Growing a tomato plant inside my house-- help me make this successful

[hosspak]

I like your idea-- both time saving, water saving, and makes for better plant growth.

I ONCE thought about ripping apart my kids disposable diapers that only had pee for the water absorbing granules--- couldn't quite bring myself to do this. A big mess when it is wet and soggy, and well otherwise, in the realm of gross. lol

Can I mix my own equivalent of the Miracle grow Moisture COntrol??

I pretty much depent on the products, or byproducts from my horses to fertilize the gardens.

That reminds me of the story of the lady who sniffs and eats used diapers.............. Just thinking of it makes me want to toss up lunch... Remember, manures are extremely "hot" fertilizers and should be aged "cooled" before they go into the garden, unless your soil really needs something hot to make it better. Use my method of introducing it into the garden a little at a time, meanwhiles, but the rest in a compost pile or let your chickens work on it for a few months...

 

[Arielle]

THe hairy is on the stem!! lol Will need to repot soon.

THe lettuce is an intersting plant. I learned from my mom to harvest the leaves by cutting iwth a sharp scissor leaving about 1.5 inches to regrow. I did this last year, and couldn't keep up with the growth. Eventually I let them bolt, and collected some of the leaves as I wanted. Generally the plants were shaded by the overgrowth of weeds!! lol SO the plants stayed more shaded tht normal. HOnestly I liked the bitter greens. My tastes have changed since I learned that the more bitter greens are healthier, so I'm willing to challenge my taste buds if I have a healthier life.

ANd I"m on the north side of a hill. There are some benefits to that!!

HOme version of MIracle grow??? That is worth checking out . . .

 

[hosspak]

THe hairy is on the stem!! lol Will need to repot soon.

THe lettuce is an intersting plant. I learned from my mom to harvest the leaves by cutting iwth a sharp scissor leaving about 1.5 inches to regrow. I did this last year, and couldn't keep up with the growth. Eventually I let them bolt, and collected some of the leaves as I wanted. Generally the plants were shaded by the overgrowth of weeds!! lol SO the plants stayed more shaded tht normal. HOnestly I liked the bitter greens. My tastes have changed since I learned that the more bitter greens are healthier, so I'm willing to challenge my taste buds if I have a healthier life.

ANd I"m on the north side of a hill. There are some benefits to that!!

HOme version of MIracle grow??? That is worth checking out . . .

Patience Arielle, patience. Time will come when it's time... It will be worth the wait. I have hampered growth in the past by being too eager.

If you don't want the bolt, you can always start new plants every couple of weeks and remove the plant for eating and then replace as needed with starters.

There's always recipes for homemade anything on the web.. Just be careful.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I'm not growing anything alien!! lol Really. I don't mind bolted lettuce, and I even eat mustarrd greens now and kale, too. Beet greens. I do wonder about all the bean leaves-- no one talks about eating them, yet they are so plentiful-- perhaps they are edible IDK.

THe second leaves ar growiing quickly-- maybe on SUnday I will repot.

If I have space I will reseed every couple of weeks. Always seems like there is never enough room, especially when the weeds start ; they are vigorous and out grow all else.

 

[Arielle]

Repotted the 4 tomatos on the snow day, feb13. Into tall drinking cups with a hole punctured in the bottom and each put in a small muschroom contain to catch drainage. THe top of the soil dries very quickly-- packaging for the soiless mix said to spritz with water every day-- oops missed that.

Set the tomatos deep-- to the first leaves. Leaves are fuzzy. That is the true leaves. Stems are purply up to the first leaves, then a deep green. LEaves are a very deep green.

Need to find the liquid fertilizer-- not where I thought it was-- need to look again.

THe 4 pots are laid out in a row under the grow light to receive maximum exposure.

 

[Arielle]

THe stem of the plants are noticably thicker!!

THe leaves of course are growing, outward and doen, = a slight droop. Maximizing light collection.

The higher stem is turning reddish-purple.

THey look healthy! Vigorous even. Whooo hooo!

 

[bachbach1]

You can cover the dirt in your pots with clear saran type wrap, it almost eliminates evaporation. You dont want it tight, just loosely covered helps a lot. Clear is important so molds and fungus wont grow, they dont like light.

Tobacco, Tibetan purple tomatoes, oregano, shallots, and onions, chives going good. I wintered over some large tomatoes plants, and large red sweet pepper plants in my sun room, they are outside now in 5 gallon buckets. Only onions and shallots in the ground.

I planted 144 new cells in 2 big plant starters yesterday, Snow peas, sweet red peppers bell peppers, beef steak tomatoes, garlic chives, yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash pumpkin, cantaloupe, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and new oregano, and sage.

It is on in Texas, at least the work part. Hopefully the picking part will be going on soon. I am setting out live catch traps for rabbits, we are not infested with them, but there are too many to ignore.

Has anyone ever used the micro parasitic wasps, or lady bugs to control pests.

 

[hosspak]

You can cover the dirt in your pots with clear saran type wrap, it almost eliminates evaporation. You dont want it tight, just loosely covered helps a lot. Clear is important so molds and fungus wont grow, they dont like light.

Tobacco, Tibetan purple tomatoes, oregano, shallots, and onions, chives going good. I wintered over some large tomatoes plants, and large red sweet pepper plants in my sun room, they are outside now in 5 gallon buckets. Only onions and shallots in the ground.

I planted 144 new cells in 2 big plant starters yesterday, Snow peas, sweet red peppers bell peppers, beef steak tomatoes, garlic chives, yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash pumpkin, cantaloupe, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and new oregano, and sage.

It is on in Texas, at least the work part. Hopefully the picking part will be going on soon. I am setting out live catch traps for rabbits, we are not infested with them, but there are too many to ignore.

Has anyone ever used the micro parasitic wasps, or lady bugs to control pests.

I did the Lady Bugs one year, honestly could not tell a difference and never saw a single Lady Bug after 2 weeks... I'm not to fond of bringing other bugs in to take care of other bugs..Would rather use a natural repellent or even a bug killer spray.

 

[JWEBB]

THe stem of the plants are noticably thicker!!

THe leaves of course are growing, outward and doen, = a slight droop. Maximizing light collection.

The higher stem is turning reddish-purple.

THey look healthy! Vigorous even. Whooo hooo!

sounds like they doing great!!! nice! love fuzzy tomatoe stems lol

 

[bachbach1]

Lady bugs are great if you have aphids, or spider mites, otherwise they wont do much. What works the best are the parasitic trichogramma wasps. They are less than 1/10 of an inch across, and they dont sting. In fact you dont hardly ever see them. What they do is when a butterfly, or moth lays an egg, they lay their eggs in the caterpillar egg before it can hatch, and they decimate the caterpillar population, saving your garden. I dont know if you have ever had tomato horn worms, eat your garden to the ground, or other caterpillars, but these little wasps are like magic. You can get cards with the wasp eggs on them, and put them in your garden. These things dont even like to fly, they hop and jump mostly, they are smaller than a gnat, and they just dont bother people.