Monday, December 12, 2011

First tomatoes of the season


My youngest daughter is showing the makings of fine gardener. She is our tomato gardener, sowing and tending to most of the tomato plants. Her latest achievement has been producing our first harvest of the season, three bright red tomatoes. In fact these are our earliest produced yet. And done without the aid of a glass house or window sill I might add. How did she do it? you ask.

Well back in autumn she came to me holding a clear round plastic food container filled with soil claiming she had planted a tomato. I nodded and said well done, like all good parents do, while at the same time doubting what she had planted was indeed a tomato, let alone that it would actual grow into anything. After all she is too short to reach the seed packets and the container had no drainage holes. But to my surprise and delight a few weeks later it indeed sprouted a tomato plant and survived long enough to reach planting out.

At the beginning of winter she planted it out into one of the winter beds. Again to my surprise and delight it survived winter, didn’t grow much but did survive. Then once spring started it took off. Unfortunately all of the winter plants that it was growing with had finished producing and it was time to let the chooks loose on this bed. So I had to transplant it to a new bed which due to the size it had grown was no easy task and I ended up snapping a number of its branches. I will admit I didn’t hold much hope for its chances, but again to my surprise and delight here it is today bearing the first produce of the season.


Sometimes it takes the naivety of a child to challenge what we know and do to make such wonderful discoveries. Next autumn I am going to ask her to try and repeat the experiment. She may have discovered the best time to plant tomatoes is actually autumn.

What has also impressed me with her achievement is that she must have saved and propagated her own seed. Something that I am still yet to do. If these tomatoes taste as good as they look I might help her seed save them again. Not that she needs my help... sigh.

When do you find the best time to sow tomatoes, and when do you get your first harvest?

11 comments:

  1. Ccongratulations to your daughter, those are beautiful tomatoes.:)

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  2. Gosh your daughter has done well with her early harvest, I cant remember when I sowed the tomato seed, but I planted them out at the beginning of November as we were still getting frosts in October this year. They are only getting flowers now so will be a while before we are harvesting tomatoes.

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  3. Good on her! I'm just starting to harvest my first summer tomatoes now. I have some cherry tomatoes all year round in my frost free garden, but the main lot are just about to start. But those are very nice looking tomatoes.

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  4. To be honnest the ones I plan for are never as abundant as the self sown cherry tomatos that pop up at will.

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  5. What a champion! She's a natural!

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  6. Thank you all, I will pass those kind words on.

    Kellee I am lucky frost is seldom a problem in my garden. Hope you have long harvest.

    Linda That would be great to have some tomatoes all year round. I feel a bit chuffed that we have managed to get a harvest before someone in a warmer climate :)

    Fiona Know what you mean. I have a couple growing in the chooks out run at the moment that are looking quite impressive. Shame they are not going to survive there for long.

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  7. I am very jealous!

    I am happy if I get any ripe tomatoes before Christmas. Alternatively, so long as I get them before my brother, all is right with the world.

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  8. sadsac if she wasn't my daughter I would be more than jealous. Nothing worse that being beaten by a child.

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  9. Good for her and I'd be harnessing that knack if I were you. You never know what she might nurture in the garden next. I love all tomatoes and have 15 plants in atm. Nearly every tomato (not many so far) on my first planted big red variety have been tunnelled out by grubs but my truss tomatoes, across the other side of the garden are doing beautifully and not a grub in sight!

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  10. serendipity2000 Wow 15 plants, you do love them. Do you manage to use that many? Do you make sauce, etc with them? I am getting a real sensory experience while writing this comment. I have just come in from playing in the garden and even though I have washed my hands they still have that beautiful tomato bush smell. Mmmmmm...

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  11. I use a lot of tomatoes in my cooking, give grubbed out bits to the chokes and bottle and surplus. I know what you mean about that tomato bush smell. It's very potent and distinct.

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