[tomato] Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes...

Thomas Giannou (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Wed, 12 May 1999 10:34:55 -0700 

Hello all,

I put a sweet 100 cherry tomato plant in a 10" wide pot three weeks ago.  I
added some Rock Dust and BioVam Mycorrhiza to the plant.  It's inside in
front of my southern exposure window.  The first tomato has appeared.  The
plant really grew fast inside, but got leggy quickly.  From what I
understand leggy means it has long slender vines and can't support itself.
So, I cut the top out of the plant and tied the plant to some bamboo sticks
to hold it up.  It now seems to be thickening up in the main stem, but has a
ways to go.  This is my first attempt at growing a Tomato plant inside.  It
appears that pruning back the top growth causes the main stem to get thicker
and more side branches seem to be coming out of it.  Has anyone out there
tried growing a sweet 100 inside?  Any advice as to pruning ideas?

The plant is now taller than my 46" green pepper plant which now has several
nice sized peppers growing on it.  Two of the peppers have turned a nice
bright red color.  I noticed that the pepper plant growth cycle is about 1.5
months between mature crops.  I tried polinating the flowers on the pepper
plant for a while by using a little paint brush and going from flower to
flower,  but with this last crop, I didn't do that and there are about 15
nice sized peppers present with more on the way.  The flowers come out, turn
to small green peppers, grow to a large size, turn red, and then will soften
and shrivel if left on the vine.  After they turn red, then a new set of
flowers come out... all that takes about 1.5 months.  The plant sucks up
about 1 quart of water each day.   It seems to like that southern exposure
window.

For the past three days we have had cold frosts come, so it's still too
early to plant tomatoes outside here in Spokane.  I envy those people who
live in places where their large outside tomato plants are already
producing.  Fruit tree growers here are really worrying about losing a lot
of production this year because of these recent frosts that have been
hitting us regularly.  There's still snow on the nearby mountains... I guess
some of the ski resorts are still open ... at least that's what the TV news
showed.  Our "local rule" is as long as there is snow on Mt. Spokane (6,000
feet) don't plant your garden plants that are sensitive to frosts.  The
mountain looks like its about at least another month away from being clear
of snow.  Whatever happened to global warming?  This May is colder than May
of last year!!

Thomas Giannou
Spokane, Washington
http://www.tandjenterprises.com