2024 Gardening Thread

I also only have mulched (leaf mulch not wood/chip mulch) around plants in my raised bed, not containers. The main point of doing it would be to help with maintaining watering and not having the water evaporate (dry out) too fast. If you choose to, just do an inch or so - don’t do too much mulch. I would also give the sad plant some time to readjust! Did you make sure you didn’t bend/crack a stem when repotting???

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Will your tomatoes be staying in the containers, or will you re-transplant them into the ground?

As @DadTwoGirls suggests, time can take care of many problems with tomato plants, which can be pretty resilient. If you are going to keep your tomato plants in their containers, you might consider watering them once a week with a Miracle-Gro supplement dissolved in water (that has helped perk up my tomato seedlings while they are still under the grow-light); or possibly use a slow-acting fertilizer, such as Jobe’s fertilizer spikes, here:

If you decide to mulch, I have also read that you don’t want to mulch your tomato plants too early – maybe do it a month or so after transplanting – because that can inhibit root growth.

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Thanks all for the feedback - I won’t worry about the mulch as I am keeping them in containers (our soil is all clay and I don’t have the time or energy to deal with that right now). I might have damaged the roots a bit on the damaged one but it looks like it’s perking up a bit, so am keeping my fingers crossed. Hoping my tomato production will be better than the last two years, which were horrific.

Did you feed your tomato plants those years? Container plants really need some extra feeding. I use MiracleGro solution and some pelleted organic fertilizer stuff to feed mine.

Also, tomatoes need pollination!

My baby tomatoes are coming along very slowly. Took them from seedlings to a Red Solo Cup replant (plant in cup with drainage holes half full with soil, then fill to the top once they grow to that point). Most are at the half cup point now.

I still have them under grow lights in the house. Seems later than last year. Thoughts? I’m relatively new to the tomato game!

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I think my tomatoes are the same size. Where are you located? In my neck of the woods (near Seattle), those beautiful store bought giant plants just sit and sit without flowering until the weather finally gets warmer. By that time, my 4 inch pot seedlings will catch up with them and produce fruit at the same time.

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Tickle your tomato flowers! :honeybee:

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I’m in coastal Southern California. It’s just now starting to warm up a bit, but still mostly low to mid 60s.

I used to plant tomatoes out early with frost protection. However, I eventually discovered that planting tomatoes outside early just caused them to suffer from mold/fungus early. Now I am generally in no hurry to set them out and get them out after things have warmed up quite a bit. My tomato plants are currently quite small also.

I will put them outside for about an hour today to help them get used to full sun. Then they go back under the lights inside.

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I don’t start tomatoes from seed - I pick up plants from our local nursery. Usually a week or so before memorial day, sometimes it has been a week after memorial day.

It is reasonably assured to be warm by then and my tomatoes usually do great! Still have many bags left in the freezer from last year’s crop!

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Do you know when the last-frost date is for your area? If you are in Cali, then presume that it has passed, so there should be no problem in hardening the plants off. When I harden off my seedlings, I put them outside at first for 3 hours in a shady area (or with intermittent sunlight), increasing the amount of time outdoors by 3-hour increments, making sure that the nighttime temperatures don’t get too low. After a week of hardening off, I will keep them outdoors full time, making sure that they don’t get too much sunlight, and watering them well once a day; for smaller containers, I set them in a plastic tray which always has water in it. Because my seedlings always get a bit spindly under the grow light, I will cut some 1/4" dowels into 9-12" sticks and insert them into the container next to the seedlings; then tie the plants to the dowel sticks with some jute twine.

When my seedlings are about 9" tall or taller, I will transplant them into the ground. To prepare the ground, I will dig out a hole then put in a 1:1 mixture of composted manure and topsoil; after which I will put the seedlings in this prepared area, covering them up to the lowest level of leaves. As the plants get taller, I substitute some aluminum or wood stakes for the dowel sticks.

Raise your hand if you sometimes get “gardener panic” - that panic feeling when your friends/neighbors/gardenmates/social media is showing you they already have their garden planted (and they live in your area) and you haven’t done it yet. :raising_hand_woman:

I know there is plenty of time and weather can do funny things, but seeing other gardens planted and ready to go always makes me feel behind!

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That’s very helpful information!

We’re close to the beach so we never get frost, but it does cool down quite a bit at night. Friends who also grow from seeds haven’t put theirs out yet either.

If the nighttime temperature drops below 50 F, I will usually bring my seedlings indoors for the night if the seedlings are smaller; some varieties can be adversely affected by low nighttime temperatures, even if the temps are above freezing.

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Went to our local nursery and both my usual complement of herbs in pots, plus some annuals to put in planters. That’s it, that is all my black thumb can handle, but it makes me smile to come home and see them every day.

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Besides the big guys like tomatoes, peppers, etc. nothing makes me happier than having fresh herbs outside my door all summer!

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Planted differently this year- while I love the sweet 100s cherry tomatoes, the plants are just unwieldy, so I bought patio/deck plants this year. One with full-size tomatoes but is a patio plant (it has a few tomatoes that were already growing when I bought the plant, but all the yellow flowers died :frowning_face: ) and the rest are patio cherry tomatoes. I bought one big basil plant, and the others are plants that have regrown from last year (the ever-present mint, parsley and the dill, which died last year, is growing!! Thats a shock!)

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Basil does ok for me in the ground (and yay, something the rabbits avoid). But this year I was thinking about doing some in a pot. Any hints?

Maybe you had a mild winter, moist spring and it rejuvenated some of the seed?

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The figs are growing! These will probably be ready to eat in a month

It’s now Barbados cherry season. One of these cherries contains more than your daily dose of vitamin C. The birds love them too though. Each cherry has 2-3 seeds.

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