Transplanting Cherry Tomato Seedlings

My Sun Gold Cherry Tomato Seedlings (see this blog entry) are tall enough that they are ready to place into the ground. I think that the weather is warm enough that the plants will not get damaged by any cold weather.

In a previous blog entry, I showed how I put up the Texas Tomato Cages.

In this blog entry, I'll show you how I transplant the Cherry Tomato Seedlings.

The picture to the right, shows the area of my Raised Bed that I plan to put the Cherry Tomato seedling.

The first thing I do is to dig a hole about 1 feet deep and wide enough so that I can put in a 4" container.

I then pour a cup of Fish Bone Meal into the hole and along the side.

Fish Bone Meal is very high in phosphorous, which is an essential element that enables plants to produce flowers. You can use Bone Meal instead of Fish Bone Meal if you want.

The picture to the right shows the Cherry Tomato seedling that I want to transplant.

There were a couple of side shoots near the bottom of the seedling. I cut off these side shoots (see picture to the right) since they were going to get buried and used them to clone additional Cherry Tomato plants (see this blog entry).

The picture to the right shows the root structure of the seedling.

You can see the roots just beginning to curl at the bottom of the container.

This tells me that this is the right time to transplant the seedling. If I wait too much longer the roots will cover the outer edge. This would constrain the roots from branching out and get nutrients for the plant.

I put the seedling into the hole.

The picture to the right shows how the seedling looks after I cover up the hole with dirt.

It is half the height as before. I plant the seedling this deep to ensure that the plant develops a good root structure.

Cherry Tomato Plant Spacing

For the past several years, I have struggled with how many Cherry Tomato Plants to put into my 10 foot long Raised Bed.

Two years ago, I packed 5 Cherry Tomato plants into this Raised Bed (see picture below)

This was not a good idea.

One of the Cherry Tomato plants got diseased and since the plants were so close together, the disease spread. You can see brown and curled up leaves on the plant to the far right in the picture above.

In order to save my Cherry Tomato crop, I had to destroy two of the Cherry Tomato plants.

Last year, I decided to spread out the Cherry Tomato plants and only put 4 plants in the Raised Bed. As you can see in the picture above, the branches of the Cherry Tomato plants spread out and soon intermingled. Fortunately, none of the plants developed any disease, but the plants were too close together.

This year, I am spreading the Cherry Tomato plants further apart and am only putting 3 plants int the Raised Bed (see picture below). This gives 2 feet of separation between each Cherry Tomato plant.

Cloning a Cherry Tomato Plant

I gave some of my Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seedlings to my spouse's co-workers. Unfortunately, there were more co-workers than there were available seedlings.

When I was transplanting my Cherry Tomato seedlings (see this blog entry), I noticed that a couple of the seedlings had side shoots near the bottom (see picture to the right).

Since these side shoots were going to get covered with soil, I decided to cut them off and use them to clone more plants for my spouse's co-workers.

The picture to the right shows one of the side shoots in my hand.

The picture to the right shows the side shoot in a 4" container.

As long as the soil mixture stays moist, the side shoot will develop roots and will create a new plant.

Two Month Old Cherry Tomato Seedlings

It's been two months since I started my Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants (see this blog entry) and they are doing very well.

The weather in February was to cold to leave plants out overnight. In the early morning the temperature can drop down to the high 30'sF/low 40'sF.

Depending upon the weather, I have been either leaving the plants outside during the day or putting them on a window sill facing the sun when it is cold.

I am hoping that the weather warms up enough that I can transplant the plants soon. Last year, I was able to start transplanting in mid March (see this blog entry)

Cherry Tomato Seedlings

All of the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seeds that I started two weeks ago (see this blog entry) have germinated.

This is the highest germination rate that I have ever archived.

In the picture above, you can see that the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seeds did not germinate uniformly. Half of the seeds germinated at the end of the first week. The others germinated over the next several days. The last seed took 12 days to germinate.

Seed Starting 2011

Today, I started my seedlings. This is about 2 weeks later than I have done in the past (see this blog entry).

Last year, we had a very wet and cold first months of the year. As a result, my seedlings did not develop (see this blog entry).

Since we had a wet and cold December, I did not want to take any chances that this year will be a repeat of last year. As a consequence, I am dividing my seed starting in phases. Today, I started my Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes. Next month, I will start my Winter Melons. In March, I plan to start my Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes.

I am planting a lot less variety of seeds than I have done in the past (see this blog entry). This is a matter of economics (see this blog entry). I have limited space in my garden and I get the most return from planting only Cherry Tomatoes and Winter Melons.

Another change from the past is that I am using regular 4" square pots instead of the APS-24 and APS-6 units. Since I am only planting 8 seeds, it did not make sense to use the APS-24. I also don't have to deal with Algae problems (see this blog entry). I just have to be disciplined to water the pots regularly, as the biggest benefit of the APS units is that they are self watering.

Fertilizing the Cherry Tomato Raised Bed

The 4 Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants that I grew in my biggest Raised Bed have finally given out. This is roughly the same time as last year that the Cherry Tomato plants died (see this blog entry)


I spent about 2 hours removing the plants and taking down the Texas Tomato Cages.


The picture below shows how the Raised Bed looked like after I had cleared everything out.


One of the reasons why my Cherry Tomato plants grow so well and produce so many tomatoes is because I replenish the soil every year. I put natural fertilizer and manure into the Raised Bed and let it compost for 4 months, so the plants have access to a lot of nutriets.

This year, I am using Alfalfa Meal as my main natural fertilizer. Last year, I used Soybean Meal. Soybean Meal is richer (N-P-K ratio of 7-2-1) than Alfalfa Meal (N-P-K ratio of 3-1-2), but costs almost 1.5 times as much. With the recession, I wanted to save a little money and used Alfalfa meal instead.


I buy my Alfalfa and Soybean Meal from Kruse Feed & Supply in La Habra, CA. A 50 lb bag of Alfalfa Meal costs about $17 from Kruse Feed & Supply. A 50 lb bag of Soybean Meal costs about $25. I typically use about a quarter of a 50 lb bag to fertilize this Raised Bed.


The picture below shows the Raised Bed with a layer of Alfalfa Meal on top of the old soil.

I put a layer of newspapers (see picture below) on top of the Alfalfa Meal to prevent weeds from sprouting.

Next, I put another layer of Alfalfa Meal on top of the newspapers.

Lastly, I put a thick layer of composted Steer Manure as the final layer. I used 10 bags of 1 cu feet composted Steer Manure. I bought the bags from Home Depot for about $1 each.

The picture below shows the final result. You can see the soil is several inches higher than before. I always put the soil up to this level every year, so you can see how much soil is "consumed" each year. I don't step on this Raised Bed, so the soil loss is not due to compaction.

October Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

Today, I was able to pick my first Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes from my second batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants.

The timing was excellent, as I had just cleared away my Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants (See this blog entry).

This is the first time that I have tried growing Cherry Tomato plants in the Fall. I have tried before, but usually the Summers are too hot and cause my young Cherry Tomato plants too wilt. This year, we had a very mild Summer.

I started these plants from clones about 2 and 1/2 months ago (See this blog entry).

I currently have 4 Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants growing. The picture below shows how they look today.

There are a lot of flowers and fruit on the plants. I am curious as to how long the plants will last before cold weather brings them down.

2nd Batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

My second batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are doing very well.

The picture to the right shows two of the four Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants that I cloned a little over 6 weeks ago (see this blog entry).

The plants are almost 6 feet tall and are producing a lot of flowers. Now that the weather has cooled down, I am get the flowers to set. I hope to have Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes ready to eat in a few weeks.

The picture below shows the Sweet Baby Cherry Tomato plants that I planted 5 months ago (see this blog entry). The fruit production from these plants have slowed down. It is too late in the year to try to plant another crop in this area, so I am just going to let them keep growing.

Cloned Sun Gold Cherry Tomato Plants

Last week, I replaced my two Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants. The Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants started to drop off fruit production a few weeks ago (see this blog entry).

From my past experience with Cherry Tomato plants (see this blog entry), I find that once the plants stop producing and it's mid-summer, it's time to put in new plants.

The picture above shows two Cherry Tomato plants that I cloned from the original plants (see this blog entry).

Hopefully, I'll have new Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes ready to pick in late September.

Why it does NOT make sense to plant Sweet Corn in my backyard garden

It just does not make financial sense to plant Sweet Corn in my backyard garden.

I dedicated a small 3' x 3' area of my garden this year to growing Sweet Corn (see this blog entry). After about 3 months, I harvested 16 ears of Sweet Corn (see this blog entry)

The local supermarket sells Sweet Corn for $0.25 to $0.33 each, so this 3' x 3' part of my garden saved me $5.

In this equivalent area, I could grow a Strawberries or Cherry Tomatoes.

Strawberries are going for $3 a pound at the local supermarket. I can get a pint of Strawberries from a strawberry plant in a season and a 6 foot tall Strawberry Tower can hold 36 Strawberry plants (see this blog entry). However, this part of the garden only gets sunlight in the morning (there is a big hedgerow behind it that blocks the afternoon sun), so I can only have 20 productive Strawberry plants in this part of the garden. A pint of strawberries is about 0.75 pounds, so 20 Strawberry plants would yield 15 pounds of Strawberries per year or about $45 worth of strawberries.

In this same 3' x 3' area, I could grow one Cherry Tomato plant. A pound of Cherry Tomatoes goes for $5 at the local supermarket. Although I have not added up how many pounds of Cherry Tomatoes a plant can produce in a season, I did record how much Cherry Tomatoes my garden can produce in 1 week (see this blog entry from last year). I think 20 pounds of Cherry Tomatoes per plant is a reasonable estimate or $100 worth of fruit.

So, I can grow $5 worth of Sweet Corn, $45 worth of Strawberries or $100 worth of Cherry Tomatoes. I really cannot taste the difference between my backyard Sweet Corn and the supermarket Sweet Corn, but I can taste the difference in the Strawberries (mine are sweeter). As for Cherry Tomatoes, I cannot even find Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes in the supermarket and in my opinion Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are the best tasting Cherry Tomatoes.

From now on, no more Sweet Corn in my garden.

I converted this area to growing Cherry Tomatoes (see this blog entry).

Cloned Sun Gold Cherry Tomato Plant

With my Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants starting to falter in fruit production (see this blog entry), I decided to clone additional Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants.

I cut off the growing tips from a couple of branches of one of the the two Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants and stuck them into the ground a couple of weeks ago.

The picture above shows how the cuttings look today.

I rooted 2 cuttings in case one of them did not survive .I am glad that I did this 2 weeks ago, as it has gotten extremely hot this past week (almost 100 degrees F during the day), and I doubt the cuttings who have taken root. Fortunately, the cuttings look in good shape.

This spot in the garden was used for Sweet Corn earlier. After I harvested the Sweet Corn, (see this blog entry), I decided to convert the area to Cherry Tomatoes for the rest of the season (see this blog entry for why)

I will transplant one of the cuttings to another part of the garden next week.

Harvesting Cherry Tomatoes

My Cherry Tomato plants are producing a lot of fruit. Although not as much as last year (see this blog entry).

This week marks a change over.

My Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants have been producing fruit for the past six weeks (see this blog entry) and are starting to falter.

My Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes were transplanted much later and are only now starting to produce.

The picture above shows my harvest from today. There are slightly more Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes than there are Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes. I think starting from now on, I will be getting a lot more Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes.

The picture below shows how my Cherry Tomato plants look. The 4 on the left are Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants and the 2 on the left are Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants. All of the plants look the same height, because they are all supported by 8 feet tall Texas Tomato Cages (see this blog entry). However, the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants have branches that drape well over the Tomato Cages. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato cages are starting to tip over from the weight of the branches that have draped over.

Back From Vacation - Cherry Tomato Plants Have Escaped the Cage

I went on vacation for a week and when I came back I found that my Cherry Tomato plants had "escaped" from their Texas Tomato cages.

This is not surprising as I have to "tuck" the branches back into the Tomato Cage on a daily basis.

There are four Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants in the foreground of the picture above. The plants have now blended together to fill all of the space between the Tomato cages.

It's too late to tuck the branches back in, but I am going to cut off the tops of the branches that have escaped the Raised Bed so that that they stop growing. Otherwise, the branches will eventually collapse onto the floor.

The picture to the right shows my oldest Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant.

It has grown several more feet since my last blog entry and is now draping over the 8 foot tall Tomato Cage.

The Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are starting to ripen. The picture below shows what I was able to pick today. I was able to fill one and a quarter 32 oz containers.

The Cherry Tomatoes are a little behind where they were this time last year (see this blog entry). This is due to the late start I had as a result of "El Nino" (see this blog entry).

First Cherry Tomatoes

I picked my first Cherry Tomatoes today!

These are from the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant that I transplanted almost 3 months ago (see this blog entry).

This is the same time that I had my first Cherry Tomatoes last year (see this blog entry). So despite the unseasonably cold weather we have had this spring, I am "on schedule".

This Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant is now 8 feet tall and is about to out grow the Texas Tomato cage. I need to decide soon as to whether I should cut off the tops to stop it from growing any taller or let it start draping over the cage.

Cherry Tomatoes Forming

I have Cherry Tomatoes forming!

The picture to the right shows my Sungold Cherry Tomato plant with several little Cherry Tomatoes.

This is about the same time that I saw Cherry Tomatoes last year (see this blog entry), so my mishaps with the weather (see this blog entry) have not delayed things too much. I am still on track to have Cherry Tomatoes ready to pick by the end of May.

All of my Cherry Tomato seedlings are now in the ground.

I am planting only 6 Cherry Tomato plants this year, compared to 11 last year. I had way too many Cherry Tomatoes last year that I ended up giving a lot away.

This year, I also spaced out the maturity of the Cherry Tomato plants, so that they don't all start producing at the same time.

The picture below shows 2 Sungold Cherry Tomato plants. The one on the right has been in the ground for 7 weeks and is the one that has the fruit forming. The one on the left has been in the ground for 2 weeks.

The picture below shows the other 4 Cherry Tomato plants. These are all Sweet Baby Girls. I transplanted the one in the front about 3 weeks ago. The other 3 were just transplanted.

With this arrangement, I hope to have a much more manageable crop of Cherry Tomatoes

Spring (Cherry Tomato) Flowers

It is finally Spring. The terrible weather we had in January and February (see this blog entry) is gone!

Plus, I have flowers on the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant that I transplanted 3 weeks ago (see this blog entry)

I should have Cherry Tomatoes ready to eat by Memorial Day.

Sun Gold Cherry Seedling Update

Despite the problems that I have been having with the weather (see this blog entry), my first Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seedling is doing very well.

I transplanted the seedling into the ground two weeks ago (see this blog entry). Since then, it has almost doubled in size.

I hope to have more Cherry Tomato seedlings ready to transplant in the next couple of weeks.

El Nino and Seedlings

We are not having a typical March in Southern California this year, or for that matter did we have a typical February.

This is an El Nino year, which occurs approximately every 5 years. This means that we get a lot of rain and temperatures are much cooler than normal.

This weather has wreck havoc on my seedlings. I have lost all of my Winter Melon and Charentais seedlings.

My Cherry Tomato seedlings have survived but have definitely not thrived. I had one Cherry Tomato seedling that was tall enough to transplant (see this blog entry). I transplanted that seedling two weekends ago and it has surprisingly done very well (see this blog entry)

Unfortunately, my other Cherry Tomato seedlings are much smaller (see the pictures at the top and below)

Because of a problem with my Grow Light setup, I only got one Cherry Tomato seedling during my first attempt at seed starting this year (see this blog entry). This was the Cherry Tomato seedling that I transplanted 2 weeks ago.

My other Cherry Tomato seedlings germinated 2 weeks later. We had decent weather in the last half of January and that enabled the first seedling to get a good headstart. The other seedlings suffered through the cold and wet February, which has stunted their growth.

See this blog entry and this blog entry for how my Cherry Tomato plants look a year ago at this time.

I probably made a mistake by turning off my Grow Lights right after the second batch of seedlings germinated (see this blog entry) But, I don't like to have my plants under the Grow Lights for too long. The light from the Grow Light is not the same as the natural light from the Sun. I find that if I leave Cherry Tomato plants under the Grow Light for an extended period, the plants grow long and spindly (i.e. "leggy").

I would rather take them outside and let them grow naturally. In the past this has worked well, but the El Nino weather pattern has messed this up.

Still, if you look at the Cherry Tomato seedlings in the pictures above, they look fine ("not leggy"). They have just not grown as well as you would expect 6 week old Cherry Tomato seedlings to look. I think they will be fine. If not, I can always clone new plants from my first Cherry Tomato seedling.

It was very windy today and I thought that the wind chill would lower the effective temperature that it might harm the Cherry Tomato seedlings, so I brought them all back inside tonight. Hopefully, the wind will die down tomorrow and I will be able to take them outside again.

My Dove Melon Hybrid seedlings are doing ok (see picture below). The seedlings are bigger than they were last week (see this blog entry). However, I am still waiting for them to grow their second set of leaves.

I started another batch of Winter Melon and Charentais seeds this past weekend. I am not using Grow Lights this time. Just leaving them outside like I did the Dove Melon seeds (see this blog entry)

Cherry Tomato Seedling in the Ground

One of my Sungold Cherry Tomato Seedling has grown tall enough that I decided to transplant it into the ground today.

Unfortunately, my other Cherry Tomato Seedlings are much further behind. I had a problem germinating seeds this year (see this blog entry) because I made a mistake of not warming my seed starting container to a high enough temperature to induce the seeds to germinate.

This is a week later than I had transplanted seedlings last year (see this blog entry). I think this is because it has been a lot colder and wetter than it was in February last year.

I transplanted the Sungold Cherry Tomato seedling into the 2 feet x 4 feet Raised Bed that I built last year (see this blog entry)

This Raised Bed is big enough to grow 2 Cherry Tomato plants.

Last October, at the end of the Cherry Tomato growing season, I pulled out all of the roots.

Then, I put in a combination of Soybean meal and steer manure (see this blog entry). This mixture has had over 4 months to compost.

I dug up some soil this morning and was pleased to see a lot of earthworms (see picture to the right). This is a very good sign that the natural fertilizer that I put in the ground is being turned into nutrients that the Cherry Tomato plants can use.

Last year, I also purchased 6 Texas Tomato Cages ( see this blog entry)

The Texas Tomato Cages worked very well. With the 2 feet extensions that I bought, the cages ended up being 8 feet tall. This was much taller than my previous Tomato cages (about 4 feet tall) and was strong enough to support the Cherry Tomato plants.

The Cherry Tomato plants were able to keep growing and growing and growing. I had my biggest yield of Cherry Tomatoes ever last year (see this blog entry)

The nice thing about the Texas Tomato Cages is that they fold nicely for storage. I put the Texas Tomato Cages away last October.

Today, just prior to transplanting the seedling, I put the Texas Tomato Cages back in the Raised Bed (see picture to the right).

One of the things I always do prior to transplanting a seedling is to cover the planting hole with Fish Bone Meal.

Fish Bone Meal is very high in phosphorous, which is an essential element that enables plants to produce flowers. Phosphorous moves in the ground very slowly, at a rate of 1/8th of an inch per year. So by placing Fish Bone Meal in the planting hole, I ensure that the Cherry Tomato plants have enough phosphorous to produce a lot of fruit.

Providing Fish Bone Meal when transplanting and composting Soybean Meal and manure in the winter are the only fertilizers that I use.

The picture to the right shows the bottom of the seedling after I had popped it out of the container.

See how the roots are starting to curl around the edges of the container. This is the right time to transplant the seedling. If I wait too long, the roots will curl around and cover the inside of the container and make it hard for the plant to get enough nutrients.

This picture shows the Sungold Cherry Tomato seedling after I had transplanted it the ground.

If the plant grows at the same rate as the ones from last year, I should have Cherry Tomatoes ready to eat by the end of May (see this blog entry)