This year, I vowed to myself that I would grow tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. Too many tomatoes, a veritable abundance. I wanted to be able to pick and eat them fresh from the plant, to put them in salads, to cook with them, to can them, to make them into relish and jam, and to be able to share them with my neighbours.
I have the space, and I have had success with tomatoes before, my tomato dreams were really not impossible.
But somehow, something has gone wrong. Above and below, the lovely sprawling healthy tomato plant that you can see, well that's a rogue tomato that popped up in the winter vegetable bed. Doing well as you can see. In fact, doing spectacularly well. It's enormously huge and hasn't got a mark on it. It reliably offers up a ripe truss of fruit every two or three days without fail, and it requires absolutely no looking after whatsoever - I don't even water it.
And now, please, let me direct your attention to the bed below. This is my dedicated tomato bed, one that I have cultivated and mulched and fertilised. I planted both seeds and seedlings, and have cared for these babies since the day they came into my life. Watered them and fed them and loved them.
And a more sorry bunch of tomatoes you have never seen. They are wilting and spotty and weak. The leaves are yellowing, they have not produced one flower between the lot of them, and I have a feeling they are ready to topple over and cark it at any given moment.
And they are literally one metre away from the self seeded, healthy, vigorous plant that I had nothing to do with putting there.
Ali v Nature
Ali: 0
Nature: 1
17 comments:
Poor Ali! It is so hard not to laugh...I am trying to think of kind things to write...but well.. I am laughing so hard it is difficult to type.
Maybe you're killing them with kindness.
Try ignoring them. Telling them that you're washing your hands of them first might work in one of two ways; they might breathe a sigh of relief that you won't be interfering with them or they might be scared into thinking they're for the chop. Either way could spur them into production. :)
I can totally relate! lol :)
Clearly the monster volunteer is stealing all the water and nutrition from your prized selections, that has to be it. ;)
Thats just the way it is....you try hard to grow something, and then a self seeded one out does it...I would yank em all out....and be thankful that you have one producing lovely cafartas that you can use....
I think it's just survival of the fittest. The ones that have self-seeded and suceeded are obviously more suited to your conditions.
Save the seeds and breed yourself the Ali super tomato - perfect for your own backyard :)
Ungrateful Ba***rds! Threaten to dig them up and see if they respond. Is there maybe something in that raised bed that they don't like, left over from your previous crop? What was in there before? Or maybe they have picked up a virus from the mulch / compost?
Maybe you water them too much? I really don't know, it seems to happen to me too, lol.
Puzzling this nature thing?? Wish I had answers for you.
Thanks for your lovely comments. To answer your question, a cold frame is like a greenhouse that can sit over pots or on top of your garden bed. We are using ours for winter to keep the warmth in and the cold, frost and pests out. The rocket sprouted within a couple of days and I'll keep doing some updates on my blog, so please visit again soon. Hope you're having a lovely, warm, Brissy weekend (lots of good things have come out of Brisbane). ;)
X Marnie
Hi Ali,
I agree with Mark Willis above. It could be a problem with the compost. I enjoy reading your posts..Take care
Don't you hate that!
Ali, every gardener can tell you the same story ( damn it )! Next time, it'll all go different. Something I find happens is the healthiest seedlings die off, and the runt of the litter is the one that delivers. Hope you're getting enough tomatoes!
Well, you can't argue with nature, can you!
New to your blog but love your style of writing!
LOL! Ya win some, ya lose some. Do envy your ability to grow winter tomatoes though! Decadence! :)
Pain in the butt tomatoes!
I think it must be what they are sitting in, the garden bed is new this year, so I obviously haven't prepared it to their liking... however, having said that, I have noticed that they are starting to flower and two of them are producing. So I don't feel like I should pull them out and start again... I have plenty of space to grow more, so I think I will leave them to their own devices and start up another lot, hopefully with more luck this time.
Oh, they've driven us bananas. We're ready to toss in the spade, and buy tinned tomatoes - we carefully raised seedlings, and wilt came through and wiped them out, but as you say, the strange self-sown ones have survived. But haven't ripened, so it's suddenly cold! Grrr...
Celia my rogue one is going great guns, and another rogue in the back garden is looking a bit fabulous too. I'd say I've got another 20 -30 rogue seedlings all over the place, and I think I'm going to place my money on them!
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