Apr162012

EarthTainer Update #4

We have baby tomatoes! The Sweet 100s have been blooming for about two weeks now, and the blossoms are finally starting to drop off. They’re being replaced by the tiniest little green orbs.

The Beefsteaks are also starting to do their thing, and the girls love seeing the difference between the two plants. Where the Sweet 100s have small, delicate little blooms, the Beefsteaks are much bigger and seem to be more closely bunched.

Once again, in just two weeks you can see how much taller they’ve gotten. These plants are thriving, and the stalks on both of them are so much thicker than the plants we tried three years ago. The EarthTainer is doing an excellent job so far!

I’m hoping we’ll be able to get around to starting at least one more container this weekend. We definitely want to do zucchini, and I’d love to do red peppers and jalapenos (altogether that would be two additional containers), though it’ll depend on what the garden center has.

Apr22012

EarthTainer Update #3

Wow, what a difference two weeks has made! The last time I updated, the tomato plants in our EarthTainer were maybe ten inches tall.

In just two weeks, they’ve grown about two feet and we barely managed to get cages up around them before they got too big. They’re filling out like crazy, too, and the main stalks are nice and thick.

We had some warmer days last week, getting up to about 85 or so, but then the wind blew in over the weekend and brought the mid-60s back with it. They don’t seem to be affected at all, and the Sweet 100s continues to kick out blossoms. The beefsteak is taking its sweet time, but looks great otherwise.

I’m trying to talk Mike into getting started on a couple more containers. We wanted to wait and see how the tomatoes did first, but by the time they fruit I’m afraid it’ll be too late to get anything else going, especially with our heat.

What are you planting this year?

Mar152012

EarthTainer Update #2

earthtainer

We’re just about four weeks into our EarthTainer tomato project, and if you look at the pictures I took two weeks ago you can see how much they’ve grown since then. They’re going nuts!

They’re nearly a foot tall, and we’re going to have to get the cages up around them this weekend since they’re also spreading out quite a bit, and we don’t want to hurt the branches getting them set up. I also carefully trimmed off the lowest branches earlier this week since they were dropping down onto the container, and this weekend I’m going to tackle the suckers that are sprouting up, too.

The best part:

The Sweet 100s are starting to blossom!