Adventures in Tomato Gardening: New Roots, Growing Fruit, and Over Pruning

I performed a little experiment a few weeks ago. I read in Mel’s SFG book that you can place a sucker in water, and it will sprout new roots after a week or so. I decided to try this method.

I had finished pruning my tomato plants, and I didn’t have the heart to throw away the suckers/offshoots (I don’t know the correct term). So I filled a plastic, tall cup that I bought at the Renaissance Festival and I filled it with water. I placed the suckers in the water.

Below: The Offshoots/suckers in water

Because I don’t quite know what I’m doing, most of the little suckers died. I did have one that survived through the week. And one day, I was amazed to find all the roots that grew out of it.

Take a look!

I ended up deciding to plant it. The roots seemed to be a good size, so I planted it near one of my mint plants. Here’s what it looked like after it was transplanted.

Surprisingly, it does actually look pretty healthy. My only dilemma now is that I have no idea what kind of tomato plant it is. Because of the different varieties of tomatoes in my garden, I didn’t label any of the branches that I cut off. So this plant could end up being a cherry tomato… or a larger variety. I guess I won’t know until it produces fruit. I’ll be exciting to see if it does end up producing!

Below: The transplanted branch is doing very well two days after being transplanted.

My other tomato plants seem to be producing fruit and flowering very nicely. I think the summer heat is making them grow like crazy. It won’t be long now until a few cherry and grape tomatoes start turn red! I can’t wait. I think the larger varieties will take longer. Maybe late June or early July. (I am just guessing here).

Photos 1 & 2: Grape tomatoes (same plant)

Below: Cherry Tomatoes (2 different plants)

Below: I think this is the Bonnie Original tomato. It will produce regular sized tomato fruit.

When Cam and I visited the nursery last Sunday, we bought three additional tomato plants. We bought two large varieties for us to plant in our square foot garden and we bought a patio tomato plant for my American grandmother. Originally, we had decided against buying any more tomato plants because we have so many. But we saw these very healthy tomato plants at the nursery with nice-sized fruit already growing on them… We couldn’t help ourselves.

Below: One of our new tomato plants: the whopper. I accidentally over did the pruning. . . A bad habit of mine.

Below: another new tomato plant.

Cam and I really need to buy tomato trellises for these plants. I temporarily used the stick to keep the plants standing up straight, but next weekend, Cam and I are off to buy supports for them.

For my American grandmother, who is turning 94 this month, Cam and I purchased a patio tomato plant. You can’t see it in the photo, but the plant is actually a two-in-one. There are two plants growing in the same pot. I guess the nursery staff didn’t spot that or they would have separated the plants.

Below: The Patio Tomato Plant

I potted the tomato plant and pruned back some of the leaves. This plant also already had little tomatoes growing on it. The information card said that it was perfect for people who had limited space. It’s perfect for my grandmother.

Unfortunately, I believe there are a few red aphids on the plant. I’m going to need to buy some spray to keep them away from the plant. So far, she’s really enjoying her tomatoes. She used to garden all the time when she was younger, but due to physical limitations, she can’t anymore. So this is my way to let her continue her garden.

My final thought of today: over pruning tomatoes. I am absolutely horrible at pruning the tomato plant. I over do it… all the time. It’s a horrible habit, but I absolutely don’t know how to do it correctly. I seem to want to cut off all the branches that are not producing flowers. This is probably the wrong way to do it, but it’s the only way I know how. So far, my plants are continuing to produce tomatoes.

My problem is that I don’t know what is considered a sucker and what is not. I’m trying to follow the single-stem method, but what do I prune or not prune? That is my dilemma.

Below: “Before” Pruning

Below: the “After” Pictures

I give you my permission to laugh at me. Maybe next time, I won’t go so crazy with the pruning. I might even leave a few branches. I think Cam is going to have to do the pruning because I am HORRIBLE at it.

But the good news is I’ve been doing this the entire season, and my tomatoes are continuing to fruit. So my awful attempt at pruning isn’t killing the plants. And when I prune, I can never throw away what I cut off. I end up trying to grow new roots for my plants.

I know I am being so silly, but it’s something fun to do. Most of these branches will die within the next week, but wouldn’t it be cool if they actually did root?

Grapes, Boysenberries, and Lettuce

Cam and I now have three grape plants. We have two concord grapes and one Thompson seedless. The concords are still flourishing, and the grape bunches continue to get larger each day.

Unfortunately, it seems that we have grape bunches coming from the same concord grape plant. I don't know why the second concord grape isn't producing fruit, but it hasn't yet. Its leaves are green and the foliage looks healthy, but no grape bunches. The strange thing is that the concords are planted right next to each other, so their leaves overlap, and it's hard to tell them apart.

Photo Below: Growing concord grape bunches



We've had the concord grape plants since April. And we had thought that having two grape plants was enough... until we went to the nursery last Sunday and saw the Thompson seedless. It didn't have any grape bunches on it, but its leaves looked healthy, so we wanted to give it a shot.

I love grapes, and I'd love to have a vineyard one day. That would be fun to grow grapes all day. I've never tasted the Thompson variety of grapes, so I'm hoping that this plant actually fruits by the end of the summer. That would be a very nice reward!

Photo Above: The Thompson Seedless grape plant after it was transplanted.

I still have no idea how to prune my boysenberries, but the fruit is starting to ripen and it's all happening pretty fast. It seems that I have a new, ripe boysenberry each day. Sadly, the birds have been eating the best and most delicious berries off the plant, but I've been able to pop a few in my mouth. It's quite a treat!

Photo Below: The boysenberry plant, taken late last week. See how the berries are starting to eat their color?

And with my impatience, I ended up picking a boysenberry that wasn't ripe yet. I just couldn't contain my excitement over the fruit. It was my first ruby red fruit, and so I washed it and ate it... and it was SOUR!

Photo Below: The not-so-ripe boysenberry in the palm of my hand


After I devoured the sour boysenberry above, I decided that it was best to wait and let the fruit ripen more. I read that boysenberries are supposed to get a rich, dark red color before you pick them. And luckily for me, I didn't have to wait too long before some of the other berries started to turn into that deep red color.

Below: Recent photo of the boysenberry bush


I still need to figure out how to take care of the plant, so that it will continue to fruit throughout the season. If anyone knows, I'd love the answer. So far, I haven't done much to the bush. I planted it in the ground near a trellis, and so far it's continued to produce healthy fruit. Maybe I don't need to prune it like I do the tomatoes.


Finally, a word on lettuce. After I harvested the lettuce head last week, I decided to wait to see if any of the other heads actually formed into a head. So far, no such luck. The lettuce continues to look unruly. But they still look healthy. I'm debating whether I should harvest more lettuce heads or wait until they become an actual head.

Below Photo: The growing lettuce in the backyard square foot garden. The lettuce is growing nice and big.

During the first month of our garden, we noticed that the lettuce in the front vegetable bed was doing much better than the lettuce in the back. It took a while for the lettuce in the back to catch up, but it's finally growing very strong and large. I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat all the produce. I guess I'll have to give it some of the lettuce away.

Photo Below: The lettuce in the front vegetable bed.


Photos Below: Close-ups on the lettuce in the back





Does anyone know if lettuce grows back after you harvest it? Do you have to plant new lettuce seedlings (or seeds) each year?

One very nice thing about this lettuce that we're growing: it's SO delicious and jam-packed with flavor. The lettuce that you buy at the grocery store tastes like water compared to what we've grown. I was shocked at the difference in flavor when I first ate it. It's crazy how much better home-grown vegetables are. I guess the grocers just add a lot of preservatives that make their produce taste water-down.

Replaced Cucumbers, Growing Bell Peppers, and Updated SFG Boxes Photos

Thank you to everyone who commented and gave me advice about the cucumber and squash dilemma. Eleutheros mentioned I should wait a week or so to see if the plants continue to grow. I was planning to listen to his advice… until this afternoon.

Cam and I had business lunch near Mt. Juliet, and Cam suggested we visit some of the nurseries afterwards. So we did, and we ended up doing more than just “looking.”

Above photo: We ended up buying way too much, but we couldn't help ourselves! It's so addicting!

We had never been to any of the fabulous nurseries in Mt. Juliet (a suburb of Nashville), and boy was I shocked at the awesome merchandise and healthy plants we found. I’ll go into more detail about all we bought in a post later this week. But for now, I’m going to focus on the cucumbers that we bought.

We found a package of small cucumber plants that were flowering. They looked so much healthier than the cucumbers we had planted, and I highly doubt our old cucumbers would have ever flowered like the new plants.

Below: The new cucumber plants



I am positive that we will have new cucumbers in the coming weeks (or at least healthy plants that don’t look diseased). I followed my father’s advice and planted the roots deeper than I did last time. After watering, the cucumber plants looked perky and happy. Not like last time when they just flopped over… and stayed flopped over until I decided to pull them all out.


Above: A close-up of the new cucumber plants

I'm pleased to announce that the bell peppers in the SFG boxes are still doing well. I was concerned this weekend because it didn't seem like they were perky, but now that the sunshine is back, they look better than ever! I don't think they're a fan of the cloudy and windy weather. They looked just awful yesterday... The flowers were so droopy; the plant looked sad.

But today, the sun was out and the bell peppers were back in the swing of new growth!

Below: the yellow bell pepper is in the beginning stages of fruiting. Look at the teenie baby bell pepper that's forming!


Below: The green and red bell peppers in the back are also in the midst of flowering and giving birth to tiny peppers. It's really pretty to look at the flower blooms.



Over the weekend, I was getting a little concerned about the purple bell pepper. It was starting to change color on me. Notice the dark spots on the green pepper below.


I had never heard of purple bell pepper before, but I know that with the red bell pepper, it becomes a large green bell pepper before it ever ripens and turns red. I was concerned with this purple bell because it's still somewhat small in size. It's not tiny, but not as large as some of the bell peppers you see at the store. But I guess the purple bell grows differently. It still looks healthy, so I'm not going to be too worried yet. I can't wait to see how it looks as it continues to grow in size.


The front bell pepper is still growing strong. I'm disappointed that it's an only child because the plant isn't flowering and has no hope of flowering.

Below: Front bell pepper (variety: red bell)

The pepper is getting so large that it's making the plant tip over, so I straightened it with a little stick. Hopefully that will keep the plant from falling over into the soil. It also makes the plant look more aesthetically pleasing.


On a final note, I thought I'd post individual photos of each square foot garden box in the back. Each box is growing very nicely and filling out. Cam and I are in talks to build 3 more. I know it's getting late in the summer to continue buying and planting new plants, but it's our first time, and we're experimenting!

Funky Business and Mistakes Made

Something strange is happening in my garden. Maybe it's the weather--the fact that there hasn't been much sun recently, only overcast skies and high winds... Or it could be another reason. Maybe it's my fault. I don't know.

It seems that the squash and cucumbers in Box # 3 at Cam's house isn't doing too well. I don't know if you can tell in the photo below (of squash), but the stem of the plant seems to be split in two. It's as if someone has taken a knife and split the stem open.



The same strange occurrence has plagued the cucumber seedlings. Their stem (see below photo) is also split wide open. I think you can see the funky business much better in this photo.

I can't help but wonder-- is it my fault? I must have done something wrong in the transplantation of the cucumbers. I should have buried the stem deeper in the soil, like my father did. Well, lesson learned. I'm guessing that these cucumbers are a lost cause.

Anyone have any ideas how this could have happened to my plants? *sighs* I'd love some closure. I can possibly understand why the cucumbers seem to be dying, but why the squash in Box # 3?

If you saw Friday night's post about squash, you would have seen that the squash in SFG Box # 1 is thriving and growing really nicely. So the squash problem is puzzling me.

Here's an image of the wonderful and healthy squash from Box # 1. I snapped this today.


So remember the mushroom dilemma in the front vegetable bed? It has invaded the back yard square foot garden boxes. But I've figured out why they started appearing. I'm positive they have to do with the onions that I planted. I think that when I bought them from the store, they had mushroom spores on them.

It makes perfect sense because the mushrooms only appeared AFTER I had transplanted the onions to the front vegetable bed. So far, they haven't hurt anything, and the lettuce head that I harvested is delicious.

Now the mushrooms are appearing in my backyard SFG boxes in the areas where I've planted the onions.

Take a look below. If you look carefully, you can see tiny mushrooms starting to form.


Anyway, I am really annoyed. I don't know what to do. I would love a harvest of healthy onions, but I don't want any of these mushrooms spreading across the garden.

Any advice? Should I just pull out the onions and be done with it? Or do you think the damage has already been done.