I’m a tomato growing guy! Over the years I’ve raised them at home and work.
Does raising tomatoes at work where I was paid make me a farmer? Sure. Why not?
Now that we’re in the land of perpetual sunshine I’ve got a single tomato plant in a pot on our patio. Growing space is limited. One is enough.
I cheated. The pot, with a plastic tomato cage above, came from Home Depot already in bloom. So far, it has survived my questionable care.
Our patio has limited sunshine. That’s good for people, but not optimum for tomatoes. They can’t get enough sunlight.
So far the impact has been minimal. Maybe it’s that sunshine is stronger in SoCal than Connecticut. Because of our more southerly latitude the Sun is higher in the sky.
I certainly started earlier. Back in the Northeast I never planted until Memorial Day. These bad boys are close to a month in.
I had been watering the tomatoes by hand. Today I installed irrigation.
We have a tiny sprinkler system for our flowers and bushes. I tapped into that, adding ‘dribblers’ for the tomatoes and a few other plants in pots.
The dribblers are rated one gallon per hour. The system runs two minutes every other day. That’s 4.27 ounces of water three or four times a week.
Is it enough? I’ll let you know.
In Connecticut tomato season ran from late July into October. It will be longer here. And no killing frost!