Tuesday, 2 August 2016

How to grow tomatoes upside-down v2

Bumble Bee Sunrise Cherry Tomato
Earlier this spring I planted a Bumble Bee Sunrise Cherry tomato in a hanging pot that I got as a gift from a budding gardener.The upside down container kit composed of a pot, specialized 2 part bottom ring to feed the plant through and a top water reservoir that wick feeds the plant with water. In principle, you keep the pot full of water and it wick feeds the plant. 

This allows you to play golf or go fishing and not worry about watering every day! 😄

The plant was a little slow off the start but eventually started to grow - until 2 months when it started to wilt. I removed the top reservoir and discovered the plant to be very dry. The wick was clogged with a white substance and was no longer working. I think the substance was Epsom Salts that I occasionally use as a fertilizer. It appears, while being wick fed, it reverted back to a hard crystal. I've since removed the water reservoir and added my freshly made compost to the top.  

This summer, the temperature in Ottawa, ON, Canada has been very hot with temps averaging 29 C - 34 C so I've been watering this plant every day! An ideal temperature for growing tomatoes is between 21 C and 29 C.  If the plant gets too many hot days it will drop it's flowers or fruit similar to an apple tree in June. I've noticed that the plant produced virtually thousands of flowers but many were not converted to fruit. Flower drop can be very prevalent in hot weather or when the plant is stressed. In addition, hot nights above 21 C will also contribute to flower or fruit drop. Lack of water or a large fruit set will also cause flower drop. Who said gardening was easy!


Water fed wick
The same observation was made with my other mainstream tomato plants. The second and third generation flowers are not producing as much fruit as the first set. Or - are my expectations too high? Regardless, I expect a bumper crop of tomatoes and I have not seen any BER (Blossom end rot) so far.  Topsy-turvy my friend.