Tomatoes will store better at 22c than in the fridge. Just trying to spread awareness so people can maximize their enjoyment of one of the greatest seasonal foods
My home rarely gets under 22c during July and August, save for the odd cool night.
Serious question: do people on team fruit also call other “culinary vegetables” fruits, such as cucumbers, zucchini, corn, eggplants, bell peppers, green beans, etc.?
I don't mind calling all of those things fruit. It seems people get really weird about making savoury meals out of fruit. Like I know a tomato is a fruit, I put tomato on pizza, I never once while making pizza have a thought about whether a vegetable or a fruit is going on my pizza. It's just a tomato, it can swing both ways.
I prefer polysemy. There is a very useful category of “edible plants typically used in savory dishes”. Imagine someone being upset with you because you brought green beans when they asked for a side of vegetables.
I don’t see the point in taking the botanical definition of fruit and pretending it’s useful in the culinary world.
Fruits come from the flowering part of the plant and contain seeds, whereas vegetables are other parts of the plant (leaves, stems, roots, bulbs). They're fruit.
But that's not mutually exclusive with vegetables. Vegetable is not a botanical designation. Whether it's a vegetable or not depends on how it's typically used in cooking. Cucumbers, zuccini, and green beans all fall into the same category of being both.
Store bought tomatoes seem to taste more fucking bland every year. Like I have to spend $6 per small bag to get "gourmet" tomatoes to even taste like a tomato. It's actually infuriating. I grow tomatoes now literally not to save money but just because grocery store tomatoes (at least in my area) are trash.
Store tomatoes are not tomatoes. Unless you're buying somewhere legit and expensive af, the tomatoes you see in stores are picked green and gassed to turn red. They are dog shit. Probably worse, actually.
Seek out local farms near you and get the good shit (and often cheaper than places like whole foods).
Tomatoes are one thing I never buy in a store, except sauce/canned tomatoes, as those products are derived from ripe tomatoes.
Depends on where you live. If you live in Italy, you can just throw random shit around your house and a couple of months later you will crap loads of free food!
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Bro I been growing edamame. Holy fucking shit. You'll fucking cum.
yeah? our light is very poor in our back garden. the only thing that thrives, that I've found, is gerkins, so thats what we grow. tiny cucumbers, and we pickle them.
we tried regular peas and beans, and it was OK, but there was so little fruit at one time we became completely confused as to how anyone could have enough for a whole serving at any one time.
Whats your light situation like with the edamame? do you just boil/salt them and eat them like you would in a japanese restaurant?
I should do that next year. Grow a bunch of stuff for the first time hydroponically this year and it has been fun. Even though the pruning gods would murder me if they saw my tomatoes.
I live in Ireland, we don't pay for water (or even waste water out like they do in Germany), but the rain has been non-stop this year with the gulf stream. I've also just intalled a water butt out of a 500l repurposed whiskey barrel (again, Ireland) so that also helps with not having to use the hose (they call it the hose pipe)
For real though, you don't plant your own tomatoes to save money, you plant your own tomatoes because your crop is going to taste so good that you'll be chasing that flavor any time you're stuck buying them from the store. Just so far beyond storebought.
It's the one crop I keep coming back to every year - the effort is worth it.
It's the same in that most fruits and vegetables you can buy at the store have been bred for quantity and shipping. Home gardeners can grow varieties that are bred for flavor. So my Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes may not survive a trip across the country with UPS, but they taste amazing. And my Double Gold raspberries don't produce bushels, but they're the best I've ever eaten. I do think I'm probably saving money growing garlic. Very low maintenance plant, and I grow enough to save what I need to plant for the next year. So some crops are pretty cost effective, but some are really for the flavor.
More noticeable in Tomatoes, but everything is more flavourful. Potatoes are more Potatoey, leafy greens are more intense flavour, some people finding home grown romaine too strongly flavoured because they are used to it tasting like nothing
Not all, but most. I don't notice much of a difference with peppers or carrots, but strawberries especially are incredible when grown from a garden and pretty tasteless when bought from a store. Tomatoes don't have quite as significant of a difference, but they're still much better. I don't think I've ever gotten fresh beets from anywhere but a farmer's market or my garden, so I'm not sure about them.
Personally, it's everything I grow. Tomatoes, green beans, peas, cucumbers, onions, asparagus & garlic. There's also that excellent feeling of if I don't feel like running to the store just for a vegetable and we've got everything else for dinner, I can just send the kids out to pick it. None of our peas made it into the house this year either because of the kids lol. We also have an herb garden with mint, chives, thyme, etc that the kids are free to graze whenever and it's especially great for those "I'm Hungry!" moments between snack & the next meal
That's definitely from someone who never tasted a home grown tomatoe or waters theirs a lot too often, you can buy tomatoes but they taste like literal shit in comparison! ;)
Don't put tomatoes in the fridge, if possible. Put them in the sun, if they need to ripen more, otherwise put them somewhere dark and cool, but not cold.
Basically, store them like potatoes. 50-55F is ideal. They can stay for weeks like that.
(This is all said with the understanding that the tomatoes are whole/uncut. Once they're chopped up, the fridge is the best option, but they're only good for a few days)
So of course tomatoes eaten directly off the plant are gonna be "superior" (I personally prefer them a bit cold but that's just preference), storing tomatoes like potatoes or onions is just completely incorrect if mostly because when you tell people to do that, they're gonna immediately go to stick them under their sink. While potatoes and onions do well in cool dry storage, they still have a resistance to temperatures above what anyone should be storing tomatoes at.
While it's correct to state that tomatoes shouldn't be stored at temperatures below 40°F, saying "don't refrigerate tomatoes" is complete BS. Most refrigerators aren't cooling down to the 30 range, and even if they are your tomato is still gonna do better there than in is on your shelf if you're trying to keep it for a longer period of time.
That being said, if you have a tomato that you want to ripen a bit, store it out of the fridge on your counter, it will help it out a bit. But as for a ripe tomato? Keep it in your fridge. We pick hundreds of pounds of tomatoes a week at my farm, most of them are sold only a day or two after picking at our farm stand, but we still have to refrigerate them over night because if we don't, they will turn to shit, and no one is gonna pay to eat a shitty tomato that's been festering overnight during a hot summer, especially if you live in a humid area. Potatoes and onions on the other we leave out overnight and they do fine for days without any discernable difference.
Refrigerate your tomatoes, keep your fridge set to a reasonable temp (40-44°F), do not treat your tomatoes like onions or potatoes.
What do you mean? Normal fridge temps are too cold for things like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, basil, etc.
I'm talking about a cool garage, basement, a root cellar. Somewhere cooler, so that the ripening process is slowed down to increase shelf life, but not so cold that they get shitty and mushy and gross.
I know but about half of the many houses I lived in didn't have anything like that, I just want a old earth cellar to store stuff but that's luxery by now.
Mine are on the balkony because I don't have a garden this year, shitty but at least there is less competition if I leave them, well if you would leave any of them even long enough to ripe properly that is!
I think the issue is they taste of nothing, and the flesh is all this mealy mush texture. People have a surprisingly low standard of what the accept as a tomato
Yea! Many evdn try to grow their own but water them too much and don't taste the real difference because of that. I love tomatoes but the store bough ones really suck even in summer! (I get that they can't taste all that ripe in winter)
It was only the other day I learned that the reason for this is mostly due to how they ripen, which I'm sure you already know.
For those that don't, when you pick a tomato from your garden, you've picked it at your desired color and freshness. When you buy a tomato from the supermarket (most if not all), you're buying a tomato that wasn't fully ripened on th vine, but instead is blasted with some ethylene, a naturally occurring gas that normally is produced by tomatoes actively ripening, causing the tomato to continue to mature but not develop some of the complexity of taste you get from proper vine ripening. They're often picked a little green when in super-farms because they're firmer and less prone to damaging that way, and then ripened during packaging. That, and the tomato you eat from supermarkets and fast food are all super homogenous and bred specifically for mass yield.
Grocery stores sell vine ripened tomatoes. They tend to also sell locally grown ones from local farmers which taste just as good as the ones you can grow at home. Any other ones you should just steer clear of for the reasons you listed.
Home-grown fruit, like tomatoes (and especially strawberries!) are, like, an entirely different fruit than store-bought. They are SO freaking good! It is like opening Pandora's Box, because you'll never enjoy store-bought again.
Or you can be like me thinking I hated tomatoes, until I tried home grown ones finally and realized it isn't tomatoes I hate it's shitty mealy store bought tomatoes that I hate. And it turns out everyone actually hates those because they are shitty.
you hate beefsteak tomatoes. they're grown to be large and red, to survive transport well, and to look good on grocery store shelves. if your job is to sell tomatoes that you're not actually gonna eat, they're perfect. If, however, you intend to eat tomatoes it's hard to do worse than a beefsteak. Mealy, flavorless, hard to cut, generally difficult.
What you want are plum, roma or campari tomatoes. The smaller dudes, and roast them a little bit before you use them if you can. We just started growing san marzanos instead of beefsteak varietals and the difference is night and day. Switching to them, I can finally taste the essential flavor elements of a good marinara sauce.
Yeah, I started gardening several years ago and I've now got about 5 different varieties of tomatoes, they all taste unique and they all taste fucking amazing. But I will say, if someone isn't into the idea of gardening, then I would agree its a waste of time.
I totally agree on strawberries. They're really easy to grow (once they're in place, they survive through winters and you actually have to stop them from spreading), and the berries are so good.
This. I made pasta sauce with 100% produce I grew on my garden and it was by far the best I had ever tasted. Made about 2 jars and preserved the second one and was still amazing a couple of months later.
It is more about independence and taking part in growing what you eat.
Some are more inclined and others do not have a inkling for it.
Nothing about the farmers. In fact, I would propose that our farmers need more independence from greedy companies and gov't interference.
The farmers and community should have a bigger say on the matter. Instead of having bigger and bigger farms that are becoming just like big greedy corporations.
No fault to the farmers and the like, this is due to the muscle of corps./gov't/lobbiest making things worse then they should.
Joining together, as common folk, against greed and the wealthy class should be our focus.
absolutely this. I see so many people who look at the very real possibility of economic instability, even in the temporary case, and are sure that the three most important things to get through it are guns, guns and guns. Some of them, maybe, know a little first aid. So I've made it a thing for me to be the guy in the apocalypse that can do a little bit of everything else. Canning, winemaking, cheesemaking, all the other various ways that people have figured out how to preserve food, and basic gardening and herb lore. I'm networking with people who know how and what to forage, nurses who know what basic supplies would be needed to treat minor injuries and diseases and how they can be improvised with what's to hand, and other like-minded people. Everyone is sure that in order to survive they're gonna need to be self-sufficient rugged individualists and that it's mostly gonna involve raiding and repelling raiders but if you look at times of uncertainty the people who actually survive know how to generate food and medicine from nothing and have small, tightly knit communities where they know and take care of one another. If your plan for economic uncertainty is just guns you're gonna end up dead of a bacterial infection next to a pile of guns. If, however, you know how to make soap from fat and ash, and have a sensible number of guns with which to acquire animal fat, and can generate food from the dirt, you're a lot more likely to actually do well. Economic uncertainty isn't going to be an action film.
This "me and a pile of guns" mindset is slowly changing. Covid and civil unrest helped a lot of people from all walks of life start thinking about these things for the first time or with a needed dose of reality.
They are realizing that it's not one person or one family with guns, but your larger community with larger needs. You all will have to obtain food, water, medical supplies etc. Like it or not guns, related gear and associated skills are an important piece of the puzzle, but not the entire puzzle. If your community is doing well, it will be a tempting target for all kinds of reasons. Remember that at the very best your usual first responders will be very slow to respond.
It won't be fighting all the time, even full blown war involves a bunch of boredom. You'll be doing the hard work taking care of your needs. You'll probably have a pistol on you, and rifles+kit nearby to grab quickly if needed.
Growing tomatoes is awesome once you have the right stakes & cages, but when end rot hits ya, and ruins your entire crop, months of watching those little buds grow, it will break your fucking heart
Waste of time? You know, you can do other stuff while the tomatoes are growing. I have a job and a kid and a house and a social life. I also have some tomato plants. The latter doesn’t take away any time from the rest.
It is true. I planted zucchinis this year. I've gotten at least a dozen of them and they're massive. There's still at least a dozen coming and they make for the best soup ever. You can make a whole pan of soup (10L) with one big or two small zuchini. Meanwhile I've got 5 small tomatoes
My zucchini has been amazing! First time growing it and just a single plant but I've probably gotten like 8 large bois from it. Tomatoes seem suuuuper late, tons of berries but not even a hint of ripening.
Idk, I've mostly been quite successful with tomatoes. This year not so much, but then again, I planted the pumpkins too close, they gobbled up all the nutrients
Pumpkins are a bitch. Zuchini takes up a lot of space, but they also give a lot of zuchini. Pumpkins are the king of spacetaking and they don't even give much in return.
Lots of stuff on your grocery store shelves was made by slaves hidden away in some other country that either doesn't have the laws or doesn't have the ability to enforce them. Do you like chocolate or coffee?
Sure, for some produce that is true, I am aware. But tomatoes? At least where I'm from they are either local or come from other EU countries (Spain, The Netherlands usually).
You don't buy them from your local supermarket that has a live feed of the tomato slaves out in the fields toiling away? My favorite part is the button they added that lets you auto-whip them on command.
I can easily go through a tomato a day. The only thing limiting me is the cost. if I grew my own I would definitely go through at least 2 tomatoes a day.
We had so many last year that we had to freeze a load, they're actually really nice frozen - I liked freezing them whole and they make the coolest sound when you knock them into each other, then while frozen cut into wedges and eat. Really refreshing and great texture.
It'd potentially eventually pay for itself and save you a $1.33 or much more over a lifetime, but actually when you factor in all the costs of the gardening supplies and water and just all the associated costs with setting yourself up to grow them it's going to take a lot longer for you to save that $1.33. Hope you like tomatoes, you'll need to eat plenty to make it worthwhile.
Not what I'm saying, I'm saying that people saying X thing so is free because I didn't pay for it. Not considering that they didn't factor in the cost of their time.
obviously you have already decided you're right and you're not willing to consider anything else, but let me explain it to you anyways:
some people don't spend their days calculating the monetary value of their own life and just do the things they enjoy because gardening is fun and fresh food tastes better.
And before you start, just don't. I don't need to hear your predictable take on economic theory.
I thought about including that, but it's harder to value and it's not necessarily the case that the time spent on this is coming at the expense of time you could or would have spent earning so it felt a bit a disingenuous to mention it.
Also, tomatoes require pretty much the same Ph, moisture, and light levels that Marijuana does. Once you're good at growing tomatoes, you can switch to a more profitable crop
I do think that numbers here are much more complex than people give them credit for, firstly no gardener I know only grows six tomatoes and secondly there are added benefits which come from it being an active hobby plus various health benefits.
I think there are bonuses that are very hard to get elsewhere, making friends by sharing excess harvest for example - if you brought tomatoes and give a bag full to someone you barely know they'll think you're odd but give them a bag of ones you've grown and next time you see them they'll tell you how nice whatever they cooked with it was and at some point they'll probably give you a couple of courgettes or invite you to pick from their strawberies while they're away.
It gives a real connection to reality and passing time too, watching your plants struggle from the soil, potting them up and helping them through the various stages of life until they're fruiting and ready for harvest. Watching the weather, keeping track of how much it's rained and when to plant different things or what to water and feed - it's very grounding, especially learning to accept whatever comes because you can only do so much and the rest is out of your control.
I could go on but just one more thing, having excess fruit opens up so many possibilities that you'd never bother with otherwise, making pies and jams just to make use of them feels so good and it's such a great way to discover new things - my dad made a recipe he found for courgette cake partly as a joke in a year they had a bumper harvest and now it's everyone's favourite cake.
Actually one more thing, I was away from home recently and had to buy things I'm used to picking, herbs are insane prices! And awfull quality. A widow box full of herbs saves about twenty dollars a month and that's without even taking into account having a tub of coriander (cilantro) for mojitos.
Honestly, might not be a popular opinion but I live in a big city and the amount of gardening-related local Facebook groups is insane. And since it's Facebook, it's all old people who have decades of experience with this shit. AND it's region specific so they are constantly throwing down relevant advice for the zone you live in. 10/10 it's literally the reason why I keep Facebook haha.
You could look into: companion planting (some plants help or hinder others. Eg, basil and tomato are good friends); no-dig gardening (alongside having a good soil microbiome); green manure; sacrificial crops to lure pests away from your main crops; aspect and soil type.
Higher potassium and phosphates increase flower and fruit growth. Higher nitrogen increases leafy growth.
Don't grow the same type of plant in the same patch every year.
Cut (or break) the leaves off. They only take growing-energy away from the actual tomato. And harvest on time. If you leave them on too long, they start to rot. Also l, they're best if you give them a little time to ripen after picking.
It's so hard to know any specific advice but I'd say when you're getting into gardening plant more than you need and try different things - ideally write on labels what you're doing with that one, like try some in bigger pots, different soil, more light or shade, different pruning styles or planting times. It's fun and a great way to get a feel for your plants, instead of thinking 'oh this plant is rubbish' try to come at it more like 'oh that's what happens to a tomato without enough light'
Also YouTube is full of great gardening videos, the lesson type ones get boring once you know what they're going to say but watching people show you their garden and talk you though everything and how it's been growing, what they've done too it and etc can be endlessly fascinating
the system depends on you only being able to do one thing effectively, and needing to pay other people to do all the things you need but can't do. When you do that, you have to go through several layers of government and corporate bureaucrats who all squeeze you for a little bit extra just because they've positioned themselves between you and what you need to live. To be self-sufficient is to cut all of these middlemen out from between you and the necessities of life. Gardening is a revolutionary act, it's propaganda of the deed writ small.
The problem isn't living together, it's the people that exploit others based on that fact. People can live together without exploiting each other - that's what a commune is.
No I just want rid of exploitative systems like capitalism and imperialism. Have you never heard of things like the kibtuzim in Israel? Unlike the Soviet Union they have actual working socialism bordering on communism. I don't think they live in forests.
Communes can scale above the level your suggesting to at least hundreds if not thousands of people. If it can't scale above that I still don't see that as a real problem because communes can work with each other, possibly using a different trading system between them.
Edit: There are several socialist/communist economic systems that have been theorised that have communities interacting using a system that is separate from how individuals interact economically like decentralised centralised planning. In a system like that you have the local government/committee control the local economy and then have governments from different areas trade with each other on behalf of their citizens.
There are also systems that don't use communes at all such as socialist market economy. Here workers all have a share in the business they work for and get profit shares.
Too many people think growing shit also takes a lot of effort. Nah, literally just plant shit, weed once, then wait. You literally don't even have to water in most areas lol.
People think gardening or farming takes a lot of effort. It does if you want a pretty little area that's more eye pleasing. But if you just want food? Put seeds in. Wait. Food lol. Might not be the greatest harvest but any seed you'd buy at a store is hearty as fuck now.
Edit: Holy shit, yes guys. People on the internet live in the desert and even Antarctica too. My comment wasn't meant for you contrarian buttwipes lol. It was meant for anyone who doesn't live in a hellhole and has access to a little land lol. And even in those hellholes and places with shitty soil, it's just because you're trying to grow shit not meant for there lol.
I don't know what your neck of the woods is like but here in "High altitude misery land, were subsoil is the only soil in your yard and it'll freeze in June because fuck you" it's a struggle to get anything out of the garden.
This year, something went wrong with the peppers and tomatoes I started indoors (I suspect the potting soil) and they never grew over 1.5 inches tall, even after they were hardened off and planted outdoors in proper soil. As such, I bought a pepper and a tomato from a retail store. The pepper is still only about a foot tall, but the tomato was actually bushing out fairly well, about 4' tall... and then something ate it down to maybe 3'-2.5'-ish. The squash I started indoors did much better and survived hardening off well. After I put them into the garden the earwigs actually waited a whole week to eat them down to stumps. And I absolutely need to water... it takes about two days for the plants to start wilting.
My garden makes me appreciate the supermarket every year.
On the other hand, I've been expanding and fiddling my system all summer long for god know how many hours. That reminds me that my nute res is almost empty...
This comment is brought to you by someone living in a temperate area, with land that they have access to, that also doesn't scorch everything that tries to grow.
A lot of people think growing shit takes a lot of effort because it does for them.
That being said, hydroponics is a very nice option that works for me.
It's not too surprising. Tomatoes are usually eaten uncooked, so the seeds are almost always viable when they hit the sewer system. Add to that tomatoes are tropical, so when a seed hits the soil it's gonna start growing.
Tomatoes are too fickle as far as I'm concerned. I grow all kinds of stuff, but never have luck with tomatoes. The flowers don't pollinate without vibration, they need temperatures in a tight range to fruit, basically every pest on earth destroys them, just not worth it to me anymore. Which is a shame because I love them, but I'm basically over growing tomatoes.
Dude, I grow tomatoes in a 4' x 6' plot of dirt by the sidewalk in Montreal with zero tending and I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with every year. What are you doing so wrong?
The tight temperature range is something I very much agree with you on. I think climate conducive to their growth play a big factor in disease immunity as well. I've seen them thrive like weeds in sub tropical regions. But for some reason, even in controlled conditions, they fail to do that well here in my area.
I always attributed more to soil and sun, because I grow great tomatoes easily in my garden every year. This year I did have to fertilize a few times, and they are only ripening now. I’m on the Canadian Prairies so not exactly subtropical. And I’m not that good a gardener either, cucumbers are often a struggle for me and my beets always get demolished by birds. And it’s been a good 4 years of various weather here and still, nice tomatoes. I wonder if there are some more locally adapted strains you could try?
Going for some locally adapted strains is a great idea. Thanks for that! I'm actually a terrible gardener so I hadn't thought of it.
I just used what little seeds my neighbour gave me, and in limited area because I tend to prioritise fruits over veggies and they are what dominate most of my garden. The little space I experimented with tomatoes on is currently occupied by legumes.
I have like six different tomato plants growing out of jars (started as seeds) hydroponically. They take almost no effort. It's actually super easy to grow them if you eliminate nature from the process lol.
Tomatoes will store better at 22c than in the fridge. Just trying to spread awareness so people can maximize their enjoyment of one of the greatest seasonal foods
My home rarely gets under 22c during July and August, save for the odd cool night.
They also taste way better than store-bought ones.
Seriously. They barely taste like the same 'fruit'.
Also one of the easier garden vegetables (yes, vegetable, fight me) to plant. Great for beginners.
It's a fruit, you donut.
Serious question: do people on team fruit also call other “culinary vegetables” fruits, such as cucumbers, zucchini, corn, eggplants, bell peppers, green beans, etc.?
I’ve been told that beans are an especially magical fruit.
Flick it to stick it!
I don't mind calling all of those things fruit. It seems people get really weird about making savoury meals out of fruit. Like I know a tomato is a fruit, I put tomato on pizza, I never once while making pizza have a thought about whether a vegetable or a fruit is going on my pizza. It's just a tomato, it can swing both ways.
I prefer polysemy. There is a very useful category of “edible plants typically used in savory dishes”. Imagine someone being upset with you because you brought green beans when they asked for a side of vegetables.
I don’t see the point in taking the botanical definition of fruit and pretending it’s useful in the culinary world.
Depends on context? If I'm talking about the fruit on the plant, yes. If it's in my kitchen, no, that'd be silly 🙄
fruits are a vegetable
Not botanically or culinary, but don't let that get in the way of how you feel.
Fruiitt fruiittt
F u fruit
Fruits come from the flowering part of the plant and contain seeds, whereas vegetables are other parts of the plant (leaves, stems, roots, bulbs). They're fruit.
They say knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Yes yes. Salsa, tomato based fruit salad, we know.
But that's not mutually exclusive with vegetables. Vegetable is not a botanical designation. Whether it's a vegetable or not depends on how it's typically used in cooking. Cucumbers, zuccini, and green beans all fall into the same category of being both.
And they stay fresh pretty much as long as you want them to.
Gardening is a hobby. You don't do it to get cheap fruits and veggies.
The results speak for themselves though, and you absolutely cannot beat a tomato right off the vine.
Store bought tomatoes seem to taste more fucking bland every year. Like I have to spend $6 per small bag to get "gourmet" tomatoes to even taste like a tomato. It's actually infuriating. I grow tomatoes now literally not to save money but just because grocery store tomatoes (at least in my area) are trash.
Store tomatoes are not tomatoes. Unless you're buying somewhere legit and expensive af, the tomatoes you see in stores are picked green and gassed to turn red. They are dog shit. Probably worse, actually. Seek out local farms near you and get the good shit (and often cheaper than places like whole foods).
Tomatoes are one thing I never buy in a store, except sauce/canned tomatoes, as those products are derived from ripe tomatoes.
Just buy canned tomatoes from Italy - they're amazing!
A tomato straight from the vine is basically candy 🍅🤤
Depends on where you live. If you live in Italy, you can just throw random shit around your house and a couple of months later you will crap loads of free food!
You can beat a tomato off in many ways 😏
Hmm. Name one.
Cocaine
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
Can you grow all year round where you are? If I had half an acre where I live I think half of my growing area would have to be a greenhouse.
Where I live now we probably could, but land ia too expensive here. But land in Ontario was cheap and only for summer since winters were harsh
tell this to everyone giving advice to people in poverty
The best we can do is learn and inform, while being empathetic and understanding.
For those who can garden, great!
For those who can't, might consider joining a community garden or help start one.
This is also not possible for everyone, but from my own experience, community garden communities do free lessons to help and teach new people.
Coming together around a common good, that is what we can do.
And you know what's even better? Those fresh peas.
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Bro I been growing edamame. Holy fucking shit. You'll fucking cum.
Soybeans. You've been growing soybeans.
Is edamame specifically when it's in food form?
There are lots of different foods made from soybeans, like tofu and tempeh. Edamame is young, whole soybeans cooked in their pods.
Ah good to know, thanks!
TIL
Its a specific dish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edamame?wprov=sfla1
yeah? our light is very poor in our back garden. the only thing that thrives, that I've found, is gerkins, so thats what we grow. tiny cucumbers, and we pickle them.
we tried regular peas and beans, and it was OK, but there was so little fruit at one time we became completely confused as to how anyone could have enough for a whole serving at any one time.
Whats your light situation like with the edamame? do you just boil/salt them and eat them like you would in a japanese restaurant?
I should do that next year. Grow a bunch of stuff for the first time hydroponically this year and it has been fun. Even though the pruning gods would murder me if they saw my tomatoes.
“Your little nutsacks are gonna be quacking buddy.”
Yeah but then what do I do with the leftover edamame?
Not to mention the cost of watering.
I live in Ireland, we don't pay for water (or even waste water out like they do in Germany), but the rain has been non-stop this year with the gulf stream. I've also just intalled a water butt out of a 500l repurposed whiskey barrel (again, Ireland) so that also helps with not having to use the hose (they call it the hose pipe)
That's what rain barrels are for
For real though, you don't plant your own tomatoes to save money, you plant your own tomatoes because your crop is going to taste so good that you'll be chasing that flavor any time you're stuck buying them from the store. Just so far beyond storebought.
It's the one crop I keep coming back to every year - the effort is worth it.
Is it the same for all vegetables, or just tomatos?
It's the same in that most fruits and vegetables you can buy at the store have been bred for quantity and shipping. Home gardeners can grow varieties that are bred for flavor. So my Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes may not survive a trip across the country with UPS, but they taste amazing. And my Double Gold raspberries don't produce bushels, but they're the best I've ever eaten. I do think I'm probably saving money growing garlic. Very low maintenance plant, and I grow enough to save what I need to plant for the next year. So some crops are pretty cost effective, but some are really for the flavor.
More noticeable in Tomatoes, but everything is more flavourful. Potatoes are more Potatoey, leafy greens are more intense flavour, some people finding home grown romaine too strongly flavoured because they are used to it tasting like nothing
Not all, but most. I don't notice much of a difference with peppers or carrots, but strawberries especially are incredible when grown from a garden and pretty tasteless when bought from a store. Tomatoes don't have quite as significant of a difference, but they're still much better. I don't think I've ever gotten fresh beets from anywhere but a farmer's market or my garden, so I'm not sure about them.
Personally, it's everything I grow. Tomatoes, green beans, peas, cucumbers, onions, asparagus & garlic. There's also that excellent feeling of if I don't feel like running to the store just for a vegetable and we've got everything else for dinner, I can just send the kids out to pick it. None of our peas made it into the house this year either because of the kids lol. We also have an herb garden with mint, chives, thyme, etc that the kids are free to graze whenever and it's especially great for those "I'm Hungry!" moments between snack & the next meal
Gardens are super underrated for their ability to get kids invested in how their food is made, and wanting to eat vegetables because they grew them.
That's definitely from someone who never tasted a home grown tomatoe or waters theirs a lot too often, you can buy tomatoes but they taste like literal shit in comparison! ;)
Also you can leave them on the plant a lot longer than they last in the fridge.
So you save a lot more, since you aren't buying tomatoes every week. You just pick them as you need them.
Don't put tomatoes in the fridge, if possible. Put them in the sun, if they need to ripen more, otherwise put them somewhere dark and cool, but not cold.
Basically, store them like potatoes. 50-55F is ideal. They can stay for weeks like that.
(This is all said with the understanding that the tomatoes are whole/uncut. Once they're chopped up, the fridge is the best option, but they're only good for a few days)
sauce: me, veg farmer
Thank you, buffaloboobs the vegetable farmer
My pleasure, 1222
As a vegetable farmer I disagree. Tomatoes do not store well like potatoes, please throw them in your fridge.
I eat all of them right away but that sparks my interest, could you go into detail?
So of course tomatoes eaten directly off the plant are gonna be "superior" (I personally prefer them a bit cold but that's just preference), storing tomatoes like potatoes or onions is just completely incorrect if mostly because when you tell people to do that, they're gonna immediately go to stick them under their sink. While potatoes and onions do well in cool dry storage, they still have a resistance to temperatures above what anyone should be storing tomatoes at.
While it's correct to state that tomatoes shouldn't be stored at temperatures below 40°F, saying "don't refrigerate tomatoes" is complete BS. Most refrigerators aren't cooling down to the 30 range, and even if they are your tomato is still gonna do better there than in is on your shelf if you're trying to keep it for a longer period of time.
That being said, if you have a tomato that you want to ripen a bit, store it out of the fridge on your counter, it will help it out a bit. But as for a ripe tomato? Keep it in your fridge. We pick hundreds of pounds of tomatoes a week at my farm, most of them are sold only a day or two after picking at our farm stand, but we still have to refrigerate them over night because if we don't, they will turn to shit, and no one is gonna pay to eat a shitty tomato that's been festering overnight during a hot summer, especially if you live in a humid area. Potatoes and onions on the other we leave out overnight and they do fine for days without any discernable difference.
Refrigerate your tomatoes, keep your fridge set to a reasonable temp (40-44°F), do not treat your tomatoes like onions or potatoes.
Thanks, that's a fantastic explenation!
Or in other words in the fridge if you live in a "modern" house because there won't be any better place?
What do you mean? Normal fridge temps are too cold for things like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, basil, etc.
I'm talking about a cool garage, basement, a root cellar. Somewhere cooler, so that the ripening process is slowed down to increase shelf life, but not so cold that they get shitty and mushy and gross.
The coldest part of my house right now is +22C. I'll stick to the fridge.
I know but about half of the many houses I lived in didn't have anything like that, I just want a old earth cellar to store stuff but that's luxery by now.
Until the hornworms and squirrels get 'em
Mine are on the balkony because I don't have a garden this year, shitty but at least there is less competition if I leave them, well if you would leave any of them even long enough to ripe properly that is!
I think the issue is they taste of nothing, and the flesh is all this mealy mush texture. People have a surprisingly low standard of what the accept as a tomato
Yea! Many evdn try to grow their own but water them too much and don't taste the real difference because of that. I love tomatoes but the store bough ones really suck even in summer! (I get that they can't taste all that ripe in winter)
Home grown taste like a real tomato, the super Market once taste mostly like water
It was only the other day I learned that the reason for this is mostly due to how they ripen, which I'm sure you already know.
For those that don't, when you pick a tomato from your garden, you've picked it at your desired color and freshness. When you buy a tomato from the supermarket (most if not all), you're buying a tomato that wasn't fully ripened on th vine, but instead is blasted with some ethylene, a naturally occurring gas that normally is produced by tomatoes actively ripening, causing the tomato to continue to mature but not develop some of the complexity of taste you get from proper vine ripening. They're often picked a little green when in super-farms because they're firmer and less prone to damaging that way, and then ripened during packaging. That, and the tomato you eat from supermarkets and fast food are all super homogenous and bred specifically for mass yield.
Grocery stores sell vine ripened tomatoes. They tend to also sell locally grown ones from local farmers which taste just as good as the ones you can grow at home. Any other ones you should just steer clear of for the reasons you listed.
Seriously. Someone post the King of the Hill clip. You know the one.
Home-grown fruit, like tomatoes (and especially strawberries!) are, like, an entirely different fruit than store-bought. They are SO freaking good! It is like opening Pandora's Box, because you'll never enjoy store-bought again.
Try making a pizza sauce from homegrown tomato and you find out why a Marguerita pizza exists
Or you can be like me thinking I hated tomatoes, until I tried home grown ones finally and realized it isn't tomatoes I hate it's shitty mealy store bought tomatoes that I hate. And it turns out everyone actually hates those because they are shitty.
you hate beefsteak tomatoes. they're grown to be large and red, to survive transport well, and to look good on grocery store shelves. if your job is to sell tomatoes that you're not actually gonna eat, they're perfect. If, however, you intend to eat tomatoes it's hard to do worse than a beefsteak. Mealy, flavorless, hard to cut, generally difficult.
What you want are plum, roma or campari tomatoes. The smaller dudes, and roast them a little bit before you use them if you can. We just started growing san marzanos instead of beefsteak varietals and the difference is night and day. Switching to them, I can finally taste the essential flavor elements of a good marinara sauce.
I like Cherokee purples as well, but they can be a bit hard to find in some places.
Yeah camparis are pretty legit.
Yeah, I started gardening several years ago and I've now got about 5 different varieties of tomatoes, they all taste unique and they all taste fucking amazing. But I will say, if someone isn't into the idea of gardening, then I would agree its a waste of time.
I totally agree on strawberries. They're really easy to grow (once they're in place, they survive through winters and you actually have to stop them from spreading), and the berries are so good.
We got our very first raspberries this year and Oh. My. God! They are so much better!
But they taste SOOOOOO much better than the flavorless ones from the store
And you can grow more than 4 fucking tomatoes in two months
Usually you get too many and have to get into canning or sharing with neighbours
Have you ever grown tomatoes? Because if you only got 4 in two months you're doing it wrong.
/c/yoursentencebutworse
Yes, this meme works for almost all vegetables but definitely not tomatoes. Homegrown vs store bought is night and day.
Just buy them from your local farmers market.
But store-bought tomatoes are nearly tasteless...
This. I made pasta sauce with 100% produce I grew on my garden and it was by far the best I had ever tasted. Made about 2 jars and preserved the second one and was still amazing a couple of months later.
You can also make your own ketchup.
Yup, plus passata and puree. No such things as a tomato glut.
"What message?"
"Oh it says 'fuck farmers' but it's only visible from the air."
It is more about independence and taking part in growing what you eat.
Some are more inclined and others do not have a inkling for it.
Nothing about the farmers. In fact, I would propose that our farmers need more independence from greedy companies and gov't interference.
The farmers and community should have a bigger say on the matter. Instead of having bigger and bigger farms that are becoming just like big greedy corporations.
No fault to the farmers and the like, this is due to the muscle of corps./gov't/lobbiest making things worse then they should.
Joining together, as common folk, against greed and the wealthy class should be our focus.
absolutely this. I see so many people who look at the very real possibility of economic instability, even in the temporary case, and are sure that the three most important things to get through it are guns, guns and guns. Some of them, maybe, know a little first aid. So I've made it a thing for me to be the guy in the apocalypse that can do a little bit of everything else. Canning, winemaking, cheesemaking, all the other various ways that people have figured out how to preserve food, and basic gardening and herb lore. I'm networking with people who know how and what to forage, nurses who know what basic supplies would be needed to treat minor injuries and diseases and how they can be improvised with what's to hand, and other like-minded people. Everyone is sure that in order to survive they're gonna need to be self-sufficient rugged individualists and that it's mostly gonna involve raiding and repelling raiders but if you look at times of uncertainty the people who actually survive know how to generate food and medicine from nothing and have small, tightly knit communities where they know and take care of one another. If your plan for economic uncertainty is just guns you're gonna end up dead of a bacterial infection next to a pile of guns. If, however, you know how to make soap from fat and ash, and have a sensible number of guns with which to acquire animal fat, and can generate food from the dirt, you're a lot more likely to actually do well. Economic uncertainty isn't going to be an action film.
This "me and a pile of guns" mindset is slowly changing. Covid and civil unrest helped a lot of people from all walks of life start thinking about these things for the first time or with a needed dose of reality.
They are realizing that it's not one person or one family with guns, but your larger community with larger needs. You all will have to obtain food, water, medical supplies etc. Like it or not guns, related gear and associated skills are an important piece of the puzzle, but not the entire puzzle. If your community is doing well, it will be a tempting target for all kinds of reasons. Remember that at the very best your usual first responders will be very slow to respond.
It won't be fighting all the time, even full blown war involves a bunch of boredom. You'll be doing the hard work taking care of your needs. You'll probably have a pistol on you, and rifles+kit nearby to grab quickly if needed.
Growing tomatoes is awesome once you have the right stakes & cages, but when end rot hits ya, and ruins your entire crop, months of watching those little buds grow, it will break your fucking heart
God damn. That would be like buying a new pet like a kitten or something and then a year later finding out you can’t eat it.
Most small gardens are not profitable. But it is therapeutic and the food tastes better.
Healthier too since the plant actually did its proper growing cycle and converted nitrogens into protiens
Waste of time? You know, you can do other stuff while the tomatoes are growing. I have a job and a kid and a house and a social life. I also have some tomato plants. The latter doesn’t take away any time from the rest.
Or if you like gardening.
It is true. I planted zucchinis this year. I've gotten at least a dozen of them and they're massive. There's still at least a dozen coming and they make for the best soup ever. You can make a whole pan of soup (10L) with one big or two small zuchini. Meanwhile I've got 5 small tomatoes
My zucchini has been amazing! First time growing it and just a single plant but I've probably gotten like 8 large bois from it. Tomatoes seem suuuuper late, tons of berries but not even a hint of ripening.
I learned you harvest zucchini before they get massive as the taste is inversely related to the size though
Try picking them young while they still have flowers, use them quickly.
Idk, I've mostly been quite successful with tomatoes. This year not so much, but then again, I planted the pumpkins too close, they gobbled up all the nutrients
Pumpkins are a bitch. Zuchini takes up a lot of space, but they also give a lot of zuchini. Pumpkins are the king of spacetaking and they don't even give much in return.
Fucker straight up made its way across my small greenhouse and out the door, so yeah, king of spacetaking.
Pumpkins probably make more sense if grown in the three sisters style.
I also get to avoid slave labor in the supply chain, so...
Where the fuck do you think people buy tomatos?
https://civileats.com/2016/10/25/did-slaves-produce-your-food-forced-labor/
Lots of stuff on your grocery store shelves was made by slaves hidden away in some other country that either doesn't have the laws or doesn't have the ability to enforce them. Do you like chocolate or coffee?
Sure, for some produce that is true, I am aware. But tomatoes? At least where I'm from they are either local or come from other EU countries (Spain, The Netherlands usually).
You don't buy them from your local supermarket that has a live feed of the tomato slaves out in the fields toiling away? My favorite part is the button they added that lets you auto-whip them on command.
Weird-looking tomato almost made it into my aesthetically perfect life? That's 3 button presses.
1.33?
I can easily go through a tomato a day. The only thing limiting me is the cost. if I grew my own I would definitely go through at least 2 tomatoes a day.
You sound like a weird tomato version of Gaston.
Tomatoes are good man.
Sliced and put in a sandwich.
Sliced and served cold with salt and pepper.
chopped on a taco, or in a salad/wrap.
Make into soup.
cooked down into sauce.
but not fried. Fried green tomatoes are shit and taste awful.
We had so many last year that we had to freeze a load, they're actually really nice frozen - I liked freezing them whole and they make the coolest sound when you knock them into each other, then while frozen cut into wedges and eat. Really refreshing and great texture.
I think they're meming that 4 that was their total yield from all the plants they were able over the 2 months.
if you were to grow your own you'd probably be limited by something - space , light, and soil quality, and weather (maybe)
that's probably why you say "if"
Growing weed saves a lot of money tbh
Besides weed, is there anything profitable to grow at home?
It'd potentially eventually pay for itself and save you a $1.33 or much more over a lifetime, but actually when you factor in all the costs of the gardening supplies and water and just all the associated costs with setting yourself up to grow them it's going to take a lot longer for you to save that $1.33. Hope you like tomatoes, you'll need to eat plenty to make it worthwhile.
Also the cost of your time. People always forget labour costs.
Labor costs? Don't divide your life into "what if I worked a W2 job 24 hours a day" increments.
You're not allowed to just enjoy gardening, everything has to be a side hustle.
Not what I'm saying, I'm saying that people saying X thing so is free because I didn't pay for it. Not considering that they didn't factor in the cost of their time.
Or maybe they did consider their time and they have a different attitude than you
It's not about attitude it's about fact. Time isn't free.
obviously you have already decided you're right and you're not willing to consider anything else, but let me explain it to you anyways:
some people don't spend their days calculating the monetary value of their own life and just do the things they enjoy because gardening is fun and fresh food tastes better.
And before you start, just don't. I don't need to hear your predictable take on economic theory.
Time spent doing something I love isn't a labor cost, though.
I thought about including that, but it's harder to value and it's not necessarily the case that the time spent on this is coming at the expense of time you could or would have spent earning so it felt a bit a disingenuous to mention it.
Also, tomatoes require pretty much the same Ph, moisture, and light levels that Marijuana does. Once you're good at growing tomatoes, you can switch to a more profitable crop
I do think that numbers here are much more complex than people give them credit for, firstly no gardener I know only grows six tomatoes and secondly there are added benefits which come from it being an active hobby plus various health benefits.
I think there are bonuses that are very hard to get elsewhere, making friends by sharing excess harvest for example - if you brought tomatoes and give a bag full to someone you barely know they'll think you're odd but give them a bag of ones you've grown and next time you see them they'll tell you how nice whatever they cooked with it was and at some point they'll probably give you a couple of courgettes or invite you to pick from their strawberies while they're away.
It gives a real connection to reality and passing time too, watching your plants struggle from the soil, potting them up and helping them through the various stages of life until they're fruiting and ready for harvest. Watching the weather, keeping track of how much it's rained and when to plant different things or what to water and feed - it's very grounding, especially learning to accept whatever comes because you can only do so much and the rest is out of your control.
I could go on but just one more thing, having excess fruit opens up so many possibilities that you'd never bother with otherwise, making pies and jams just to make use of them feels so good and it's such a great way to discover new things - my dad made a recipe he found for courgette cake partly as a joke in a year they had a bumper harvest and now it's everyone's favourite cake.
Actually one more thing, I was away from home recently and had to buy things I'm used to picking, herbs are insane prices! And awfull quality. A widow box full of herbs saves about twenty dollars a month and that's without even taking into account having a tub of coriander (cilantro) for mojitos.
It's not about the money!!
any tips for a beginner gardener? my tomatoes are always tiny, and how do i keep bugs from eating my leaves??
Honestly, might not be a popular opinion but I live in a big city and the amount of gardening-related local Facebook groups is insane. And since it's Facebook, it's all old people who have decades of experience with this shit. AND it's region specific so they are constantly throwing down relevant advice for the zone you live in. 10/10 it's literally the reason why I keep Facebook haha.
Yeah, regional advice is where it's at.
Start them off inside, plant 3x as many as you want, choose the best and discard the rest when it comes to planting out.
Tomatoes grow well in containers or large pots, these can be moved to catch the sun or to avoid a storm and can also be moved away from some pests.
Cherry tomatoes grow well in hanging baskets...
You could look into: companion planting (some plants help or hinder others. Eg, basil and tomato are good friends); no-dig gardening (alongside having a good soil microbiome); green manure; sacrificial crops to lure pests away from your main crops; aspect and soil type.
Higher potassium and phosphates increase flower and fruit growth. Higher nitrogen increases leafy growth.
Don't grow the same type of plant in the same patch every year.
Cut (or break) the leaves off. They only take growing-energy away from the actual tomato. And harvest on time. If you leave them on too long, they start to rot. Also l, they're best if you give them a little time to ripen after picking.
It's so hard to know any specific advice but I'd say when you're getting into gardening plant more than you need and try different things - ideally write on labels what you're doing with that one, like try some in bigger pots, different soil, more light or shade, different pruning styles or planting times. It's fun and a great way to get a feel for your plants, instead of thinking 'oh this plant is rubbish' try to come at it more like 'oh that's what happens to a tomato without enough light'
Also YouTube is full of great gardening videos, the lesson type ones get boring once you know what they're going to say but watching people show you their garden and talk you though everything and how it's been growing, what they've done too it and etc can be endlessly fascinating
If you're getting into a hobby for monetary reasons, chances are you aren't going to enjoy it in the long run.
the system depends on you only being able to do one thing effectively, and needing to pay other people to do all the things you need but can't do. When you do that, you have to go through several layers of government and corporate bureaucrats who all squeeze you for a little bit extra just because they've positioned themselves between you and what you need to live. To be self-sufficient is to cut all of these middlemen out from between you and the necessities of life. Gardening is a revolutionary act, it's propaganda of the deed writ small.
so basically you would prefer to live alone in a forest
The problem isn't living together, it's the people that exploit others based on that fact. People can live together without exploiting each other - that's what a commune is.
that other post was talking about having ANYONE in between what you need to live and you
and you, my good sir, would like to live in a forest with your friends, just like me
and i say 'with your friends' because we all know it wouldnt work in a scale larger than a dozen people
No I just want rid of exploitative systems like capitalism and imperialism. Have you never heard of things like the kibtuzim in Israel? Unlike the Soviet Union they have actual working socialism bordering on communism. I don't think they live in forests.
Communes can scale above the level your suggesting to at least hundreds if not thousands of people. If it can't scale above that I still don't see that as a real problem because communes can work with each other, possibly using a different trading system between them.
Edit: There are several socialist/communist economic systems that have been theorised that have communities interacting using a system that is separate from how individuals interact economically like decentralised centralised planning. In a system like that you have the local government/committee control the local economy and then have governments from different areas trade with each other on behalf of their citizens.
There are also systems that don't use communes at all such as socialist market economy. Here workers all have a share in the business they work for and get profit shares.
would I prefer it? probably not, there's stuff I can't/don't know how to do that I quite like.
Does that lifestyle involve the least amount of exploiting and being exploited? Absolutely.
I’m tired of zombie tomatoes from supermarkets
Too many people think growing shit also takes a lot of effort. Nah, literally just plant shit, weed once, then wait. You literally don't even have to water in most areas lol.
People think gardening or farming takes a lot of effort. It does if you want a pretty little area that's more eye pleasing. But if you just want food? Put seeds in. Wait. Food lol. Might not be the greatest harvest but any seed you'd buy at a store is hearty as fuck now.
Edit: Holy shit, yes guys. People on the internet live in the desert and even Antarctica too. My comment wasn't meant for you contrarian buttwipes lol. It was meant for anyone who doesn't live in a hellhole and has access to a little land lol. And even in those hellholes and places with shitty soil, it's just because you're trying to grow shit not meant for there lol.
I don't know what your neck of the woods is like but here in "High altitude misery land, were subsoil is the only soil in your yard and it'll freeze in June because fuck you" it's a struggle to get anything out of the garden.
This year, something went wrong with the peppers and tomatoes I started indoors (I suspect the potting soil) and they never grew over 1.5 inches tall, even after they were hardened off and planted outdoors in proper soil. As such, I bought a pepper and a tomato from a retail store. The pepper is still only about a foot tall, but the tomato was actually bushing out fairly well, about 4' tall... and then something ate it down to maybe 3'-2.5'-ish. The squash I started indoors did much better and survived hardening off well. After I put them into the garden the earwigs actually waited a whole week to eat them down to stumps. And I absolutely need to water... it takes about two days for the plants to start wilting.
My garden makes me appreciate the supermarket every year.
Hydroponics and the accessibility to it makes things even easier. On demand veggie snacks, right in my room? Yes please.
Fuck yes. Though I grow outside.
On the other hand, I've been expanding and fiddling my system all summer long for god know how many hours. That reminds me that my nute res is almost empty...
This comment is brought to you by someone living in a temperate area, with land that they have access to, that also doesn't scorch everything that tries to grow.
A lot of people think growing shit takes a lot of effort because it does for them.
That being said, hydroponics is a very nice option that works for me.
glad to see my fellow humans have a voice here that think that making the earth make me food is freaking incredible.
I tried home grown runner beans. They're lovely.
Beats taking care of a flower, all the work and you're not even supposed to eat it?
I grew these morning glories and by jove Im gonna eat these morning glories!
Oh no, those make you puke if you just eat em, gotta make a tincture or something from the seeds to extract the good shit.
i grew indoor potatoes, got 3 small ones in 3 months. juiciest potatoes i ever had!
I just got out of a water conference. The big takeaway was for me was that where sewer spills happened, tomatoes grow later.
It's not too surprising. Tomatoes are usually eaten uncooked, so the seeds are almost always viable when they hit the sewer system. Add to that tomatoes are tropical, so when a seed hits the soil it's gonna start growing.
I wonder if plants have started growing in the sewers before and what the effects of that would be
They warned about this in the 70s...
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once you start composting youll end up having free tomatos pop up wherever you use it. you just gotta make sure the deer dont eat them.
Or the fucking squirrels
If you're concerned a out time either get faster growing species or plant a larger amount and properly store them until needed
This is why I just grow my weed. Fill my jar and start over which by the time I'm close to done with my cured bud my fresh batch is ready to dry.
Do they think they have to sit and watch them grow?..
Tomatoes are too fickle as far as I'm concerned. I grow all kinds of stuff, but never have luck with tomatoes. The flowers don't pollinate without vibration, they need temperatures in a tight range to fruit, basically every pest on earth destroys them, just not worth it to me anymore. Which is a shame because I love them, but I'm basically over growing tomatoes.
Dude, I grow tomatoes in a 4' x 6' plot of dirt by the sidewalk in Montreal with zero tending and I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with every year. What are you doing so wrong?
When you say zero tending, are you even watering them? Asking for a friend who knows fuck all about street tomatoes.
If they are in the ground they only need one good watering a week after they get established. In containers you need to water more.
I was exaggerating a little. I tied them to sticks and removed the useless branches/leaves. I watered the first week and nothing since.
Living in a place with much hotter summers.
I would think that would benefit them, being native to the area around the equator.
The tight temperature range is something I very much agree with you on. I think climate conducive to their growth play a big factor in disease immunity as well. I've seen them thrive like weeds in sub tropical regions. But for some reason, even in controlled conditions, they fail to do that well here in my area.
I always attributed more to soil and sun, because I grow great tomatoes easily in my garden every year. This year I did have to fertilize a few times, and they are only ripening now. I’m on the Canadian Prairies so not exactly subtropical. And I’m not that good a gardener either, cucumbers are often a struggle for me and my beets always get demolished by birds. And it’s been a good 4 years of various weather here and still, nice tomatoes. I wonder if there are some more locally adapted strains you could try?
Going for some locally adapted strains is a great idea. Thanks for that! I'm actually a terrible gardener so I hadn't thought of it. I just used what little seeds my neighbour gave me, and in limited area because I tend to prioritise fruits over veggies and they are what dominate most of my garden. The little space I experimented with tomatoes on is currently occupied by legumes.
I have like six different tomato plants growing out of jars (started as seeds) hydroponically. They take almost no effort. It's actually super easy to grow them if you eliminate nature from the process lol.
Yeah, maybe I'll try that when I have a greenhouse.
Maybe it would be a good idea to collaborate with neighbours or friends or such, economies of scale and whatnot.
Sure seems that way. Now try chili.