garden news-its hard to grow a tomato here sometimes

GARDEN NEWS-ITS HARD TO GROW A TOMATO HERE SOMETIMES

this is a picture of my first tomatoes of the year
these are early girl tomatoes
they are now about the size of an apple

it can be tricky growing tomatoes here in santa barbara

these early girl tomatoes started as a seed planted in our greenhouse back in mid january
then they were transplanted into a 4 inch pot
later as they grew they were bumped up to a gallon pot until they were ready to plant in the garden

sometime in later march they were planted in the ground
the soil was prepped by adding 3-4 inches of compost to the soil then an organic fertilizer was added
this was forked into the soil 
in the planting hole worm compost was added 
then i used a mixture of fish emulsion seaweed molasses to water in the plantings
every 15 days i fertilize again with this mixture
to encourage blooms i sometimes use hasta gro fertilizer in place of my fish emulsion mixture
then
i am at the mercy of the weather

our biggest problem here is the may grey and the june gloom 
this year it started in april and last year it ended in july

what happens is we get fog and clouds so we get a marked reduced amount of sun
it almost causes a seasonal affective disorder or sad for both the gardener and the plants

after some early blooming there are no new ones mainly because of the lack of sun
the heavy moisture makes mildew and other fungal diseases a problem on tomatoes squash cucumbers potatoes and other veggies

last year most folks tomatoes did not fare well around here
the only ones that did well for us was those early girl tomatoes in the picture above

right now our vines look ok
they are nice and green with a few flowers
i will add the hasta gro next week hoping to stimulate flowering so we can get some tomatoes

i also do a monthly watering on the leaves of a milk baking soda aspirin liquid soap mixture that seems to prevent the mildew on our veggies

if we start getting more sunshine our tomatoes will take off and produce
if we keep this gloomy grey weather we wont get many tomatoes

gardeners in the south where there has been too much rain have had their tomatoes drown
others have had storms with its heavy rains wind and hail destroy theirs

at least here we have plants growing good 
we just need some warmth and sunshine

this is my first tomato an early girl
i  picked it early and will let it ripen in our kitchen
i didnt want to loose that first tomato to some varmint or some disease
my wife she has promised to let it ripen good before she we eat it

we plant early girls in our main garden since they always seem to produce

in my garden plot i have room for 8 tomatoes
i planted 
2 early girls
1 celebration
1 black krim it may have been mislabeled since it looks like a green zebra instead
interesting since we had no green zebra seeds
1 cherokee purple
1 pink boar
1 sweet 100
1 sungold

if the sun cooperates we should have enough tomatoes to eat donate and store
if the sun doesnt cooperate then well we will be sad

in our main garden for donation 
we grow a row of early girls and a row of celebration
we also grow a row of mixed tomatoes
sweet 100 sungold yellow pear moneymaker pink boar celebration moskovich and glacier
a total of about 50 tomato plants
all will be donated to those in need
if we get enough sunshine

its a gamble sometimes to grow tomatoes
but
if successful its all worth it 

you win some you lose some
i like winning

the organicgreen doctor