Monday, July 26, 2010

Testing my homebuilt AutoPot



A Rutgers tomato seedling is being used to test my version of the autopot, however, I doubt that there is enough time left in this growing season to produce fruit of any size. Still, just as with the test of the Tropic seedling, I hope to evaluate the appearance the tomatoes formed by the first truss.

Rutgers is not one of the varieties recommended by any of the books I have on greenhouse growing, but I am more interested in how the pot design performs than producing tomatoes. If I happen to get any tomatoes as a result of the trial, so much the better.

My objective is to grow larger fruit than I have grown in previous years. And, to this end, I have repositioned the pots so that the plants will receive the maximum amount light and not be shaded by other plants.

This week I purchased a package of ten seeds for a cultivar named Trust, which is supposed to be the ultimate greenhouse variety. It is hard to understand why the seeds cost over a dollar each. I wonder if they transport the seeds by armoured truck when they are shipped to the vendor.

My plan for next season is to grow the Trust, Tropic and Burpee's Super Beefsteak, which is just an off the shelf variety from Wal-Mart. It should be interesting to see if these greenhouse cultivars are really superior to the more common varieties.








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