I've never been inclined to invest much time or money in growing tomatoes, here in the heart of tomato country. At the packing house, a "cull" is a tomato that was inadvertently allowed to get almost ripe on the vine. If you have a source for those, you can get some excellent tomatoes which would otherwise be fed to cows. But my interest has been piqued by two things: the upside-down tomato planters seen in garden shops, and the Tasti-Lee tomato, a variety with superior texture and flavor, currently available only at Publix. The commercial upside-down planter couldn't get past my cheapskate gene, being basically a tubular piece of plastic for about ten bucks. And to grow the Tasti-Lee, if you don't want to pay the Publix price, you must buy the seeds from the licensee.
My answer to the planter problem was bamboo, which I have in abundance. And I bought a Tasti-Lee at Publix and planted the seeds. Since Tasti-Lee is a hybrid, it will not come true from seed, but the offspring will likely resemble one of the parents, so should be pretty good. Maybe with luck, something as good as, or better than, Tasti-Lee. The picture above shows my progress, healthy looking plants with tomatoes about the size of a kumquat.
To make the bamboo planter, I selected bamboo of the largest diameter I could, and cut it into what I will call joints, that being a section with the web and about an extra inch on either end. The web on one end is drilled out with a large hole, leaving about a half inch of the web. On the other end, the web is drilled with multiple 1/4 iinch holes. Holes are drilled on the 1/4 inch drilled end to accomodate a wire plant hanger bought from a garden store. With that end down, fill the bamboo with potting soil and plant a tomato plant in the open end. The plant should be at least six inches high. Now let the tomato plant grow for several weeks until it is rooted enough to prevent the soil from coming out when it is inverted. Now you are ready to invert the planter and hang it with the wire hanger.
The plant will grow rapidly, especially if you fertilize it with OsmoCote or another slow release fertilizer. Soon, you will have a luxuriant plant with developing fruit, which will need water with increasing frequency. To make watering easier, I use a 16 ounce water bottle, fitted with a lead-weighted water dripper used in nurseries. This is a small plastic tube fitted on the end with the dripper. The tube is inserted into a hole in the cap punched with an ice pick. Punch the smallest possible hole in the other end to admit air. Depending on how tightly the tube is fitted in the cap, the water will drain into the planter in 3 to 12 hours. This slow watering method will allow the plant to be watered less frequently, though it will need more as the plant and fruit continue to grow. Watering is crucial - if you allow the plant to wilt for 12 hours, it's probably a goner. At about the midpoint of this project, it's becoming clear that larger bamboo, or a 2 joint length of smaller bamboo, will be needed. With the bamboo I'm using (about 3 inches) it might become necessary to thin the fruit and prune back some foliage, so as not to have to water more than once daily.
I have a good supply of the lead-weighted drippers, which I will share with MRFC members. I'll write a follow-up when I pick my first tomatoes.
Pete Ray
February Speaker
Our speaker for February will be Matt Snow from Miami, telling us all about dragon fruits. One of the few things I know about dragon fruits is that they are a cinch to start from cuttings. Matt will come with cuttings from
9 dragon fruit varieties, available at $5 each. Don't miss this opportunity to become a dragon fruit farmer for $45 or less.
Or, if you're not the cactus type, read Matt's short bio below. He's done it all, including the presidency of Miami Rare Fruit Council, the original RFC chapter, and practicing medicine as a cardiologist. So, if you find it all too exciting and have a heart attack, help is available.
Matthew (Matt) Snow was born in Miami and has been into plants since a very young age. He started with orchids and built his first shade house at age 13. Since 1992 he has been a commercial farmer of Avocados, Lychee, Longan, Jak fruit, Mangos and Dragon Fruit in the Redlands. He also manages an organic blueberry farm in North Carolina. He has given numerous presentations and has written several articles about tropical fruits and their culture, grafting, orchids and cold protection. He is the current President of the Rare Fruit Council International, Miami Chapter. ( and also happens to be a Clinical Cardiologist.)
Pete Ray