Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Snow in the forecast and these tomatoes don't care.

   Its going to snow again, but the tomatoes seem to be getting riper by the minute. Here are some pictures of a vine ripening over the last week.


March 30th


April 1st


April 3rd

April 4th

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This plant was the first clone cut about two months ago. It had a head start on the other plants in the tubs, so it started forming fruit before the others. Now that the plants have been eating the flowering food for a week, they are beginning to form tons of flowers up and down every branch. 


Each flower will form a tomato if it is pollinated. The flowers only open for a few hours a day. In the wild, wind and insects pollinate the flowers. When growing tomatoes indoors, there may not be enough wind and hopefully not enough insects to pollinate the flowers effectively. The solution is simple, lightly flick the main stems while the flowers are open. Hard enough to shake the plant, but gentile enough to keep the stems from being damaged. When the flowers are pollinated, the flower will wither away and a small green ball will form at where the base of the flower was. When the flowers are pollinated the hard part is over. The buds will form into tasty tomatoes in about a month.

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