Tomato seedlings

[ChrisGreaves]

This is not the Youtube video I watched two weeks ago, but it is similar to the one I did watch.
Place a horizontal slice of tomato - skin, flesh and seeds - onto a container of damp soil and sprinkle a couple of trowels atop,

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And this is what greeted me yesterday.
I am impressed.
Note that I didn't think it would work, so I put the slice in an old hanging basket that was falling apart.
I have about two dozen seedlings and in three days time will plant them out in a garden bed. I thinned my Jerusalem Artichokes this morning, so I might use them as stakes, or I might transplant to an empty area.
I am impressed that in the first month of July on the tip of this cold peninsula I can raise tomato plants from seed in situ.
Next year I might splash out and use an entire tomato (The COST!!) and then just thin each slice down to one plant.
And even if the tomatoes don't ripen in time, I can have another shot at making Green Tomato Chutney.
Cheers
Chris

[BobH]

Well done, Chris!

This is one I've never heard of. Here in Texas I find it near impossible to grow tomatoes. The problem is that the period between the last frost and when soil temperatures get to hot for them is very unpredictable. If I buy seedlings in February and set them out sans greenhouse, the frost almost surely will kill them despite covering. If I wait until past the last freeze or frost, soil temps will rise before the plants produce fruit.

[ChrisGreaves]

Well done, Chris!

Well Done the person who posted the idea in the original video.
I mean, it's summertime, so there is tomato salad for lunch (well, Assiette Crudites, actually) (although it shoud be pointed out that Assiette Crudites is not well done at all1) and what does it cost us to reduce the lunch plate by one thin slice of tomato? I mean!

This is one I've never heard of. Here is Texas I find it near impossible to grow tomatoes. ...

Near, but not impossible! I planted tomato seeds in Southern Cross and they sprouted well. Then I was off to High School for another three months and my parents were too stupid to water them. :shrivel:

What you need, dear uncle, is grass clippings. (Check item number 15)
Once the seedlings have raised a stem with its initial fountain-spray of real leaves, hand-scatter grass clippings, about a two-inch depth, to protect the soil from direct heat. The grass clippings will shrivel and contract, so add a bit more to maintain a one-inch cover from the sun.

The ground will heat up to the air temperature, for sure, but the ground will not receive the baking effect of direct sunlight (hence the expression "x degrees in the shade").

Logic tells me that tomatoes can be grown in Texas, if only because Bonavista receives tomatoes from California, Mexico, and Chile, and at least one of those spots has to be bakingly-hotter than Temple. I mean, "Bakersfield CA", right?

Worst case: you would have to build a shade-house to cover your tomato vines, as here people would have to build a glass house.

If i were there now I would stand over you threatengly with a garden trowel, this 11th day of July and not allow you back in the house until you had begged a slice of tomato from your Good Lady, planted it with two trowels of soil atop, and stood back. Then in two weeks time, transplant and mulch.

What is there to lose, except a slice of tomato?

Cheers,
your loving nephew, Chris

[BobH]

Chris, by noon yesterday it was already 102 F. In the past week every day was triple digits with one showing 114 F in the constantly shaded overhang on our patio. Ground temperatures are always in the 80s in summer. This year it's over 90. Planting tomatoes in the ground, even shaded ground, is a waste of time. We would have to have air conditioned growing houses which I'm sure are used. There is a huge greenhouse outfit - as in acres of them - in the next town over that are temperature controlled. Surprisingly, they mostly grow lettuce. Perhaps the biggest drawback is the short period between last frost and first high temperatures.

[kdock]

If you planted a slice of a hybridized tomato, you might be in for a surprise when they actually fruit. (Note I didn't say IF they fruit. I'm pulling for them!) If this is a slice of an heirloom tomato, oh boy! When do we have a Caprese salad?!

K

[ChrisGreaves]

...Planting tomatoes in the ground, even shaded ground, is a waste of time. We would have to have air conditioned growing houses which I'm sure are used. There is a huge greenhouse outfit - as in acres of them - in the next town over that are temperature controlled. Surprisingly, they mostly grow lettuce. Perhaps the biggest drawback is the short period between last frost and first high temperatures.

Hi Bob. I am amazed. I do recall visiting the various farms in The Yilgarn, climate has to be near-identical to Texas - and the farm-wives were growing tomatoes and other vegetables.
Water was scarce (only rain-water tanks once you were away from the pipeline) and one woman made water do thirteen jobs before disposing of it (drinking water, boil vegetables, wash dishes, wash laundry, water the geraniums sort of thing). They must have had some trick up their sleeves. There were no lawns out there, of course, but there would have been mallee-root chips from the woodpile.

I suspect that the acres of temperature-controlled greenhouses are a commercial venture, and that would make sense. You want to be able to guarantee a supply for a contract to supermarkets, and the cost of temperature control would be factored in.


Back to you: Have you tried using grass-clippings to lay down a soil shade? What have you go to lose? It might work. A slice of tomato is all.
Me being me, of course, I would plant five rows running east-west, with the southernmost row making soil shade for the other four, and the northernmost row getting the most benefit. Then I would maintain a one-inch layer of dried thatch at the eastern end, two inches in the middle, and three inches at the western end of each row, giving fifteen trial plots.

You, however, need only plant out the seedlings from that one slice and see if a thatched cover does better than an unthatched area. That is, only two trial plots. If the thatched area show an improvement, but the plants still die, well, maybe we need a thicker thatch!
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

If you planted a slice of a hybridized tomato, you might be in for a surprise when they actually fruit. (Note I didn't say IF they fruit. I'm pulling for them!) If this is a slice of an heirloom tomato, oh boy! When do we have a Caprese salad?!

Hi Kim.
I get LOTS of surprises when I plant things, and most of the time fruits (apples, tomatoes etc) have that aggravating little sticker that tells us nothing about the fruit's ancestors.
I had to look up Caprese salad, got as far as "cheese" and found a 400g slab of cheddar down at Foodland for only $4.49, so brought it home. Maybe a grilled-cheese sandwich tonight.

I know that when I use supermarket potatoes for seed, supermarket pears, apples, plums etc I might end up with a non-fruiting plant.
That, of course, is disappointing, but then a large part of my thrust here is education. I am battling the ignorance that says:-
You can't grow anything in Bonavista, we've got no soil.
And when I suggest composting "It's too cold to compost in Bonavista"

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So I have built Bonavista's largest modular continuous-flow composting system. Today I have to clear away the old gate, the wood box etc to make way for the 36" cubed column that will march towards the camera.The southern column uses only 30" panels from three years ago, so this year's 36" bins will deliver 1.75 times as much compost per bin. Which means 1.75 times as much compost for the same effort of assembling the panels.
Grass clippings are delivered at a rate of about a dozen garbage bags per day to my driveway.

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The blackcurrant canes may be decimated ("by 10%") when the first window replacement is made Real Soon Now™, and the artichokes (RHS) reached over seven feet by September last year. This year's crop was pretty well self-sown, so I have thinned them out brutally; you can see gaps between the plants.
Noone I've chatted with in Bonavista has ever eaten Jerusalem Artichokes. So much for not being able to grow anything.

Trampling willfully over misconceptions
I am as ever
Yours,
Chris