How to save money growing tomatoes
Okay, so maybe this won't actually show you how to save money. I just thought we could all appreciate a good laugh. Enjoy!
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Oh absolutely. I personally think I'm in the hole on total cost.
Which doesn't bother me at all. I hope I become proficient enough to make it a financially sound hobby. But if I don't, I'm okay with that.
-edit: I'm in the hole, not "whole" haha
Which doesn't bother me at all. I hope I become proficient enough to make it a financially sound hobby. But if I don't, I'm okay with that.
-edit: I'm in the hole, not "whole" haha
Last edited by pomerinke on Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I usually break even except on zucchini and some vining squash because the yield is not so great for the space they take. For tomatoes, the hard thing is to keep the birds from eating all of the big ones. The cherries usually produce enough that even if the birds take a few, I still get some. There have been some good tomatoes and some that really produced but did not taste very good, and some that were pretty awful. I am enjoying trying different ones and still hoping to find more good ones.
After having tomatoes all Summer long, my daughter would ask everything if the tomatoes that I was giving her at home came from the garden. She did not want to eat anything from the store.
I had problem with rats eating tomato.es. I cover the tomatoes with plastic containers, like the one that you get at Costco or TraderJoe's from fruits. It worked well for me. I just let that one tomato they bite.
I had problem with rats eating tomato.es. I cover the tomatoes with plastic containers, like the one that you get at Costco or TraderJoe's from fruits. It worked well for me. I just let that one tomato they bite.
Birds can be a problem. I have periodic population explosions of quail. They like ripe tomatoes.
It seems odd that deer will eat what we are told are toxic plants but I have had some problems with them eating both tomato and potato plants - but not recently.
Mostly, it is weather problems and there have been very few really bad tomato years. With enough room and enough plants out there, I usually have enough ripe fruit to make me tomato-happy
.
One thing I have to remember is that if the weather beats up on the plants, they seem especially vulnerable to flea beetle attack ..! One, two punch. Oh, and the birds ... the chickadees are absolutely death on the horn worms. Plant some sunflowers for them. They will want to lay claim to those sunflowers months before there are any ripe seeds. Meanwhile, chickadee babies must be getting lots of caterpillars.
Steve
It seems odd that deer will eat what we are told are toxic plants but I have had some problems with them eating both tomato and potato plants - but not recently.
Mostly, it is weather problems and there have been very few really bad tomato years. With enough room and enough plants out there, I usually have enough ripe fruit to make me tomato-happy
.One thing I have to remember is that if the weather beats up on the plants, they seem especially vulnerable to flea beetle attack ..! One, two punch. Oh, and the birds ... the chickadees are absolutely death on the horn worms. Plant some sunflowers for them. They will want to lay claim to those sunflowers months before there are any ripe seeds. Meanwhile, chickadee babies must be getting lots of caterpillars.
Steve