Easy Care Vegetables

We really love tomatoes for the Upotic Planter because there is nothing like having fresh tomatoes all winter long! There are a few things we have learned to be successful.

Determinate or indeterminate? The determinate forms stop their shoot production once flowers form on the ends. Indeterminate tomato varieties will form flowers along the sides of the shoots but they continue to grow until weather conditions are no longer favorable. That could make a pretty tall plant! We decided determinate would work best for our planters.

There are many determinate varieties for container gardening. Patio Princess, Tiny Tim, Sweet Baby Girl are a few we liked. Some do get tall so be prepared to use a couple stakes to tie them upright, or let them cascade in the case of Tumbling Tom. We found good information at Gardening Know How, the Gardening Channel, and Veggie Gardener.

Growing tomatoes from seed is fun! If you are just starting out, you can learn a lot from Gary Pilarchik, The Rusted Garden, on YouTube. We set up a basement garden and kept the temperature consistently 65°. They grew a little slower, but we also had a heater for a few hours during the day, an oscillating fan, and of course, grow lights. We rotated the plants often and kept to a watering schedule, letting the plants dry out a little in between waterings. Another fact we learned was that tomato plants have little roots along their stems, so when you bury them at repotting they are much stronger plants with healthier root systems.