,carrot etc .These are not common in my city (Trivandrum)
Thank you very much.