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I've tried for three years to have a garden. Can't till up the yard so I've put everything into containers. Main crop that I'd like is tomatoes. Last year the wife and I had grand ideas of canning tomatoes, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. We were lucky to have enough for a few salads in reality.
Any of you do well with tomatoes here? If so what is your secret?
I've had poor luck with containers - dry out really fast in this climate. Bury the containers to ground level.
Catch some stocker rainbows at your local pond and bury a head and guts under each new plant. Give them plenty of water.
Works for me.
Use big containers, and a potting soil that has lots of mulch/compostables in it. Put half an inch of straight mulch on the top after planting to keep the roots and real soil cool. I use half whisky barrels that you can pick up from home Depot. A big container is going to resist heat changes and water fluctuations better than a small pot. You can plant a few in a big container and have better luck that a few small containers.
Put them in a place that gets only a couple hours of direct sunlight (3-5 hours Max during peak summer), with indirect light the rest of the day. You won't get big fruit this way, but you should get a good yield of small to medium fruit and the plant won't fry in the colorado sun.
Over watering is easier to do than underwatering. stick your finger in the soil about an inch and a half (2 inches including mulch), if there is any moisture in the dirt wait another day. When you do water, water a bunch to get the water down deep in the soil, to promote deep root growth. This ends up being every 3 days or so for me unless it's particularly hot and dry, then every 2 days. Once every other week use a spray in fertilizer that attaches to your hose with the watering. Expect the leaves to droop in the middle of the day during high heat. If they don't bounce back during the night, they need more water. But many people think the heat droop is the same as an underwater droop.
Keep on the small bugs... They will kill the fruit. A very diluted dish soap and water mixture in a spray bottle is a good solution. Spray down the fruit and leaves if any sign of bugs.
Hunting is less dangerous than farming
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You don't have to be a farmer to survive after the apocalypse ... you just have to be better armed than one of the nearby farmers.
I think your best bet is to watch the sales at Sprouts. At least twice a year (sometimes more) they have roma tomatoes on sale, 2 lbs /$1. When they do this, I buy 50 lbs and take them home and can them. Growing tomatoes in this climate is tricky; growing enough to make it worthwhile to can is nigh impossible. I tend to wash the romas and toss them into my gigantic turkey roaster with onions and peppers, roast the whole batch for a few hours and blend them into roasted tomato sauce which I then can. My advice? Try growing heirloom slicing tomatoes instead. Good luck!
Our secret is the warmer weather. Besides the shooting range, only good thing about it. We already have a nice edible lettuce.
Even down here in The Springs the growing season for tomatoes is just too short to get a big crop (which is why we've been growing mostly cherry tomatoes in several varieties and some "weird" varieties like indigos and green zebras). If you want to grow lots of 'maters you need to consider investing in a greenhouse (and make sure you're getting indeterminate varieties, not determinate ... many "container" tomatoes are determinate and are only going to produce a single crop).Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGrey
I have a friend who has a cabin up north of Woodland Park, he built a greenhouse out of one of those cheap kits and it worked great (until the first hail storm destroyed it).
Going to move the pots into a more shaded area. Right now they are all in the garage out of the snow. The pots I'm using now are probably 10 gallon pots. Any bigger and I'd have a hard time moving them if needed. Thanks for the good ideas.
I've admired those greenhouses; I'm always concerned about the damn hailstorms taking them out. We really don't have adequate space for them anyhow, but it's nice to dream about having a greenhouse!Quote:
Originally Posted by Zundfolge
Also, wet heavy snows will take them out. So figure you're going to have to re-build it every year, but its still cheaper than a quality steel and glass one.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGrey
One of my neighbors just uses hula hoops cut in half with plastic drop cloth over them to plant their tomatoes earlier. He's already getting fruit off his plants (and will probably remove the mini "greenhouses" any day now). There's also those water filled things that seem to work pretty well too. Tomatoes like sun and heat.
Also, anlther thing to consider is hydroponics. My dad built a hydroponic garden in the basement back when I was a kid and we had fresh beefsteaks for Christmas that year. With all the pot growing going on in the state you can find a good grow store in pretty much every town across Colorado and in general if its good for pot its good for tomatoes.
Both varieties that I'm trying are heirloom seeds from Baker Creek. German Lunchbox and Caspian Pink.
Reducing the amount of direct sunlight has helped a lot. I never would have thought less would be better. No fruit yet just flowers but they look 10x better.
I disagree. Tomatoes can be extremely successful in CO. I'm in the metro area and harvest hundreds of pounds each year from about 40sf of raised bed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zundfolge
My tomatoes are on the right in the picture and stand over 6ft tall.
I start from seed inside and transfer outside on Mother's day. The hoops are there to cover the young plants with cloth when they're transplanted to protect them from the harsh sun for a week or two and also potential hail. That way I don't have to worry about hardening them off.
I also pinch off all suckers and even flowers for at least a few weeks. This way the plants spend their energy growing big rather than trying to ripen fruit on young, small plants. Yes, I dont get to harvest until much later, but I get a ton more fruit from the bigger plants.
I grow mostly indeterminants but I also grow determinants (like romas) this way with success. Pain attention to the days to harvest of the tomato varieties you choose.
The pictures of produce are examples of what I pick every other day or so once stuff starts to ripen. I eat as much as possible and also can dozens of jars each of salsa and diced tomatoes each year.
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