Several weeks before, I start my seeds under lights in the garage. With careful controls on temperature, hours of light, darkness, and humidity, the small mail order seeds are generally ready to go into the yard within 4 to 6 weeks of being germinated.
Once the small ceilings are planted, I spend a considerable amount of time creating tomato cages out of bamboo stakes. Careful pruning of suckers off of the mother plant ensures healthy growth and large tomatoes. For weeks on end, I carefully water, feed, trim, tie, and inspect each plant. Pests are controlled with natural methods. Weeds are pulled by hand. Any growth that appears not to be healthy is quickly removed.
In 2 to 3 months, depending on the variety, I end up with bushels of tomatoes. Other than slice in a few up for sandwiches and salads, I really don't eat them. The notion of canning them has never really occurred to me, especially because I care of tomatoes costs about $.68 at the local Walmart.
So, for the most part, I bag them up and take them to work, or people seem to enjoy taking a few home for their families.
A coworker asked me this last season – why do you bother to plant tomatoes when you really don't seem to eat very many of them and you just give them away?
It's as good a question as any, I suppose. If you don't know the answer to that question, my guess is you've never grown tomatoes.
Or really done much of anything at all.
