I had this past Friday off of work and it really kickstarted a 3-day stretch of laziness which meant no blog posts. Be assured it isn't for lack of things to write about!
Lots to come in the next few days but I wanted to share the most exciting news first.
The AeroGarden was doing well, but there were lots of flowers and nothing happening with them, so I decided to take a more pro-active approach to pollinating. Not being an artist by any means so I don't have any paintbrushes lying around, but I do like personal hygiene and I do have Q-tips. With weapon in hand I did the work of bees to my indoor tomato. And yes, I may have made buzzing noises to really get into the part.
I also took the opportunity to prune a bit by pulling out any of the V growth (is there a more technical term for it than that?) and cutting any leaves that were too close to the light and getting burnt. Yes, the tomato plant is so big it's rubbing up against the light that's already on its tallest setting.
It all must have worked because two days later J noticed this:
TOMATO ALERT!!! I'm already coming up with recipes in my mind and watching it and searching for hints of orange and red. I'm hoping to have ready to eat tomatoes before Easter. Is that overly ambitious?
Wow! Look at those tomatoes!! Great job with the pollinating!
ReplyDeleteI have never pollinated a plant before. (I don't even know how!) But maybe it would have helped my poor "pumpkin-less" pumpkin plant last year! :)
What kind of tomato is it again? I'm assuming a cherry-type.
ReplyDeletePollinating wasn't too hard. I just rubbed the Q-tip into all the flowers. I've read that squashes often need help. The male flower and the female flower... I'll probably be doing that later this summer.
ReplyDeleteThe AeroGarden kit comes with the seeds and doesn't specify exactly what it is - just gives the vague "Cherry Tomato." I think it's a basic red cherry. We'll see soon!
I've heard of the v growth being called "suckers" (as they suck life out of the main stems)
ReplyDeletehope your fruit ripens soon!
curious - how many watts is your aerogarden bulb?
ReplyDeleteGood question ellieT. I'm not sure since the packaging doesn't say. I'm seeing a theme with AeroGarden here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aerogarden.com/grow-bulbs-for-all-1-and-2-bulb-gardens-package-of-2-228.html